“And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace” (Jer 29:7).
Are we the first believers who have seen troubled times? Of course not. Every believer in one sense is a “resident alien.” Yet our lot has been thrown in with the unbelievers around us. So prayer for our leaders is also a prayer for those being led. As Jeremiah pointed out, peace for the city is generally peace for the saint.
In what seems to be a contradiction, we are told that we are “no longer strangers and foreigners” (Eph 2:19), yet we are encouraged to follow the example of the patriarchs who “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb 11:13). The first speaks of our being received into the New Covenant as children of Abraham by faith; the second, of a choice we make to have a home and hope distinct from this fallen society. We seek to live as strangers because we don’t belong here, and as pilgrims because we do belong There!