It has often fascinated me that the nation of Israel managed to maintain a national identity over the centuries without a country.

I recently read a passage in the book of Jeremiah that answered my musing (chapter 29).

When Nebuchadnezzar was about to overrun the city, Jeremiah communicated to the people that it was God’s desire for them to willing go into exile ( 21:8-10). To those who did Jeremiah later writes saying, “…Build houses, live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives…multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city…pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (29:4-9).

In these instructions is imbedded a philosophy of life that enabled Israel to be a nation without a country. As a teen working in a local gas station that served a Jewish community. I was amazed at Jewish solidarity and what it produced. There was always a curious mix of envy (and all the ugliness that flows from it) and admiration in the Gentile community.

But what was it that Israelites learned from Jeremiah’s letter that generated their solidarity through domination of their homeland over the centuries and their disbursement among the nations for nearly 2000 years?

There are five components that comprise this national endurance. First, they learned to work with diligence, “build houses and plant gardens.” Second, they learned to be happy by building families, “multiple and do not decrease.” Third, they learned to seek the welfare of the host city/country. Fourth, they learned to serve the host city/country, “pray to the Lord on its behalf.” Fifth, they learned to trust the promise of God, “I will visit you.”

By practicing these principles they became productive and accepted aliens. They had a national citizenship without a physical nation.

Here is an earthly illustration of the Christian church. Our citizenship is not of this world. We are aliens that God has dispersed throughout the nations of the world. We are simply passing through. But, we are to work with diligence, build families, seek the welfare of our host city/country, serve our host city/country and we are to trust the promise of God that he will visit us.

The New Testament gives definition to these components of alien living, but principally they remind us How We Should Then Live.

In a day in which the US Constitution is being dismantled before our eyes, revisiting these principles of Jewish survival is a good exercise for us. As Christian aliens we will increasingly find ourselves (as many believers have already experienced around the world) in the position of figuring out how to live as heavenly citizens in an increasingly hostile environment.

Howard Eyrich is a minister in the PCA and currently serves as Pastor of Counseling Ministries at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. He is the author of the best selling pre-marital counseling guide Three To Get Ready, as well as Totally Sufficient and Curing the Heart both in 2nd editions. He and his wife, Pamela, have two children and eight grandchildren.