And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning… And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore … [They] will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, ‘Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.’ And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, ‘What city was like the great city’ And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, ‘Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.’
Revelation 18:9-19
One of the catalysts for this
series of Reflections was the levy on people’s savings in Greek banks, earlier
this year, as part of the country’s financial bailout. It struck me as a
foretaste, if only a tiny one, of how people will lose out when Revelation’s Babylon
falls.
The kings, or governments, even
though they themselves brought Babylon down, bemoan their loss. The merchants
and the sailors along the major trading routes lost. In fact, everyone loses, ‘since
no one buys their cargo anymore’ and
‘all this wealth has been laid waste’!
This awaits everyone still in Babylon!
But, if
there is one thing clear from the Biblical history of ancient Babylon, it is
that God’s people are always reluctant to leave it. Abraham was called by God
to leave Ur, a city in Babylonia, to travel to the land that would become
Israel, but his family but got only so far as the city of Haran, where they
settled until Abraham’s father died. (See Genesis 11:31-32.) Haran was the name
of Abraham’s brother who died in Ur and I doubt the name of the city was a
coincidence. I am speculating, but I wonder if Haran the city was a settlement
began by Abraham’s father, who thought they had gone far enough in response to
God’s call, and which he named in memory of his late son. After Abraham’s
father died, God renewed his call and Abraham finally left Babylonia for good.
The
Israelites were taken captive back to Babylonia centuries later but, after 70
years, King Cyrus allowed them to return home. The first group to leave are
recorded in Ezra 2 and it is clear that not everyone wanted to go. Most of the
Israelites had been born in Babylon and knew no other life and I expect most of
the others had only childhood memories of the wars and starvation that preceded
the captivity.
The Israelites
who stayed in Babylon had not abandoned their religion: they worshipped, prayed
and kept to what they could in the Torah. But they were content where they
were.
I will continue
this thought tomorrow.
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2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
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