December 22 2021
THE FALL OF BABYLON
Babylon. What in the world has this ancient city to do with today? You might know that 2500 years ago there was a Babylonian Empire, to which the Jewish elite was banned, giving us the ‘Daniel in the lion’s den’ stories, and Psalm 137: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion”.
Actually, much of what is in the Hebrew Bible, was composed during Israel’s 70-year exile there.
Babylon. According to Revelation, the current world, anno 2021-2, is called Babylon. In that last Bible book, Babylon is called “the great mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.” (Revelation 17:5). Not a very flattering description. Today Babylon stands for all that is poisonous: pollution, pandemics, perverted plutocrats, population explosion, persecution, pornography, prostitution, all incurable societal ills.
An interesting text is in Jeremiah 51: 17, “We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; leave her and each go to his/her own land, for her judgement reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the clouds.”
The reference to ‘judgement reaching to the clouds’ reminds me of tornadoes and high winds, of Climate Change and all the perils associated with it, the very present dangers we face, especially from the rapidly warming Arctic and Antarctic regions, the weathermakers of our present world.
Babylon: She cannot be healed!
That to me is a very telling statement: She cannot be healed. Our society, our ‘energy-dependent-economy’ cannot be healed. Our “CONSUMER” society is beyond repair. We struggle on, we do what we can. I try to do my bit by living in an energy-efficient house, with large – 2 storey – windows facing south and only a small window on the one-storey north, and mostly heating with wood recycled from the local pallet factory, and driving as little as possible, while also having solar panels to defray the use of electricity, but yet my carbon footprint is far larger than my grandparents. Should I mention that I also have a good-size vegetable garden?
Our society cannot be healed, just as it cannot eradicate the current pandemic or prevent a next one from erupting.
The written word.
In my writing I sometime create the impression that I don’t value the Scriptures. For me they are ‘a lamp for my feet and a light to my path’ as Psalm 119: 105 attests. Each morning, right after breakfast, I consult the Lectionary for the day, read the applicable passages, highlight a text that speaks to me and write a 500 words commentary, which often takes me one hour. I never edit it, never re-read it, just type in as my thoughts lead me. Yesterday it was Romans 8, how a living CREATION is longing for redemption, and we too!
We are Babylon.
We are Babylon, the present world. Today in our world we find increasing anguish, unspeakable pain, terrible loneliness, bitterness, hate, doubt, passionate longing, burning ambition, despicable degeneration, and an indomitable deathly desire that craves for the ultimate depravity. That is the Babylon we have created, wonderfully beautiful, engaging, romantic, full of breathtaking entertainment, but also utterly miserable and disoriented.
Today we are experiencing the ultimate message of that last Bible book: “Everything is becoming what it is: the overriding theme of Revelation”.
We see our economic enterprises exposed, based as it is on finite natural resources. We see the pitfalls of our political system, especially in the USA. We now fully experience the consequences of our environmental exploitation, increasingly suffering from the onset of planetary pain.
“The Fall of Babylon”, is at hand, fully outlined in chapter 18: “For all nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. (We all are ‘carboholics’). The merchants of the earth will weep as no one buys their merchandize anymore.” That predicts both deflation and depression, now being fully implemented.
Babylon.
In that terrible Matthew 24 chapter, Jesus looks ahead to our days when the culmination of our sins against God’s created Word is happening. It says that the Day and the Hour of Jesus’ return is not known. Creation, God’s Word in living and dying color, has its peculiar tipping point that we can approximate but not pinpoint. Signs galore. Warnings aplenty. Each day we face new revelations and each day shows our sheer inability to defuse the accelerating deterioration, while our leaders offer optimistic opinions, but the trends are undeniable: Babylon is falling in our lifetime.
Peter, the impetuous Peter, turned prophet, writes, “The Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” (2 Peter 3: 10).
Babylon. Our world, on the verge of dissolution.