Today’s Scripture Reading (March 15,
2014): Jeremiah 50
The city of
Babylon was planted some time prior to 2300 B.C.E. We know the city (or town at
that time) existed in 2300 B.C.E. And for most of its existence since then, the
city was noting more than a minor administrative center. Babylon was mildly
important, but not really important. It was an average city, the capital of a
small province. But by the middle of the 7th century B.C.E., all of
that was changing. Babylon, this obscure administrative city was becoming very
important. And with the rise of Nebuchadnezzar II (more commonly known as just
Nebuchadnezzar), it was not only becoming significant, but it was also becoming
powerful.
By the time
Jeremiah is writing his prophecy, Babylon had become something like our modern
day Washington, D.C. – it was a place where the powerful people gathered. And
for those that lived in that time, it was impossible to imagine a world where
Babylon was not in control. Nobody in the world was unaware of what was
happening in Babylon, and either you served Babylon, or you feared Babylon – or
quite possibly you did both.
But Jeremiah’s
prophecy was that, while the exiles needed to settle down because they were going
to be there for a while, Babylon’s time dominating the world stage was going to
be short lived. In fact, the city was not just going to cease being the most
important city in the world – it was not just going to return to being the
minor, administrative city that it had been through much of the city’s history,
it was going to disappear off of the face of the earth. And Jeremiah also makes another prediction –
after Babylon was emptied, it would never be inhabited ever again.
History does
not reveal a major battle in which the city is destroyed. But over the next 400
years, the city simply dwindled – people just began to migrate away from the
city – until the city of Babylon totally disappeared. By the middle of the 2nd
century B.C.E, no one lived in the city of Babylon anymore. And while it is
hard for us to understand what exactly happened historically to the city from
our vantage point, it was impossible for the original readers of Jeremiah’s
prophecy to imagine such a thing ever happening to the great city of Babylon. But
history records that that was exactly what happened.
Over 2000
years after the emptying of the Babylon, the site of the city remains empty.
And the truth is that there have been plans throughout history to rebuild the
city, but every time something has happened to stop the rebuilding process. Most
recently Saddam Hussein made plans to rebuild the city. He characterized himself
as the Son of Nebuchadnezzar and he wanted to rebuild the city of his adopted
father. But the Gulf War stopped the process. The current plan for the city is
to build a tourist center on the site of old Babylon. But as of right now,
nothing has happened. And there are currently no plans to make the city a place
where the generations live once more – just as Jeremiah prophesied over 2500
years ago.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Jeremiah 51
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