Babylon, I love thee

[Blackmarch]

Babylon was the greatest city in the world.

 

That description does not do it justice, however. Babyon was enormous, the first known city to exceed 200,000 people in population. That's 200,000 people in one 2200-acre place, without indoor plumbing or automation. And it was massively powerful; at its peak, no person, nation, or army could hope to compete with it.

 

But its size and military might were merely the most obvious characteristics. Babylon was a place of great learning, far and away the most brilliant, progressive, enlightened city of the earth in its time. And it was cosmopolitan on a scale that even we today would find impressive; there is a reason the "tower of Babel" signifies a mixing or melting pot of various languages and cultures.Hammurabi's code is still touted as one of the great civilizing documents in all of human history, despite its rather harsh edge in today's judgment. Thousands of years later, we still remember Babylon's fabled Hanging Gardens as one of the wonders of the ancient world.

 

In terms of freedom, the citizens of Babylon were probably the "freest" people of their time, in the way we use that term today. The people had opportunities, the land was prosperous, and their strength made them impenetrable. If we had to go back in time and live during that period and could scout our prospects before pulling the time machine lever, I expect that many, perhaps most, of us would consider ourselves lucky if we got to go to Babylon.

 

In short, the closest modern approximation we have today of the glory of the Babylon of nearly four thousand years ago is...the United States of America.

 

Yet look how the Bible vilifies Babylon. It was the mother of whores. It was the destroyer of souls. It was the place most feared by the people of God, not primarily because of its military might, but because of its seductive power. It stood in opposition to all that God wanted of his people.

 

I think this is worth meditating on, especially as we consider the forces acting inside and outside the US and the so-called "western world". We would do well to learn to see our own civilization a bit more as God sees it, and not be too dazzled with our brilliance and technical achievement.

 

We are Babylon 2000. That should be a sobering thought for all of us.

Or as to egypt when the israelites had to leave it.

indeed.... one need not look beyond at how much effort is put into satisfying the pleasures and infatuations. People are going to be hard pressed to say the least when those leisures are ripped away from us.