Your Babylon

1 By the rivers of Babylon,
         There we sat down, yea, we wept
         When we remembered Zion.
2 We hung our harps
         Upon the willows in the midst of it.
3 For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,
         And those who plundered us requested mirth,
         Saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song
         In a foreign land? Psalm 137:1-4 (NKJV)

I received an email from a place I subscribe to called God's Daily Promises about the Israelites in captivity and it got me to thinking about how times are today. There are many of us who call ourselves "Christian". There are many of us who know we are going to heaven. But I wonder how many of us are really ready to go.

When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel, he took the Israelites to Babylon. They were held captive there for seventy years. In captivity in Babylon, the Jews wept for their homeland and prayed for the day when they might return. But when the day of their release from captivity finally came and they were allowed to return, only about fifty thousand (out of hundreds of thousands) made the trek back to Jerusalem. Why?

For one thing, some of the Jews were making a good living in Babylon — a better living than their fathers had made in Jerusalem. Others had married Babylonian spouses and become assimilated into Babylonian culture. They had forgotten Jerusalem. Can you blame them? Seventy years of captivity is a long time.

We are but travelers through this world. This isn't our permanent home. The Bible speaks of heaven as our Jerusalem and suggests that where we are now living is Babylon on earth. How comfortable are you in your Babylon? How are you faring there? Have you forgotten that you, too, are an exile, a pilgrim in a foreign land? What are you looking ahead to? Which world do you belong to?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15 (NKJV)

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Philippians 3:20 (NKJV)

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NKJV)

God willing, until next time

Maranatha