Praise God for the Babylons

“And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.” (Eze 17:20 AV)

 

Praise God for Babylon!  Sometimes the only way we can learn things is the hard way.  Israel had fallen away from God.  The covenants of peace and prosperity founded upon the righteousness of God were forsaken.  Separation was seen as a bad thing.  They became too embarrassed towards other nations because they were too different.  It made them uncomfortable to live according to the law because other nations couldn’t comprehend the purpose of it.  So, away from God, they grew.  However, God made a covenant with their forefathers hundreds of years earlier.  Israel was to be God’s chosen people and in return for His favor, they were to worship and love Him.  This covenant, like a marriage vow, was unconditional.  The covenant cannot be broken so the only other avenue for the covenant to continue was correction.  This God did with the sending of Babylon.  What we want to see here is what God did towards Israel while they were in Babylon.  He pled with them!  He did not abandon them.  He sent His prophets to continue discourse intended to bring about reconciliation.  But they would not listen in prosperity, so God had to send them to Babylon.

My senior year of high school was pretty rough.  Through events of my life, I went to three different high schools.  My freshmen year was at the city’s Catholic high school because that is where my father taught.  My sophomore and junior years were at the city’s only public high school.  Those two years were perhaps the hardest.  Going from a private school with close relationships to a large public school with few was not an easy transition.  Then my father got a new job in a different city and I went to the public high school for my senior year.  Each separation meant fewer and fewer friends.  My parents were very concerned for me but what they didn’t know is what the hand of the LORD was trying to accomplish.  I was lost and undone.  I was out of the will of God.  God loved me and desperately wanted me to come to His Son for salvation.  I simply had too many obstacles.  The LORD had to send me into a wilderness.  He had to remove from me most distractions.  Amid that barren valley, He pled with me!  By the faithful witness of a child of God,  He led me to the love of His divine plan through His Son, Jesus Christ.

If we took stock of how many of God’s people were taken into a ‘Babylon’, we will see these ‘Babylons’ are very common.  Moses wandered in the wilderness before he returned to Egypt.  Israel wandered through the wilderness for forty years before they entered Canaan.  Paul spent three years in the wilderness before he was allowed to preach.  Babylon, to Israel, was God’s hand of correction.  However, when she fell to Medea/Persia, Israel’s captors changed from chastisement to a challenge of faith.  The LORD deeply desires to change us into His glory for both His praise and our benefit.  This takes circumstances of life that are often uncomfortable.  It is in these times when we finally have an ear to hear the gracious pleading of our God and Father.  Israel was under the dominion of Rome when Christ incarnate human flesh.  They were in a position to listen.  But they turned a deaf ear.  I for one praise the LORD for those ‘Babylons’ God has for me.  I need them.  They are not fun.  They are not pleasant.  But they are necessary.  So, praise the LORD for those ‘Babylons’ I most assuredly need.