Israel & Babylon

Charles Dicken’s great classic is, “A Tale of Two Cities.”  This could also be the subtitle of the Bible, for indeed at its foundation the Bible is a tale of two cities: Israel and Babylon. Of course we cannot forget a third category, “The Nations.”

Israel is unique among the nations because it is the one nation with whom God has a unique relationship.  God chose to put His name on Israel and on her capital Jerusalem.

At the same time, Israel is:

• a land (with borders and boundaries determined by God.)
• a people group (Jews: descendants from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, unified by religion: prayers, traditions and rituals)
• a nation (regardless where Jews live, in God’s eyes they are part of the nation which began with the exodus from Egypt sharing ancient, modern and future history.)

Deuteronomy 7:6-8

 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.  The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

The “nations” are non-Jews (Gentiles).  Generally, a nation is considered a stable community having a common language, territory, history, ethnicity, and culture.  For the past centuries, stability of nations is becoming rare.

The city of Babylon is singled out from the Gentile nations and symbolizes the place of false religion, wickedness and sin. 

PRAY FOR YOUR CHURCH TO RECOGNIZE GOD’S UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL AND CORRECT ALL REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY.