We continue with 'facts on the ground' in Out of Babylon by Walter Brueggemann.
The great geopolitical fact for ancient Israel in the sixth-century BCE was the Babylonian kingdom located in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. To some extent the kingdom of Egypt to the south of Israel functioned in the sixth-century, as it often did, as a counterweight to the great northern power. There is no doubt, however, that Babylon was the defining, generative power in international affairs, and so constituted an immediate threat to Israel. Babylon was a very ancient kingdom with advanced cultural and scientific learning. It experienced an important revival in the sixth century with the founding of a new dynasty.... The new dynasty presided over by two kings - father and son - had enormous expansionist ambitions, and so pushed relentlessly to the west. The dynasty came quickly to a sorry end through a series of ineffective leaders, culminating in the defeat of the Kingdom at the hands of Cyrus, the rising Persian power to the east. Thus this Neo-Babylonian dynasty was only a brief episode in the long history of the ancient Near East.
A bit of history is good. Our biblical storytelling is filled with the images of Babylon. It was for the Jews a formative time because it was in this brief reign of Babylon that the people, Israel, were devastated -separated - defeated. Expansionist powers have no care of those they choose to incorporate into their domain. What will come from this rule will be the storytelling and poetry that will become the cornerstone of the Jewish people and - by that - a part of the storytelling for all of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus. It must be noted that the one who defeats the Babylonians while many of the Jews were in exile in Babylon was Cyrus. In the bible, the word used to describe this Persian king was - savior - messiah - deliverer, because he let the people go back to establish themselves in their homeland. Yes, that is the same word used for the messiah we call Jesus.
Connection: When rulers expand over and into the lives of others, it is at a great cost to both those who become occupied and those who have chosen to be the ones who can occupy the lands and lives of other. There are all sorts of reasons for empire to occupy the lives of others. Most of those reasons sound just and right at the time. Then again, over time, they are all still placed in one category - imperial expansionist.
O God, deliver us from any attempt we make to rule over other as though it is our right and duty to do so. Save us from ourselves so that we will always remember that you alone save all people. Amen.
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