Oct. 30, 2007

�The Real Tale of Two Cities�

Recently in a Bible Class my Pastor made a statement in passing. My eyes and mind had been glazed over in musing when I was startled to alertness by what I heard. I don�t think he intended for this sentence, tucked into his teaching, to be a profound statement. It was a discussion class, and I sat straight and interrupted, �Did you hear what you just said. That is a profound statement. I have never heard anyone say that before.� He paused for a moment and then continued with his teaching. But the statement kept repeating in my thoughts.

Since then I continue to ponder it, because I sense that there is much more importance to it than I have any idea. In a sense, it encapsulates human Biblical history as we know it.

How often have we heard that all of history is the story of the battle between God and satan; good and evil; light and darkness; life and death; etc. and we sleepily nod in agreement, realizing this is not fresh revelation. I suppose it had to be stated in an entirely different context, to strike me with such clarity.

All of the above warring factors are included in the statement. But it was couched in verbiage that was literal, descriptive�even geographical. It exceeded concepts or principles and created a visual image.

While history has danced around this central story, moving outward as ripples ever expanding from this cradle of earthly beginnings; while nations have risen and fallen, leaders and rulers come and gone, human knowledge increased to the outer limits of the imagination�this central juxtaposition of two cities has continued, almost unchangingly since�well, from the stories in the book of Genesis, through the last chapters of the book of Revelation.

It is the real, �Tale of Two Cities.� Dickens gave us the title. The Bible gives us the facts.

The first mention of both comes in chapter ten of Genesis. One is tucked into a story of a ziggurat being erected on the plains of Shinar. But before that is this statement: �And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel� in the land of Shinar.�

The other city is only a hint in a verse further down: �And Canaan begat� the Jebusite��

These two statements contain the seed of beginnings for two cities that go back to the first edge of civilization, and we see them both at the culmination of future history as described in the last book of the Bible. They grew to represent far more than geographical locations. They became symbols of world systems. One, a symbol of utter degradation and evil; the other became the center of the revelation of God into the earth. These two cities, their nations, and the moral and ethical principles they represent have struggled against each other throughout history.

What was the pastor�s statement that so riveted my attention? It was this. �The Bible is the story of two cities. Jerusalem and Babylon.�

The earliest history we can trace, of the city of Jerusalem, is that it became a stronghold for a group of people known as the Jebusites. The first actual mention of it as a city is in the story of Abram�s encounter with the enigmatic �Melchizedek king of Salem� in Genesis, chapter 14.

King David conquered the Jebusite stronghold and it was birthed into the city of David, or as we know it today, �Jerusalem.� The meaning of which is traditionally stated as �City of Peace�. Although that is true, the original �Shalim� meant whole or complete. Both of these conditions seem to have evaded the people of this city time and time again.

Babel became Babylon, which was not only a city, but a world system representing everything that is against God. Throughout history Babylon invaded Jerusalem. Many of the Old Testament books were written against the backdrop of Babylonian captivity. Centuries later, we see that little has changed. The ancient city of Babylon has been somewhat rebuilt just outside the city of Baghdad.

The two �systems� they represent are still at war with each other. And the Bible closes its apocalyptic foretelling, with the chilling and climactic destruction of the Babylonian world system and the establishment of a New Jerusalem.

The Bible is the story of two cities: Jerusalem and Babylon.

Indeed.

Text � copyright 2003 - 2008 The Homespun Philosopher

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