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The year was sometime around 598 B.C.E. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had besieged the city of Jerusalem, forcing king Jehoiachin to surrender. Jehoiachin was only 18 years old and had been ruling for only 3 months when Nebuchadnezzar and his forces took over the city of Jerusalem. The city was not destroyed but Jehoiachin along with his family and government officials were carried off to Babylon, as were many of the treasures from the royal palace and the Temple. The Bible records that at this time 10,000 captives were exiled to Babylon, and “none remained except the poorest of the land.” (2 Kings 24:14)
Nebuchadnezzar put Jehoiachin’s uncle Zedekiah on the throne. The next decade is full of famine resulting from this conflict’s devastation on the economy. Ultimately, Zedekiah revolts and Babylon responds with a vengeance. In 587 B.C.E., the Babylonian forces besiege Jerusalem again. While Jerusalem’s walls hold off the invading army for 18 months, inside the city things are falling apart as famine and starvation become widespread. Numerous atrocities occur during this period, including parents eating their own children in order to stay alive. Finally, in July of 586 B.C.E., Jerusalem’s walls are breached. Zedekiah tries to escape but is captured. As punishment for his rebellion, the Babylonians kill his children before him, and then gouge out his eyes, so that the death of his offspring is the last thing he sees. Then Zedekiah is led away in chains to Babylon.
Within the next two months, Nebuchadnezzar implements another deportation of the population, and Jerusalem is destroyed, including the fortifications and, most importantly, God’s Temple. For nearly four centuries, God’s temple stood in Jerusalem as the center of Israelite religion symbolizing its enduring strength. Now it is gone, with no indication that it will ever stand again. The shock of the destruction of Jerusalem is powerfully reflected in the dirges of the book of Lamentations.
Truth be told, Babylon was not the worst place to be in exile. It was a city of wealth, education, and beauty, located in the Cradle of Civilization. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Conditions in Babylon allowed the exiles to preserve their identity, which they did by recording in writing the traditions of Israel’s past. It was during the exile that the Bible as we know it first began to take shape, in the form of the Pentateuch (the first five books), the history of Israel (recorded in Joshua to 2 Kings), and the prophetic writings. Even so, the exiles never abandoned hope that they would eventually return to their homeland. Their unrest led to riots. This was all understandable because it was considered impossible for a good Jew to live in an alien land. Jerusalem was the only place where worship of God was possible.
It is during this time when a man named Jeremiah spoke some amazing things. Jeremiah was a prophet of God and in the midst of this tragedy Jeremiah points out that maybe God is not absent after all. Jeremiah suggests that the world is God’s world and God is not limited to Jerusalem and its Temple. Jeremiah says that God wants the people to build houses in Babylon. They are to plant gardens, marry, and have children in Babylon. God wants the people to pray in Babylon.
These are incredible things for Jeremiah, a prophet of God, to be saying and they are without parallel in the Old Testament. God can be found even in Babylon, even in a foreign place. Even Babylon is included in the sphere of God’s work.
Life would be lived in Babylon for another 47 years, until 539 B.C.E. when King Cyrus II of Persia, known as Cyrus the Great, would overthrow the Babylonian Empire and encourage the Jews to return to their homeland, rebuild God’s Temple and revive their former way of life. Cyrus was the founder of an empire that was to last for over two hundred years. It would stretch from India to the frontiers of Greece and the whole of the Near East would be under one ruler for the first time. Cyrus would be regarded as a model ruler.
The Persian Empire eventually fell to the Greeks under Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.E. Alexander’s reign would not last long and the united empire became divided again into two imperial centers with Egypt to the West and Mesopotamia to the East. Palestine was stuck between these two powers. But a new power was growing in Rome and Julius Caesar eventually became the Roman leader who conquered the land once united under Cyrus. Under Caesar, a man named Herod was appointed military governor of Galilee. Herod’s success in that post led the Roman Senate to appoint him king of Judea in 40 B.C.E. Although a client of Rome, Judea was once again a kingdom as it was before the Babylonian siege.
Herod deserved to be called “Herod the Great” for he was an outstanding figure among Rome’s client kings. He strengthened his realm economically and extended its borders. He founded a number of splendid cities and he respected Jewish religious sensitivities. He rebuilt the temple on a staggeringly magnificent scale. But Herod never really won the hearts of the Jews, who regarded him as a foreigner since he was half-Jewish. They resented his dictatorial rule. Herod was known for his ruthless suppression of potential opposition. He had members of his own family killed, including his wife, because he suspected that they were against him.
It is during Herod’s reign that a baby is born, among other babies that are born. This baby is given the name Jesus and according to the book of Luke Jesus is born to a young Jewish couple who have little money and who must find refuge in a little cave in Bethlehem because there is no place to stay at any inn. It is while they are in this cave when Jesus is born and is laid on top of some straw in a manger, which is a feeding trough for animals. The surroundings and the situation are those of the poor and desperate. The birth of this baby easily could go unnoticed.
But someone did notice; someone far away in another land, a land in the East. It’s a land that every Jew would know about, not because they had been there, but because their ancestors had been there some 530 years earlier. That city in the East was Babylon. Every Jew knew the stories about the evil Babylonians who destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and who had forcibly taken the people from their homeland to live in Babylon. The shock and terror and dismay of the event had been put into writing and became part of their sacred scriptures.
According to the book of Matthew, it is some men from this region of Babylon who were aware of the birth of someone great. These men were closely related to Persians and known as “magi.” They were practitioners of magical knowledge, such as dream interpretation and astrology. They utilized something developed by the Babylonians called the Zodiac, which divided the night sky into twelve segments or “houses”, each ruled by one main constellation of stars. These foreign men with their foreign methods live in a land associated with one of the worst moments in the history of the Jewish people. These men are convinced of the birth of someone special. They are so moved and enthusiastic that they travel to Jerusalem to find this child and to bring him gifts of wealth and honor.
And when they arrive in Jerusalem, they inquire about this child, which they believe is a new king of the Jews. These magi ask a half-Jewish Roman king named Herod if he knows anything about this new king of the Jews. Herod, whose suspicious nature previously led him to kill people in his way, is curious and alarmed by the news of this new king. Herod feigns interest in worshipping the child, but his interest is in locating the child in order to eliminate it. Herod is later foiled by the magi who don’t return to give Herod information. So, Herod sends orders to kill children in Bethlehem who are two years old or younger in hopes of killing this so-called child-king who may be as old as two years by now.
According to Matthew, Joseph and Mary flee with the child Jesus in order to escape the sword of Herod. They escape to the land of Egypt, which you may recall is another land, like Babylon, named as an evil empire in the history of the Jewish people. Egypt is where the baby Moses was hidden away when Pharaoh issued an order for all the male babies to be killed. Likewise, Egypt becomes the place where Jesus is hidden from Herod. Moses grew up to lead the people into a new freedom and relationship with God. Likewise, Jesus grows up to lead people into a new freedom and relationship with God.
Matthew makes intentional historical connections and his story of the visiting magi from Babylon is intended to echo the message which Jeremiah gave to the people in exile in Babylon. It doesn’t matter what land, or what people, or what circumstances; God is at work. Even Babylon is included in the sphere of God’s work. This is God’s world and God is not limited to any place or any people. God is bigger than our surroundings and our borders and our methods. In the empires of the world, God’s light still shines. In countries ruled by tyrants, people can still see the light of God. In lands of foreigners, God’s star can still be seen and followed.
I think Matthew’s story is intended to bring to mind the memories and the pain of the Babylonian experience. I think it’s intended to arouse the fears and the sensitivities people have toward foreigners. In doing so, I think Matthew intends to break down hostilities and barriers so that we can understand that just as all people can look up and see the same stars, all people can see God’s love for them. I think that the birth and the life of Jesus is living proof of God’s compassion for all people whether pagan, Babylonian, Persian, Jew, Roman, Christian, or Muslim. And if you look on the map in your Bible map you’ll find that Matthew’s message is especially significant to us in 2008. That’s because the land from which the magi came, formerly known as Babylonia and then Persia, is currently…Iraq. Present day Baghdad is about 55 miles north of the ancient city of Babylon. You’ve just heard Matthew’s story about astrologers from Iraq who see the light of God and seek to follow it. Does that seem far-fetched, like God’s love cannot possibly be active in that land? Now you know how Jeremiah’s readers might have felt. Now you know how Matthew’s readers might have felt.
A star shines. Even Iraq is in the sphere of God’s love. When it comes to God’s activity, the sky’s the limit.
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