Reading back through this thread it struck me that what for ancient Israel was a punishment is for us the church the normal situation: we are “in exile”, living in a word that isn’t our home, strangers in a strange land, always in Babylon and never in Israel.
Except that the lesson of Babylon is that no geographical location was necessary for them to be the people of Israel! They could still do that in exile, be that in exile, because all that was essential to be Israel was being loyal to Yahweh. Indeed it would not surprise me if a major purpose of the Exile was to prepare the way that the New Kingdom, the church, would function in this world: in communities gathered around the Word.
If I still led Bible studies, I just might make the theme of one “Welcome to Babylon!”