if the above self-righteous posture is to defer to a faithful one, the two principles of interpretation which we discussed in Part 1 must be kept clearly in mind. First, we must be guided by the original setting out of which these texts arose and to which they were addressed. in doing this, we encounter a suffering and weakened people in no position to inflict its own will upon others. living under the domination of the Persians and likely stripped of power within its own community, here was a group struggling to preserve the ancestral faith by looking beyond earthly loss to God's reign and to the healing it promised to bring to the earth. second, when taken within the context of the whole bible, we recognize that the role of the faithful in relation to God's universal reign of peace and justice does not come to expression in forcing others under one's own political sway but rather in embodying the qualities of God's order through lives of compassion and righteousness dedicated to the healing of all creation and to the well-being of all people. the vision of God's universal reign, far from becoming a weapon in a particular groups ideological or political warfare, thus becomes the means by which the faithful recognize signs of the new creation, wherever groups are dedicated to the cause of justice and peace and wherever individuals are committed to placing compassion at the center of all their thoughts, actions, and relationship.