The Prophecy of Isaiah - Lesson 13: “God and the Nations: Babylon” (Isaiah 13:1-14:23)

The Prophecy of Isaiah
Lesson 13: “God and the Nations: Babylon” (Isaiah 13:1-14:23)

Structure of Isaiah 1-271

 

 

Outline2
⦁ Why the Oracles against Other Nations?
⦁ God’s Judgment of Babylon (13:1-14:23)

Why Oracles against other Nations?
⦁ Challenges to the Messianic Kingdom

⦁ The challenge of earthly kingdoms
⦁ The challenge of other gods

⦁ Challenges to God’s Sovereignty

God’s Judgment of Babylon
⦁ Why Begin with Babylon?
⦁ Babylon’s Destruction (13:1-22)
⦁ The Taunt Song against Babylon’s King (14:1-23)

Why Begin with Babylon?
⦁ Assyria would seem to have been the most natural choice of where to begin. They posed the greatest threat at the moment.
⦁ Isaiah knew Babylon’s eventual role in history and its threat to Judah. Assyria would invade Judah, but Babylon would succeed.

Babylon’s Destruction (13:1-22)
⦁ The Work of Many Nations

⦁ Nations would form a coalition to bring Babylon down.
⦁ Those who had suffered under Babylonian rule would have the joy of participating in ending it.

⦁ The Day of the Lord

⦁ Not a twenty-four-hour day but rather a period of time in which God works his purposes in a particularly distinctive way in the heavens and on earth.
⦁ The Day of the Lord usually has one or more of these three key elements:

⦁ God’s judgment against unbelievers
⦁ The cleansing and purging of God’s people
⦁ The salvation of God’s people

Isaiah 13:1–22 (NIV)

13 A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

2 Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,

shout to them;

beckon to them

to enter the gates of the nobles.

3 I have commanded those I prepared for battle;

I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—

those who rejoice in my triumph.

4 Listen, a noise on the mountains,

like that of a great multitude!

Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,

like nations massing together!

The Lord Almighty is mustering

an army for war.

5 They come from faraway lands,

from the ends of the heavens—

the Lord and the weapons of his wrath—

to destroy the whole country.

6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;

it will come like destruction from the Almighty. 

7 Because of this, all hands will go limp,

every heart will melt with fear.

8 Terror will seize them,

pain and anguish will grip them;

they will writhe like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at each other,

their faces aflame.

9 See, the day of the Lord is coming

—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—

to make the land desolate

and destroy the sinners within it.

10 The stars of heaven and their constellations

will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened

and the moon will not give its light.

11 I will punish the world for its evil,

the wicked for their sins.

I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty

and will humble the pride of the ruthless.

12 I will make people scarcer than pure gold,

more rare than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;

and the earth will shake from its place

at the wrath of the Lord Almighty,

in the day of his burning anger.

14 Like a hunted gazelle,

like sheep without a shepherd,

they will all return to their own people,

they will flee to their native land.

15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through;

all who are caught will fall by the sword.

16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;

their houses will be looted and their wives violated.

17 See, I will stir up against them the Medes,

who do not care for silver

and have no delight in gold.

18 Their bows will strike down the young men;

they will have no mercy on infants,

nor will they look with compassion on children.

19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,

the pride and glory of the Babylonians,

will be overthrown by God

like Sodom and Gomorrah.

20 She will never be inhabited

or lived in through all generations;

there no nomads will pitch their tents,

there no shepherds will rest their flocks.

21 But desert creatures will lie there,

jackals will fill her houses;

there the owls will dwell,

and there the wild goats will leap about.

22 Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds,

jackals her luxurious palaces.

Her time is at hand,

and her days will not be prolonged.

The Taunt Song against Babylon’s King (14:1-23)
⦁ Good News for Judah (14:1-2)

Isaiah 14:1–2 (NIV)

The Lord will have compassion on Jacob;

once again he will choose Israel

and will settle them in their own land.

Foreigners will join them

and unite with the descendants of Jacob.

2 Nations will take them

and bring them to their own place.

And Israel will take possession of the nations

and make them male and female servants in the Lord’s land.

They will make captives of their captors

and rule over their oppressors.

 ⦁ The Taunt Song (14:3-23)

Isaiah 14:3–23 (NIV)

3 On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has come to an end!

How his fury has ended!

5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers,

6 which in anger struck down peoples

with unceasing blows,

and in fury subdued nations

with relentless aggression.

7 All the lands are at rest and at peace;

they break into singing.

8 Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon

gloat over you and say,

“Now that you have been laid low,

no one comes to cut us down.”

9 The realm of the dead below is all astir

to meet you at your coming;

it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—

all those who were leaders in the world;

it makes them rise from their thrones—

all those who were kings over the nations.

10 They will all respond,

they will say to you,

“You also have become weak, as we are;

you have become like us.”

11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,

along with the noise of your harps;

maggots are spread out beneath you

and worms cover you.

12 How you have fallen from heaven,

morning star, son of the dawn!

You have been cast down to the earth,

you who once laid low the nations!

13 You said in your heart,

“I will ascend to the heavens;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God;

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,

on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,

to the depths of the pit.

16 Those who see you stare at you,

they ponder your fate:

“Is this the man who shook the earth

and made kingdoms tremble,

17 the man who made the world a wilderness,

who overthrew its cities

and would not let his captives go home?”

18 All the kings of the nations lie in state,

each in his own tomb.

19 But you are cast out of your tomb

like a rejected branch;

you are covered with the slain,

with those pierced by the sword,

those who descend to the stones of the pit.

Like a corpse trampled underfoot,

20 you will not join them in burial,

for you have destroyed your land

and killed your people.

Let the offspring of the wicked

never be mentioned again.

21 Prepare a place to slaughter his children

for the sins of their ancestors;

they are not to rise to inherit the land

and cover the earth with their cities.

22 “I will rise up against them,”

declares the Lord Almighty.

“I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors,

her offspring and descendants,”

declares the Lord.

23 “I will turn her into a place for owls

and into swampland;

I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,”

declares the Lord Almighty.

⦁ Who is the object of this taunt? Who is the “Morning Star, Son of the Dawn” (vv. 12-14)?

Lessons from these Oracles to the Nations3
⦁ God is opposed to the proud.
⦁ God judges wickedness.
⦁ God is sovereign over the nations.
⦁ The LORD is the only true God.
⦁ The LORD’s people should trust in him, because only he can deliver them.

                                                                                          

1 Taken from John Goldingay, Theology of Isaiah.
2 Outline is from Bryan E. Beyer, Encountering Isaiah.
3 Adapted from Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., Isaiah: God Saves Sinners.