Isaiah 13:6-22
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Judgement Foretold...
Judgement Foretold...
Tonight we come back to the Old Testament book of Isaiah.
We started this book as God pronounced judgement upon the nations because of sin.
The rich and wealthy took advantage of the poor, sin separated them from God and of course the nations around Israel and Judah were condemned for their treatment of God’s people.
Here in chapter 13, God is speaking about the judgment coming to Babylon for their sins......
God is the eternal judge of the world, not just his people. And He will hold humanity as responsible for the way they have lived, acted and treated his people.
But lets return to the second part of chapter 13 and finish the message God was sending to Babylon about their coming judgment.
So lets look at verses 6-8 to begin with.... Isa 13:6-8
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt.
8 They will be dismayed:
pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
Verse 6 - begins with a call for the people, the nation to wail, to cry out for the day of the Lord, which signifies Judgement is near to them. His destruction, punishment, what ever term you want to call it means punishment is at hand.
And since the punishment/judgment is at hand, there is no escaping it.
Not that is important to consider, punishment is certain… that would cause people to wail, to grieve, to lament .... it may not be they are sorrow for their actions, but sorry it has caught up with them....
They are helpless to stop it. They should have thought about that before any of this happened.
Because of this.... verse 7 Isaiah says the hands of people will be feeble, of no use to help him.
But more important, understand the hands and the heart, these are the parts of our body where we have personal action and reflection. The great day of His judgement can be seen as totally overwhelming and there is nothing they can do..
Finally look again at verse 8
8 They will be dismayed:
pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
They will be dismayed, in shock and paralyzed.... pain and suffering will be their company and even the women who are in labor, it is not a easy, pleasant, but this will be a time of great pain and suffering.
Also the idea of looking at one another, he says the people will be fearful, frightful ,.... the day of the Lord reveals all the wrong choices, the wrong sources that were trusted and ultimately they did not trust the Lord.
Now moving forward,
Verses 9-10 Isa 13:9-10
9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
The sinners who will suffer under the wrath of God are those who are arrogant and proud… God will put an end to those high minded leaders who lifted themselves up above God.
Those who do not humble themselves before God will suffer, their evil will be punished and they will be humbled before God.
The heavens and earth will totter, not giving their light on this time of judgment.
Now push on and look at verses 11-13 as we continue the thought...
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
God says very plainly, I will punish the world because of its evil and wicked ways. He will punish the earth and humanity in the sense that so many people will be destroyed, their presence will be scarce as pure gold.
Ophir, is a place that was known in history for the finest of gold but today we are uncertain where that place existed.
It will be a terrible day when sinful man comes face to face with a holy God. In righteous indignation, God will punish sinners.
Now lets move to verses 14-16 Isa 13:14-16
14 And like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
each will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives ravished.
We could sum these verses up to the topic of no escape, people who once longed to gather earlier in the chapter, they will be scattered .
So when you look at these verses you see something interesting...
Look at some of the characteristics of that day..... In verse 14, there is no protecting in that day, In verse 15 there is no escape and 16 brings us to No mercy
They once gathered thinking they had won, but sadly they must flee, they are almost like a hunted animal, and with 15 we know that the idea of there being no escape is really the idea of who can flee from God.
They will be caught, punishment and death awaits them...
And without God, there is no safety, no place to hid. The people are caught and are swept away. They thought they could flee, they thought They could make it and hid, but the swoard and death will always find them.
The more that people turn their backs on God, to be themselves, to rationalize sin and live as they please....
Sin always ruins God’s creation, makes them evil and less and less humane… when the day of the Lord comes, sin takes center stage and man will be without excuse.
Verses 17-22 is the end of Babylon
So as we have talked about the day of the Lord, Isaiah describes what he sees next, and it is the fall of Babylon
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
So what is God saying? Babylon’s time is coming to an end, and I have another people to raise up to destroy them. These next people, are the Medo/Persian Kingdom of Cyrus and Darius, they co-regents who reign and will bring the next kingdom forward according to God’s plan.
Silver and gold will not buy them, it will not keep them from overtaking them. It is a picture of them (Medo/Persian king) who care not for money, they will overtake them.
Arrows and more arrows will kill the Babylons as they are conquered. Women and children are not spared in this day, the goal is to wipe the Babylonian kingdom from the world.
Now the last few verses
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.
Babylon the once great and powerful land, will be no more. They will be like Sodom and Gomorrah.
And what does God say.. it will never be inhabited again, and to this day it has been abandoned, in the early 1900’s before WWI, there archaeologists there and they just scratched the surface of city…
Sadam Hussin, built a palace just outside the old city boundaries, but there was nothing else there, just a palace he used proclaiming that one day the city would be restored.... But alas no, he is gone and the city is lost according to God.
The city that once was the splendor of the world, is not inhabited by Hyenas, jackals and owls...
Only wild animals will reside there...
