Isaiah's Cosmic Mountain

Big Idea

Isaiah shows us that the dragon of chaos wears many masks, but God’s kingdom answers all of them (?)

Dragon = chaos, pride, violence, false order

God’s Mountain = peace, life, true order, presence

Setting The Stage

Book of Isaiah can be broken into 4 major parts:

Rebellion and Hope in Jerusalem (1-12): Zion is corrupt. God will judge but a remnant will remain. A child will come (Immanuel) to reign with justice and bring peace

God’s Justice Over The Nations (13-27): Oracles against empires (Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, etc) God will one day defeat the dragon of chaos and throw a global feast for the humble

Exile and the Servant (40-55): God speaks comfort to exiles. A mysterious Servant will bear suffering and bring salvation not just to Israel but the nations as well.

New Creation and Future Glory(56-66): After exile, Israel returns, but true redemption is still future. God will one day make all things new and defeat evil once and for all

Isaiah’s Layered Vision of Evil

Isaiah 27:1: Leviathan (cosmic chaos)

Isaiah 27:1 NASB95

1 In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

Concluding God’s Justice Over the Nations (13-27)

After slaying the dragon in verse 1, 2-6 shift to a song of a restored vineyard

Isaiah 14: Babylon’s king (political arrogance)

Part of 13-14 where Babylon is labeled the superpower (at Isaiah’s time it was Assyria)

It’s a taunt song- the king of Babylon thinks be could ascend to the heavens like God but ends up cast down into Sheol

Isaiah 51: Echoes of chaos subdued Isaiah 51:9-10

Isaiah 51:9–10 NASB95

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon? 10 Was it not You who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a pathway For the redeemed to cross over?

Echoes of Exodus - Rahab is shattered

God’s past defeat of chaos is a guarantee for future salvation

These are three lenses not three enemies

Lens 1: Cosmic -> Leviathan -> Chaos opposing God’s order

Lens 2: Political-> Babylon -> empires that embody chaos

Lens 3: Personal/Spiritual -> Prideful rebellion -> The heart that wants God’s throne

Isaiah lets these images bleed into each other on purpose

Babylon speaks like the serpent

The king reaches for heaven like Eden

The dragon becomes an empire

The empire reflects a deeper rebellion

Dragon Chaos vs. God’s Mountain

Draw Venn diagram: (but circles not connected)

Dragon Space: Sea/chaos, violence, power by domination, fear, predation

God’s Mountain: Mountain/stability, Peace, Power by presence, Rest, Harmony (wolf and lamb)

Isaiah 2:1-2 Mountain of YHWH

Isaiah 2:1–2 NASB95

1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.

Isaiah 11: Wolf and the lamb

Isaiah 25:5-8/27: Death swallowed, Leviathan defeated

Isaiah 25:5–8 NASB95

5 Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens; Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced. 6 The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine. 7 And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.

The dragon can conquer, enslave, and seduce- but can not create peace

No more sea:

God’s mountain as anti-dragon space

Not the center of power but center of presence

God doesn’t fight chaos by becoming more violent

(Remember Mot the death god from the Baal epic who swallows up Baal? guess what the Hebrew word means death מָ֫וֶת)

Babylon as the Ever-Returning Dragon Empire

Isaiah 14:4-23 Revelation 17:4-6

Babylon is: Arrogant, Violent, Seductive, Self-deifying Babylon is also a pattern not a one-time city (it never goes away just changes names)

Isaiah 14:4–23 NASB95

4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, And how fury has ceased! 5 “The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, The scepter of rulers 6 Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes, Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution. 7 “The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; They break forth into shouts of joy. 8 “Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’ 9 “Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. 10 “They will all respond and say to you, ‘Even you have been made weak as we, You have become like us. 11 ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps Have been brought down to Sheol; Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you And worms are your covering.’ 12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. 16 “Those who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, 17 Who made the world like a wilderness And ovethrew its cities, Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’ 18 “All the kings of the nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. 19 “But you have been cast out of your tomb Like a rejected branch, Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit Like a trampled corpse. 20 “You will not be united with them in burial, Because you have ruined your country, You have slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever. 21 “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter Because of the iniquity of their fathers. They must not arise and take possession of the earth And fill the face of the world with cities.” 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the Lord. 23 “I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.

Revelation 17:4–6 NASB95

4 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, 5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” 6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.

Eden-> Babylon -> Egypt -> Babylon -> Daniel’s beast -> Rome -> Revelations Babylon

When ever a human system acts like the serpent, Scripture calls it Babylon