Watchman
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
TS:
RS: This message might have been given nearly 2,700 years ago, but it is as timely as today’s headlines.
War rages in our world today.
• People/losing/lives/thousands/terrorist attacks
• Freak natural disasters and the horrors of war.
On another level, the tsunami of sin in our world is rising.
Old convictions and standards are being swept away right before our very eyes.
The winds of change are blowing all around us and fearful things are just over the horizon.
Today, just as there was in Isaiah’s day, there is a need for the people of God to assume the role of watchman.
There is a need for us to take our stand, look at that which is approaching and open our mouths and sound the warning.
Babylon’s Destruction Foretold
Babylon’s Destruction Foretold
1. The Revelation to the Prophet (Is 21:1-2
1. The Revelation to the Prophet (Is 21:1-2
The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land.
A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end.
Isaiah sees this terrible event occuring in a vision from God
wilderness of the sea- most likely an area in southern Babylon near the Persian Gulf known for its fertility
The coming attack would sweep over Babylon like the windstorms of the Negev
They were known to arise suddenly and sweep through Israel
God revealed that sudden destruction would come upon Babylon in a similar manner.
Elamites & Medes were part of the Persian army who conquered Babylon in 539 BC.
Mighty Babylon, God’s instrument of destruction and judgment was to be judged.
2. The response by the prophet (Is 21:3-4
2. The response by the prophet (Is 21:3-4
Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
Isaiah is physically sicked by the slaughter that would soon occur.
Swift and sudden destruction and violence staggered Isaiah.
He was very moved over the coming judgment and plight of Babylon
For the loss of human life
For the instability and impact it would probably have on his people.
AP: We should be moved over the plight of the world
We should care enough about those around us to be moved as we see their wickedness and God’s judgment.
Their being lost in sin should bother us
They are most likely lost without a Savior
They live by their passions and lusts
Their judgment should shake us
we don’t rejoice about the calamity which falls on them!
We should be heartbroken that they suffer, even if it is receiving what they earned.
Compassion should be in our hearts for all humanity
2. Babylon’s destruction Fulfilled
2. Babylon’s destruction Fulfilled
The Attack Is 21:5-7
The Attack Is 21:5-7
They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes; oil the shield!
For thus the Lord said to me: “Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees.
When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently.”
Isaiah refers to a banquet, likely referring to Belshazzar’s banquet in process when the Medes and Persian attack Babylon
God told Isaiah to set a watchman on the wall
One who should have already been in place, yet Babylon felt invincible
He was to announce what He saw
(Dan 5)
Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.
They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote.
“Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed.
And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin.
This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;
Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;
Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed.
The Announcement Is 21:8-10
The Announcement Is 21:8-10
Then he who saw cried out: “Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights.
And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!” And he answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.”
O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you.
Frightful words: “Babylon is Fallen!”
The watchman delivered the fateful news
Babylon fell to Assyrians in 689
Again to Persia in 539
Isaiah pictures one more fall in the future when the ultimate enemy of God falls.
In that sense, Babylon refers to the entire worldwide political, economic and religious kingdom of the Antichrist.
John cites this verse this way:
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
Babylon has long been an enemy of God
original city: birthplace of idolatry
They built the Tower of Babel to hold themselves together and reach heaven in defiance of God’s command to spread out and fill the Earth.
The Antichrist seat of power is called Babylon
perhaps it is a literal revival of that nation
Probably not a geographical reference, but rather a reference to the corrupt system
AP: We are God’s watchmen!
If there was ever a time when watchmen are needed around the church, the home, the family, the school and the community, the day is now!
• We need people of discernment who know the Word of God.
• We desperately need people who know the enemy
• Who keep an eye on him and what he is doing.
• We need people who will watch and warn others of what they see coming.
• We need men and women who will look at the world around them and raise the warning.
Call them to repent!
The world is changing all around this morning.
And, it is changing fast!
• We are not to be disturbed by the things we see happening around us
• but we are watch always and warn when necessary.
• Without giving the devil any glory, he is a slick adversary, 2 Cor. 11:14.
And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
He will deceive you, trick you and trap you, if he is able.
Therefore, keep your eyes on him and refuse to give him so much as a foothold in your church, your family, your home or your life, Eph. 4:27.
and give no opportunity to the devil.
In our role of watchman, we witness to the world
Share the gospel
Disciple believers
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
How we live matter!
Ass watchmen, we hold each other accountable
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Destruction is coming
We must watch and warn