Well good evening everyone and welcome to my fifty eighth episode. Tonight, I want to take a look at Isaiah chapter 13. So the first twelve chapters of Isaiah were largely descriptions of God’s judgment against the southern kingdom of Judah and, to a lesser extent, against the northern kingdom of Israel. Chapters 13 through 23 are shifting the focus off of Judah and Israel and onto the pagan nations. The pagan nations are next to incur the wrath of God. The first message that Isaiah has is for Babylon. That is the thrust of Isaiah 13, it is called an oracle against Babylon. It’s important to know that Isaiah is speaking this message long before Babylon even ascends to power. At the time period of this chapter, Babylon is still part of the Assyrian Empire. So Isaiah is prophetically describing what will come to pass in the future.
There’s a couple of things you should know about ancient Babylon. During the height of its power, it was a wonder to behold. The cutting-edge advancement of their technological prowess would often cause captive foreigners to convert and worship Babylon’s state sponsored god – Marduk. Basically, these captives would be brought into the city and they would be so shocked by the power and luxury of Babylon that they believed Marduk must be the most powerful god. Notice the similarity in how secularists have built up a religious belief system around the Enlightenment and science today. Babylon was so powerful that Marduk must have been able to answer our greatest questions. The Enlightenment is so powerful that science must be able to answer our greatest questions. Same mistake, different century. Okay so Babylon was also the location where human beings rallied against God in the Tower of Babel story way back in Genesis 11. Revelation chapters 17 and 18 use Babylon as a symbol of God’s enemies. Babylon was powerful, proud, and oriented against God – but God gave them a warning regardless of their irreverence. Let’s open up that warning with verses 1-2:
13 Isaiah son of Amoz received this message concerning the destruction of Babylon:
2 “Raise a signal flag on a bare hilltop.
Call up an army against Babylon.
Wave your hand to encourage them
as they march into the palaces of the high and mighty.
So we see right away that this is a message given to Isaiah by God regarding the judgment of Babylon. Babylon’s judgment is also detailed extensively by the prophet Jeremiah in chapters 50 and 51. God’s saying that He’s going to call up an army against Babylon – this army would belong to Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire -also called the First Persian Empire. You can imagine that Cyrus might not feel too confident about taking on the super power that is Babylon. But listen to what God has to say about it:
45 This is what the Lord says to Cyrus, his anointed one,
whose right hand he will empower.
Before him, mighty kings will be paralyzed with fear.
Their fortress gates will be opened,
never to shut again.
2 This is what the Lord says:
“I will go before you, Cyrus,
and level the mountains.[a]
I will smash down gates of bronze
and cut through bars of iron.
3 And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness—
secret riches.
I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord,
the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.
So clearly God has chosen Cyrus and the Persians to be His instrument in exacting judgment against Babylon. This brings us into verses 3-5 of Isaiah:
3 I, the Lord, have dedicated these soldiers for this task.
Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger,
and they will rejoice when I am exalted.”
4 Hear the noise on the mountains!
Listen, as the vast armies march!
It is the noise and shouting of many nations.
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has called this army together.
5 They come from distant countries,
from beyond the farthest horizons.
They are the Lord’s weapons to carry out his anger.
With them he will destroy the whole land.
God is arranging this army from the countries that make up the Persian Empire. The Bible says that God is in control of the world stage and that He is sovereign over all governments. The implication is that no individual rises to power without God’s control over the situation. Now, there’s a major point to be made here. After the 2016 election, half of the United States was bent on seeing the failure of the incoming President. Before that, nearly half wanted nothing more than the failure of his predecessor. Being under a government is a lot like being the passenger on an airplane. Even if you loathe the pilot, you should be praying and working for his success. The only exception is if this work requires you yourself to breach God’s commands. Paul is pretty clear about this in Romans chapter 13:1-7:
13 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 3 For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. 5 So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience.
6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority.
Jesus Himself says, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.” You should be careful to prevent your opinions from getting in the way of this biblical injunction to respect and honor governmental authority. But given that injunction, you should always proceed with your eyes open and your mind at attention to determine whether or not leadership is requiring you to turn from God. Never choose government over God. Okay, let’s move on to verses 6-8:
6 Scream in terror, for the day of the Lord has arrived—
the time for the Almighty to destroy.
7 Every arm is paralyzed with fear.
Every heart melts,
8 and people are terrified.
Pangs of anguish grip them,
like those of a woman in labor.
They look helplessly at one another,
their faces aflame with fear.
These verses are pretty brutal. Judgment is no joke. The prophet Amos says, “What sorrow awaits you who say, “If only the day of the Lord were here!” You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light.” Also in Ezekiel: for the terrible day is almost here— the day of the Lord! It is a day of clouds and gloom, a day of despair for the nations. Sometimes, I think modern people have a hard time understanding how this kind of punishment could come from a loving God. To understand this, context is key. First, the people whom God brought judgment against were evil in word, thought, and deed. Ancient people were especially cruel. Torture was common practice and these ancient empires used it to traumatize their people into obedience.
If you turn on the news today, you won’t have to wait very long to see cases of people whose hearts are given over to evil in this way. I mean there are people walking around who have derived pleasure from inflicting the darkest, most painful day to another person’s life. Years ago, two men broke into the home of a doctor. They raped and tortured his wife and his daughters in front of him. Then they tied his daughters to their beds and burned them alive. They let the doctor live. I mean just imagine someone doing this to a person you love. Now understand that God loves your person even more than you do. Make no mistake, the dark day for evil and for those who do evil is coming – and it’s coming at the hand of Jesus Christ Himself. He is the gentle Lamb of God who sacrifices Himself for those who might choose love and choose to be with Him in eternity. Oh, but He is the terrifying Lion of Judah for those who choose evil.
So that’s the first point of context that you need in order to understand God’s judgment. The second point is that much of the time throughout Scripture, God is simply warning people of what the real world consequences of their actions will be. If you jump off a building, you don’t break the law of gravity – you break yourself and prove the law of gravity. That’s what’s happening in the rest of this chapter. God is warning Babylon of what will happen if they don’t turn back from their sin. It breaks God’s heart to see these things happen, and so He always tries to warn us and do everything He can short of forcing us to turn to Him. We see this concept explicitly described in 2 Chronicles 36:15-17. This is God warning His own people in Jerusalem of what will happen if they refuse to turn from evil:
15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his Temple. 16 But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the Lord’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done.
17 So the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them. The Babylonians[a] killed Judah’s young men, even chasing after them into the Temple. They had no pity on the people, killing both young men and young women, the old and the infirm. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.
That was God telling His people what they needed to do to avoid being conquered by Babylon in 586 B.C. They refused to listen. Now, fast forward back to Isaiah warning about Babylon itself being conquered. We know that God – out of immeasurable compassion – has warned Babylon over and over, so let’s pick back up in verses 9-10:
9 For see, the day of the Lord is coming—
the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger.
The land will be made desolate,
and all the sinners destroyed with it.
10 The heavens will be black above them;
the stars will give no light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will provide no light.
These verses are describing the result of Babylon’s iniquity. The heavens turning black, the stars failing to give light, the sun being dark, and the moon providing no light is an expression commonly used by the prophets to describe the convulsions of governments. This expression is used again in the gospels of Matthew and Mark in reference to the second coming of Christ – so you can imagine that things will be quite destabilized when He arrives. For Babylon, that means the Persians and the Medes who make up the invasion force under Cyrus are coming. Verses 11-13:
11 “I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their sin.
I will crush the arrogance of the proud
and humble the pride of the mighty.
12 I will make people scarcer than gold—
more rare than the fine gold of Ophir.
13 For I will shake the heavens.
The earth will move from its place
when the Lord of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath
in the day of his fierce anger.”
Notice in verse 12 how it says people will be more rare than the fine gold of Ophir. Ophir was a place known for its gold. It is thought to have been located on the southwestern coast of Arabia.
Now, this idea of crushing the arrogance of the proud and humbling the pride of the mighty is directed at Belshazzar, who was the eldest son of king Nabonidus. You should know that Nabonidus played a part in weakening Babylon before it was conquered. He stirred up division among the people and incurred the hatred of the high priests of Marduk because of his worship of the moon god Sin. Belshazzar is the final king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Belshazzar is the one who sees the writing on the wall in the book of Daniel. Listen to what it says in Daniel:
22 “You are his successor,[a] O Belshazzar, and you knew all this, yet you have not humbled yourself. 23 For you have proudly defied the Lord of heaven and have had these cups from his Temple brought before you. You and your nobles and your wives and concubines have been drinking wine from them while praising gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that neither see nor hear nor know anything at all. But you have not honored the God who gives you the breath of life and controls your destiny!
So, we see that Belshazzar – like everyone who incurs God’s wrath – knew what he was doing wrong and chose to do it anyway. His own people would pay a heavy price for this. Verses 14-16:
14 Everyone in Babylon will run about like a hunted gazelle,
like sheep without a shepherd.
They will try to find their own people
and flee to their own land.
15 Anyone who is captured will be cut down—
run through with a sword.
16 Their little children will be dashed to death before their eyes.
Their homes will be sacked, and their wives will be raped.
17 “Look, I will stir up the Medes against Babylon.
They cannot be tempted by silver
or bribed with gold.
18 The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows.
They will have no mercy on helpless babies
and will show no compassion for children.”
Horrible, horrible verses. But unfortunately, the Bible reflects fallen reality. War brings out the depravity in people. In late 1937, over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people–including both soldiers and civilians–in the Chinese city of Nanking (or Nanjing). The horrific events are known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking, as between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. Nanking, then the capital of Nationalist China, was left in ruins, and it would take decades for the city and its citizens to recover from the savage attacks.
Then, in 1943, Reserve Police Battalion 101 invaded and occupied Poland as part of Hitler’s Final Solution. The men who made up the battalion were not Hitler youth types – they were ordinary men. Their horrific acts included taking naked pregnant women out to the fields and shooting them in the back of the head.
Then, in March of 1968, between 350 and 500 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians were murdered by a platoon of U.S. soldiers. These soldiers were young men who were thrown into one of the most horrible places on earth against their will and left to fend for themselves psychologically as well as physically. They followed the leadership of psychopaths. The women were gang raped and mutilated as well as the children as young as 12 years old. This was the My Lai Massacre.
These are just three of the many tragic events recorded to history. Often, people are shocked by the cruelty described in the biblical narrative. In the developed world, it’s easy to become complacent and to forget that such evil exists. I pray that all who are deceived into thinking that the world has moved on from such things would open their eyes and pay attention – because evil is real and we must guard against it. Let’s finish chapter 13 with the remaining verses, 19-22:
19 Babylon, the most glorious of kingdoms,
the flower of Chaldean pride,
will be devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God destroyed them.
20 Babylon will never be inhabited again.
It will remain empty for generation after generation.
Nomads will refuse to camp there,
and shepherds will not bed down their sheep.
21 Desert animals will move into the ruined city,
and the houses will be haunted by howling creatures.
Owls will live among the ruins,
and wild goats will go there to dance.
22 Hyenas will howl in its fortresses,
and jackals will make dens in its luxurious palaces.
Babylon’s days are numbered;
its time of destruction will soon arrive.
The book of Revelation talks about the sudden fall and utter destruction of Babylon. Listen to this:
16 “How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
She was clothed in finest purple and scarlet linens,
decked out with gold and precious stones and pearls!
17 In a single moment
all the wealth of the city is gone!”
And all the captains of the merchant ships and their passengers and sailors and crews will stand at a distance. 18 They will cry out as they watch the smoke ascend, and they will say, “Where is there another city as great as this?” 19 And they will weep and throw dust on their heads to show their grief. And they will cry out,
“How terrible, how terrible for that great city!
The shipowners became wealthy
by transporting her great wealth on the seas.
In a single moment it is all gone.”
That’s how quick the powerful can fall. Did you know that half of all publicly traded companies will disappear within 10 years of entering the market? Companies, governments, institutions – all of them are only as stable as the individuals who comprise them. And the stability of an individual is directly determined by the integrity of his or her beliefs.
So this whole chapter has been Isaiah’s prophecy about the fall of Babylon. He spoke this prophecy before Babylon even became a world power. Isaiah warned that, though it would shine for a while, Babylon’s destruction would be so complete that the land would never again be inhabited. Babylon, in present-day Iraq, still lies in utter ruin, buried under mounds of dirt and sand.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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