Well good evening everyone and welcome to my sixty fourth episode. In the previous episode, we finished our study of Isaiah chapter 14. Tonight I want to take a look at the next section in the book of Isaiah. Chapters 15 and 16 are a message for Moab. Moab was a nation east of the Dead Sea. So this would be southeast of Judah. The Moabites were descendants of Lot through his incestuous relationship with his his older daughter. You can find that story in Genesis chapter 19. Moab had a long history of enmity with Israel. The Moabites oppressed Israel and invaded their land. They fought against both Israelite kings Saul and David.
But now it was time for Moab to receive judgment for their wickedness and their harsh treatment of Israel. Isaiah describes this judgment as impacting all of Moab’s major cities and greatly reducing its standing on the world stage. We don’t know the precise years that this event took place, but we do know that both Assyrian kings Sargon II and Sennacherib claimed victory over Moab. Let’s begin by reading the first four verses:
15 This message came to me concerning Moab:
In one night the town of Ar will be leveled,
and the city of Kir will be destroyed.
2 Your people will go to their temple in Dibon to mourn.
They will go to their sacred shrines to weep.
They will wail for the fate of Nebo and Medeba,
shaving their heads in sorrow and cutting off their beards.
3 They will wear burlap as they wander the streets.
From every home and public square will come the sound of wailing.
4 The people of Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out;
their voices will be heard as far away as Jahaz!
The bravest warriors of Moab will cry out in utter terror.
They will be helpless with fear.
So we open this chapter with a swift and fierce attack on Moab. This attack is described in greater detail in Ezekiel chapter 25. Listen to this:
8 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because the people of Moab[a] have said that Judah is just like all the other nations, 9 I will open up their eastern flank and wipe out their glorious frontier towns—Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 And I will hand Moab over to nomads from the eastern deserts, just as I handed over Ammon. Yes, the Ammonites will no longer be counted among the nations.11 In the same way, I will bring my judgment down on the Moabites. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
In verse two we see the Moabites wailing over of the fate of the cities Nebo and Medeba. Jeremiah talks about the fall of Nebo when he says, “What sorrow awaits the city of Nebo; it will soon lie in ruins. The city of Kiriathaim will be humiliated and captured; the fortress will be humiliated and broken down.” I want you to notice Jeremiah’s repeated use of the term “humiliated” here. The major reason why any nation or individual departs from obedience to God is pride. Normally, the society or the person encounters quite a bit of success and then they begin to think that they can just do things their own way. They begin to trust themselves with the immense responsibility of authoring their own set of moral principles and guiding themselves rather than following God.
Then, when everything comes crashing down, they return back to a state of humility. We see this happen in Moab in verses two and three where it says they will shave their heads, cut off their beards, and wear burlap as they wander the streets. These were common signs of mourning and loss in the ancient middle east. The men of that era felt very humiliated when their hair was cut and their beards were removed.
Notice how it says the bravest warriors of Moab will cry out in utter terror and become helpless with fear. Acquiring dominance by way of aggression is not a reliable form of leadership for males or for anyone else. It doesn’t even work in chimpanzee troops or wolf packs. If you have a chimpanzee who ascends the dominance hierarchy by way of oppressive tyranny, he will only stay in power until two other males that are two thirds his size and strength ambush him and tear him to pieces. In a wolf pack, when two males are having a dominance dispute – the one who loses will roll over and expose his throat to be ripped out by the alpha male. But the alpha will not do it. He will allow the losing wolf to live and to fall in line behind him in the pack.
The idea here is that reciprocity is the key to sustainable leadership. You have to love and care for the people you are leading. If individuals or tribes create a hierarchical system that functions primarily on aggression – they will be defeated by foreign groups who have figured out this more sustainable mode of leadership. That’s because there is always someone bigger and badder than you. There is always someone more barbaric than you. The goal in life is not to win the game at all costs. It’s to be the one who is invited back to play the most amount of games. Okay let’s move on to verses 5-9:
5 My heart weeps for Moab.
Its people flee to Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah.
Weeping, they climb the road to Luhith.
Their cries of distress can be heard all along the road to Horonaim.
6 Even the waters of Nimrim are dried up!
The grassy banks are scorched.
The tender plants are gone;
nothing green remains.
7 The people grab their possessions
and carry them across the Ravine of Willows.
8 A cry of distress echoes through the land of Moab
from one end to the other—
from Eglaim to Beer-elim.
9 The stream near Dibon[a] runs red with blood,
but I am still not finished with Dibon!
Lions will hunt down the survivors—
both those who try to escape
and those who remain behind.
Isaiah says my heart weeps for Moab. Remember this is God speaking through Isaiah, so even in the midst of Moab’s judgment God’s heart weeps for them. We’re given this scene of utter desolation where Moab’s crops and natural resources have been destroyed. I believe that corruption breeds poverty. You can’t say that poverty breeds corruption because then you would have to maintain that all who are poor are also corrupt. People can be stricken with poverty for all sorts of reasons: it could be illness, bad luck, theft, etc. But one of the main reasons for chronic poverty is corruption. There are many people who, if you gave them money, you would simply be funding their corruption and expediting their destruction. Many people say that money is one of the keys to happiness. I think the reason people say this is because abject poverty causes misery and steals your joy. That’s what’s happening in these verses for the Moabites. Listen to what Joel says about the loss of their crops:
10 The fields are ruined,
the land is stripped bare.
The grain is destroyed,
the grapes have shriveled,
and the olive oil is gone.
11 Despair, all you farmers!
Wail, all you vine growers!
Weep, because the wheat and barley—
all the crops of the field—are ruined.
12 The grapevines have dried up,
and the fig trees have withered.
The pomegranate trees, palm trees, and apple trees—
all the fruit trees—have dried up.
And the people’s joy has dried up with them.
So we know that abject poverty is a source of misery. But it’s not so obvious that once you have enough money to pay the bills and maintain your security, whether or not increases in money correlate to increases in meaning. I maintain that it does not – remember how king Solomon suffered from meaninglessness and he was the wealthiest king in the world.
In the last few verses we see lions hunting down those who survived the judgment of Moab. These parts of the world were very dangerous outdoors. In the ancient middle east, rejecting a visitor who needed a place to stay was a great taboo because it often meant causing them to be torn apart by wild animals. In 2 Kings we see God use the wild to reprimand settlers who failed to follow in his ways upon their arrival. It says the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them. Jeremiah says that the Israelites are like sheep that have been scattered by lions. First the king of Assyria ate them up, then king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon cracked their bones.
It’s interesting because Christ himself is referred to as the Lion of Judah. Jesus is humble and gentle but he is also the Good Shepherd. Ancient shepherds were tough warriors. Often, these shepherds had to defend a flock of sheep against wild animals all alone wielding only hand weapons and slings. Some modern conceptions of Jesus picture him as a weak and frail man who is not very imposing. It’s true that Christ is gentle and patient, but it’s also true that he is the Lion of Judah and that he will crush evil in the final analysis. We should remember that real love always involves justice and discipline. The Moabites did not fear God and did not keep his commands. We should learn from their mistake and realize that God’s commands are for our own good – God’s power and status as Lord does not depend on whether or not human beings choose to follow him. There is a way to navigate life that minimizes our chance of falling into a pit of misery. That mode of being is best elucidated in the biblical narrative – particularly the life and love acted out by Jesus himself. God has made arrangements so that through Christ we may have our salvation.
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