Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my sixty eighth episode. Tonight we are picking back up with our study of the book of Isaiah. This will be chapter 16. And this is the second part of the message for Moab. Remember that chapters 13-23 in Isaiah are oracles of judgment upon the nations. These nations had become evil and prideful, so now they faced the wrath of God. You’ll remember that 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. Isaiah chapter 16 is a prophecy of what Moab will be like in the aftermath of God’s judgment. It is a survey of the destruction.
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16 Send lambs from Sela as tribute
to the ruler of the land.
Send them through the desert
to the mountain of beautiful Zion.
2 The women of Moab are left like homeless birds
at the shallow crossings of the Arnon River.
3 “Help us,” they cry.
“Defend us against our enemies.
Protect us from their relentless attack.
Do not betray us now that we have escaped.
So Moab is being attacked by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were a brutal superpower who were feared by nearly everyone. The Moabites would flee to this place called Sela, which was in the country of Edom to the south. The Arnon River functioned as a boundary line between the Moabites and the Amorites. Notice how Moab is concerned that Judah will betray them now that they are vulnerable. King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to send an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams to Israel. Since the Moabites were desperate, they decided to do the same thing for Jerusalem – sending them a tribute of lambs and seeking the protection of Judah. If they could persuade Judah, then Jerusalem would make a safe refuge for the time being.
Isaiah advised Judah to accept these refugees as a sign of compassion during their devastation. Now, you have to remember that Moab is an enemy of Judah. But Isaiah is encouraging Judah to show compassion for their enemy while they are in ruins. Sometimes showing love and compassion is the most effective way to turn an enemy into a friend. You should always resist the temptation of becoming cynical and becoming blind to the value of loving your enemy – especially when your enemy genuinely needs your help. Let’s move on to verses 4-5:
4 Let our refugees stay among you.
Hide them from our enemies until the terror is past.”
When oppression and destruction have ended
and enemy raiders have disappeared,
5 then God will establish one of David’s descendants as king.
He will rule with mercy and truth.
He will always do what is just
and be eager to do what is right.
Verse five is probably a dual prophecy referring to king Hezekiah and further to Jesus Christ Himself. Hezekiah was a pious and upright king. He was king of Judah when the Assyrians mounted their attack on Jerusalem. He was the king who – by Isaiah’s instruction – sent word to the Assyrian king Sennacherib that not only would Jerusalem not surrender, but Sennacherib’s army would be crushed and they would flee back to their homeland. When you have more than 180,000 Assyrian soldiers camped outside your walls and ready to do all sorts of horrible things to you – it must have taken tremendous amounts of faith for Hezekiah to tell them all to shove off. We should note that this verse is also using Messianic language – like saying he will rule with mercy and truth – and this indicates the other layer to the prophecy that is looking forward to Christ as king. Okay, let’s look at verses 6-8:
6 We have heard about proud Moab—
about its pride and arrogance and rage.
But all that boasting has disappeared.
7 The entire land of Moab weeps.
Yes, everyone in Moab mourns
for the cakes of raisins from Kir-hareseth.
They are all gone now.
8 The farms of Heshbon are abandoned;
the vineyards at Sibmah are deserted.
The rulers of the nations have broken down Moab—
that beautiful grapevine.
Its tendrils spread north as far as the town of Jazer
and trailed eastward into the wilderness.
Its shoots reached so far west
that they crossed over the Dead Sea.[a]
The prideful attitude of the Moabites was common knowledge during this time. Jeremiah says that all have heard of Moab’s lofty pride, arrogance, and haughty heart. Before judgment, the Moabites were basically scoffers who didn’t take seriously the things of God and who persecuted those who did. In verse 7 it says that the entire land of Moab weeps. When the Assyrians came through, they destroyed the towns, covered their good land with stones, stopped up all the springs and cut down all the good trees. And this town, Kir-hareseth, it was surrounded by men with slings who attacked it.
In verse 8 you see that Moab was once a great and beautiful territory. They were strong, but even their strongest warriors cried out in utter terror and became helpless with fear in the face of the Assyrians. The Assyrians, sometimes called the destroyer, stripped their land bare and looted whatever grapes and summer fruits they could find. It was the spoils of war. Let’s see verses 9-12:
9 So now I weep for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah;
my tears will flow for Heshbon and Elealeh.
There are no more shouts of joy
over your summer fruits and harvest.
10 Gone now is the gladness,
gone the joy of harvest.
There will be no singing in the vineyards,
no more happy shouts,
no treading of grapes in the winepresses.
I have ended all their harvest joys.
11 My heart’s cry for Moab is like a lament on a harp.
I am filled with anguish for Kir-hareseth.[b]
12 The people of Moab will worship at their pagan shrines,
but it will do them no good.
They will cry to the gods in their temples,
but no one will be able to save them.
These verses give us a look into the heartbreak of God as He brings justice upon Moab. I can only imagine how frustrating it is to continually warn someone you love to stop walking down the road to destruction. To do literally everything that you can short of forcing them. And then, to have to be the one to bring justice upon them once they’ve ignored and rejected all of your warnings. Where once there was the joy of harvest, now there is only struggle. In Job’s words, “They press out the olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.” To give you a look at this survey of destruction, I want to read to you the words of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Isaiah first:
7 The grapevines waste away,
and there is no new wine.
All the merrymakers sigh and mourn.
8 The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled;
the happy cries of celebration are heard no more.
The melodious chords of the harp are silent.
Now Jeremiah:
33 Joy and gladness are gone from fruitful Moab.
The presses yield no wine.
No one treads the grapes with shouts of joy.
There is shouting, yes, but not of joy.
Notice in verse 12 how it says that in the midst of these trials the Moabites doubled down on their idolatry and cried out to false gods. I want to read you a passage from 1 Kings. This is where the prophet Elijah is watching pagan people in their desperation call on their idols. Despite their failures they just will not listen to the prophet.
26 So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.
27 About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself.[a] Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”
28 So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. 29 They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response.
It is more than a little alarming how quickly a population of people can descend into collective psychosis. Our population is not above this danger. We have not outgrown it. We need to beware this kind of idolatry today when we search out every possible solution that doesn’t involve God. We seek our own ways of escaping daily troubles – whether it be through work, friends, pleasure, or even some new age invented religious ideas. But like the Moabites, we are shouting at empty space when we are turned away from God. He is the only One who can hear you.
I’ve talked about idolatry before – and I would just say that if there is something other than God that sits in the top spot of your hierarchy of values – you should be very careful of that thing or that person. You really, really do not want to invest all of your hope into something that is not God. You could be setting yourself up for tremendous amounts of misery in the form of feeling broken, alone, betrayed, and let down. But even if you’ve turned away, God’s still watching you and waiting for you to come back. He will receive you. Seek and you will find. Okay, so this chapter has been a prophecy that is looking forward to the destruction of Moab. Verses 13-14 close the chapter by starting the clock for when this judgment would arrive.
13 The Lord has already said these things about Moab in the past. 14 But now the Lord says, “Within three years, counting each day,[c] the glory of Moab will be ended. From its great population, only a feeble few will be left alive.”
Tiglath-pileser III invaded Moab in 732 B.C.; Sennacherib invaded Moab the same year that he invaded Judah, 701 B.C. The earlier event occurred three years after Isaiah’s prediction, marking Isaiah as a true prophet. In these events, the people of Israel saw prophecy fulfilled before their very eyes.
There’s an important point that I want to close this episode with. We often think of these judgments as harsh punishment from God. Too harsh. But I don’t think we have any capacity to understand what it was like to see through the eyes of these ancient people. You could argue that God was way more expressive in revealing Himself to them than He is with us today. And with greater understanding comes greater responsibility. It wasn’t like these people were victims. They knew who God is and they willfully rebelled against Him.
Isaiah is widely recognized as the greatest prophet in the Bible and these people had the privilege of knowing him in person as well as seeing his prophecies come to life in the same few years from the time he gave them. That would be the equivalent of a widely known person today predicting events to take place three years from now with perfect accuracy. This would stand out so vibrantly as a miracle of such magnitude that the only way to reject it would be to willfully close your eyes to it. If you are listening to this and if you have not known God. Seek Him out. When the time is right, He will reveal Himself to you. He will not let you fall by the wayside.
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