Last week I mentioned that “technically” the US military acted in fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah in a secondary way although the Persians bore the primary role in the destruction. God has said some specific things about Babylon so Saddam Hussien's decision to attempt a rebuilding of bricks inscribed with his name and claiming to be a son of Nebuchadnezzar was not a good idea. Babylon is often used as a picture of worldly power opposed to God but last week's prophecy had to do first of all with the earthly Babylon.
An Oracle Concerning Assyria
The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.” This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
Isaiah 14:24-27
The Assyrians were used by God according to their natures but they were not servants of God in the sense of being devoted to His worship. God is declaring His sovereignty over history. He will removed the Assyrians from “my land” and “my mountains and then makes the point that this is what He will do in the whole earth and all nations. He is sovereign and eventually all of mankind will acknowledge Him. No nation is powerful enough to claim control over history. God is in control of history and, just like those in Jerusalem during Isaiah's day, that is supposed to be our comfort and not the power of our nation.
An Oracle Concerning Philistia
In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle: Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken, for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent. And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay. Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. What will one answer the messengers of the nation? “The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
Isaiah 14:28-32
Ahaz was a faithless king and after his death it is likely the city states of Philistia came to try to draw Hezekiah toward them since Ahaz was essentially a servant of the Assyrians and in opposition to Philistia. So the prophecy is that in spite of their political solutions, God would continue to judge them and keep his people in Zion.
Another attitude that needs correction is the idea that all our difficulties come from a particular problem and if we could just work out our political solution then we would be just fine. For those who don't know God it is a seductive solution and of course it is false but even Christians can place their eyes and focus on the wrong thing and ignore that we find refuge in Him and in Him alone. Any other refuge is an illusion and Ahaz was caught up in the illusion until the end of his life.
An Oracle Concerning Moab
An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. On every head is baldness; every beard is shorn; in the streets they wear sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voice is heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles. My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction; the waters of Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered, the vegetation fails, the greenery is no more. Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the Brook of the Willows. For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; her wailing reaches to Eglaim; her wailing reaches to Beer-elim. For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; for I will bring upon Dibon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land.
Isaiah 15:1-9
Moab didn't generally have good relationships with Judah but they were near neighbors. They occupied a different place in Isaiah's prophecy and in God's heart. God is moved by the refugees and by the traffic of those who are conquering the region. Refugees are a sad sight and Moab, as a region, has been trampled.
Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion. Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon. “Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.”
Isaiah16:1-5
So Judah is called on to reach out to Moab and be a shelter. They should be a light to the gentiles. In another view down through history, we see a messianic prophecy that God will establish a throne in steadfast love with a faithful righteous judge that is Christ the Messiah on David's throne. God's covenant with David will be honored.
We have heard of the pride of Moab—how proud he is!—of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right. Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail. Mourn, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth. For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have struck down its branches, which reached to Jazer and strayed to the desert; its shoots spread abroad and passed over the sea. Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased. And joy and gladness are taken away from ithe fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting. Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth. And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail. This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.”
Isaiah 16:6-14
The really remarkable thing about Moab is that compassion is commanded for this nation. They are proud but God and Isaiah still mourn the destruction. It is always a good reminder for us to meditate on verses that show God doesn't take any joy in what happens as a result of sin and the consequences of sin. It helps keep us from being harsh and corrects or tendency to take joy from things we shouldn't take joy from. In the end Moab rejects sanctuary because sanctuary requires something. It requires the acceptance of a new “lord”. Our desire to rule our lives apart from God is a tremendous barrier to our knowledge of God.
An Oracle Concerning Damascus
An oracle concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the Lord of hosts. And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and the fat of his flesh will grow lean. And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Gleanings will be left in it, as when an olive tree is beaten—two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree, declares the Lord God of Israel.
Isaiah 17:1-6
Damascus had strong ties to the Northern Kingdom and you can see that here in the references to Ephraim and Jacob. The alliance fails to provide security. However, notice that we still see a remnant kept by God and illustrated as gleanings and olives. Like Moab, the residents around Damascus are more like cousins than strangers.
In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense. In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation. For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger, though you make them grow on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee away in a day of grief and incurable pain. Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters! The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm. At evening time, behold, terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us, and the lot of those who plunder us.
Isaiah 17:7-14
The use of “imitative magic” was practiced by showing your god what you wanted so you could take some wheat and germinate it so that your “god” could see what you wanted. However, God declares the harvest will flee way in grief and pain.
You can see how Israel is tied up with Damascus in these verses. The judgment gets the attention of Damascus/Israel but still God will put a limit on the suffering. Notice that “in that day” they will look to God their maker rather than their hand made gods. The Northern Kingdom in particular looked for political solutions and alliances rather than the God of their salvation or the Rock of their refuge. We need to remember our fortress God and not trust in any other fortress.
An Oracle Concerning Cush
Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear! For thus the Lord said to me: “I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away. They shall all of them be left to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them. At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 18:1-7
God works around to all sorts of world powers at the time of Isaiah. Ethiopia was a powerful group at this time and actually had Egypt in 715 BC and was looking to start an anti-Assyrian uprising among the nations nearer to Assyria. So they came down through the Nile and Nile delta with “whirring wings” probably “rustling sails”. The Ethiopians were thought to be a tall people in 700 BC they were also trying to bring Egypt into the fight as the land that the rivers divide. So the references to a tall and smooth people might be Ethiopians and/or the Egyptians the Ethiopians were trying to manipulate.
This was a distant people so Isaiah is relating God's control of the world to even the most distant portions. God says that He watches like heat in the light and dew in the morning. He is there even if you can't see how He got there. The signal and the trumpet, the visible and the audible, come from Isaiah saying that God sees and knows and is in control.
God's plan is that all people and nations will bring tribute to Him and that He will be glorified instead of Assyria's domination or Cush's coalition gaining real power. Power is a funny thing in the minds of men. We seem to think that we really have it. Men seem to think that somehow they are independent of God and can manipulate their way to real power in spite of Him. We never do but it is the perennial mistake of those in power.
In 1887 a British Historian named Lord Acton spoke out against the doctrine of papal infallibility and said, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great mean are almost always bad men.” It isn't so much that power corrupts but that power manifests the corruption in all men. Apart from the Grace of God we'll see that corruption in all men who find themselves in power.
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