For Babylon the news was bad. They were a rod of correction that God was going to destroy. I've mentioned before that God seems to have had the habit of making a tool of discipline and then destroying it when He was done. Babylon couldn't imagine that they were going to be conquered. They were wealthy and cultured. This prophecy did not look likely when it was given except in the context of the source.
I still find it striking to step back from this situation and view it as if I were able to see what was going on in the entire region. In the Babylonian captivity I would have been sure that Israel was finished for all time. I would have been able to see Persia growing in power but the idea that a man named Cyrus was going to come and conquer Babylon would seem to be wild conjecture. The idea that somehow the Babylonian captivity would be good for the nation of Israel would not have made any sense to me. It could only have been understood in the context of faith in God's providence.
Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind flour, put off your veil, strip off your robe, uncover your legs, pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your disgrace shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will spare no one.
Isaiah 47:1-3
The throne of power is gone and they sit on the ground. They must work rather than sit in leisure. They must take off robes to cross rivers and escape. All this, and yet God's hand will be against them and they will be embarrassed and disgraced.
Our Redeemer—the Lord of hosts is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 47:4
In this conversation with the Babylonians, the faithful know who their redeemer is and that he will bring back a purified remnant. The Apostle Paul pulls some of these prophecies together in Romans.
As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'" "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay." And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah."
Romans 9:25-29
We can see ourselves and our blessing in these verses as we are called His people and beloved by the Grace of God. However, we can also see the remnant returning and know that apart from God, the Lord of hosts, they would not have been saved. In our lives, we too can know from Scripture and confess that apart from His mercy and grace in our lives we would have died in our sins.
In every age we can say, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah". This should be a tremendous source of encouragement to prayer. If our eyes are open and if we have paid attention to Jesus' teaching, we know how we ought to pray for God to establish His kingdom. The attitude that was can rule our own lives without God and get what we need to be happy is not a Godly attitude. John says:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.
1 John 2:15-16
Babylon was caught up in satisfying desires, living in great beauty, and possessing everything they could possess. Apart from God's mercy each of us would be caught up in that rat race that ends with death and judgment. God has saved a remnant in every generation because He is faithful. Babylon was the rod of correction for a people who violated the Sinai Covenant.
Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. I was angry with my people; I profaned my heritage; I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy; on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy. You said, "I shall be mistress forever," so that you did not lay these things to heart or remember their end. Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children": These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.
Isaiah 47:5-9
I want to jump forward and look at the fulfillment of this prophecy. In 605 BC Jerusalem fell and a young man named Daniel was taken into captivity and carried away to Babylon. He was blessed by God and served under the King's Chief Eunuch. Many things happened and God seemed to use Daniel to work in the life of Nebuchadnezzar but after his death we find his son choosing poorly. There was writing on the wall (539 BC) and the king's wife remembered Daniel.
O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father kingship and greatness and glory and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and whom he would, he kept alive; whom he would, he raised up, and whom he would, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
"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."
Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.
Daniel 5:18-31
The king's wife, who remembered Daniel, suddenly became a widow and I think it is reasonable to assume that her children, being heirs, were killed that same night. There was symmetry in the sin that brought them down. They took what God had sanctified (the temple furnishings) and used them in a sinful celebration. They were also in possession of God's sanctified remnant of people such as Daniel and they were using them inappropriately. Belshazzar had not humbled his heart in spite of God's revelation to his father. Belshazzar praised idols and forgot the God in whose hand was his breath and who owned all his ways. So while Daniel spoke to his face and gave him the bad news, Isaiah wrote the bad news down before 700BC. About 160 years before his day, Isaiah had already described Belshazzar and all who served with him.
You felt secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one sees me"; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me." But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you may be able to succeed; perhaps you may inspire terror. You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before! Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about each in his own direction; there is no one to save you.
Isaiah 47:10-15
All of the pride, the corrupt desire for spiritual power in charms and magic, the corrupt desire for wisdom and foreknowledge in astrology will be destroyed as by fire and even old friends will just turn the other way. There is a great desire for spiritual power and foreknowledge apart from the God of the Bible in our society. Make sure that you don't get drawn into religion apart from the Gospel. Mankind wants spiritual power to manipulate the present and foreknowledge to use for personal gain. Sin can go on for a long time. Daniel spent a long time in Babylon with both Babylonians and Persians. But God will put an end to both personal and corporate sin. If it were not for God's mercy and patience we would all fall quickly but don't test God's patience. If you are aware of sin then deal with it. Our relationship to sin differs from those who didn't and don't know God and the atonement of Christ. However, it means we should be careful to obey God.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:14-23
God has made it possible for us to submit ourselves as slaves of righteousness. We were once obedient slaves of sin. So now we work to submit ourselves to God in everything. This makes us a slave of righteousness leading to sanctification. So the fruit leads to sanctification and eternal life. Think of the remnant that God kept during the Babylonian captivity and the cups that were taken into captivity with them. They were sanctified or set apart for a single purpose. Your life in Christ is to be set aside for God's purposes alone. Everything you do in every day you are given is to be for His glory. You don't know how many days you have. It is OK if you don't finish your last job. Don't be afraid to start a new task as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who is within you to will and to do what He wants done (Philippians 2:12-18).
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