Against Babylon
Introduction to This Series
Here we are, the Sunday after the federal election. An election that, more than any in recent history and perhaps Canadian history, was shaped by international concerns.
Four months ago, nobody would have predicted the result of Monday night because four months ago, nobody would have predicted the kinds of things the President of the United States would start saying and how both the Canadian public and Canadian politicians would respond to those statements.
And here we are, in the aftermath of an election that will no doubt prove to be consequential, and might be particularly so for the people of God in this nation. As Canadian Christians, in addition to caring about many of the same issues that the rest of our nation cares about, we especially care about religious freedom and the moral fabric of our nation and whether religious charities get tax exemptions, all matters that could very well be shaped in the next few years by the decisions Canadians made on Monday night, decisions that were shaped largely by international concerns.
And none of this is new. Relationships between other nations have always been a major factor for the people of God. From Abraham to Moses to David to Nehemiah, so much of the history of God's people was forged in relation to the nations that surrounded them.
And the clear message time and time again that God had to send to His people is that though He was their God, He was not merely their God. The God of Israel was the God of more than just Israel. All the earth was His, and Israel was His treasured possession among all peoples (Exodus 19:5–6).
And we know how often Israel forgot this, which is why the Lord needed to remind them again and again through the prophets of what was true.
It was three years ago that we spent time in Isaiah 1-12, where the theme was God's grace triumphing over the rebellion of his people. And Isaiah told how that would happen through the arrival of an anointed king who would rule over the nations, whose government would increase unendingly, and under whose reign the world would be made new (Isaiah 9:7, 11:6). “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10).
One day, Israel's king will be the world's king. But in the meantime, God told His people how He was sovereignly directing the history of the nations for the good of His people. We got a sneak peek of this back in Isaiah 10 with God's judgement on Assyria. But now, in this next section of Isaiah, this theme moves front-and-centre. Israel and Judah are definitely in the picture, but the main focus becomes how God is going to deal with the nations of the earth, both in the immediate future and then into the distant future.
And just like with Israel, we see both judgement and salvation. In fact, that's one of the most wonderful pictures of the future we get in these chapters—the nations gathered in, worshipping Him and enjoying His grace right alongside of Israel.
And that's a time that we're already living in. Most of us are among those Gentiles who have been welcomed into the people of God, living in a time when David's son is ruling from His heavenly throne and God is directing the nations for the good of His people. Even so, there are many promises we still await fulfillment of, and we need to be reminded, as much as Isaiah's first readers, that our God is the Lord of the nations.
Introduction to This Passage
So, that's a general introduction to this series in Isaiah which will take us through the rest of the spring and summer. Now, let's take a specific look at today's passage, which, as we can see from verse 1, is an oracle—or a prophetic announcement—concerning Babylon.
We might not be all that surprised to see Babylon head up the list of Isaiah's pronouncements on the nations. Babylon is the big bad guy in the story of the Bible, right? Of course Isaiah would start with Babylon.
Well, not so fast. Babylon was not actually the big, bad empire in the world at this point. Assyria was. It was during Isaiah's ministry that the northern kingdom of Israel would fall to Assyria, and the Assyrians would invade Judah and threaten Jerusalem.
Babylon was still just another nation in the world at that point, and a nation that was actually on friendly terms with Judah. In Isaiah 39 we read about envoys from Babylon coming and getting friendly with the king of Judah, who showed them around Jerusalem to show off all of his wealth. He didn't see them as a threat at all.
But God shows Isaiah what's coming. Babylon will rise. Babylon will be the next great world power that destroys Assyria. Babylon will be the nation that finally brings judgement down on Jerusalem, 150 years or so after Isaiah's ministry.
So it's quite significant that Isaiah starts his oracles of judgement against the nations with Babylon. Long before they even become an empire, the Lord is declaring how that empire will fall. Just like God will later say in chapter 48, He declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done (Isaiah 46:10).
And that's what He's doing here. But there's another reason for starting with Babylon. Babylon is not just a place, a city, an empire: ever since the Tower of Babel, Babylon is a symbol of humanity's long opposition against God. You might remember that in Hebrew, "Babel" and "Babylon" are the exact same word. There's no difference. The Babylonian empire is just a remix of Genesis 11 and the tower that tried to reach to the heavens.
And that's why, right to the end of the Bible, Babylon is a symbol of the sin and wickedness of people who refuse to submit to God's rule but instead try to climb up into heaven in order to take His place. We can't forget that in our passage today. When God pronounces judgement on Babylon, He's not just talking about the historical city at the centre of the empire. He's also pronouncing judgement on everything that Babylon stood for, everywhere that shows up in all of history.
Babylon's Crimes
So what did Babylon stand for? That's actually where we want to start today. What were the crimes that brought God's judgement down upon Babylon?
To answer that question, we can first look at verse 11 where we see general phrases: evil and iniquity. But that evil and iniquity are further described in that verse as "the pomp of the arrogant" and "the pompous pride of the ruthless."
Pride features large here. Pride in lifting oneself up above other people, being inflated with a sense of self-importance. And the word "ruthless" is connected to tyranny. Babylon was actively proud, forcing their will on other people, using all of their military might to make people submit to them or be crushed.
This violent arrogance is described further down in chapter 14, starting halfway through verse 4:"How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of rulers, that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution.”
Those words are talking about Babylon, which beat the nations into submission with anger and violence. And the root of this brutal violence comes back to pride. Consider how Babylon’s pride is described in sarcastic, mocking language in chapter 14 verse 12.
“‘How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!’ You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isaiah 14:12-14).
There was an old Canaanite myth about the Morning Star, the early riser up before the sun, who tried to climb up to the far north where the gods met and steal the show for themselves. But the plan failed, and the Morning Star was instead cast down to the lowest places on earth.
Throughout history some interpreters of the Bible have taken these words to be talking about the fall of Satan, and it's from the word "Morning Star" that we get the name "Lucifer." Jesus may be referring to this versewhen he tells his disciples that He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18). But in context, this is talking about the king of Babylon, whose pride literally was sky-high.
And this especially makes sense when we remember the background of the Tower of Babel, where the early residents of later Babylon did gather to try to rise above everybody else and make a name for themselves by getting up to where God lives by their own power.
The king of Babylon repeated both of these stories—the fable and the history—as he marched across the earth, conquering nations, beating them into submission, and lifting himself high over everyone else.
And ultimately it's a much older story that he was repeating. The fundamental sin of humanity, going back to the garden of Eden, is our desire to be like God (Gen 3:4-6). It was that desire to be like God that led Eve to bite the fruit, it's what led the Babel-builders to put their tower together, and and we've all been doing it again and again ever since.
And this wicked, age-old arrogance is at the heart of Babylon's guilt and Babylon's crimes.
God's Judgement
And it's this sin that brings upon Babylon the judgement of God, which is what the majority of this oracle describes.
God judges Babylon by giving them a taste of their own medicine—letting them be conquered even as they conquered.
It begins with a signal banner being raised on a bare hill in 13:2. This is how armies would have sent messages to one another in those days—kind of like the beacons of Gondor being lit. But it's not just the armies signalling and calling to each other—God himself is the one who has summoned these armies of judgement, as verse 3 tells us.
The sound of this mustering army is described in verse 4, dramatically beckoning us into the action. The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land, and they are the weapons of His anger like he says in verse 5.
What will the result of this judgement be as these enemies march on Babylon? Verses 6-8 tell us: wailing, destruction, melting in fear, dismay, falling apart at the seams, agony like a woman in labour, shock and awe. Nobody can hold it together against this terror.
“Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it” says verse 9. "Day of the Lord" is a phrase used all throughout the prophets to speak about a day when God takes action and comes in judgement against His enemies.
Verse 10 and verse 13 describe this day of judgement as if creation itself is falling apart. “For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light” (Isaiah 13:10). “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:13).
When God gets angry, the world starts to fall apart. That's what it would have felt like for the Babylonians—it would have felt like their world was ending, like creation had turned against them. And we probably also see here the idea that this day of judgement on Babylon is a little preview of the final Day of the Lord, when God unleashes His fury on all wickedness everywhere, and creation literally does start to come apart at the seams.
Verses 11 and 12 seem to push is in this direction: "I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity... I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir."
God will not always make the sun to rise on the righteous and the wicked (Matthew 5:45). When the day of the Lord comes—for Babylon, and for the whole world eventually—the world itself falls apart.
And that might not be the worst thing that happens. Verse 16 describes babies being killed, houses plundered, wives violated by other men. These were all things that Babylon had done to other nations, and now they're being done to them (Psalm 137:8-9).
Modern people often get offended when they read things like verse 16, because it just seems so horrible. But that's the point. It's supposed to be horrible. It's supposed to shock us with how violent this is. And the point is that, for as terrible this judgement is, Babylon's sin is even worse. This is how awful their violent pride is.
By the way, I find it sadly ironic that the same people who point to a verse like this and say "How can you Christians believe a book like that?" also tend to be the same people who vigorously defend a "woman's right to choose." Apparently killing babies is okay as long as it's done by doctors and nurses and paid for by our government. We should never get used to that holocaust happening in this nation every single day. Without repentance, Judgement will come to us just as surely as it came to the Babylonians.
And it came to them in the form of the Medes. That's the nation who's been carrying out all of this judgement described up until now. Their identity is finally revealed in verse 17: “Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them” (Isaiah 13:17). And this is exactly what happened. A coalition of the Medes and the Persians destroyed Babylon less than 50 years after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem.
The Medes were not motivated by money, and they don't care about life or the young as verse 18 tells us. They will totally destroy Babylon, as glorious as it is, and leave it in perpetual ruins like what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah, as verse 19 tells us. And from that point on, this glorious city that tried to reach to heaven will be a ghost town.
Nobody will live there, verse 20, not even shepherds. Instead, wild and evil things will live there. Hyenas, ostriches, jackals, which are like coyotes. There's even the suggestion of supernatural evil. "Wild animals" in verse 21 could be translated "desert wraiths," just as "wild goats" further down probably refers to goat demons.
Just as Jesus described demons dwelling out in the wild, uninhabited places, so Babylon, with no people to live there, will be filled up by wild animals and wild spirits.
From oppressor of the nations to this. Great is the judgement of God.
Judah's Salvation
God's judgement isn't the end of this story, though. God judges Babylon in order to have mercy on His people. That's why chapter 14 is so much a close part of this single prophecy. Verse 1 says, “For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob” (Isaiah 14:1).
Babylon carried Israel into exile, and by destroying Babylon, His people will come back to live in their land. And in fact verse 2 describes God's people ruling over those who had ruled over them in a staggering reversal of fortune.
And that leads into this larger section, starting in verse 3, when a renewed Israel, freed from Babylon, taunts the king of Babylon for his great downfall. And basically everything else in chapter 14, much of what we've looked at already, comes from the mouth of God's people as they taunt the one who had caused them so much pain.
The first verses here, up to verse 8, describe the whole world rejoicing at how God has judged the one who oppressed them. Verse 9 and onwards poetically describes the king of Babylon dying and going down to Sheol, the grave, the place of the dead. Verse 9, which again is all a part of Judah and Israel's taunt, describes the kings of the nations, many of whom had probably been killed by the king of Babylon, rising up to meet him as he joins them.
Verse 10: “All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers” (Isaiah 14:10–11).
And then we get the material we've seen already about the day star falling, not just down to earth, but down to the grave, down into Sheol, where he is not just as low as everybody else, but is treated even worse than everybody else. Verse 16:
“Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot. You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people” (Isaiah 14:16–20).
This section ends with a final call to finish the work of judgement against Babylon by making sure that there are no survivors to rise up and resurrect the nation ever again. And God responds in verse 22 by affirming that He will do this, cutting off from Babylon "name and remnant, descendants and posterity." No survivors. No future. No hope.
Assyria's Destruction
Now, we're almost though this section. But if you've noticed, our passage today takes us for four more verses. You might wonder at that, because in some English Bibles, verse 24 seems to start a new section: an oracle against Assyria. Shouldn't this be next week's sermon?
Not quite. See, in the structure of the original passage, this material about Assyria in verses 24-27 is a part of this one section against Babylon. Assyria, you'll remember, as actually the big bad power in the world at this time. Babylon hadn't even risen yet.
And if God is going to deal with Babylon, how is that going to help Isaiah's readers, all of whom will be dead before Babylon is even a problem for them?
And the answer is found in a pattern that we're going to see a number of times in this series in Isaiah. After giving a prophecy about the more distant future, God shows Isaiah something about the more immediate future that is more close to their place in time.
It's like a grandparent telling their child, "I will give you $100 when you finish your school year, and here's the first $5 now." It's a downpayment, an encouragement to keep on trusting God as they wait for the full promise to be kept.
And this downpayment God promises here is to deal with the more immediate threat of the Assyrians. “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’” (Isaiah 14:24–25).
This is something that will happen within mere decades of Isaiah's life, something that some of his readers will live to see. Assyria will fall, and when that happens, they can be assured that so will Babylon fall one day.
And on that note, this whole prophecy ends with a powerful statement about God's unshakable purpose: “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 14:26–27).
Conclusion
So, what's here for you and I today? What should we take away from these ancient words?
I want to point to three truths we should take to heart from this passage.
1. God Is in Control
This picks up on the note we just ended on: God is absolutely in charge of the nations. He is powerful over Assyria, over Babylon. The movement of superpowers all happens within the scheme of His plan. Nothing takes him by surprise.
This is so comforting to the people of Israel who felt small and powerless before these juggernaut empires that were unstoppable. As far as earthly power went, Israel was like an ant staring up at the boot of Assyria and later Babylon.
But boots are no big deal to God. Did you catch that phrase in verse 23, where the Lord said He would sweep Babylon with the broom of destruction? God deals with Babylon with the same effort that you deal with some sawdust in your shop. He just grabs a broom and sweeps it up.
The Lord is so powerful and He's got the whole world in His hands. Didn't Israel need to be reminded of that? And don't we need to be reminded of that?
Canada has been through some turmoil lately. Some of us all freaked out by the threat of Trump, or the threat of China or Russia, or the threat of another four years of Liberal party governance that we were helpless to stop.
Don't we need to be reminded that none of this is new? God's people have been in a spot like this time and time again. Whether it's Assyria in Isaiah's day, or Rome in the time of the New Testament, or whoever is threatening God's people around the world today, none of this is new.
So we don't need to freak out. "Be anxious about nothing" is a command, and "nothing" includes geopolitics (Phil 4:5-6). We need to be reminded from Isaiah 13 and 14 that God is not powerless, that none of these great earthly powers are a big deal to him, that He's in charge, this world is running according to plan, and that He's going to deal with the arrogant wicked oppressors in His perfect time.
We know how this story ends. We know that Babylon falls. And so we can trust the Lord, and look forward to the day when Jesus shall reign, and stay busy with the mission He's given us to fulfill.
2. God Hates Sin
Second, this passage is very clear that God hates sin. This passage doesn't try to prove or justify that, it simply assumes and describes not only God's hatred of sin but His sure judgement of it.
This is something we don't consider near as often as we should. Fair warning: Isaiah is going to remind us of God's fierce anger against sin again and again and again. And we shouldn't apologize for that. This is God's word. It's in here again and again because we need this reminder again and again.
We need to be reminded of how much God hates the sin in this world, and how much God hates the sin in our hearts.
And this gets scary, because we're all Babel-builders. We're all full of the same pride of the king of Babylon. We'd bite the fruit and build the tower and stomp over everybody else if given the chance.
I wonder how many people who call themselves Christians and go to church have ever felt afraid of the judgement of God against their sin. Have ever felt the weight of divine anger and wondered, "How then can I be saved?"
Many people would call that unhealthy. Some would even tell us not to talk about sin and judgement because it doesn't make people feel good. Isaiah sure didn't get that memo. He calls us wake up from the stupor of comfort to the wide-awake realization that the day of the Lord is coming. God is marching out against the sin of humanity and that includes our sins.
3. Jesus Has Saved Us
And that brings us to the cross, doesn't it? The bloody, messy cross, where we see the good news of the gospel being displayed for our eyes to see.
Because the good news of the gospel isn't that God has had a change of heart in between Isaiah's day and ours and isn't bothered by our pride and arrogance anymore. The good news of the gospel isn't that God isn't angry at people's sin anymore.
The good news is that the judgement our sin deserved was taken out on Jesus. When Jesus hung on the cross, the sun went dark and the earth shook for real, just like we read about today. God's anger and justice was poured out on Himself in the person of Jesus who bore it all in our place, on a real day in a real place.
He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa 53:5-6).
And because of that, we get to know peace with God and enjoy the righteousness of Jesus, credited to our account as a gift. We live without fear, not because there's no Day of the Lord for our sin, but because the Day of the Lord happened already, sometime around 33 AD, when Jesus took it all in our place.
And as we look forward to His final victory over evil, we look around us at people who need to know that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. This is what our world needs, what our country needs. More than a conservative government, more than a healthy economy, more than the freedom to do what we want in this life. We need salvation from eternal judgement and peace with God and life that never ends.
So as we eat and drink this morning let's not just remember the gospel, not just the way that God's judgement fell on Christ in our place, but let's remember that this is our only hope and the only hope of the world. Let's remember the billions who still need to hear this before Jesus comes like He promised. Let's remember that this is not just a good thing, it's the main thing. It's everything.