God Brings Down The Proud Series

The world has seen many cruel tyrants and dictators. Sometimes these powerful men live out their days to the fullest, enjoying all the glories of their position right to the end, then dying in comfort.

But many end in humiliation and defeat. The great Napoleon spent his last years in exile on a remote island. Adolf Hitler shot himself as his enemies closed in. Saddam Hussein was captured hiding in a ditch, and he was executed a couple years later. So goes the rise and fall of human power.

We all know this, like the people of Judah knew it: mankind is a frail species! The mightiest are but a breath, only a vapour—so we should never fear man. But we forget, like Judah forgot. While Isaiah ministered, Judah was small and threatened by surrounding powers. In the power games and politics of that time, Judah was feeling the pinch. So they were tempted to rely on outside help, to arrange backroom deals with the nations, like King Ahaz had done.

But Isaiah has a message for little Judah. It’s a message that runs from chapter 13, all the way to chapter 24. In this long section the prophet turns attention to the Gentile nations and he tells about their coming defeat. Judah was most worried about Assyria, of course, but there many others too. Some of these were potential allies for Judah, some were potential foes.

God brings messages against all of them in turn: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Cush, Egypt, Edom, Tyre. This is the whole range of players in the Middle East. It’s like God goes around the table at the United Nations and He gives warning words to each and every one: the United States, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Canada... No matter their power and position, each will meet their Maker. We’ll focus on just one oracle today; God’s word to Babylon and her proud king is a shining example of how God calls the nations to account for their pride and evil.

And when Judah has listened to God’s words in this chapter, and for several more chapters, the take-home message was clear. Why would you trust in the nations? Why do you fear mighty kings? Why would you be impressed by worldly power? They’re all coming to nothing, and salvation is only to be found in the Lord. This is our theme from Isaiah 14,

God promises to bring down all who oppose Him:

1) the pride of Babylon

2) the fall of Babylon

1) the pride of Babylon: Our text is part of a longer song, one that begins in verse 4 of this chapter. There it says that Judah “will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon” (14:4). It begins with these words, “How the oppressor has ceased!” You see the second stanza of the song starts in verse 12 with similar words, “How you are fallen from heaven!”

Isaiah uses an interesting word for his song in verse 4. The NKJV translates it as ‘proverb,’ but it really has the form of a funeral lament, mentioning all the things that have been lost. Yet it’s not expressing sorrow, but rather satisfaction or even delight in what’s happening to Babylon. So this song has been called a ‘taunt,’ like the nasty things we used to say to each other at school, gloating over another person’s downfall.

These are words against Babylon, yet Babylon would almost certainly never have heard this message. That’s the striking thing about our passage, together with all the coming oracles against the nations. These people were totally oblivious to the judgement God had planned for them—they wouldn’t know until the day it happened! So why prophesy? God meant these messages for Judah’s ears. They could listen and be assured that no matter what the godless nations and wicked kings do, their final end is assured, for God is the Lord of all.

We’re looking at the second stanza of this song, we said. Here God’s judgment reaches its climax against Babylon’s great king. It’s a dramatic scene, because the setting of the song shifts between earth and Sheol and heaven, back into Sheol, and then to earth again. For there is no place in all creation where God’s presence cannot reach. He is there and sovereign.

The song is clearly about one man, one king, and how God is going to bring him down. Some commentators have tried to figure out which king of Babylon is meant, whether it is the great Nebuchadnezzar or someone else. But Isaiah doesn’t give enough detail. It’s more about the principles of what’s happening. Like we’d say, ‘What’s the moral of this story?’ Maybe this: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). It’s a story of human pride and its collapse, of which Babylon is a prime example.