Take your Bibles and open them to Isaiah Chapter 13 as we continue our journey through the Old Testament prophecies regarding the “Day of the Lord”. In his first 12 chapters, Isaiah deals primarily with God’s judgment against Israel and Judah for their unfaithfulness to Him. But now in Chapter 13, he begins a new section that ends in Chapter 23 in which he prophesies against the surrounding nations. He introduces this particular prophecy with these words:
The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
Isaiah 13:1 (ESV)
The word translated “oracle” here is the Hebrew word “massa” which literally means a “burden”, or a “load”. And this and the oracles that follow certainly are a burden in the sense that they describe some serious acts of God’s judgment that are going to be carried out against these surrounding nations.
It is not surprising that God begins this series of prophecies with Babylon. After all Babylon – current day Iraq – was the original seat of civilization. It was also the birthplace of all false religion as we see clearly in the account of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. So it is fitting that Babylon would be first in the list of nations that God is going to judge.
At the time of Isaiah’s prophecy, as we saw last week, Assyria was still the great world power in the Middle East. Babylon was an upcoming power, but it is well over 100 years before any of the things that Isaiah prophesies even begin to occur.
As we examine this passage, I’m going to jump around a bit in the chapter in order to help us develop our understanding of what Isaiah is writing about.
GOD’S INSTRUMENT OF JUDGMENT – HIS “CONSECRATED ONES” (vv. 2-3, 17)
On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.
I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,
my proudly exulting ones.
Isaiah 13:2, 3 (ESV)
As Isaiah begins the oracle, he leaves no doubt that it is God, in His complete sovereignty, who is going to carry out the judgment that he will describe in the following verses. Note especially that as God speaks in verse 3, that it is He who has commanded His consecrated ones; He is the one who has summoned His mighty men to execute His anger. Everything that Isaiah is about to describe is God’s idea and it is His work.
We’ll come back to the description of the judgment itself in just a moment, but I can’t help but think that as Isaiah begins to describe the judgment that is going to come against the Babylonians that the people of Judah have got to be thinking that they are the people that God is describing in verse 3. After all, they are God’s “chosen people” aren’t they? So certainly they are the consecrated ones that God is going to use to punish Babylon. They are the ones who have been “set apart” by God to be used by Him in this process.
But when Isaiah finishes describing the judgment itself and finally identifies the “consecrated ones” in verse 17, Isaiah’s audience is in for a big surprise.
Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
Isaiah 13:17 (ESV)
It is not Judah that God is going to use after all – it is the Medes. At this point in time they are even less of a world power than Babylon. But God, in His complete wisdom and sovereignty will make the Medes his “consecrated ones” and use them to carry out His judgment.
This week I’m going to take a little different approach to the applications that we’ll identify from our study. Instead of looking at all of them at one time at the end of the message, I’m going to incorporate them throughout the message. And there is no doubt that we can identify the first of those principles here:
• Application #1 – If we are not faithful in serving God, He will consecrate someone else to carry out His will.
I think one of the reasons that Isaiah begins his book by describing the judgment that is going to come against Israel and Judah is that God wants to remind them just how unfaithful that they have been to Him. And to add insult to injury, since they have not been faithful in serving Him, God is going to consecrate someone else – in this case the Medes – to carry out His will.
This just confirms what we discovered last week. When God preserves a remnant, He does that for the purpose of calling them to the task of perpetuating His kingdom. Although being chosen by God certainly has its privileges and benefits, it also carries with it a great deal of responsibility. And if we’re not faithful to carry out the task that God gives to us, He’ll raise up someone else to do that because His purposes will be carried out, as Job certainly discovered:
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
Job 42:2 (ESV)
I know that there are times in my own life when for some reason I chose not to heed God’s call to be part of carrying out His will here on earth. But God wasn’t hindered a bit – he just found someone else who was more obedient. But it was my own walk with God that was damaged in the process. So I’m trying as hard as I can not to miss out on those opportunities that God give me to participate with Him in carrying out His purposes, plans and ways.
THE “DAY OF THE LORD” JUDGMENT (VV. 4-16, 18-22)
Isaiah begins the description of the “Day of the Lord” judgment in verse 4:
4 The sound of a tumult is on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
a host for battle.
5 They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole land.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt.
8 They will be dismayed:
pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.
9 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.
10 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.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 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.
14 And like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
each will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives ravished.
Then, after identifying the Medes as His instrument of judgment in verse 17, Isaiah concludes the description of the judgment itself.
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.
As usual, we can’t examine every verse in detail, but let’s go ahead and make some observations about some of the most significant aspects of the “Day of the Lord”.
• Both near-term and far-term fulfillment (“prophetic tense”)
We’ve seen this consistently as we’ve looked at the “Day of the Lord” prophecies in Joel, Amos and Obadiah as well as earlier in Isaiah. This concept is sometimes referred to as the “prophetic tense”.
o Near-term fulfillment – Babylon conquered by Cyrus in 539 BC
This near-term fulfillment is further confirmed by Isaiah in chapter 45, where Cyrus is even identified by name. This same event is also recorded for us in Daniel 5, where we read the account of how Darius the Mede enters into Babylon while Belshazzar and the other government officials were engaging in a drunken party, and slays Belshazzar and takes control of Babylon. It is likely that Darius was a military leader who was installed by Cyrus, the king of the Media-Persian Empire as the governor of Babylon.
But we know that Isaiah’s prophecy was not completely fulfilled at that time. The Medes and Persians had snuck into Babylon by diverting the water from the Euphrates River and crawling under the gates and there was not even a great battle, alone the kind of complete devastation and destruction described in this passage. It wasn’t until the third century BC that Babylon even began to decay significantly. By the time of the Muslim conquest in the seventh century AD, the city was completely unpopulated. But under a program started by Saddam Hussein, “The “Future of Babylon Project” is preparing for the building of a modern city of Babylon. The United States is even help fund that project to the tune of $700 million.
Therefore, it is obvious that there is also to be a…
o Far-term fulfillment at the return of Jesus
In what is known as the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus makes several obvious references to Isaiah 13.
All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
Matthew 24:8 (ESV)
They will be dismayed:
pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
Isaiah 13:8 (ESV)
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And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!
Matthew 24:19 (ESV)
…they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb…
Isaiah 13:18 (ESV)
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And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
Matthew 24:22 (ESV)
I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir
Isaiah 13:12 (ESV)
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Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Matthew 24:39 (ESV)
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 (ESV)
We have already seen very similar language in Joel’s description of the “Day of the Lord” and all of these passages are consistent with the events described in Revelation 6 after the opening of the sixth seal:
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.
Revelation 6:12, 13 (ESV)
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There are several other parallels between this passage in Isaiah and the Book of Revelation as well and we won’t have time to look at them all. I certainly encourage you to spend some time doing that on your own this week. But there is one more connection I’d like to point out.
Verses 20-22 seem quite strange to us – especially the description of all the wild animals – many of which we know are not native to the region. The specific animals listed here are actually quite difficult to identify based on the Hebrew words used and there is some evidence that supports the idea that Isaiah was using the picture of wild animals to describe evil spirits of some kind. In fact there are reports that the nomadic Arabs in the region will not stay in the area overnight because they believe the area is haunted by evil spirits which come out after dark.
This passage in Revelation 18 certainly corresponds closely to these verses in Isaiah and it certainly would support the idea that the wild animals described by Isaiah were references to evil spirits:
After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
Revelation 18:1, 2 (ESV)
So it is clear that much of what Isaiah writes in this chapter is still to be fulfilled. And there is no doubt that the judgment God is going to bring will be terrible. Although, as we have consistently seen, God’s children are going to experience a time of tribulation for the purpose of identifying them as the true righteous in Jesus, it is also clear that there is far more severe tribulation and judgment that awaits those who have not chosen to commit their lives to Jesus. So it’s important for us to understand what it is that displeases God so much that it causes Him to pour out His wrath:
• The reasons for God’s wrath:
o Worldliness (v. 11)
In verse 11, you will notice that God says he will punish the “world”. This is a reference to the world system which is symbolized by Babylon in the Book of Revelation. It is used in the very same sense that John uses the word “world” in this familiar passage:
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. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)
In other words, one of the reasons that God is going to pour out His wrath during the “Day of the Lord” will be to destroy all the things in this world that distract us from our worship of God.
We would expect that unbelievers would be subject to worldliness, but remember that John is writing to Christ-followers and warning them not to be like the rest of the world and follow after the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions.
That leads us to our second application:
Application #2 – Don’t let the things of the world keep us from serving God
This actually builds on our first application. We’ve seen that if we are not faithful in serving God, He will set aside someone else to carry out His will. And what it is that usually keeps us from being faithful in serving God? We get distracted by all the things of this world.
The main problem is that we have a tendency to take those things that have been given to us for God’s purposes and then to twist them in order to satisfy our own fleshly desires.
The Babylonians are a perfect example of that. We know that God has placed the celestial bodies in the sky as a testimony of His glory and also as a means of expressing the gospel message to all peoples in this world. But the Babylonians took and twisted that into a system of astrology which was used as a means of determining the will and intention of the gods. So it’s quite fitting that one of the things that God is going to do as part of the “Day of the Lord” judgment will be to completely disrupt the normal cycles of the celestial objects that were used in that system.
Unfortunately, we have a tendency to do exactly what the Babylonians did, just in different ways. We’ve taken the desires that God has given to us and we’ve allowed the world around us to pervert our ideas about how we are to satisfy those desires.
The desires for security and acceptance come from God, just like our desires to eat and drink and our sexual desires. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with the desires themselves. But we’ve allowed the world rather than the Word of God to determine how we choose to satisfy those desires.
So instead of finding our acceptance and security in God, we turn to other people, or to our jobs, or to the government or to our possessions.
Instead of satisfying our desires to eat and drink in moderation, we become gluttons and drunkards.
Instead of satisfying our sexual desires within the marriage relationship as God has provided, we have turned to pornography and all kinds of sexual encounters which take place outside of the marriage of one man and one woman.
And the end result of all of that is that we either get distracted from serving God, or we so ruin our witness for Him that we are no longer capable of serving Him effectively.
o Pride and arrogance (vv. 11, 14)
This has been a consistent theme throughout our study of the prophets. And Isaiah certainly uses some harsh language to describe the pompous pride and the arrogance of Babylon. And then in verse 13, we get some insight into the degree of that sin. Even after the people witness firsthand the wrath of God, rather than turning to God, each person turns to “his own people” and flees to “his own land”. No wonder Isaiah describes them as being like sheep without a shepherd. They are so self-absorbed and so arrogant that even in the midst of God’s judgment they just go back to the same people and the same land. I’m reminded of this Proverb:
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12 (ESV)
Their old ways may seem right, but the end result is death. This leads us to our third and final application this morning.
Application #3 – We can live humbly in reverent awe now, or in utter anguish at the return of Jesus
Another way to put this same principle would be to say that everyone is going to fear God, but we get to choose what kind of fear it will be.
For those who humbly submit their lives to God right now, they can experience the kind of fear that is commanded all throughout the Bible – a reverent awe for God. It is the kind of fear that causes us to acknowledge that we are incapable of dealing with our sin on our own and that we are incapable of directing our own lives in a way that would make them pleasing to God. So out of that reverent awe, we yield the control of our lives to Jesus and rely upon Him to pay the penalty for our sin.
Or we can be so proud and arrogant to say that we don’t need God at all – we can take care of our own lives just fine. But there will come a day when we will have to stand before God and give an account of our lives and come face to face with the wrath of God. And we will experience a whole different kind of fear, as the writer of Hebrews explains:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:31 (ESV)
Isaiah describes in part what that fear will be like. Hands will be feeble. Hearts will melt. People will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them and they will be in anguish.
God, in His absolute sovereignty, will carry out His purposes plans and ways and accomplish His will, with or without us. But I think we’d all agree that it is much better to be one of His consecrated ones that carry out His will than being the object of His wrath. So let’s live humbly in reverent awe of God and not let the things of this world keep us from serving Him.
