Adult Class
December 2006-May 2007
Isaiah
Lesson 11: Judgment on Babylon does not relieve Jerusalem or Tyre
Isaiah has revealed from God that the enemies all around Judah will suffer judgment at God’s hand. Even Babylon, although at this time just a small and distressed part of the Assyrian Empire, would be punished by God for its coming faults. So, the destruction of Babylon is announced as a certainty. However, that certainty holds no advantage for Jerusalem or Tyre. Both of them will suffer their own judgment. Jerusalem will be lost to the Babylonians after suffering under Assyria; Tyre will be devastated by the Babylonian invaders. God has His purposes and they will be completed.
Concerning Babylon—Isaiah 21
In an ironic reversal, God calls Babylon “the desert by the sea.” Babylon thought itself the oasis of the world! Suddenly, Babylon will be attacked by two nations thought to be its allies—Elam (Persia) and Media. The treachery will be complete and again, Isaiah is staggered by the vision he sees. God gives him a picture of Babylon feasting and drinking without any thought of defense. And, in fact, Cyrus the Persian invaded the city under cover of darkness while the whole city engaged in a drunken feast on their New Year’s Day. He marched in on the drained bed of the Euphrates River, took the city and killed the regent, Belshazzar, just as related in Daniel 5.
God gives Isaiah a sense of anticipation as he waits for confirmation of the vision. In the oracle, he finally sees the watchman declare a report that Babylon has fallen and all its gods lie shattered. This was significant in the ancient world because it was thought that warfare happened on two levels, a physical one and a spiritual one. What happened on the battlefield was a reflection of the progress of the war in the spiritual realm. So, when one side was victorious, it was only reasonable to take captive the “gods” of the conquered nation and set them up as trophies in the temple of the victorious “god.” Here, the Living God uses language the whole world would understand to note that Babylon is completely overthrown.
At the end of this section, two lesser oracles are given. One is against Edom, mockingly called “Dumah.” This is merely the syllables of the name reversed: a dum becomes dum a. When will this terrible night be over and the day finally dawn? Well, it will happen, but another night is coming! The other oracle is against Arabia, whose inhabitants will try to hide from the invader. Two important Arabian cities were Dedan and Tema, about 100 miles apart. Kedar was a descendant of Ishmael and that area of people was finally destroyed by the Babylonians.
These people thought they were so powerful, but God demonstrated that they were as nothing in His hands. The plans we make may seem wonderfully precise and carefully calculated, but everything ultimately depends upon the purposes of God. We should never leave Him out of our thinking.
Concerning Jerusalem—Isaiah 22
God opens this oracle with another mocking title: Valley of Vision. You actually can’t see very far from within a valley and, although Jerusalem was in the highlands, its seers didn’t really see very far after all. Isaiah sees a vision of the city as it falls to the siege by Babylon. The city was starved out until the invaders broke through the wall. Then the king and his nobles tried to flee by night, but they were easily captured and returned to face the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar. Isaiah is grief-stricken over the destruction he sees as the city is totally destroyed.
Then he snaps back to the present—the imminent threat is Assyria, whose army includes the Persians and Medes who will ultimately revolt against Babylon. That is no consolation now, though, and the army of Assyria is huge. God is furious with the Israelites. In the face of so great a threat, He expected repentance and fasting, pleading for protection and assistance. Instead, the people looked to their own strength and plotted their own strategy. Then they feasted as if there was no care. For their arrogance and unconcern, God will hold them surely accountable; there will be no atonement for this.
Two people are singled out for special mention—both of them active in the career of Isaiah. Shebna is disdained by God for his pride and ambition. He built an elaborate tomb for himself, planning a long and prosperous career and a peaceful and distinguished end. Like Absalom, who also built himself an imposing tomb, he will never use that tomb but will instead be treated like waste paper, crumpled into a ball and thrown away. Eliakim will be the hope of his whole family. He will be firmly fixed, providing a stable base for his extended family. Everybody will be hanging on him until the day that God removes him suddenly and the whole enterprise crashes to the ground.
These two are mentioned in 2 Kings 18 in connection with the invasion by the Assyrians. The vision points out some important spiritual points. The problem with Shebna is the same as the problem with Jerusalem and with Babylon, Edom and Arabia. We can never become complacent, presuming that we know just how our lives will be and how everything will work out. In one of the most startling ironies of modern time, the architect of the Titanic declared, “God Himself couldn’t sink this ship,” just days before it went down, ending his life.
Concerning Tyre—Isaiah 23
Tyre was actually two cities; a rich harbor on the shore and a fortified island about a half mile offshore. The Phoenicians believed that this advantage guaranteed their safety. If the harbor city came under attack, they could retreat to the island until they could retake their city. Meanwhile, resupply by sea meant that no real shortage could threaten them.
From this base, Tyre got terrifically rich on Mediterranean trade. Ships from the far end of the sea came to trade and report news there. However, the Babylonians came against Tyre and destroyed the harbor. The whole civilized world was stunned at this and many of the Phoenicians fled to other countries, like Crete, Sicily and Libya. God promises that their judgment will last 70 years before they rebuild their city. In fact, the newly rebuilt city never gained the prominence of the older city, and when Alexander the Great took it easily, he used the debris to build a causeway out to the fortified island, which he then reduced. Today, Tyre is a curiosity only.
All of these nations were infected with the same diseased thinking. They all thought they were secure and had no need of God. They learned the hard way that they were as secure as soap bubbles without God’s intervention. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18 NIV).