April 15, 2011

Isaiah 13
Babylon is first mentioned in the Bible in 2 Kings 17:24. Relatively speaking it is rather late in the history of the world and Israel. Babylon is the nation that eventually sacked Jerusalem and took Judah into captivity. But that event would come 80-100 years following Isaiah’s ministry. Babylon would become a huge issue after Josiah’s death. It is interesting that Babylon was used by the hand of the Lord to punish Assyria and yet this passage speaks of the fall of Babylon at the hand of the Medes. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel have volumes to speak of Babylon because they lived in the times when Babylon was the dominate world power. After the sack of Babylon by the Medes, we really don’t hear too much about it until the book of Revelation. At the time that John wrote the Revelation, Babylon was in the ruins of which Isaiah speaks in this chapter. However, Babylon appears in Revelation as it represents the world financial system. It is an idolatrous system which pursues wealth over God. It is the world financial and religious system by which men seek to support themselves, so that they do not have to seek God.
In this passage literal Babylon’s destruction is prophesied at least 80 years before it even becomes a threat to Judah. It is both a near prophecy (given at least 140 years before the beginning of its literal fulfillment) and a far prophecy given concerning the end of the world. At the height of Babylon’s power it probably seemed impossible that the city would ever fall. Listen to the KJV Bible Commentary’s description of Babylon:
The splendor of ancient Babylon was indeed spectacular, covering over 1000 acres surrounded by a double-walled system of defense that encircled the city. These walls were over 85 feet thick and 11 miles long, with the outer walls being approximately 25 feet wide and reinforced with towers every 65 feet. There were eight major city gates named after various Babylonian deities (e.g., Ishtar). The city was dominated by a seven-story ziggurat, 288 feet high, known as the Tower of Babylon. It was constructed from nearly 60 million fired bricks. On the top of it stood the temple of Marduk. The Greek historian Herodotus claimed that it contained a solid gold statue of Marduk weighing 52,000 pounds!
Can you imagine what must Jeremiah, Ezekiel or Daniel’s contemporaries must have thought of this prophecy? “It’s crazy! Babylon could never fall. Its wealth and power are too vast and great.” Yet this mighty city fell overnight to the Medes, just as Isaiah predicted. Eventually it fell into obscurity and became exactly what Isaiah predicted, “The hyenas will howl in their citadels, and jackals in their pleasant palaces.” Today it is a mass of broken down bricks. Saddam Hussein sought to restore the palace of Nebuchadnezzar as a tourist attraction. However, the gulf war brought an end to his endeavors.
Yet we cannot leave this passage just looking at the near fulfillment of Isaiah. The prophecy also looks to the far fulfillment of the final day of the Lord. This is of what John’s Revelation also speaks. One day this mighty world system of finance and economy, which seduces the people of the world to pursue it rather than the Lord, will collapse. Right now it seems impossible. Oh we all admit that there will be depressions and blips on the road, but few of us really believe that one day it will completely collapse upon itself. It is for this reason that Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor. . . Do not worry about your life. . . Seek first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Our first priority is Him. Isaiah tells us that one day it is all coming crashing down. “I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.”
That is the glory of our Lord. He will permit nothing but allegiance to Himself. He deserves nothing but allegiance to Himself. He graciously grants us opportunity to seek Him. But one day a day of reckoning is coming. He Himself will be exalted in that day. Should we not give all that we are for Him right now? Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john