This portion of Scripture is typical of what we will see in the series “Lessons from the Nations”. The prophetic imagery is heavy and the text relies on historic context and information. As we read this section which some consider the most difficult part of Isaiah, there are treasures here to be mined. There are spiritual truths here we would be foolish not to give attention to. It is a further reminder that every part of God’s Word is true and useful (2 Tim 3:16).
In Isaiah 1-12, we have been reading about the divided kingdom of Israel (with ten tribes) in the north and Judah (with two tribes) in the south and their respective fates. God’s people are under God’s reign but they have divided hearts, and struggle in a world that is tumultuous and turbulent to their faith. For their unfaithfulness to God and His covenant, Israel is conquered by the kingdom of Assyria the “big boy on the block” and eventually, an even greater power, Babylon will swallow up Judah and drag God’s people off into exile. Through this all, God will be faithful and preserve His people and the promise of a Savior King.
The big problem behind the divided kingdom is thus: what will preserve God’s people, and how will God’s promises for rescue and redemption going to be achieved? How will God preserve His kingdom?
These questions remain the same for us in our day. In a world no less tumultuous, how will God’s people, tasked with the stewardship of holding on to the promises of salvation, going to preserve the Gospel in our day?
(A) Signals: see the sovereignty of a just God (Isa 13:1-5)
In Isaiah 13:1, we are told that the prophet Isaiah sees a vision and gives an oracle about Babylon. Isaiah sees a bare hill and a signal like a banner or flag is raised, calling for an army to come forth to the battlefield. Isaiah 13:3 makes it is impossible to ignore the voice of the “I” acting in the foreground, working out His purposes. God is likely the one initiating and instigating these events. He is at work among the nations. He has a clear plan for what is unfolding in history.
The prophet hears the sound of people gathering for war (Isa 3:4-5). It is the sound of coming, looming crisis. It’s not just the nations gearing up for battle -- the LORD of hosts is mustering his armies (Isa 13:4).
This is the God who summons armies and musters troops for battle. Does this square with your picture of God? Is this the God that you know? Does He make you uncomfortable?
Contemporary world events seem to challenge the truth that God is sovereign and in control. It may even seem that God’s management of the universe is slipping. How can God allow such terrible things to happen, including the war we see right now in Ukraine? Then, as now, while Babylon is no nation of saints, and are actually Judah’s enemies, it is God who takes an active role in summoning troops against them. How can this be?
As Proverbs 21:1, tells us, the work of kings and kingdoms are in God’s hands. We just may not like where things are going. We do not have access to the moral calculus and ultimate purposes that explain the “whys” of God’s plans.
We should remember that God’s sovereignty is without question, even in the face of global crisis. To put it in another way, there are no events that God Himself is not behind! But no one says this is easy to accept, or that trusting a sovereign God is easy. It is thus important to remember not just the sovereignty of God, but His goodness and justice. In time we will come to see the justice of God, which guides and explains His sovereign will from the vantage point of eternity. While we struggle we must remember that because we don’t have the full view He does, we are not able to see full moral calculus for what He allows to pass.
(B) Seen: the invisible fingers of God over visible history (Isa 13:6-16)
What the prophet does see is enough for him to call his listeners to wail, for destruction is imminent in the coming day of the LORD (Isa 13:6,9). The day of the LORD is used often in Scripture, and we often understand it to be about judgment when the Lord arrives. But it is not just about that! It is the day when God reveals His arm of power and rights every wrong. The wicked will be punished and the righteous and faithful will be vindicated. Hopeful parents Hannah, Mary and Zechariah all invoke similar themes when they consider the destinies of the sons God gave them to do His work.
This is also not the first time that the Day of the Lord has been mentioned in Isaiah. In Isaiah 2:12 when we read of the Day of the Lord it means that God will bring down the pride of man. In Isaiah 13, it applies not only to Judah and Israel but also to pagan Babylon. What will be it feel like on that Day, what will be witnessed, and what is God’s purpose?
On that day, the orderliness of creation will be reversed by God’s judgment (Isa 13:10). In Genesis 1, we read of how brings order to the world from chaos. He filled the void and created all things. But what we see in Isaiah is how the Day of the Lord will be a day of de-creation and undoing and return to chaos and barrenness (c.f. Isa 13:21-22). Isaiah 13:15-16 also gives us a picture of great human violence, and shows the impact on civilians.
This is clearly a day of great tragedy. Now the Bible is not sanctioning human violence. Rather, it is describing the great tragedy that will befall the wicked for their sins. God will take away their order and return them to chaos. These phrases and pictures often recur throughout the Old Testaments, for example in the psalms. They help us understand what judgment is like as we consider the Day of the Lord.
This is what God says will happen, and it does. Babylon later falls to the rising empire of the Medes and Persians, as is reflected in the archaelological evidence available to us today. Go to the British Museum and examine the Cyrus Cylinder that details the conquest of Babylon in 539BC. God’s invisible fingers are evident in His work through history. We may not all be historians, but because we are embodied creatures dwelling in space and time, we are living out history whether we like it or not. And, if we believe that the eternal God spoke and acted in our world, we can see His character revealed in what He says historically in Scripture and what He does in history. As He reveals what He is going to do, He is also revealing Himself. Great are the works of the Lord, Psalm 111 tells us, studied by all who delight in them.
What is God doing here? The events of judgment on Babylon are a partial fulfilment of the Day of the Lord, as could be the other events of our day. When we realise that that the world is not about us and God is possibly at work to achieve His plan, we should turn from a self-centered view of life and history where we make personal self-actualisation our highest goals.
Friends, be assured that God’s purposes in history are still unfolding in our day and age. You are living in His story. While it may not be entirely clear to us now what our role is in history and how what is happening in Ukraine is part of His plan, we should rest assured that everything will ultimately serve God’s purposes of global missions and the advance of His gospel. The question for us is whether we are actively a part of His plan or not.
(C) Stirred: God’s “cooperative work” overthrowing Babylon (Isa 13:17-22)
Through Isaiah, God reveals that He is raising the Medes against the Babylonians (Isa 13:17), one superpower against another. The Medes cannot be bought off (Isa 13:17a) and will unleash great destruction (Isa 13:18).
Knowing other parts of the Old Testament will shed some light on this. In Daniel 6-12, God’s people are in exile in Babylon, God reveals that four great kingdoms will take centrestage over the next few hundred years — first, Babylon, then the Medo-Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. Through these years God will preserve His people even as the world is turned upside down! He promises that during the Roman empire, there will be a fifth kingdom that comes, an eternal kingdom will never be destroyed.
The Medes, like the other kingdoms, are not God’s people, but will be used by God. Esther the Persian Queen and Daniel the Babylonian and Persian civil servant are some of the characters that God will use to preserve His promises throughout the exile years of instability and threat while in exile.
God will make it so that the great Babylon will be utterly destroyed. Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms” with all its pomp and splendour will be razed (compared to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, c.f. Gen 19)(Isa 13:19). Babylon will be a desolate land with no inhabitants, unfit even for grazing because there’s no grass (Isa 13:20). Wild animals and scavengers, ceremonially unclean, will overrun their barren land (Isa 13:21). Their towers and pleasant palaces will house jackals and hyenas instead, animals known for picking at corpses (Isa 13:22). There will be no way for them to rebuild.
God is going to have His way. The defiance of man and all that we muster for our security and protection, God will personally oppose. Have we set up ourselves against Him? Can you say deep in your heart that you have peace with this God, and that right now, you belong to Him? Are you confident that all His thoughts are goodwill and favor, and that there is no ill-will between Him and you?
Passages like Isaiah 13 are sobering and remind us that there is no true security that the world really has. Hard work, moral performance, or even a good education, reputable social standing cannot truly make us secure. But What is your true hope and security? The recent testimony of Ukrainians singing “He will hold me fast” as Russian troops bear down on them is a startling reminder that only God can make us secure.
What is this God doing in human history? How does this passage speak to current affairs in Europe? In Acts 17:24-26, 29-31 Paul describes God’s work in human history. God made man in His image and scattered us across the earth. He placed each person where we are that we may know Him and seek Him. In His plan for history, every human being will give an account to the One whom He has raised from the dead. Jesus is the centre of all human history.
Is He at the centre of your life? Is He already all of your hope and joy, the only thing in your life that drives your day and your night? Figure out what a life centred on Jesus looks like in all of your life — marriage, family, work, church. On the final Day of the Lor, we will have to give an account to Him.
Isaiah 13 presents us with a sobering message about human history. As we read it, we are confronted with this fact -- God has prepared for all of us to stand before Jesus in judgment. We will give an account to Him for what we have done here on earth. What is God saying to you today? What is He doing in human history? And as we read passages like this, how does the sovereignty of a good but just God comfort or trouble us?