(This is going to be a short study – I couldn’t combine it sensibly with other chapters.)
Isaiah 46
Having predicted the destruction of Babylon under Cyrus the Great, The Lord now reflects on the Godlessness that brought about its downfall.
1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden.
The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary.
2 They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity.
When destruction comes to Babylon, its heathen gods and their images will have no power to protect themselves, let alone the people. Like dead weights they will be loaded onto carts and dragged away by dumb animals, ‘beasts of burden’.
3 ‘Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob, all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth, and have carried since you were born.
4 Even to your old age and grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
God says: just stop to think for a moment. I am your creator. From the moment you were conceived until now I have been watching over you. It is I that have sustained you and carried you, and I’m not going to stop now.
5 ‘With whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?
6 Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it.
7 They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move.
Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer; it cannot save them from their troubles.
Again, Isaiah tries to get the people understand how ridiculous it is to make something and then imagine it will have any power to do anything for you at all.
8 ‘Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels.
9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
Read your history books, remember what I have done.
How many God Almighties can there be?
10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”
11 From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfil my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.
Simply because I am God, I can tell you what I have planned to do, and believe me, it will happen.
12 Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are now far from my righteousness.
13 I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed.
I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendour to Israel.
Again, while looking forward to the coming of Cyrus, is God also looking further forward to his ‘New Jerusalem’? When Jesus will bring Salvation, and reign in Righteousness?
Isaiah 47
1 ‘Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians.
No more will you be called tender or delicate.
The city of Babylon was considered to be the most beautiful city in the ancient world. Its main entrance, Ishtar Gate was decorated with Brilliant cobalt blue glazed bricks, and the road was paved with smooth limestone blocks.
The Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, had breathtaking terraced gardens of lush greenery and cascading plants.
All that was to be destroyed and left to become a wilderness for ever.
Isaiah 13:19-20
19 Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks.
(The ruins are now a world heritage site. Saddam Husein defied God and built a palace there. It has since been looted and abandoned. Still no-one lives there.)
2 Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil.
Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams.
3 Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered.
I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.’
4 Our Redeemer – the Lord Almighty is his name – is the Holy One of Israel.
Men and women will pride themselves on the amazing delicate beauties they can construct. No says God, I will take off the veneer you have created for yourselves and reveal the reality of life of those who have rejected the Redeemer.
5 ‘Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians;
no more will you be called queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance;
I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.
7 You said, “I am for ever – the eternal queen!”
But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.
God had to punish the ten tribes of Israel and allowed them to be taken into exile.
But such was the wickedness and pride of Babylon it never considered the same fate could possibly befall it. How arrogant.
The people of Babylon basked in their security. They lived in the most modern powerful nation that was feared by the rest of the world. Nothing could shake their most pleasant existence.
8 ‘Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security
and saying to yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.”
9 Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.
10 You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me.”
11 Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.
Again, they are reminded that sorceries and potent spells, while having some effect on superstitious humans, will prove to be ineffective when faced with the armies of the Medes and Persians that God will unleash on them. No conjuring tricks or bribes will stop the onslaught. Trusting in wickedness will only lead to one thing.
12 ‘Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have laboured at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.
14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by.
15 That is all they are to you – these you have dealt with and laboured with since childhood. All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.
People shy away from the thought that the Devil could actually be at work in the world. Unfortunately he is. Once you turn from the true God, you will get enticed into other ‘spiritual’ things and you might experience events and predictions designed to entrap you. This is serious stuff and there is a serious warning here: All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.
Hebrews 10:26-27: If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
(This may raise the question ‘Can I loose my salvation?’. The study at John15e may help)
