The Prophet Isaiah 21:1-10 [NLTse]

This message came to me concerning Babylon—the desert by the sea: Disaster is roaring down on you from the desert, like a whirlwind sweeping in from the Negev. ² I see a terrifying vision: I see the betrayer betraying, the destroyer destroying. Go ahead, you Elamites and Medes, attack and lay siege. I will make an end to all the groaning Babylon caused.

³ My stomach aches and burns with pain. Sharp pangs of anguish are upon me, like those of a woman in labor. I grow faint when I hear what God is planning; I am too afraid to look. ⁴ My mind reels and my heart races. I longed for evening to come, but now I am terrified of the dark.

⁵ Look! They are preparing a great feast. They are spreading rugs for people to sit on. Everyone is eating and drinking. But quick! Grab your shields and prepare for battle. You are being attacked!

⁶ Meanwhile, the Lord said to me, “Put a watchman on the city wall. Let him shout out what he sees. ⁷ He should look for chariots drawn by pairs of horses, and for riders on donkeys and camels. Let the watchman be fully alert.”

⁸ Then the watchman called out, “Day after day I have stood on the watchtower, my lord. Night after night I have remained at my post. ⁹ Now at last—look! Here comes a man in a chariot with a pair of horses!” Then the watchman said, “Babylon is fallen, fallen! All the idols of Babylon lie broken on the ground!”

¹⁰ O my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you everything the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said, everything the God of Israel has told me.

For my devotions each week I read and study a Psalm, a section from one of the New Testament Letters or Revelation, a section from the Prophets, a section from one of the Gospels, a section from the Old Testament’s Law or History, and a chapter from the Book of Proverbs: One reading to study in-depth each day except Sunday. My reading from the Prophets this past week was this reading from the Prophet Isaiah 21.

As biblical prophecy can, this particular Word-of-the-Lord seems to address several different Babylon-related historical events. First, I believe – through Isaiah – that the Lord is speaking of an event that would occur during Isaiah’s own lifetime because, as Babylon was rising in power and seeking to challenge superpower Assyria’s dominance over the Middle East, first in 710 B.C. and then again in 689 B.C., seeing Babylon’s rising threat, the Assyrian army soundly and savagely crushed the armies of Babylon. Judah, along with Edom and the peoples of Arabia, had been seeking an alliance with Babylon against Assyria during those years. So when Assyria devastated Babylon, Assyria punished Judah, Edom, and the Arab kings, as well. (And you can see God’s revelation concerning these things in the Words about Edom and Arabia that follow our morning’s passage across the rest of Chapter 21.)

But I believe this prophecy also speaks of events that would happen 150-200 years after Isaiah’s death, after Babylon had supplanted Assyria as the invincible power of the region. History tells us that in 538 B.C., during a great feast that the last Babylonian king had thrown for his nobles, that invaders from the combined empires of the Medes and Persians secretly entered Babylon’s capitol and took control of the government without any organized opposition from the Babylonian military whatsoever. One day it was the Babylonian Empire; the next day it was the Medo-Persian Empire.

So in 710 and again in 689 B.C. “Babylon had fallen – had fallen!” And in 538 B.C., with tables set, rugs spread, with all her officers eating and drinking, “Babylon had fallen – had fallen!” And, of course, as you may know, “Babylon” is the symbolic name The Revelation to John gives the kingdom of this world led by Satan and his king, AntiChrist, and led in worship by the False Prophet. And we know that when our Lord Jesus returns to defeat these powers that have stood against Him that, then too, “Babylon will fall – Babylon has fallen!”

I speak of these things because the media has used phrases this week describing the storm and its devastation as being “of biblical proportions” and the Psalms and the Prophets are filled with poetry and pictures of the Lord’s absolute dominance over storm, flood, famine, the cosmos, even death itself.

I was speaking with Anita Gutschick this week, the actress who will be with us this-coming Saturday presenting Women of the Bible. Describing what she saw around her waterfront community in Maryland and on the TV from storm-ravaged New Jersey and New York, she said: “We’ve only seen a touch of God’s great power. He Who opened the floodgates of Heaven and released the waters under the Earth to flood the entire planet in Noah’s day has only demonstrated the slightest hint of His glory in Hurricane Sandy.”

And in our reading Isaiah had been praying against the Babylonians. First, that Judah would not put its hope in alliances with other nations, like Babylon, but put its hope in the Lord. And then, also, once Babylon began its dominance and its cruelty and Judah began to be crushed under its rule, Isaiah prayed for Judah’s deliverance from Babylon’s dominion…

And yet we hear Isaiah’s words of shock and compassion and mourning in response to the vision he’s been given concerning Babylon judgment by God. In verse 3 Isaiah cries: “My stomach aches and burns with pain. Sharp pangs of anguish are upon me, like those of a woman in labor. I grow faint when I hear what God is planning; I am too afraid to look. My mind reels and my heart races. I longed for evening to come, but now I am terrified of the dark.” Isaiah had prayed, longed for “evening” – for an end to Babylon’s day – but as he’s given this Word concerning the Lord’s judgment on Babylon he’s terrified of what he’s seen… Yes, they are Judah’s enemies but, O, Lord, it is so terrible…

And, I can’t speak for you but, it’s been terrible for me to see in the news of what so many have been going through because of this storm, these floods, these “acts of God”. Even as I’ve been praying that the Lord would use such horrors to draw people who’ve ignored Him to search for Him, even as I’ve been praying that He would use such horrors to punish the wicked and bring them to a real change of heart… I haven’t been praying against the New Yorkers or Jersey Shore folks as Isaiah had been praying against Babylon, but I, too, pray that all people will know the Lord, no matter the cost! And I, too, long for the day when Satan’s and Anti-Christ’s and the False Prophet’s persecution-of-Christ’s-Church, and their work-against-the-spread-of-the-gospel-and-Jesus’-Kingdom-across-the-face-of-the-Earth to end. I feel I can have some level of integrity in joining with Isaiah to say that “I longed for evening to come, but now I am terrified of the dark.” I know the Lord is righteous and loving and does everything well, and I want Jesus to return and for His Kingdom to come among us in all its fullness, but I hurt for what I see so many are going through…

I was considering these things the other night as I was drifting off to sleep. I was imagining myself on the Jersey Shore, standing on a deck or a rooftop as the sea level was rising to those 14’ surges before me. And I pictured a wall of water (like those 20’ waves that were reported) rising up over top of me. And it came crashing down on me and broke me like a rag doll against the railing and walls that were behind me. And in my dream (or this imagining) I was floating, dead, under the water around this neighborhood…

And then my next awareness was of being in Heaven. And it was glorious! And it was beautiful! And it was so much more than everything we’ve read or been told or that I’d ever imagined…

And I realized, or was given to realize, and remembered – in the face of my pity and heartache – that death’s not so bad when you belong to the Lord. For all those who’ve died in these horrors that-had-given-themselves-to-Jesus, they’re home now! They’re where we want to be! The dying of the lost and the stubborn and the proud, of those who’d rejected Him, that’s another thing, of course…

So it seems to me that it shouldn’t be that people are dying, have died, or will die that hurts me so much. After all, ultimately, that’s how we get home! So what is it that’s making me so sad, I thought? Well, maybe it’s the suffering I see people going through: The fear; the worry; the pain; the cold; the grieving; the broken dreams that I see across the faces on the news reports.

But even there I remember that the Bible tells us that Christians “can rejoice, too, when we [suffer] running into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance [in this life]. And endurance [in suffering] develops strength of character [in us], and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation [that Jesus will indeed rescue us!] And this hope [is not empty and] will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” (Romans 5:3-5)

So, I want to help, and I want to ease peoples’ burdens and sufferings to help them see and know Christ in me. But I also want to trust God more in the midst of these horrors.

I remember that Jesus – with His disciples – was sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a life-threatening storm rose upon them. And Jesus spoke to those waves and to that storm, “Peace! Be still!” And all became calm. So I know that if storms around us rage and do not calm, but take life and cause trials and horrors and troubles, I know that God Almighty is there and choosing not to calm these things. And if He’s not calming the storm around us we can surely count on Him to calm the storm in us – the panic and worry and desire to control and the fear… He’ll calm the storm in me if I look – not to Babylon or the power company to save me but – to Him to save me. He’ll calm the storm in me if I believe the promises and truth of His Word and trust in Him, and focus not on saving myself but on showing His compassion and sorrow on those suffering around me – trusting that He has and will save me, setting me free to serve-and-love those who are a part of His flock as well as those sheep without a shepherd around me…

We are free to do live in this kind of liberty – the kind of liberty that no nation can give and no government can take away – when we trust and know how dearly God loves us, because He’s given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

Prayer

Lord over the winds and waves… We are like flowers: Glorious today, faded and gone tomorrow; but You remain forever… Yet You have made us to reflect Your glory forever by making people righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ…

Give us Your Holy Spirit… Fill our hearts with Your love… Don’t let our warm-and-fuzzy sympathies water-down Your love for the world…  Give us grace so that peoples’ sufferings won’t be for nothing but – by working with You and sensitive the plans and purposes of Your Spirit – that we might be useful in helping the struggling, the suffering, the lost, and the distraught – those who think they’ve lost everything – come to know You and receive Your love, comfort, mercy, and grace, and to know that with You they’ve received everything they will ever truly need…