Isaiah 13–14

All right, Isaiah, chapter 13. These prophecies, as I said or excuse me, these chapters, chapter 13 and most of 14 are going to speak to both physical and spiritual Babylon. But let me just say that beginning here in chapter 13 and actually stretching all the way to chapter 23, which obviously we won't get to tonight, but those 11 chapters of Isaiah are going to speak to various nations and in some cases, cities. And the Lord is going to give a prophecy to these Gentile nations that surrounded Israel and He's going to give prophecies to Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Egypt, Edom, Arabia and Tyre. And these prophecies were most likely not given to those nations and cities, they were given about those nations and cities to the people of Israel. And I believe that the Lord did that for the purpose of communicating to His covenant nation that He is a God of justice. That He is going to bring judgment and justice to those pagan nations and that they were to know that, you know, God was not just letting these nations get off the hook, if you will. And so the intent was rather to reassure God's people that this in fact would happen. Now, once again, before we delve into these verses, I want to make you aware of the fact that throughout these chapters, we're going to note the principle or sometimes we call it the Law of Double Reference when it shows up, and it shows up here again. Remember what that is. The Principle or the Law of Double Reference is a reminder to us that some prophecies in the Bible have a combined prophetic fulfillment. In other words, there is usually a short-term fulfillment of that prophecy that happens in the near future to when the prophet gave the message, but that prophecy also has a double-edge in the sense that there is a long-term and often a more comprehensive fulfillment in the distant, far distant future. And it's a combining of prophecies using one utterance to speak about, you know, two separate events, in some cases even two separate people and which are often separated by a great deal of time. So, as we get into these prophecies, first of all, here in 13 and most of 14, I want to remind you that Babylon was one of the major power players in the region at the time this was given, but it was not the superpower. Assyria was the superpower when this Word was given, Babylon was the up and coming superpower which would eventually conquer Assyria. But this word is given to Babylon before they become the superpower concerning how they're going to conquer nations and how God is going to judge them for their wickedness, their brutality, their cruelty and so forth. And what we're going to see in these verses is that Law of Double Reference where God is going to speak about another judgment as well. Couched in these prophecies toward physical Babylon, God is going to speak also to us about spiritual Babylon and He's going to talk about the fact that not only is He prophesying the judgment of the physical empire of Babylon, but He's speaking about a greater outpouring of His wrath that is going to come upon the whole world during the time of the Great Tribulation. And to spiritual Babylon, which will have kind of, the spirit of Babylon will have taken over the world at that time, and so we're going to see that. And you know, Babylon like Egypt, is often a picture in the Bible of the world and of course, even more so as we get into the Book of Revelation, we see that. So, you know, it's not terribly surprising that God would combine prophetic judgments. When you start seeing a judgment in the Bible about Babylon, you can kind of think to yourself, well, is He talking about just physical Babylon because Babylon is so often a picture of the spiritual dynamic of evil in the world and the rebelliousness of man. So anyway, we're going to begin now. Isaiah chapter 13, verse 1, it begins this way by saying,

Now your Bible may say, “The burden,” if you have like a New King James (NKJV). And the reason the word burden was used because it was usually in reference to like, a very difficult, heavy message that was full of tribulation and sorrow. And He says,

And one more thing quickly before we get into the rest of this, you need to know that at this time, Babylon was both a city and an empire. Some of the prophecies that we're going to see here deal with Babylon the empire, some of the prophecies are going to be specifically about Babylon the city, all right and I'll do my best to point those out as we get to them. But it goes on to say in verse 2,

What do we see here in this first couple of verses? Verses 2 and 3? Well, God is saying through Isaiah that He has determined that He is going to bring an army to overcome Babylon and it's an army of His choosing. Now, I want you to be careful about the language here because you'll notice He calls this army, His consecrated ones, did you catch that? That doesn't mean this is a godly army and it certainly doesn't mean it's a Jewish army, it's not Israel, He's not talking about Israel. You might assume that since He calls them His consecrated ones and it's not a spiritual army, it's not angels. It simply means, and in this case, consecrated means, it's an army that I have set apart to do my will at this time. In other words, specifically for the purpose of bringing judgment upon the Babylonians. This is my chosen army to be my spanking spoon, if you will, or my, as the Bible would call it, my rod of punishment, all right. And He goes on in verse 4 to say,

And we learn that this is the Lord's doing. He says,

Now notice here the Lord doesn't name this army. He doesn't tell you yet who this army is that's being summoned. He only tells us that they're coming from a great distance and they're coming upon the land. And it says in verse 6,

And you'll remember that the day of the Lord is not a single day. It speaks rather of a period of time when God brings judgment and justice, righteousness upon the face of the earth, upon the sons of men. He says,

Now this is where these verses also begin to speak of a larger and more distant outpouring of God's wrath on spiritual Babylon during the Great Tribulation and you'll notice that as we move on in the coming verses, that the judgment of the Lord begins to take on a global scale. Look at verse 9,

So, God says prophetically through Isaiah here, that during the time of the Great

Tribulation, there will be such a worldwide and global outpouring of God's wrath, that the sun will literally come up and in the middle of the day won't shine. It'll be very similar to the outpouring of wrath, that was placed upon Jesus. Do you remember that it tells us that from noon until 3 p.m., 3 hours, it says the sun didn't shine. (Matthew 27:45) Isn't it interesting that when God speaks through Isaiah about the prophecy of global, worldwide tribulation, that He says there will be darkness. And I believe this is a literal darkness, just as it was a literal darkness in the time of Jesus as God poured out the wrath of mankind upon His Son, I believe this will be a literal darkness during the time of the Great Tribulation. Not only the sun will not shine, but the moon at night will not reflect, there won't be any light for it to reflect. So it's going to be just pitch dark during that time. Look what the Lord says in verse 11, “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” Now, as we go on, I want you to notice how the global aspect and the cataclysmic aspect of the tribulation and the outpouring of God's wrath is described here for us. He says, “12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, (that speaks of an incredible loss of life during the tribulation) and mankind than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore (and look at this) I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth (and this is incredible) will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.” This is pretty awe inspiring, isn't it? I mean, remember, this is a prophecy that has a short-term fulfillment and then a long-term fulfillment. The short term fulfillment is physical Babylon and I have no doubt that when they did receive the wrath of the Lord, it felt like the world was coming apart. But in the fulfillment that is yet future, related to these prophecies, concerning the time of the Great Tribulation, it will be much more literal. Real darkness, the sun really not shining, the heavens and the earth shaken, if you will, out of their place. Literally things will be shaking apart during that time. And by the way, it's interesting to note that this shaking of the earth is something that is referenced elsewhere in the Word of God, both the Old and the New Testaments. Let me show you a passage here from Haggai chapter 2 verse 6. It says,

That's pretty much encompasses the globe. I'm going to shake the whole earth, Haggai prophesies, that is yet to come in the tribulation period. And then check Hebrews chapter 12, this is a fascinating passage as well. It says,

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape (speaking of the Jews, the Israelites) when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. (look what it says now) At that time his voice shook the earth, (when God spoke the 10 Commandments and so forth) but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” So, we see that this is a prophecy that is given to us of the coming tribulation period. Now, I want to just reiterate, I don't believe that the bride of Christ is going to be on the earth for the tribulation period, you may disagree. That's fine, we're not going to break fellowship over it, but I don't believe that it's going to be part of what we have in store for us as the bride of Christ. Namely because the Bible says that we as believers are not appointed unto wrath and I believe that during the tribulation the church is actually going to be with the Lord and enjoying the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Let's move on, verse 14. It continues on here now, it says, “And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. 15 Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. 16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.” Now, as we continue on with verse 17 and following, you're going to see that this situation, these verses, pertain just to the Babylonian judgment. Verse 17, “Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.” In other words, they can't be paid off by any amount of money. So the Lord said, “I'm stirring up the Medes.” Now, this is really, this is really incredible. Because this prophecy, remember, was given before even Babylon came to their position as a superpower, all right? But I want you to notice that in this prophecy, God mentions the Medes and we know from history that the Medes and the Persians, we call it the Medo-Persian Empire conquered Babylon. So God is saying right here how He's going to bring judgment against Babylon, but this is in the far distant future. By the way, the Medo-Persian Empire was located essentially in what is now northwest Iran with their capital of Ecbatana and you can read if you want to, about the Medo Persian Empire when they conquered Babylon in the Book of Daniel, because Daniel chapter 5 covers that particular thing. Daniel was there in the Babylonian kingdom when the Medo- Persian army conquered Babylon and you can read about it there in the Book of Daniel. But God is prophesying here, hundreds of years before this takes place. He says in verse 18,

So the Medo-Persian army will be a very cruel army and the last verses of the chapter here in chapter 13 apply to Babylon, the city, okay? Verse 19,

So God says, the city of Babylon will be destroyed and you know, although there were attempts over the years at rebuilding Babylon, not long after the destruction of it, it was eventually devastated beyond rebuilding and lies in ruins to this day. Chapter 14. This chapter is where the prophecy of God's judgment upon Babylon becomes a bit more personal because it begins to denounce the king of Babylon. But it begins with the word of comfort toward the Jewish people concerning these things and remember, this is right in the midst of God's promise to judge Babylon. And He says, in verse 1,

Sojourners refers to Gentiles who recognize the God of Israel as the one true God and who attach themselves to the house of Israel that way. And it says here that as we read on, Babylon or I should say the captives that Babylon will carry away will be brought back home and that's what He's prophesying here. God's going to have compassion on Israel and He's going to return them to their land. Now, remember, this hasn't happened yet and you know, Babylon hasn't even risen up as the world power yet. Assyria is still the world power, superpower, Babylon's close but this hasn't come to pass, and so... But this here is already prophesying about the return of Israel to its homeland. And by the way, we read about that return in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Verse 2,

And that simply means that Israel's role in captivity will be reversed during that time. And

All right, now, this is where the prophecy that I was telling you about here in chapter 14, turns to be a specific prophecy to the king of Babylon. But as this prophecy goes on, I want you to pay close attention because we're going to see yet again that Isaiah has a dual-focus to these prophetic words and their fulfillment. Because he is first going to speak of the partial fulfillment concerning the Babylonian Empire physically and its king, but in just a few verses here, Isaiah is going to begin to speak about spiritual empire Babylon and the future fulfillment of that world system and its king, which is Satan. And we read about that a lot, again, in the Book of Revelation. So I want you to take note of the fact that there's a two-edged sword to these prophetic words; to physical Babylon and its king, and spiritual Babylon and its king, which is Satan himself, all right. But first concerning the king of physical Babylon, verse 5.

Look at this, He says, the trees, “8 The cypresses (He says,) rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’” Listen, this is not just poetic. The king of Babylon was so obsessed with conquering nations that he decimated many forests that were in his path because he would cut down the wood and build siege ramps to be able to scale the walls of a capital city to be able to conquer its people. And so it literally says that during this time when God judges these superpowers, the forests have a chance to repopulate because there's no king that's cutting down their trees and building siege works. Verse 9, “Sheol (which means the grave) beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades (your Bible may say, the dead) to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. 10 All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ 11 Your pomp (which means majesty) is brought down (to the grave) to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.” Fascinating passage, all right? Talking about the destruction of the king of Babylon. Now, as we approach verse 12, I want you to pay very special attention. Because here's when these verses take a shift and they move toward referencing prophetically, the spiritual king of Babylon being Satan himself. And you will see things that are spoken here that could not be spoken of a mere man. Listen to this, verse 12, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!...” Now, if you have a New King James (NKJV) Bible that you're reading along with me today, your Bible actually says, “how you have fallen from heaven, O, Lucifer, son of the morning!” The New American Standard Bible (NASB) says, O, “star of the morning, son of the dawn!” Here's what's going on here, the Hebrew word, and it's one single word that is translated, “star of the morning,” literally means, “a shining one,” all right. When the Old Testament was translated from the original language of Hebrew into Latin, the Latin word for that one Hebrew word translated or meaning literally a shining one, is Lucifer, that is the Latin word, which means, light bringing, okay. So Lucifer's name means, light bringing, but it wasn't a name at first in the Latin, it was not a proper name. It became eventually, a proper name for the devil but Lucifer means light bringing and it's not capitalized. It's only capitalized now that we use it as a proper name for the devil and that is why the New King James (NKJV) says, “how you have fallen from heaven, O, Lucifer” because that's using the Latin, it's not really referring specifically to the original

Hebrew. And so, an actual better translation is what we're reading here in the ESV, which is, “O Day Star, (or morning star) son of Dawn!” Look what He goes on to say now, “14…How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly (which is literally the Throne of God) in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Now that's an amazing prophecy, isn't it? And I believe that what the Lord is doing here through this Law of Double Reference that we see throughout the course of scripture is He's giving us spiritual insights. And while we're talking about the king of Babylon, God, through Isaiah, is speaking to you and I and giving you and I insights about the fall of he who will be behind spiritual Babylon during the time of the Great Tribulation. Satan himself, who determined to raise his throne above God almighty, but was in fact cast down because of it. By the way, there is another prophetic passage that I believe gives further insight into the sin and the fall of Satan and it's found in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel. I'd like you to look at it with me on the screen, check this out.

Thus says the Lord GOD: (again, this is through Ezekiel) “You were the signet of perfection, (your Bible may say, the model of perfection) full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering… On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. (and then He goes on to say,) You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. …so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.” Now, what's interesting about that prophecy, if you read the context of that prophecy in Ezekiel, it's spoken to the king of Tyre and yet, He speaks of things here in Ezekiel that could not possibly apply to an earthly, human king. Such as, you were in Eden, you were in the Garden of Eden and you were literally a guardian cherub created, a cherub is an angel. So, these things are not applicable to a human being and so there again we see that Law of Double Reference, also called the Principle of Double Reference, where prophecies have a short-term fulfillment and a larger, more comprehensive fulfillment in another area. Back to Isaiah chapter 14, we're continuing now in verse 15, speaking to the king of Babylon, “But you are brought down (to the grave) to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. 16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ 18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; 19 but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot. 20 You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. “May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named!”” So the Lord speaks prophetically of the king of Babylon saying that he would not even have a proper burial. “21 Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.” 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD.” In other words, there will be no descendants from the king of Babylon. “23 “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.”

Wow! So you can see here from these verses that the destruction of Babylon, both physical and spiritual, is going to be a complete destruction. No remnant of Babylon will remain. And now as we end this chapter, chapter 14, it's going to end with some short oracles for a couple of other nearby peoples. And first Assyria, who right now is the superpower, but will be eventually conquered by the Babylonian Empire and then He's going to talk and give an oracle about Philistia. And again, these were not given as warnings to these nations, these were given to the people of Israel. Verse 24,

I love this passage here because it's a very wonderful remembrance, reminder for you and I of the sovereignty of God. God says, concerning the Assyrians, that I'm going to lay low the land of Assyria and who's going to stop me, you know. He says, this is the purpose that I have in my heart, this is what I have purposed for the kingdom of Assyria. Now, who is going to turn me back? Who is going to annul my plans? There's no one, right? Because God is sovereign. And then, a final oracle concerning Philistia, or if you will, the land of the Philistines. It says in verse 28,

You know, there was pretty much regular warfare between the house of Israel and the Philistines and I say the house of Israel, but I'm referring here to the southern kingdom of Judah. But there was almost a constant warfare going on between them and Israel or Judah was at many times used as the rod that struck the Philistines. But now king Ahaz has died and the Lord says to the nation of Philistia through Isaiah, don't rejoice thinking that now you're going to, you're going to get off scot free because the rod that used to beat you is now gone. Because the Lord is telling them, He is going to raise up other enemies. In fact, He goes on to say,

God is using pretty incredible graphic language to say that Philistia will also be judged and the other nations will rise up even more cruel and bigger and stronger who will come against Philistia.

And He says in verse 30, “And the firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it will slay. 31 Wail, O gate; cry out, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.” And then, an interesting question as we close out this chapter. “32 What will one answer the messengers of the nation?” Here's the answer, “The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.” Let me stop you there just for a moment and explain kind of what this means. When a conquering nation would come against another capital city, such as Jerusalem, they would send messengers ahead with a message from the king. And they would essentially say, here's a message from the king, I have conquered all of your neighbors so why don't you just give up and we'll make this easy. And they would use tauntings and threats and mocking to try to get the people who could hear them on the wall of the city to lose heart. This actually happened when the Assyrian general came and taunted at the gates of the city of Jerusalem during the time of Hezekiah. So these messengers would come to bring an ultimatum, you know, give up or else. And so the question is given here in verse 32, what is going to be answered? What answer are you going to give to the messenger? When the messenger of the nation comes, what answer are you going to give him? Here's the answer, “The Lord has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.” That's the answer. God has founded Zion and all of the afflicted within her will find their refuge in Him. You know, that's such a beautiful statement because it is not only a Word that was fulfilled during the time of king Hezekiah and the southern kingdom of Judah, but it's a Word that speaks to the church. Jesus said it a different, slightly different way, but He talked about His church and he said the gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) In other words, those who are the afflicted of the Lord will find refuge, safety, security, permanency, within the concept or the idea of God's Kingdom, which He has founded.