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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The Lord will have
compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and will settle them in
their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of
Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel
will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in
the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their
oppressors.
On the day the Lord gives
you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on
you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has
come to an end! How his fury has ended!
The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.”
The realm of the dead
below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the
departed to greet you—all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them
rise from their thrones—all those who were kings over the nations. They will
all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you
have become like us.” All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along
with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover
you.
How you have fallen from
heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you
who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the
heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on
the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend
above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you
are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.
Those who see you stare
at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made
kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its
cities and would not let his captives go home?” All the kings of the nations
lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a
rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the
sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled
underfoot, you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and
killed your people.
Let the offspring of the
wicked never be mentioned again. Prepare a place to slaughter his children for
the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover
the earth with their cities. “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord
Almighty. “I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors, her offspring and
descendants,” declares the Lord. “I will turn her into a place for owls and
into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord
Almighty.
The Lord Almighty has
sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it
will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will
trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed
from their shoulders.” This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is
the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed,
and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
Isaiah 14:1-27
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Isaiah, Chapter 13, and
as we will see today, much of Chapter 14 paints a gloomy picture of what
happens when God’s judgment befalls a nation, and in the case of Babylon, an
empire. As we have looked at recently in our devotions, God will not be slighted
or disregarded in any way. Anyone who chooses to do so will experience His
wrath and the agony of defeat.
But sandwiched within the
chilling prophecy of punishment that Babylon would experience are words of hope
and deliverance for the people of Israel, people who knew all too well the
mistake of turning away from God and inciting His anger. They, the Israelites,
had gone through their own devastation and annihilation as God used the
Assyrians to rout the Northern Kingdom while the Babylonians laid siege to the
Southern Kingdom and the cherished, hallowed city of Jerusalem. The land God
had promised to His people was laid to waste as buildings were destroyed,
wealth was plundered, productive fields and vineyards were torched, and people were
either killed or hauled away into exile in a foreign land, oppressed in
slavery. In the case of the Israelites who were taken to Babylon, that exile
lasted seventy years. It had been a long time away from the holy land, enough
time to consider the sins that placed them in their circumstances, enough time
for an entire generation to die off. And now, God was ready to restore them and
put conditions in place so that they could return home and start fresh. The
people of Israel were about to experience the thrill of victory, victory over
exile and oppression, victory granted through mercy, grace, and love by the
same God who had levied consequences against them.
Look again at today’s
verses:
The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose
Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and
unite with the descendants of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to
their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them
male and female servants in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their
captors and rule over their oppressors.
On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil
and from the harsh labor forced on you, you will take up this taunt against the
king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!
The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression. All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing. Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon gloat over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no one comes to cut us down.”
The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it
rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—all those who were leaders in
the world; it makes them rise from their thrones—all those who were kings over
the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become
weak, as we are; you have become like us.” All your pomp has been brought down
to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out
beneath you and worms cover you.
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You
have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said
in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars
of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of
Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself
like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the
depths of the pit.
Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man
who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a
wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?” All
the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out
of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those
pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse
trampled underfoot, you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed
your land and killed your people.
Let the offspring of the wicked never be mentioned again. Prepare a
place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not
to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. “I will rise
up against them,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will wipe out Babylon’s name
and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the Lord. “I will turn
her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom
of destruction,” declares the Lord Almighty.
The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my
land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my
people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” This is the plan
determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all
nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand
is stretched out, and who can turn it back? Isaiah 14:1-27
Essentially what we have
here is a turning of the tables. The captives will be set free and the captor
will be the one under siege. The oppressed will be liberated while the
oppressor becomes exploited. The instruments of judgment will now be judged
themselves.
For the people of Israel,
things were going to get better soon because of God’s deep compassion for them.
Once out of His favor and left to fend for themselves at the hands of the
Babylonians, the Israelites will once again be God’s chosen ones as He returns
them to Canaan with an opportunity to start anew, to rebuild their cities and
lives while rebuilding their relationship with Him. They had paid the price for
their transgressions as they had turned away from God and pursued other gods.
Now it was time to show Him they had learned their lesson as they fully
experienced His forgiveness and reveled in the thrill of victory from His lengthy
rebuke and penalty.
It wasn’t quite going to be
happy times for the Babylonians. The once mighty empire who lorded over Israel
and laid waste to many nations and their people on the road to building such a
powerful kingdom were about to see all they had accomplished laid to waste by
the One who every nation is to submit to, the Lord God Almighty, the King of
all kings and Lord of all lords. Through prior scriptures, we know that the
king of Babylon was so prideful that he thought of himself as equivalent to God
if not greater. The power he had amassed had gone to his head and now God was
going to show him and his people that He and He alone was in charge, that every
person of every nation was to submit to Him or suffer the consequences for not
doing so. Babylon was going to know fully the agony of defeat. The specifics
found in the scriptures paint a harrowing picture. Babylon’s name and its
people were going to be wiped out, decimated and demolished. There would be no
evidence left that any powerful entity had even existed once God got done.
Friends, are we listening
to the scriptures today? I’ve heard so many people say they think there is no
use in studying Old Testament scriptures as Christians because we are a “New
Testament” people. That attitude is a big mistake for if we believe that God
will not repeat the judgment He passed on prior nations and empires who chose
to turn their backs on Him, we are greatly mistaken. Any country or continent
today could experience the same agony of defeat as Babylon did, and as we will
see in coming days, other enemies of God and Israel. History can and will
repeat itself.
Conversely, nations and
people could avoid judgment and incurring God’s wrath, experiencing instead the
thrill of victory that comes through living life fully in and through His Son
Jesus, and in doing so, living fully in the kind of righteousness and holiness
that brings God’s favor and blessings, not His anger and consequences.
So what will it be for
us? Which will we opt for: the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat?
The choice is ours and
God will act accordingly.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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