ISAIAH 13 – 27

 

In our study on Isaiah, we have learned that he has much to say about the southern kingdom Judah, and he also speaks some about the downfall of the northern kingdom Israel. As we will see tonight, he also has prophecies regarding other nations as well, and as usual, he does have a message of hope as well.

 

Since I will be covering 15 Chapters tonight, if you want to gain a deeper understand of what I will cover tonight, then you need to read these chapters on your own. I think this is the best way to cover some of these chapters, otherwise if I went verse by verse it would take me over year to go through Isaiah.

 

Just as a way of reminder, when Isaiah prophesying the children of Israel were divided into two kingdoms. If you will remember, this happened after Solomon’s son became king. 10 of the tribes came together and formed the northing kingdom called Israel and the remainder of tribes occupied Jerusalem and their kingdom was known as Judah as you can see on the map.

 

 

As we have already learned, Isaiah will often say Judah and Jerusalem when he is speaking to them. The reason for this is that Jerusalem is the heart of Judah. Though sometimes parts of Judah would be conquered, Jerusalem would not, that is until the Babylonians crushed them during their time in power.

 

In Chapters 13 – 14: 22, Isaiah jumps forward in time and proclaims the downfall of Babylon almost 100 years before it even becomes a dominant power in the region. How could Isaiah possibly know this without this information coming from God? He could not, which shows that he was truly a prophet of God. We learn that He is talking about Babylon in the first verse. He goes on to describe how horrible it will be for Babylon when it destroyed. Notice what he says in:

 

Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.  10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

 

This is similar to the language used in Mt. 24 to describe the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70, which some people take as being literal, but it was never intended to be taken that way. Then he tells us who would destroy Babylon:

 

Isaiah 13:17 " Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it.  18 Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children.  19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.  20 It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation;

 

This powerful nation called Babylon would rise and it would fall just as Isaiah said it would. It came into power in 606 B.C. and fell in 536 B.C. Our prophecy shows that the Babylonians would supersede the Assyrians who wiped out the northern kingdom. Here is a map of their kingdom.

 

 

 

The Babylonians would then be taken over and wiped out by the Meads, more specifically the Medo-Persian empire. Again, let me show you the map of each of these kingdoms.

 

 

 

 

Then we learn in Chapter 14 that though God’s people will be in captivity under the Babylonians, it will not las,t and not only will they get released, the Babylonians will become their slaves now.

 

Isaiah 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.  2 Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the LORD; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

 

In verses 3 – 11, the people are told that once they have received rest from their sorrow, they are to speak a proverb against the king of Babylon, which includes their entire nation. The jest of the this song or poem is about the downfall of them and how the grave will welcome them.

 

In verses 12 – 23, some people like to think these verses are describing the devil because it used the word Lucifer in verse 12, but the context clearly shows that he is still talking about the king of Babylon and his great fall not the devil.

 

In verses 24-27, Isaiah now pronounces the destruction of Assyria, which happened under king Sennacherib around 701 B.C. In verses 28 – 32 we learn how Philistia would also be destroyed and that they would no longer be a threat to God’s people.

 

 

In Isaiah Chapter 15 – 16, he now speaks about the burden that Moab would bare. The Moabites were the kinsmen of Israel, but they ended up becoming enemies with each other.

 

 

Much is said about what they would go through, and Chapter 16 ends telling us a how quickly things are going to get worse for them:

 

Isaiah 16:14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble."

 

Chapter 17 seems to be an extension of Chapter 7 because it talks about the downfall of Syria and Israel and it name some specific cities and kingdoms in verses 1 -3. In verse 4- 11 Isaiah focuses on Israel and what will happen to it.

 

However in verse 12 – 14, Isaiah says what will happen to the enemies of Judah:

 

Isaiah 17:13 The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.  14 Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, And the lot of those who rob us.

 

Most believe this last verse is talking about King Senacherib when he led the Assyrian army against Jerusalem, but God intervened and killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night, which caused King Senacherib to leave. These details can be seen in 2 Kings 19:35-37 and 2 Chron. 32:21-22.

 

In Isaiah 18, Ethiopia is talked about.

 

 

This is actually not a judgment on Ethiopia, yet something that is just said about them. This particular chapter is bit vague, but most believe that the king of Ethiopia sent ambassadors to the King of Judah to join forces with them to fight the Assyrians, but God’s response is that they do not need the Ethiopians and for them to watch and see what the Lord will do.

 

The language found in this chapter points to how Senacherib faced the wrath of God in that one night when he came up against Jerusalem and 185,000 of his men died that night.

 

Isaiah 18:7 In that time a present will be brought to the LORD of hosts From a people tall and smooth of skin, And from a people terrible from their beginning onward, A nation powerful and treading down, Whose land the rivers divide -- To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, To Mount Zion. 

 

We do not have a historical record of this other than what is stated here, but most believe this is saying once the Ethiopia sees what God does to the Assyrians, they would offer up some kind of gift to Lord for what He had done.

 

As we move on to Chapter 19, we learn:

 

Isaiah 19:1 The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.  2 "I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom.  3 The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.  4 And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them," Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

 

 

These verses speak of the downfall of Egypt. The Lord is pictured as riding on a swift cloud, but of course this is not literal, but shows He will swiftly bring about His judgment by setting Egyptian against Egyptian and putting them under a cruel king.

 

Verses 5 – 10 talk about the drying up of the Nile River, which the Egyptians believed was supplied by one of their gods. There gods were fake, so when they called on them and their sorcerers, they failed and they overtaken.

 

Verses 11 – 15 talk about the incompetence of Egypt’s wise men.

 

The remainder of the chapter is believed to be pointing to the time of Christ when nations like Egypt and Assyria would be side by side with the remnant of Israel and they would be blessed. The reason, many believe this is pointing to Christianity is because under Christ, those various people from various nations would become part of the spiritual kingdom of God. Also the phrase “in that day”, is used 5 times in these remaining verses, which usually point to the time of Christ.

 

However, there are certain things that are said in these prophecies that could certainly apply to their near future as well. Like I have said before, sometimes these prophecies can be duel in nature in that they may have fulfillment now and later on in the future, but what is important here is that when God brings Egypt down it will lead to some of them turning to God and obeying Him.

 

In chapter 20, we learn about an interesting way God would show the downfall of Egypt and Ethiopia. This is short Chapter, so I will read it all:

 

Isaiah 20:1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it,  2 at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.  3 Then the LORD said, "Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia,  4 "so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.  5 "Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory.  6 "And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, 'Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?' "

 

Now I do not believe that Isaiah went around completely naked, but that he had very little on, but his nakedness would be used to make this point for God.

 

Chapter 21 talks about the fall of Babylon by the hands of the Medes and Persians. Also, Edom is given a warning and we learn that Arabia will fall within a year.

 

In Chapter 22: 1-14 Isaiah talks about Jerusalem and how it will be destroyed just like all these other heathen nations because they were not giving God glory or seeking Him out. This is another challenging chapter because parts of it appear to be talking about when the Assyrians attacked them and failed, and parts of sounds like it talking about their complete destruction by the Babylonians. In either case, I believe the main message we should take from these verses is that God is not going to be pleased with you, when you take His salvation for granted and live for yourself instead of for Him. Because of the attitude of these Jews we read:

 

Isaiah 22:14  "Surely for this iniquity there will be no atonement for you, Even to your death," says the Lord GOD of hosts.

 

In verses 15- 25, Isaiah speaks directly to the treasurer of the king Shebna and he has nothing good to say about him. He talks about how he is going to replace him with a man named Eliakim. This is another one of those sections that some believe is actually point to the time of Christ, but whether it is or not, it shows that God is control and He does not want unfit men serving Him.

 

In Chapter 23 Tyre, which was a valuable seaport for the ancient world, is told they will be overthrown and left for 70 years, which happened around the same time as the 70 years the Jews were in captivity. This overthrow was done by the Babylonians, who managed to take over the main city, but not their island.

 

 

After the 70 years, Isaiah says Tyre will recover, but instead of learning their lesson, they will try to play the harlot of the nations. Eventually, they would be destroyed again as predicted by other prophecies including their undefeated island. Alexander the Great was the one that accomplished this 332 B.C. God is never pleased with those whose main focus is greed. America should pay attention to the consequences of Tyre lest we fall under the same condemnation.

 

Chapter 24-27 are considered to be the finale of Chapters 13-23, which shows that that all these judgments that have been predicted are indeed universal. For example, in Chapter 24, it simply speaks of the earth being made empty by the Lord. For example notice:

 

Isaiah 24:4 The earth mourns and fades away, The world languishes and fades away; The haughty people of the earth languish.  5 The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, Because they have transgressed the laws, Changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting covenant.  6 Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, And those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, And few men are left.

 

As the chapter continues, it paints the same message that there will be no escape from the judgment of God. While these words are specifically talking about the impending judgment that Isaiah has been talking about, the principle is the same for us today in that God does not like it when we break His laws and if we continue to do so, we too will all face the consequences of our sins in the final Day of Judgment.

 

My hope is that all of you will read these Chapters we are briefly going over tonight, but the last 3 Chapters 25-27 are definitely worthy of your time to read because in Chapter 25, Isaiah praises God for His judgments and the future salvation for His people and talks about how death will be conquered through Jesus as Paul talks about in 1 Cor. 15.

 

Chapter 26 contains an encouraging song used to help the Jews see that they should trust in Him and His judgments. Finally, in Chapter 27, Isaiah makes reference to the vineyard. Back in Chapter 5, He was going to destroy His vineyard because it brought forth wild grapes, but now He talks about how God is going to care for His vineyard and how it is going to blossom once again, which began with the remnant of Jews returning from captivity 70 years, but it easy to see this pointing forward to when Jesus would come and His glorious church would grow and thrive starting in the first century.

 

In conclusion, we have seen Isaiah pronounce doom on many nations including Judah. God does not show partiality because He is against those who do not obey His commands. The same is true today. Those who disobey will find themselves opposed to God and they will face the consequences. Just like a small group of Jews would once again experience the salvation of the Lord and have a restored relationship with Him, every person has the opportunity today to experience the salvation that comes through Christ and restore their relationship with God. Those that do and remain faithful will be blessed and will get to experience the wonders of heaven, but those who do not will have chosen the wrong path and they will have to face the judgment of God and spend eternity in hell. What path will you choose?