ISAIAH 13 – 27
In our study on Isaiah, we have learned that he has much to
say about the southern kingdom
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
As we have already learned, Isaiah will often say
In Chapters 13 – 14: 22, Isaiah jumps forward in time and
proclaims the downfall of
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
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
This powerful nation called
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
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
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
In verses 24-27, Isaiah now pronounces the destruction of
In Isaiah Chapter 15 – 16, he now speaks about the burden
that
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
However in verse 12 – 14, Isaiah says what will happen to
the enemies of
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
In Isaiah 18,
This is actually not a
judgment on
The language found in
this chapter points to how Senacherib faced the wrath of God in that one night
when he came up against
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
These verses speak of the
downfall of
Verses 5 – 10 talk about
the drying up of the
Verses 11 – 15 talk about
the incompetence of
The remainder of the
chapter is believed to be pointing to the time of Christ when nations like
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
In chapter 20, we learn
about an interesting way God would show the downfall of
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
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
In Chapter 22: 1-14
Isaiah talks about
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
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