The Oracle Concerning Babylon – Part 3
Isaiah 13:1-14:26 (14:1-2)
July 2, 2023
As you know we are now in the segment of the book of Isaiah called
“The Oracles”
• These are the burdens which God is promising to lay upon the back of the nations that have afflicted, are afflicting, and will afflict Israel.
It is a segment meant to encourage Israel that
They should not fear their enemies
And they should not trust in anyone but God.
The LORD alone is our salvation and He alone should be trusted.
THUS FAR all we have looked at is the first oracle which is called “The oracle concerning Babylon”
• But as we have said this first reference to Babylon is not simply the historical
Babylon which destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.
• Babylon here is a reference to the entire evil world system which is illustrated
by Babylon.
• This is the world, not just a single nation.
So the first of Isaiah’s oracles are a reminder to God’s people
That God will one day judge the entire evil world system.
The Bible refers to that day as, “The Day of the LORD”
Isaiah 13:6 “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.”
Isaiah 13:9 “Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.”
Isaiah 13:13 “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the LORD of hosts In the day of His burning anger.”
• It is the day of God’s judgment upon sinners.
• It is the day of God’s wrath and burning anger.
• It is a terrible day.
AND IT IS COMING.
Isaiah 13:11 “Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.”
God will come and deal with sinners.
In fact Isaiah said He will “exterminate” them from earth.
It is a cruel and terrible day of God’s wrath.
And we spent a couple of services together
Examining the horror of that day.
In fact we’ve already seen the first 5 points to the sermon.
#1 THE RECRUITMENT
Isaiah 13:1-5
Where God recruits an army to come and (3) “execute My anger”
#2 THE RESPONSE
Isaiah 13:6-8
This is the response of sinners and we read that (7) “all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.”
#3 THE REASON
Isaiah 13:9-11
Very simply this day is coming (9) “to make the land a desolation”
God says, (11) “Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity;”
God is coming to punish sinners for their rebellion against Him.
#4 THE RESULT
Isaiah 13:12-16
It is as terrible as you can imagine.
(16) “Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.”
It is a day of terrible judgment from God.
#5 THE REALITY
Isaiah 13:17-22
Very simply that (19) “Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldean’s pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”
God is going to put a definite and thorough and terrible end
To this world and the sin which exists within it.
It is “The Day of the LORD”
But now we move into chapter 14 and we ask the question:
BUT WHAT ABOUT BELIEVERS?
• What will this day spell for those who have repented of their sin?
• What will this day spell for those who have trusted in Christ?
• What will this day spell for those who have forsaken this evil world system?
And for that we come to point number 6.
#6 THE REDEMPTION
Isaiah 14:1-2
What you see here with even a quick reading is that
The fate for God’s people does not match the fate of the wicked.
Whereas God is seen JUDGING the world,
Here we read of God having “compassion on Jacob”
Where we see God REJECTING sinners,
Here we read that God will “again choose Israel”
IT IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT FATE.
IN FACT, we have even learned that
What God is doing to the sinners of the world,
He is actually doing it FOR the benefit of His people.
Revelation 18 describes the fall of Babylon, and we learn why.
Revelation 18:20 “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
That is why you see all of God’s redeemed
Singing that “Hallelujah Chorus” in Revelation 19,
Rejoicing as they see the smoke of her burning ascending to heaven.
We have the glorious promise of Isaiah:
Isaiah 35:3-4 “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.”
And in a very simple sense, if you see nothing else,
We must learn that the day of the LORD
Is NOT a judgment on the redeemed.
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
On the cross Jesus Christ already bore the wrath for our sin.
Zephaniah told us about “the Day of the LORD”
He described it as:
Zephaniah 1:15 “A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness,”
Joel saw this as well:
Joel 2:2 “A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.”
And that is EXACTLY what we see occurring
As Jesus hanged upon the cross.
Matthew 27:45-46 “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”
WE HAVE ALSO SINNED…
• Like the world we have also rebelled against God…
• And we also deserve the full fury of the wrath of God to be poured out upon our lives.
But Jesus Christ came and bore that wrath for us.
He bore that wrath for the redeemed.
If you are in Christ, all the fury and rage and judgment
Which has been laid against your account
Was received by Christ on the cross
And now there is no more condemnation.
The world still abides under God’s anger.
The world still has a debt to settle.
But for the redeemed, the “day of the LORD” is NOT a day of judgment,
It is a DAY OF SALVATION.
It is a day of “compassion” on God’s people.
And what God will do to this world He will do FOR YOU.
And Isaiah speaks of that, EVEN TO ISRAEL.
Israel, for all her flaws, and all her mistakes,
Is still the people whom God has graciously chosen.
• He selected her first through Abraham.
• He selected her officially at Sinai where He entered into covenant with them.
BUT WE KNOW THEIR STORY.
• It is one of rebellion and treachery and disobedience,
• Culminating in the rejection and crucifixion of His Son.
Because of their rebellion, Paul says in Romans 11,
That Israel was broken off and Gentiles were grafted in.
And Israel AT THIS TIME dwells as a REJECTED PEOPLE.
• There certainly remains a remnant, as there is always a remnant,
• But by in large today Israel is cut off from a relationship with God for they have rejected the Messiah.
BUT HERE Isaiah speaks of the day “when the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel.”
Paul speaks of this as well.
Romans 11:23-29 “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Call it Israel’s re-election if you want.
God will “again choose Israel”
And though there aren’t many details given here in Isaiah 14
WE HAVE SEEN IT in several places throughout the Bible.
The most famous would have to be Zechariah 12
Zechariah 12:10-13:1 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”
That is the very definition of God again choosing Israel.
• It is God who pours out of a spirit of repentance upon them.
• It is God who causes them to call on Jesus.
• It is God who opens the fountain of forgiveness and applies it to their account.
God will redeem them.
They will be His people.
That is His “compassion”
That is Him again choosing Israel.
God will judge the world, but He will save Israel.
“and settle them in their own land”
He will save them and He will bring them home.
This is another graphic picture of redemption.
You know that we are talking about
Babylon as a symbol of the evil world system.
This is another area where historical Babylon makes a perfect analogy.
• For in 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and burned the temple
and carried away captives back to Babylon.
• They would stay in Babylon for 70 years
• Then God would bring them home.
At the end of the 70 years you get commands like:
Jeremiah 50:8 “Wander away from the midst of Babylon And go forth from the land of the Chaldeans; Be also like male goats at the head of the flock.”
Jeremiah 51:6 “Flee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, For this is the LORD’S time of vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her.”
Jeremiah 51:45 “Come forth from her midst, My people, And each of you save yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD.”
God’s people were told to leave Babylon and come back home.
They were told to escape the place which God would judge.
That was certainly a historical reality,
But more than that it was symbolic
Of the call to God’s people in every generation.
As we are commanded
• Not to love this world.
• To not be conformed to the pattern of this world.
All believers are in a sense called to flee Babylon.
Well, Israel has yet to do that,
But there is coming a day when God will have such compassion on her that she will.
She will flee the world and she will return home.
That is to say; SHE WILL RETURN TO GOD.
God will “settle them in their own land”
And at that point, “strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.”
This is a reference certainly to Gentiles who have been grafted in
And who will be sharers in Israel’s inheritance.
We are talking now about all of the redeemed for all time.
Gathered to the LORD.
Isaiah 56:6-8 “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” The Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”
(2) “The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.”
In the day of God’s judgment…
In the day when God pours fury on the earth…
Not only will God save His people and draw them to Himself,
But He will cause them to rule and to reign with Him.
Isaiah 60:10-14 “Foreigners will build up your walls, And their kings will minister to you; For in My wrath I struck you, And in My favor I have had compassion on you. “Your gates will be open continually; They will not be closed day or night, So that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, With their kings led in procession. “For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, And the nations will be utterly ruined. “The glory of Lebanon will come to you, The juniper, the box tree and the cypress together, To beautify the place of My sanctuary; And I shall make the place of My feet glorious. “The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, And all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; And they will call you the city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 61:4-7 “Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs.”
AND THE MAIN POINT
That I would have you glean from all of these prophetic passages
Is that the plan of God for His children
Is nothing like the plan He has for the world.
• God will judge this world with fire.
• God will exterminate sinners.
• God will terrify them in His wrath and crush them in His fury.
BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT HE WILL DO TO HIS OWN.
For those who have trusted in Christ…
For those whose sins have been atoned for…
They will be objects of compassion.
They will be objects of salvation.
They will rule and reign with Christ.
For the redeemed the day of the Lord is not a day to fear,
But a day to anticipate.
• That is why Peter told us to “look forward to and hasten” the day of God.
• That is why Paul said that Christians are those “who love His appearing”
• That is why John could receive the Revelation and yet at the end say, “Amen, come Lord Jesus”
The day of judgment on sinners is a day of salvation for the redeemed.
RIGHT NOW, the redeemed are outcasts & refugees; strangers & aliens.
We are in this world but we are not of this world.
Philippians 3:20-21 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
But because of this we are currently maligned
And persecuted and hated by the world.
Psalms 44:22 “But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
(Paul affirmed that very verse in Romans 8:36)
BUT IT WON’T ALWAYS BE THAT WAY.
There is coming a day
• When God will differentiate between the redeemed and the wicked.
• When God will reveal those who are His and those who are not.
• When God will come in judgment, but He will save His own.
Paul encouraged the Colossians:
Colossians 3:1-4 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Paul said that “you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God”
That word “hidden” is KRUPTO
It is where we get our word “cryptic”
The world can’t see it. Your glory is not evident.
God’s favor is not clearly seen, it is hidden.
It is hidden in Christ whom they also do not see.
But on the day that Christ is revealed in full glory.
On that day God will make your glory evident as well.
Matthew 24:40-41 “Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. “Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.”
Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:47-50 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 25:31-34, 41 “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;”
DO YOU SEE that there is coming a day of wrath,
But it for God’s children it is not a day of wrath,
It is a day of redemption?
It will be destruction for sinners, but it will be salvation for the redeemed.
God’s people should not fear this day, they should anticipate it.
In fact, as we will see tonight:
(14:3-4) “And it will be in the day when the LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved, that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon…”
• It won’t be a day of grieving…
• It won’t be a day of suffering…
• It will be a day of rejoicing…
• It will even be a day of taunting…
If you are NOT in Christ, you should absolutely fear this day,
But if you ARE in Christ, this is a day to be anticipated.
AND THAT IS ISAIAH’S MESSAGE.
NOW REMEMBER, the foreign nations never heard these messages.
THESE WERE FOR THE CHURCH.
And the message is that
The church should trust God and rejoice.
Now I want us to finish up this morning by looking at this same message given to the Gentile church in the New Testament.
TURN TO: 2 Thessalonians 2
If you are not familiar with the Thessalonians or this letter
• Then you need to know is that the church in Thessalonica was a young and relatively new church.
• And you need to know that from day 1 they endured extensive persecution for trusting in Christ.
The city of Thessalonica was in the region of Macedonia (Philippi).
• The Jews in that city were noted as men who were not very “noble minded”
• When Paul preached Jesus there was a lot of opposition.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-2 “For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.”
And soon after, Paul had to flee to Berea.
Acts 17:13-14 “But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there.”
IN SHORT, the Jews of Thessalonica
Were bent on stomping out Christianity.
It was a hard city to be a new Christian in.
1 Thessalonians 1:6 “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”
So what message do you preach to a body of believers
Who feel rejected and hated in the world?
You tell them about “the day of the LORD”
And that’s exactly what Paul did.
He sought to encourage them
• That this persecution was temporary
• A day is coming when God will deliver His people and judge the wicked.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”
Paul would go on to say:
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”
So you get a basic understanding of WHO this church was
And WHY Paul had seen fit to teach them about the day of the LORD.
HOWEVER, by the time we get to the second letter
We find that A GREAT DECEPTION HAD OCCURRED.
And instead of anticipating the day of the Lord,
The Thessalonians had come to dread it.
(READ: 2 THESS 2:1-2)
Someone, pretending to be Paul, had written a letter, claiming a vision that “the day of the Lord has come”
• Someone had claimed to be Paul
• And told the Thessalonians that the explanation for all their persecution
• Was that they had missed the rapture
• And were now under God’s wrath.
• What they were experiencing was the day of the Lord judgment.
And here we have believers who are terrified of the day of the Lord.
And this is NOT the intention of God.
So Paul writes to set the record straight.
I think the information will encourage you as well.
(READ 3-5)
• You do feel a hint of rebuke from Paul there
• That the Thessalonians had seemed to have forgotten all that Paul had taught them about that coming day.
Namely Paul had obviously taught them a great deal
About the coming Anti-Christ.
• This man who “takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.”
• That event is what Daniel and Jesus referred to as “The Abomination of Desolation”
And Paul had taught them that this event comes first.
In other words, before God’s wrath will fall on this world,
God will first allow the Anti-Christ to enter the world stage
In full blasphemous aggression.
And if the Thessalonians had studied Daniel or listened to Paul
They should know this, but it is true none the less.
WHAT IS ALSO TRUE is that this Anti-Christ has not yet appeared
AND THERE IS A REASON.
(READ 6-7)
• The reason he has not appeared is because God has restrained him.
• Certainly this restrainer is none other than the Holy Spirit.
Many men would have gladly filled this role of Satan’s puppet over the course of history.
• Pharaoh would have
• Sennacharib would have
• Nebuchadnezzar would have
• Herod would have
• Hitler would have
• Stalin would have
But none of those men were permitted to reach such levels,
There was a restrainer in place.
But one day the restraint will be removed
And Satan’s puppet will emerge blasphemous and arrogant.
(READ 8-12)
• He will come in full arrogance and lawlessness and he will deceive many.
IN FACT, this is why God will allow him to come to power.
This world is filled with men who refused to love the truth of God.
Having rejected what is true God will give them the ultimate deceiver.
He will be used of God to secure men in judgment.
(11-12)
• And that is part of this “Day of the LORD” that we’ve been studying.
BUT AGAIN, THAT IS NOT THE FATE OF THE CHURCH.
That is the world’s fate.
(READ 13-15)
The church has a different fate.
• We are “beloved by the Lord”
• We have been “chosen” by God “for salvation”
• We have been “called…through the gospel”
• “that [we] may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”
This day is a day of doom for the world
But it is a day of glory for the church.
AND THE FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT?
(15) “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.”
When the church studies about the day of the Lord
It should not move them to fear,
It should motivate conviction and endurance.
When we read about the coming judgment of sinners
It does not cause us to lose heart, it causes us to press on.
We understand the end…
We see the coming victory…
THIS IS THE CALLING FOR THE CHURCH.
God has redeemed us and saved us and destined us for glory,
DON’T QUIT NOW!
• You live in a corrupt world.
• You live in Babylon.
• It is defiling and deceptive and seeks to destroy you.
BUT DON’T GIVE IN.
DON’T COMPROMISE.
DON’T YIELD.
“stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught”
• Don’t embrace their thinking
• Don’t follow their lifestyle
• Don’t fall for their logic and advice
• Don’t buy their theory of evolution
• Don’t buy their critical race theory
• Don’t buy their LGBTQ agenda
• Don’t fall for their peer pressure.
• Don’t yield to their pluralism.
• Don’t conform to their moral code.
GOD WILL ONE DAY JUDGE THEM FOR THOSE THINGS.
You stand firm
The day of victory is coming.
