{"id":25237,"date":"2023-02-15T22:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T05:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-12_1-6-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-02-07T23:15:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T06:15:12","slug":"isaiah-13_1-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-13_1-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye Bye Babylon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 13:1-22 \u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 13:1-22.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 13 marks the beginning of a new section in Isaiah which is sometimes called the \u201cbook of burdens\u201d. \u00a0That is because from Isaiah 13 to 23, Isaiah delivers 10 messages to specific nations and Isaiah calls each of these messages in Hebrew a \u201cmassa\u201d, or in English a \u201cburden\u201d (sometimes also translated an \u201coracle\u201d). \u00a0When you read Isaiah 13-23 the tone and content are certainly heavy since much of Isaiah 13-23 is talking about judgment against various nations. \u00a0Still there are some important lessons we can learn as we go through this section of Isaiah.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 13:1-9 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I have commanded my holy ones; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath– those who rejoice in my triumph.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty is mustering an army for war.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens– the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and the weapons of his wrath– to destroy the whole country.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Wail, for\u00a0the day of the\u00a0LORD<\/strong>\u00a0is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man’s heart will melt.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0See,\u00a0the day of the\u00a0LORD<\/strong>\u00a0is coming –a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger– to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-9:\u00a0 As Isaiah begins this oracle or \u201cburden\u201d concerning Babylon, he pictures the LORD summoning his troops to battle (v2-3) and how this massive army assembles from every end of heaven (v4-5), all in preparation for what Isaiah calls \u201cthe day of the LORD\u201d (v6, 9).\u00a0 \u201cThe day of the LORD\u201d is a phrase used by so many of the Old Testament prophets as well as by Peter and Paul in the New Testament.\u00a0 It refers to a time when God will finally pour out His wrath against those who have opposed Him, as Isaiah says, \u201ca cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger\u201d (v9).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 Once again, the holiness of God comes with it a wrath against sin and evil.\u00a0 In His justice God will not let evil go unpunished forever.\u00a0 His wrath against sin is more ferocious than any sinner can bear if it were not for the cross where Jesus died.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 13:10-22 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 10-22:\u00a0 In 539 B.C. Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, defeated Babylon.\u00a0 Almost 200 years before this, Isaiah is saying here in verse 17 that Babylon would fall at the hands of the Medes.\u00a0 This is even more remarkable considering that in Isaiah\u2019s time the Medes were not the most dominant force or an obvious choice.\u00a0 To this day, the site where the city of Babylon used to be remains abandoned, uninhabited and in ruins, just as verse 20 predicts.<\/p>\n

Still there may be more to this passage.\u00a0 Earlier when we looked at Isaiah 7, we saw how Isaiah\u2019s prophecy about a virgin giving birth to a child called Immanuel may actual be a prophecy with a double fulfillment, one in the short-term during King Ahaz\u2019s time and one in the long-term with the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 It is also very possible that the prophecies contained in Isaiah 13 will also experience a double fulfillment: one in the shorter term and on in the longer term.\u00a0 That is because, long after the kingdom of Babylon was defeated in 539 B.C., we find the apostle John in the book of Revelation still speaking about Babylon.\u00a0 But the Babylon that Revelation is talking about is not the political kingdom that fell in 539 B.C.\u00a0 Rather, this Babylon has been interpreted by scholars to mean a variety of other empires.\u00a0 Perhaps more than anything \u201cBabylon\u201d in Revelation is taken to represent the spirit of false religion wherever it appears.\u00a0 Babylon is the spirit that leads billions of people to believe that they do not need Jesus and ought to worship something else, a spirit which in turn gives rise to a kingdom of its own.\u00a0 Revelation speaks repeatedly about how in the end times this \u201cBabylon\u201d will be overthrown.<\/p>\n

So when you read here in Isaiah 13 about the destruction of Babylon and how this destruction seems to involve more than just one nation or one city but involves \u201cthe world\u201d (v11) and \u201cthe earth\u201d (v13), that may be because Isaiah 13 is not simply talking about the destruction of the ancient political kingdom of Babylon but the Babylon that exists today and in the future, the kingdom of false religion.<\/p>\n

How can we apply this passage today? \u00a0Since God sacrificed His most precious Son Jesus Christ to rescue us from our sins, God\u2019s wrath is stored up against all those who live in \u201cBabylon\u201d, who think they don\u2019t need Jesus’ help to reach heaven.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father, thank You for Your Word which is not just timely but also ahead of our times.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 13:1-22.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 13 marks the beginning of a new section in Isaiah which is sometimes called the \u201cbook of burdens\u201d. \u00a0That is because from Isaiah 13 to 23, Isaiah delivers 10 messages to specific nations and Isaiah calls each of these messages in Hebrew a \u201cmassa\u201d, or in English a \u201cburden\u201d (sometimes also translated an \u201coracle\u201d). \u00a0When you read Isaiah 13-23 the tone and content are certainly heavy since much of Isaiah 13-23 is talking about judgment against various nations. \u00a0Still there are some important lessons we can learn as we go through this section of Isaiah.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 13:1-9 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0I have commanded my holy ones; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath– those who rejoice in my triumph.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations massing together! The\u00a0LORD\u00a0Almighty is mustering an army for war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25240,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25237\/revisions\/25240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}