The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter opens as a mocking dirge over Babylon, pictured as a proud princess forced into humiliation. "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon... there is no throne." The city that ruled the world will lose her throne. The "tender and delicate" queen who never knew labor is told to "take the millstones, and grind meal", the drudgery of the lowest slave, and to "make bare the leg" to wade through rivers into exile. Her "nakedness shall be uncovered," her shame exposed, for God says, "I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man", He will not deal softly. And then, right in the middle of the sentence of doom, comes the reason and the comfort: "As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel." Babylon falls because God is His people's Redeemer, and He has arisen to defend them.

Gospel Focus

Babylon in Scripture is far more than an ancient city; she is the standing symbol of this world's proud, God-defying system, and the New Testament revives her in Revelation 17-18 as the great harlot who says, "I sit a queen... and shall see no sorrow," and falls "in one day" (Revelation 18:7-8). Her fall here is a preview of the fall of every proud power that exalts itself against God. And notice the placement of verse 4: right in the middle of Babylon's ruin stands "our redeemer, the LORD of hosts... the Holy One of Israel." The judgment of the oppressor and the redemption of God's people are two sides of the same act. God did not merely happen to let Babylon fall; He rose as Redeemer to answer the cruelty done to His people. That Redeemer is the Lord we know in Jesus, who will one day put down every proud "Babylon" and vindicate His own. So do not be dismayed when the world's proud kingdoms seem untouchable. Their thrones are dust before the Redeemer, and He who is "the LORD of hosts" stands in the midst of their fall as the Saviour of His people.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God orders the fallen queen into silence and darkness, stripped of her title "The lady of kingdoms." Then He exposes her sin. First, cruelty: God had handed His people to Babylon for discipline, "I was wroth with my people... and given them into thine hand," but Babylon overreached, "thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." She was harsh even to the old. Second, pride and false security: "thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever," never imagining an end. She dwells "carelessly," saying in her heart the blasphemous words, "I am, and none else beside me... I shall not sit as a widow." But God announces that "in a moment in one day" she will lose everything, "the loss of children, and widowhood," suddenly and completely, because of "the multitude of thy sorceries." Trusting her wickedness and her occult "wisdom," and saying "None seeth me," she is deceived. So the sentence falls: "desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know", ruin she will not see coming and cannot ward off.

Gospel Focus

Babylon's greatest sin is the sin that lies at the bottom of all sin: she says, "I am, and none else beside me", the very words God speaks of Himself. This is the creature seizing the Creator's throne, the same ambition that first said, "I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:14), and that will finally sit in the temple of God "shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4). Every human pride is a small version of this: to live as if we were the center, the source, the god of our own lives. And it always rests on the lie "None seeth me." But God does see. "There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves" (Job 34:22). The self-secure who think their good times will never end, who "dwell carelessly" and say "I shall see no sorrow," are exactly the ones on whom "desolation shall come... suddenly." Jesus warned of the same: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:20). The cure for Babylon's sin is humility, to step down from the throne of self, confess that God alone is God and none else, and live before the One who sees all. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble" (James 4:6). Do not say in your heart, "I am, and none else"; bow before the One of whom alone it is true.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God closes with biting sarcasm, daring Babylon to summon the whole arsenal of her occult wisdom: "Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries... if so be thou shalt be able to profit." She is "wearied in the multitude of thy counsels", exhausted from consulting her endless advisors, so let them try now: "Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee." But they are useless: "Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame." The occult experts cannot even save themselves, let alone Babylon. Not even a warming coal will be left. Her advisors and "merchants" who worked with her from her youth will scatter, each fleeing his own way. And the verdict rings out with finality: "none shall save thee." All Babylon's wisdom, wealth, and magic come to nothing in the day of God's judgment.

Gospel Focus

This is one of the Bible's clearest exposures of the occult and of every counterfeit source of guidance and security. Babylon poured her life into "enchantments," "sorceries," and "astrologers... stargazers... monthly prognosticators," and in the day of trouble they were "as stubble," unable even to save themselves. Scripture consistently forbids these things and declares them powerless, "there shall not be found among you any one that... useth divination, or an observer of times... or a witch... For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Horoscopes, fortune-tellers, mediums, and every attempt to peer into the future or control life apart from God are not merely forbidden; they are useless, "none shall save thee." Only the God who "declares the end from the beginning" holds the future, and only He can save. This is the great difference between Babylon and Zion: Babylon labored from her youth in sorceries that could not save, while God says to His people, "Look unto me, and be ye saved" (Isaiah 45:22). Do not turn to the stars or to any counterfeit for the guidance and security that belong to God alone. When the fire comes, the astrologers burn like stubble, but "the name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10). Run to the Redeemer, for none but He can save.