Babylon
Isa 13:1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Isaiah saw from God the future of Babylon, that great nation. The prophecy was difficult to speak, for it was a heavy message of importance.
A prophet must speak the word of God, even if it is difficult for him. Jonah had refused to speak to Assyria, because he hated them. If you hate someone, one way to despise them is to hide Gods salvation from them. A prophet must speak God's word, for this is his calling. He is not called to understand it, or interpret it, but to speak it.
Isaiah was one hundred years before Babylon would come to take Judah captive. The LORD looked ahead to see the pride of Babylon and called out it's judgement. Perhaps, our nation is like Babylon, remember that God is no respecter of persons. Take heed at this prophecy that continues through chapter 14. A nation away from God and glorying in it's own wealth and power, should take note.
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
Acts 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Judgement Sent to Babylon
Isa 13:2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
The Medes and the Persians gather to come against Babylon; that they may enter the gates of the nobles or rich; the wealthy of the city. This has come to pass but also could happen in the future, when the wealthy nations who leave God's protection are plundered by foreign nations.
Isa 13:3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
The LORD sanctifies, sets aside these nations as instruments of judgement, to show God's wrath. They were not holy nations, committed to God, but God would use them. God will use the devil too, to punish, but the devil is not any good. They that rejoice my highness, in that my purpose is accomplished. God is glorified when his will is done.
In the last days his seven angels will pour his wrath upon mystical Babylon.
Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 16:1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
Isa 13:4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
Isa 13:5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
for Cyrus's army consisted of several kingdoms and nations; for besides the thirty thousand Persians he brought with him. These were brought together by the will of God, the LORD of hosts.
They come from afar to destroy the land, sent by the LORD. In the day of the LORD, the angels shall destroy all wickedness from the world.
Jer 51:28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
Jer 51:29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Isa 13:7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall
melt:
Belshazzar and his nobles were feasting when destruction came upon them. This was at hand, but actually was more than a hundred years in the future. God's time is not our time.
Dan 5:2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
Dan 5:5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Dan 5:6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
Ezek 21:7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.
Isa 13:8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
The nation will be taken by complete surprise. They would be as helpless as a woman travailing in birth. Their faces would darken, red, yellow, whatever the appearance of one in deep anguish and fear.
Isa 21:3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
Isa 21:4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
The Day Of The LORD
Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
From the coming peril; to Babylon of old, we shift to the end time Babylon. The world's way must give way to the LORD and His righteousness. The beast will rule and all the nations shall worship him. The people of God will suffer persecution and be martyred. When Jesus returns he will send his angels to destroy the sinners.
Mat 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Mat 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Isa 13:11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Rev 2:25 But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Jesus is the Morning star coming from the East.
Rev 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Rev 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
Rev 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Babylon plundered
Isa 13:12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
This is a continuation of the things that will come against Babylon. Men will be precious, perhaps because there will be so few left alive?
Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
Isa 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
The wrath of the LORD is always against unrighteousness and sin. The LORD is slow to anger, but when it is time to judge the nations, it is a terrible time.
Isa 13:14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
Babylon and it's might will flee as frightened week animals.
Isa 13:15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
A terrible time for Babylon as the Persians make war.
Isa 13:16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
This occurred after the death of Alexander the great.
Babylon to be uninhabited
Isa 13:17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
The Medes and the Persians were single minded; to destroy their enemy, Babylon. Nations who bribe other nations to get them to not be at war, including our own nation, should take heed to this. They were not interested in silver or gold, but their desire was to destroy. The LORD will use ungodly nations to punish those who have forsaken him.
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
The best defense is to repent and turn to the LORD for help.
Isa 13:18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
The LORD has commanded at times, the complete destruction of an evil nation. It is righteous wrath upon an evil people. The LORD had ordered King Saul to destroy the Amalekites in 1Kings.
1 Sam 15:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
1 Sam 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
Saul disobeyed and the LORD's anointing left him. In the end, Saul was killed by an Amalekite. That thing we refuse to do from the LORD, may be our undoing. The LORD requires obedience.
Isa 13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Babylon was the greatest of nations, full of mans glory, but they had no place for the LORD. They were compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, who were destroyed because of sexual and moral evil.
Isa 13:20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
The city of Babylon was never rebuilt. It is located in Iraq. Sadaam Hussein, spoke of being a modern day King nebuchadnezzar, with plans to rebuild Babylon, but he was executed for genocide.
Isa 13:21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
Darkness and confusion surround what was once that city. A Satyr in Greek mythology was half man and half goat. It desired unrestrained revelry, A licentious man; a lecher.
Isa 13:22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
One thought of these mystical beasts: satyrs and dragons, would be to apply this verse to mystical Babylon, the corrupt and wealthy nations, who leave the truth of God for fantasies, who worship mystical creatures instead of the true living God. Their destruction shall come if they remain far from the Redeemer and the God who created them. We know that all nations will worship the beast and that God's people will live forever. Live each day in the light of His truth.
Isaiah 14
Isaiah 1 Table of Contents
Eaglewings Ministries
Eaglewings Journal