Isaiah 13 JUDGMENT ON THE GENTILES The next ten chapters are mainly concerning prophecies, or burdens, that relate to the nations around the Middle East. God is involved in the life of every nation even though to Him they are a mere “drop in a bucket.” The prophecies are called a “burden,” implying that the message Isaiah gave was not just to lift something up, as we would usually use the word, but that a burden was a judgment an offender must bear because of their actions. In this section of the book of Isaiah, Gentile nations were warned as to what was going to happen to them. The Lord had used them to discipline and punish the children of Israel because of their rebellion, idolatry and departure from Him.
The Jews didn’t listen to the warnings the prophets gave them, nor would they obey the commands of the Lord. Consequently, foreign nations were the means God used to bring just judgment on them.
Nations have often been used as tools by God to bring correction in behavior on other nations. Some have brought judgment on others even though they are not subject as a people to the worship or even belief in God. Because God uses us to deal with others, either for good or bad, does not make us immune to the consequences of our own sins. To do what is right in some matters does not mean we get away with evil in others. God is just in all His dealings with us. If He chooses to use us in some way, that is a marvelous privilege, but that does not obligate Him to us in any way.
The Jews had set up idols across the land and they were worshipping false gods of the nations around them. Those nations were not excused from just judgment on them either, because of their continuing wicked ways. Some of the things we read they did in the name of religion are disgusting, degrading and damning. Some even sacrificed their own children for their own religious pleasure. But lest we get to haughty and say, “How could they do such things?” we need to remember the number one killer of human life in this country is abortion. Assyria brought judgment on Syria and the northern tribes of Israel. The Medes and Persians brought judgment on Assyria. Yet we read that “in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of Him.”
Babylon was a major center under the reign of several empires. There were believers who lived there, and even some of the pagan kings who ruled, had the fear of God come on them as God dealt with them in various ways through the captive Jews who were there. Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius and other kings had a certain respectful fear of God about them because of God’s dealings with the Jews who were captives there. Warnings were given by Isaiah about the fall of empires that relate to the ten different national powers he wrote about, beginning with Babylon in chapter thirteen to the destruction of Tyre in chapter twenty-three.
The Jews had become like all the nations around and Jerusalem was included as one of the places that would be totally razed to the ground because of the authority of divine justice. Sin does not go unpunished. “Be sure your sin will find you out,” includes nations as well as individual. Those people and nations that have been highly privileged above others, face a more severe judgment because they know better than to do what they know is wrong, but go ahead with evil practices anyway.
How can we describe the human atrocities that have been, and still are, committed against others? In this whole section of Isaiah, we can learn about and see the results of sin that is prompted and carried out though men who are under the control of the devil. The powers of darkness are allowed to carry out judgments until the repentant sinner, or the repentant nation says, “That’s enough! We must stop this! We have gone too far!” Obviously, there is more behind all of this evil that is going on around us than just some people wanting what other people have. Satan is at work.
What happened to those ancient people was an illustration of what is yet to come during “the day of the Lord.” Other prophets beside Isaiah warned the people of Israel long after Isaiah’s prophecies regarding the coming catastrophes that will happen during the tribulation. The sin-loving people of the earth will all fear, and multitudes will die because of the sinful choices they make. Just because we know that God is longsuffering and not willing that any should perish, and He is a God of love, doesn’t mean that people will not reap what they sow.
The literal physical destruction of Babylon was prophesied by Isaiah long before it happened. The people must have laughed off his warnings the way people do today. In spite of the many lessons, history teaches few people take seriously the fact of national and personal destruction because of willful sin. Those people living at that time would have looked at the glory and beauty of the great city of Babylon and would think it would be there forever. All of those ancient cities experienced the judgment they deserved. Jerusalem has been leveled to the ground various times and the new city is built on top of the rubble of the old one.
The nations who conquered and took the people captive, will be conquered and taken captive themselves, Isaiah prophesied. Our Lord Jesus Christ when He was here, conquered those who had conquered us by His suffering, death, burial and resurrection. Satan, sin, hell and death have been defeated by the mighty victory He won for us when He was here and died on the cross in our place. In the day of the Lord yet to come, He will claim the prize of a restored Israel and will reign. The whole world will then know all He accomplished when He died on the cross and was the Mighty Conqueror.
World powers only have a limited time, and then because of pride and wickedness, they will fade into the dark pages of history. Nations like ours, often disintegrate from within and then disappear because of the moral pollution that is allowed to go unchecked and unjudged. One wonders how far into moral and spiritual degradation people can go before they pass the point of no return. Judah continued some time after Isaiah’s prophecy was given, but the captivity prophesied eventually came. Jews have survived as a recognizable people simply because the Lord God made a covenant with them when He chose them to be His earthly people with whom He would dwell on earth. Other identities in this prophecy are no longer recognized and we only know of their existence because of these ancient written records.