Today in God’s Word

Today in God's Word—September 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ

September 20, Isaiah 13

The oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos saw. - Isaiah 13:1

It's a mistake to think that God only dealt with the nation of Israel during the time of the Old Testament. True enough, God made an exclusive covenant with Israel. But he also interacted with other nations. God made long- standing promises of blessing to Abraham and his descendants. But the Messianic promise also included the words, "all nations of the earth shall be blessed." God sometimes named rulers and told what they would do centuries before they were born. God sometimes put orders into pagan kings' hearts to do his will. He used their armies as tools of discipline and accessories to accomplish his purposes.

We usually think that the prophets were God's chosen messengers to Israel. Through these faithful servants, God sent warnings and called people to repentance. He restated and enlarged old covenant promises, rebuked their sins and showed them things to come.

Chapter 13 is the first of eleven chapters in a row in which we find God's messages to Isaiah about twelve different nations. Babylon is well known to modern Bible students, but was barely known when God showed Isaiah Babylon's doom. Remember, Assyria was the threat to Israel, Judah and all other nations in its path at the time. Isaiah foresaw Babylon's unlikely rise to power, their victory over the Assyrians and ultimately, Babylon's total destruction at the hands of a coalition of armies he would deploy to destroy the proud Babylonians.

These messages about Babylon and the other nations were called "oracles." Some older versions have "burden" instead of oracle. Burden is a good word for these threats and predictions of doom. When God sent a prophet to deliver a burden, it was not usually good news about the subject or to the addressee. The prophets' burdens or oracles were often messages of impending certain death and total

destruction. They were filled with vivid descriptions of horror and ruin that God would bring to the ungodly.

The "day of the LORD" is almost always a description of judgment. In both Old and New Testaments, the day of the LORD sometimes points to the final judgment at the end of the world when Christ returns. But in the Old Testament prophets, the phrase also refers to judgments in time and history when God punished his people or other nations for their ungodliness.

The oracle of Babylon is a good example of predictive prophecy. God revealed the Babylonians' rise and victory over Assyria before anyone in that day would have imagined it possible. The Lord also described its final ruin, long before Babylon even became a world power. As surely as God named and used nations to accomplish his purpose, he also punished them for their wickedness. Here Isaiah predicted that once-proud Babylon would be so devastated that wild animals would inhabit its ruins. He told Isaiah it would be impossible to tell that a great city had once stood on the site.

Predictive prophecy is testimony to the foreknowledge and sovereignty of God. It is not like the seven-day weather forecast that may or may not turn out to be correct. The words of the prophets were sure because they were words they received directly from God. God revealed the fates of nations centuries in advance. The Hebrew word for "Almighty" (the name God called himself in this prophecy) means "destruction.” Babylon was destined for an unlikely rise and violent destruction. It happened just as God said it would. And always, towering over all other prophecies, are the most glorious ones of all, about Jesus coming into the world to redeem us with his own blood.

Let's thank God again today for his sure word of promise. Let’s trust that the Lord means what he says, and humble ourselves. He is the God of grace and salvation to those who will humble themselves and bow to him as Lord. But proud,

ungodly rebels will find some other promises to be true as well, promises that guarantee with the same certainty the coming wrath of God against those who will not come to him through Christ. I want to be blessed by his merciful kindness and not suffer his wrath. Don’t you?

Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.