ISAIAH 46-47 “
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study we looked
at how that the Lord was again putting Himself and His reputation on the line by
declaring that indeed Cyrus will come and deliver the captive Judeans who will
be living in Babylon some 100+ years after Isaiah’s writing
1.1.1.
The Lord again sought in
chapter 45 to make it as clear as possible that He is declaring the future
before it occurs so that all men can see that He alone is God and that there is
no else like Him, and there never will be
1.1.2.
These captive Judeans were
encouraged by the Lord to gather themselves together and to come out of Babylon
when the events prophesied in chapter 45 concerning Cyrus and his deliverance
of
1.1.3.
We saw yet again that Israel
has been called to be the Lord’s witnesses, and when the Lord delivers them in
a mighty way after prophesying that He would do this at least 100+ years
before, then the general calling is going to go out from the Lord for all men
to be encouraged to come to the Lord and to be saved
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at chapters 46 and 47 of Isaiah which deal again with the conquer
of Babylon that is going to happen through the man that the Lord names as
‘Cyrus’, and though it is repetitious of things that the Lord has already told
us, there are new details found in these prophetic declarations
1.2.1.
Chapter 46 is a last-ditch
appeal to Israel to turn back to the Lord as the Lord calls upon her to
consider her past and the great works which the Lord has done on her behalf in
deliverance from her enemies, and determine what of the gods of all of the
nations can do the things that the Lord does, and which of them can reveal the
end from the beginning of things, as the Lord does
1.2.1.1.The future generation of captive Judeans will eventually see the
futility of idolatry and never fall into it again
1.2.2.
Chapter 47 deals more with
Babylon itself and reveals that the future generation of Babylonians will bear
the consequences in judgment because of the sins of their fathers who sinned by
the harsh, merciless, and senseless violence which they committed against God’s
people in taking them into captivity
1.2.2.1.When we study this chapter, it is good to remember that Babylon is also
a symbol in the purposes of God of every nation that is in rebellion against
the Lord, and thus her fate is a foreshadowing of what shall happen to every
nation that is in rebellion against the Lord
2.
VS 46:1-2 - “1 Bel has bowed down, Nebo
stoops over; Their images are consigned
to the beasts and the cattle. The things
that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast. 2 They stooped over, they have bowed down
together; They could not rescue the
burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.” - Isaiah tells us that the Babylonian gods Bel
and Nebo will stoop over and bow down and be taken into captivity
2.1.
Isaiah has been showing us in the previous
few chapters how that the man named ‘Cyrus’, who was to come upon the scene in
the future, would conquer Babylon and allow the captive people of the Lord, the
Judeans, to go free from Babylon. Again,
as we have seen these prophesies were written for a generation of Judeans
living 100+ years after the writing of Isaiah whom Isaiah had revealed
prophetically would be taken captive to Babylon. We know that Isaiah wrote this chapter
somewhere around 700 BC and that the Babylonians took
2.1.1.
The northern kingdom had been taken captive
by the Assyrians before the time of Isaiah’s writing, and so since they had
never followed the Lord throughout the history of their kings, they were given
up by the Lord and dispersed into all of the nations after landing in
2.2.
J. Alec Motyer
writes about these gods Bel and Nebo and what they meant to the Babylonian
culture, “Bel (Marduk) was the
city-god of
2.2.1.
So, Isaiah in his time had seen the
Babylonian gods of Bel and Nebo evacuated when the Assyrian king Sennacherib
had attacked Babylon, and now prophetically he saw that when Cyrus would in the
future attack Babylon that the people would again be evacuating their gods
before the Persian army.
2.2.2.
Isaiah then is in a sense mocking idolatry by
showing the ridiculousness of gods who cannot save themselves, and at the same
time showing the futility of trusting in gods who cannot protect themselves.
3.
VS 46:3-7 - “3 “Listen to Me, O house of
Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by
Me from birth, And have been carried from the womb; 4 Even to your old age, I shall be the same,
And even to your graying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall carry you; And I shall bear you, and I shall deliver
you. 5 “To whom would you liken Me, And
make Me equal and compare Me, That we should be alike? 6 “Those who lavish gold from the purse And
weigh silver on the scale Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. 7 “They lift it upon the shoulder and carry
it; They set it in its place and it
stands there. It does not move from its
place. Though one may cry to it, it
cannot answer; It cannot deliver him
from his distress.” - The Lord makes one last appeal to His people
Judea to compare Him with all of the other gods of the nations and determine
whether or not those other gods can deliver those who trust in them as He had
in the past and would in the future, deliver them
3.1.
The Lord in these verses is reminding the
Judeans of their history as a nation who was established by the Lord. He describes the nation as having been born
from the Lord from birth, and having been carried from the womb by the Lord
even to their old age. All throughout
her history, the Lord had delivered His people from their enemies whenever they
had turned to Him in humility, repentence, and faith. The Lord delivered them as slaves from
3.2.
In His last appeal to His people to turn back
to Him from idolatry, the Lord compares Himself to the idols of the other
nations. The Lord tells them that the
people who build an idol of god or silver hire a goldsmith to make their
god. Then, when it is completed they bow
down to it and worship it, and then they lift it upon their shoulder and carry
to where they will set it in its place where it will not move. However, all throughout this idol cannot answer
a word to those who cry out to it for help in their distress. The Lord on the other hand hears the prayers
of His people and when their hearts are pure and repentant towards Him He will
reveal His power and strong hand on their behalf as He rescues them.
4.
VS 46:8-11 - “8 “Remember this, and be
assured; Recall it to mind, you
transgressors. 9 “Remember the former
things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10
Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have
not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish
all My good pleasure’; 11 Calling a bird
of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to
pass. I have planned it, surely I will
do it.” - The
Lord asks His people, whom He calls ‘transgressors’ to remember the ‘former
things long past’ when He used to be their God and deliver them
4.1.
The Lord appeals to
4.2.
The Lord tells
4.3.
The Lord again refers to Cyrus as the man
whom the Lord promises would in the future come from the east and conquer
5.
VS 46:12-13 - “12 “Listen to Me, you
stubborn-minded, Who are far from righteousness. 13 “I bring near My righteousness, it is not
far off; And My salvation will not
delay. And I will grant salvation in
Zion, And My glory for Israel.” - The Lord calls to the stubborn and those who
are far from righteousness to listen to the Lord’s declaration that His
deliverance for Judea and
5.1.
The Lord’s deliverance for
5.2.
‘
5.3.
The Lord tells the Judeans that when He
delivers them that His ‘glory’ will be revealed. The Lord will show that He indeed is God and
that His word can be trusted.
6.
VS 47:1-5 - “1 “Come down and sit in the
dust, O virgin daughter of
6.1.
When we aren’t obedient to the Lord our
disobedience can have drastic effects upon those closest to us. They can follow our bad example!
6.2.
The Lord tells the ‘virgin daughter of
6.2.1.
In our country, our president, congress, and
house of representatives, have for many years lived for what was best for the
people of that day with little thought for those who would come along
generations later. The robbing of the
Social Security fund which all of us have to pay into have caused it to
continually dwindle to such and extent that those of future generations will
receive little or none of the benefit of the money they have paid into it. The future generations of Babylonians would
reap the consequence of the treacherous and barbarous acts of the Babylonians
against God’s people as they have no mercy for them or their city and land, and
take them captives as slaves to their land.
6.2.2.
The innocence of this future generation of
Babylonians would be taken away and their vulnerability revealed, as Isaiah
tells us they will:
6.2.2.1.‘No
longer be called tender and delicate.’
6.2.2.2.Their
veil would be removed.
6.2.2.3.Their
skirt would be stripped off.
6.2.2.4.Their
nakedness would be revealed.
6.2.2.5.Their
shame would be exposed.
6.2.3.
This future generation of Babylonians would
themselves become captive slaves performing menial work such as grinding meal
with millstones.
6.3.
The Lord promises that He will take vengeance
against
6.4.
The Lord tells the Babylonians to sit in
darkness for they will no longer be called the ‘queen of kingdoms.’
7.
VS 47:6-9 - “6 “I was angry with My people, I
profaned My heritage, And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged
you made your yoke very heavy. 7 “Yet
you said, ‘I shall be a queen forever.’
These things you did not consider, Nor remember the outcome of
them. 8 “Now, then, hear this, you
sensual one, Who dwells securely, Who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is
no one besides me. I shall not sit as a
widow, Nor shall I know loss of children.’
9 “But these two things shall come on you suddenly in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They shall come on you in full measure In
spite of your many sorceries, In spite of the great power of your spells.” - The Lord tells the
Babylonians that He handed His people over to them because of His anger with
His people, however the Babylonians then were not merciful to His people and
their violence against them was random and senseless
7.1.
The reason that the Lord would now judge and
bring down
7.2.
7.3.
The Lord tells the Babylonians that it will
come upon them suddenly, in one day, that they will ‘sit as a widow’ and one
who had experienced ‘loss of children.’
7.3.1.
Prophesy was fulfilled in this verse because
history records that when Cyrus attacked
7.4.
8.
VS 47:10-13 - “10 “And you felt secure in your
wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they
have deluded you; For you have said in
your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’ 11 “But evil will come on you which you will
not know how to charm away; And disaster
will fall on you For which you cannot atone, And destruction about which you do
not know Will come on you suddenly. 12
“Stand fast now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have
labored from your youth; Perhaps you
will be able to profit, Perhaps you may cause trembling. 13 “You are wearied with your many
counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those
who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and
save you from what will come upon you.” - The Lord tells
8.1.
The Babylonians, as was mentioned above, made
the mistake that most powerful men and nations make in being carried away with
their own power and glory.
8.2.
In fact, after the capture by Cyrus the
Persian,
8.3.
The Lord goads the Babylonians to stand fast
in their occult sorceries, which had wearied them with their many counselors,
and then the Lord tells the Babylonians to consult the astrologers during this
time of calamity so that they might be able to predict based upon the stars
what would next befall them.
8.3.1.
Astrology is such a ridiculous occult
practice when you think of it. The
astrologer looks to the stars for the alignment of the sun, moon, planets and
stars to determine what influence these planets would have upon events that
occur. They believe that each planet
exerts a certain distinct type of influence or drive upon men and women and is
therefore associated with a certain astrological sign. A horoscope then details the alignment of
these heavenly bodies during a particular designated point in time, and
indicates which astrological sign(s) is being most influential. By the way, the sun exerts trillions of times
more and the moon exerts millions of times more gravitational pull upon the
earth than any planet. The influence of
any planet upon the earth is not even measurable at this point in time, I do
not believe, and the measure of any star’s influence is definitely
immeasurable. Yet, superstitiously
astrologers follow the guidelines of this ancient art whose roots go all of the
way back to the first nation,
8.3.2.
It is interesting how that when a man or a
nation turns away from the Lord that they end up consulting all of these vain
occult sources for knowledge of what the future holds. In our own nation, president Reagan claimed
during his election campaigns that he was a born-again Christian, and yet it
was revealed later that he consulted an astrologer when he was trying to
determine the best and most appropriate time for the decisions he made and
meetings he held.
8.4.
The futility of all of the occult practices
would be revealed when
9.
VS 47:14-15 - “14 “Behold, they have become
like stubble, Fire burns them; They
cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame; There will be no coal to warm by, Nor a fire
to sit before! 15 “So have those become
to you with whom you have labored, Who have trafficked with you from your
youth; Each has wandered in his own
way. There is none to save you.” - The Lord tells the
Babylonians that they will be burned up like stubble in the fire and they will
not be able to deliver themselves
9.1.
The fire of the Lord’s judgment is pronounced
upon the nation of
9.2.
The Lord tells