ISAIAH 14: “How God Judges Evil”
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study we looked
at the song of praise and thanksgiving which the redeemed remnant of Israel
will sing when they are brought back from the four corners of the earth to the
land of Israel, and then we will also begin to look at the judgment of the
nations of the earth which the Lord said He would carry out, starting with
Babylon.
1.1.1.
Concerning the judgment
determined to occur against
1.1.1.1.The origin and significance of Babylon
1.1.1.1.1.It was the first nation to form
1.1.1.1.2.It rebelled against the Lord to such an extent that in Revelation
chapter 18 it is called the Mother of all (spiritual) harlatries since every
occultish practice and belief can be traced back to them
1.1.1.1.3.In scripture the nation symbolizes mankind in rebellion against God
1.1.1.2.The fulfillment of prophesy against Babylon
1.1.1.2.1.The full scope of the prophetic judgments to occur against
1.1.1.3.
1.1.1.3.1.In order for the full scope of the prophesies to be fulfilled against
Babylon it is believed by many commentators that a resurrected city of Babylon
must be built before or during the 7 year Tribulation of the book of
Revelation, and then be destroyed by God
1.1.1.3.2.At one point Sadam Hussein was planned to rebuild the city which lies
in
1.2.
In our study today we are
going to finish looking at the prophesied judgment and destruction that was
coming against Babylon, and in looking at this see how that the Lord will
destroy all nations (for all rebel against Him) and that in the judgment and
destruction of the nations we see a picture of how the Lord is going to judge
all evil, including every fallen angel
1.2.1.
Isaiah also revisits the
judgment coming to Assyria
1.2.2.
Isaiah mentions the judgment
coming to
2.
VS 14:1-2 - “1 When the Lord will have
compassion on Jacob, and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own
land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of
Jacob.2 And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and
the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord
as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive,
and will rule over their oppressors.” - Isaiah tells us how the restoration of
2.1.
Whe
2.2.
The context of these verses is the judgment
of
2.3.
It is interesting to note also that the Lord
indicates that He is going to ‘have compassion on Jacob’ and ‘again choose
2.4.
Commentator Barry G. Webb
maintains that in history-past there was only a partial fulfillment of this
prophesy when, “Cyrus of Persia and his
successors not only allowed Judean exiles to return, but gave them material
assistance and forced others to serve them in the same way. But the complete fulfillment awaits the day anticipated
in the New Testament when the meek will inherit the earth and share in Jesus’
rule over the nations.”
2.5.
H.A. Ironside
saw this prophesy as “explaining” what Paul wrote in Eph. 4:8 that Jesus led
captivity captive. Ironside writes, “Barak was to lead captive those who had held
3.
VS 14:3-6 - “3 And it will be in the day when
the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which
you have been enslaved,4 that you will take up this taunt against the king of
Babylon, and say,“How the oppressor has ceased, And how fury has ceased! 5 “The Lord has broken the staff of the
wicked, The scepter of rulers 6 Which used to strike the peoples in fury with
unceasing strokes, Which subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained
persecution.” - Isaiah tells us how that when
3.1.
As was mentioned previously in our study, it
appears that to Isaiah that though
3.1.1.
3.1.1.1.Giving
to
3.1.1.2.Being
a furious oppressor.
3.1.1.3.Striking
the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes.
3.1.1.4.Subduing
the nations with unrestrained persecution.
3.1.2.
Perhaps we should see here that the ‘king of
3.1.3.
Whenever we get outside of the umbrella of
God’s protection as people, we place ourselves under the dominion of a harsh
task master, the devil. He is intent
upon destroying people’s lives as we see here which he performed in agitating
the nations to persecute God’s people, the Israelites.
3.1.3.1.Conversely,
what a blessing it is to know that the Lord surrounds and protects (Ps.
125:2; Zech. 2:5) those who are His
people and following Him closely, and thus who are under that umbrella of His
protection.
4.
VS 14:7-11
- “7 “The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; They break forth into shouts of joy. 8 “Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,
and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, ‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter
comes up against us.’9 Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when
you come; It arouses for you the spirits
of the dead, all the leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. 10 “They will all respond and say to you,
‘Even you have been made weak as we, You have become like us. 11 ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol; Maggots
are spread out as your bed beneath you, And worms are your covering.’” - Isaiah tells us that when the
wicked king of Babylon is judged that he will proceed to torment in Sheol below
where all the wicked from the earth will await his entry and taunt him
4.1.
When wickedness is judged and removed from
the earth, then and only then will there be peace on the earth. When the wicked king of Babylon, which
symbolizes all of the wicked kings upon the earth, is judged and removed from
the earth, then will the earth be ‘at rest’ and ‘quiet.’
4.2.
Isaiah tells us that when wickedness is
removed from the earth that even the trees rejoice. This reminds me of Paul’s writing in the book
of Romans where he shares that the whole creation groans awaiting eagerly the revealing
of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19-22) when the curse is removed from the earth and
it begin its restoration during the Millennial Reign of Christ.
4.3.
We see from these verses, that there is a
life after death that awaits every single person who has or will ever
live. For those who do not know God and
walk in His ways, there will be a life after death that is a life of torments
and taunting.
4.3.1.
Sheol here corresponds to the placed
described in the New Testament as ‘Hades’, but only the part of Hades where all
of those who were not God’s people and rebelled against His plans for them are
held prisoner until they are brought before the Great White Throne Judgment of
Rev. 20:11. All who come before this
throne will be condemned for all of eternity and throne into the
4.3.1.1.After
Jesus’ resurrection He took all of the dead throughout time who were God’s
people and who were being held in Abraham’s Bosom, the other compartment in
Hades, up to heaven with Him. These ones
now reside with God in heaven and will never stand before the Great White
Throne for judgment.
4.4.
Notice from these verses that the scriptures
are consistent and they do not teach an annihilation of those who have died,
nor that after death they will just be a spirit that is sort of absorbed into
the all. Each of these men are
recognized by the other kings of the earth, for whether or not a person who is
not one of God’s people and dies has a body or just a spirit in Hades, none the
less he is recognizable from everyone else, and the experiences of pain,
suffering, etc. will be just a real to him as those he experienced in this
life.
4.5.
For those who do not know the Lord and die,
though they may have been mighty, wealthy, and powerful on this earth, they
will be ‘weak’ and their magnificence and glory will be stripped away and their
glory will now be to be constantly being eaten upon by maggots.
4.5.1.
There will be no kings in hell only “chumps”,
therefore any person or even earthly king who exalts himself and lives for his
own glory will be ever so foolish for he will spend eternity stripped of
everything that men exalt and value upon this earth. Why would a person want to even be the
mightiest king on the face of the earth if when in a few short years he’ll die
and live eternally as just another “chump?”
4.5.2.
Men and women who refused to be humble upon
the earth will learn to be humble when they are stripped of all of their
earthly dignity, might, and glory for eternity.
4.5.3.
In Mark 9:43-44,
I believe that Jesus referenced this verse (note the maggots) in His
description of hell for those who cause others to stumble in this life, “43 “And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is
better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into
hell, into the unquenchable fire,44 [where their worm does not die, and the
fire is not quenched.]”
4.5.4.
If we Christians will faithfully live for
Christ and His glory now then we will be blessed for the inverse of what is
described here will happen in our lives.
These men and kings of the earth will have all of their glory removed
from them in Hades (and later in the
5.
VS 14:12-17 - “12 “How you have fallen from
heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the
nations! 13 “But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise
my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In
the recesses of the north. 14 ‘I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of
the pit. 16 “Those who see you will gaze
at you, They will ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth
tremble, Who shook kingdoms, 17 Who made the world like a wilderness And
overthrew its cities, Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’” - Isaiah tells us that the fall
of the king of
5.1.
Many commentators only see these verses as
containing poetic allegory and describing thereby only the fall into judgment
of the king of
5.1.1.
For instance, in Ezekiel
28:11-17, we see a very similar judgment described
concerning the king of Tyre, and in those verses Ezekiel also saw Satan, the
king of the fallen angels, as pictured in that judgment and destruction of the
king of Tyre, “11 Again the word of the
Lord came to me saying,12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of
Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God,“You had the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13
“You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond;
The beryl, the onyx, and the jasper;
The lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your
settings and sockets, Was in you. On the
day that you were created They were prepared.
14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you
there. You were on the holy
5.1.2.
We see then in these verses the rebellion of
Satan who tried to exalt himself above the Most High and cause all of the
angels to worship him, and concerning this interpretation and these verses Warren Wiersbe has written the following, “Lucifer (v. 12) is Latin for “morning star” and suggests that this
king’s glory did not last very long. The
morning star shines but is soon swallowed up by the light of the sun. The prophet saw in this event something far
deper than the defeat of an empire. In
the fall of the king of
5.1.2.1.So
then, perhaps the king of
5.2.
Notice that the sin of the
king of
5.2.1.
This describes the sin of
all men, for when men reject God they are also making
themselves out to be God. They are
exalting themselves, their wisdom, their plans, their goals, their desires,
their purposes, their creations, and they place themselves at the center of
their world. Self-centeredness most
describes sinful man I believe, which is the desire to be like God or to be
God.
5.2.2.
When a person becomes a
Christian, what he is doing is taking himself out of the
center of his world and placing Christ upon the
throne of his life and making Christ the center of his world.
5.2.2.1.His
life then revolves around Christ, His wisdom, His plans, His goals, His
desires, His purposes, His creations, and being subservient to Him.
5.2.3.
There was a book I read many years ago now by
a man named Jabay called, “The God Players.”
Jabay, a pastor, along with some other men whom he met with realized and
began to teach these Biblical concepts and how that the person who is bound in
his sins and sinful habits is playing God in his life and that when a person
becomes a Christian he lets God be God and he be he, so to speak. This then gives a person the power through
Christ to have victory in every area of his life, and thus allows him to have
victory over any addictions of his flesh.
Those who later embraced these same concepts eventually branched off and
began the Alcoholic’s Anonymous and 12 Step groups. Though this movement was originally based
completely upon scripture and Christ, the AA type of groups secularized the
concepts and applied them to any higher power.
The first step then in their programs is always to admit that you have
not the power in yourself to get better and therefore need a higher power for
your help.
5.3.
We saw previously in this chapter that there
would be taunting of the king of Babylon when he arrived in Sheol (the torments
of Hades), and here we see that same theme where the wicked in Sheol are
astonished that one who had so tormented and dominated the nations was now cast
down to such humiliation and weakness.
5.3.1.
If Satan then is symbolized by the king of
5.3.1.1.In
Rev. 20:10, before the Great Throne
Judgment is to occur, we read that the devil must first be thrown into the Lake
of Fire, “10 And the devil who deceived them was
thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false
prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
5.3.1.2.Satan
will be seen to be weak and powerless on the day that he is thrown into the
6.
VS 14:18-23 - “18 “All the kings of the nations
lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. 19
“But you have been cast out of your tomb Like a rejected branch, Clothed with
the slain who are pierced with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a trampled corpse. 20 “You will not
be united with them in burial, Because you have ruined your country, You have
slain your people. May the offspring of
evildoers not be mentioned forever. 21
“Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter Because of the iniquity of their
fathers. They must not arise and take
possession of the earth And fill the face of the world with cities.” 22 “And I will rise up against them,”
declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors,
offspring and posterity,” declares the Lord.23 “I will also make it a
possession for the hedgehog, and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the
broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.” - Isaiah tells us that the king of
6.1.
God will judge all of the wicked nations of
the earth and all of their kings, for He is a just and righteous God and no
respector of persons.
6.2.
In Isaiah’s day they created great mausoleums
for the great kings of the earth after they have passed away, however there shall
be no glory for the king of
6.3.
There will be no posterity for the king of
6.4.
The grave of the king of
7.
VS 14:24-27 - “24 The Lord of hosts has sworn
saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have
planned so it will stand,25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him
on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them, and his burden
removed from their shoulder.26 “This is the plan devised against the whole
earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations.27
“For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His
stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”” - Isaiah tells us that the Lord will judge
7.1.
We have already seen in the book of Isaiah
that he had prophesied of the total destruction that was coming to the nation
of Assyria after the Lord had used her to judge the nations, including the
northern kingdom of Israel whom she took into captivity, as well as the
southern kingdom whose land she overran but whom she never fully defeated.
7.2.
Isaiah repeats that judgment is coming upon
Assyria, however he adds that the Lord is going to judge
7.2.1.
No nation upon the earth shall escape the
judgment of the Lord that is going to come, for all of the nations have
determined their own fate and refused to submit themselves to the counsel and
purposes of the Lord.
7.3.
Isaiah tells us that the Lord is ready to
soon judge all of the nations for His hand is already ‘stretched-out’ to
perform that judgment.
8.
VS 14:28-32 - “28 In the year that King Ahaz
died this oracle came: 29 “Do not
rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, Because the rod that struck you is
broken; For from the serpent’s root a
viper will come out, And its fruit will be a flying serpent. 30 “And those who are most helpless will eat,
And the needy will lie down in security;
I will destroy your root with famine, And it will kill off your
survivors. 31 “Wail, O gate; cry, O
city; Melt away, O
8.1.
Isaiah told us in chapter 6 that he received
his prophetic calling in the year that king Uzziah died, and now he tells us
that he received this oracle concerning
8.2.
The Philistines had always been enemies of
God’s people, and the Old Testament tells us of how King David had been the
greatest conqueror of the Philistines, beginning when he killed their supreme
warrior, Goliath.
8.2.1.
God would judge the Philistines because of
their wickedness in rejecting the Lord and subservience to Him, as well as
their constant enmity against His people.
8.3.
The Philistines were rejoicing because the ‘rod’,
believed to be the leader, of the Assyrians had died, however Isaiah tells the
Philistines that they shouldn’t be so quick to rejoice for out of that
‘serpent’ ruler’s root (descendant) a deadly poisonous viper, described as a
‘flying serpent’, would replace
him. A much worse ruler was to
arise.
8.3.1.
8.3.2.
The Philistine cities are doomed Isaiah tells
us.
8.4.
God’s judgments were to be coming against all
of the nations, however as Isaiah said at the beginning of this chapter, the
Lord will restore and again choose