Isaiah 21:1-10

D. IRREVERENT ENEMIES - Chapter S 21-23
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
1.

BABYLON, EDOM AND ARABIA

a. BABYLON

TEXT: Isaiah 21:1-10

1

The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it cometh from the wilderness, from a terrible land.

2

A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous man dealeth treacherously, and the destroyer destroyeth. Go up, O Elam; besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

3

Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see,

4

My heart fluttereth, horror hath affrighted me; the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.

5

They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, ye princes, anoint the shield,

6

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman; Let him declare what he seeth:

7

and when he seeth a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels, he shall harken diligently with much heed.

8

And he cried as a lion: O Lord, I stand continually upon the watch-tower in the day-time and am set in my ward whole nights;

9

and, behold, here cometh a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. And he answered and said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground.

10

O thou my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

QUERIES

a.

Who is the wilderness of the sea?

b.

Who is preparing the table and eating and drinking?

c.

Who is the watchman?

PARAPHRASE

This is the message of Jehovah concerning Babylon, that city sitting in a wilderness of waters. A storm of devastation is roaring down upon her from the territory of terror, like the cyclone sweeps out of the southern deserts of the Negev. I see a vision that makes me grieve. Babylon has deceived and exploited many peoples. So I command the Elamites and Medes to besiege her and bring her oppressions to an end. This will give peace and healing to those she has oppressed. When I see what God has planned for Babylon I am overcome with horror and feeling for them. My stomach cramps and churns with sharp pain like that of a woman giving birth to a child. The awesomeness of it consumes all my senses so that I do not hear or see anything else around me. My mind reels; my heart palpitates; I am overwhelmed with the terror of it. The nightonce affording me relaxation and rest and pleasurehas now become long hours of restless trembling. Look! They are engrossed in banqueting, watching their enemy approach. They are oblivious to their danger because they are reveling with eating and drinking. Suddenly, their enemy upon them before they know it, they will be crying, Quick, quick, grab your shields and anoint them for battle! We are being attacked! And the Lord told me, Put a watchman there to observe. Let this watchman tell what he sees. When this watchman sees soldiers, cavalrymen in pairs, troops of donkeys, troops of camels, tell him to pay diligent attention to everything he sees and hears. So I put the watchman to watch and eventually he cried, O Sovereign Lord, I have been standing continually in my place of watching day after day and night after night, and suddenly troops of soldiers come, including troops of cavalrymen. And the watchman reported what he had beheld, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and all her false gods lie broken on the ground. O my oppressed people, that which I, Isaiah, have heard from Jehovah, the God of Israel, I declare to you to comfort you and strengthen your faith.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 21:1-5 VISION: That this is Babylon is evident from Isaiah 21:9. Babylon was situated in the Mesopotamian lowlands, in the Euphrates River valley. In fact, the Euphrates River cut through the center of the great city. Hundreds of canals branched off the River into all the areas of the city making it literally a wilderness of seas. It is not unusual for a river to be called a sea (Cf. Isaiah 19:5). A cyclonic force of humanity from a terrible land is to swoop down upon Babylon at some future time. If Isaiah made this prediction of Babylon's fall near 706-705 B.C. it would anticipate the actual historical event by approximately 170 years! Babylon did not win domination of the world until about 612 B.C. (at the battle of Carcemish). The Jewish captivity of Babylon began about 606 B.C. The conquest of Babylon by the Medes and Persians took place about 538 B.C. (See our comments on Daniel, chapter 5, for details on the conquest of Babylon by Medo-Persia). Why Isaiah deals with an empire yet to be born so many years in advance of its birth we shall speak of later. In Isaiah 21:2 the prophet characterizes his feelings and the personality of the Babylonian empire. The vision grieves the prophet. The Babylonians will be deceitful and devious and a people who will despoil and exploit the whole world. It is nothing short of amazing that Isaiah should know 170 years in advance the very people, by name, who would conquer this unborn Babylonian empire! It can only be explained by supernatural revelation. The Elamites and the Medes (later to become the Medo-Persian amalgamation) were the very ones history records as Babylon's conquerors. This territory now belongs to Iran.

Isaiah was overwhelmed with grief at this vision. He writhed in anguish like a woman giving birth to a child. He could concentrate on nothing else. Its horror consumed him. Its awesomeness made his mind reel and his heart palpitate. He could not sleep at night. Why was he so gripped with its horribleness? Edward J. Young writes, From this it appears that the prophet experienced deep emotion not merely over his own people, but even over the enemy. He was a man of tender compassion, and the news that stark events were to overcome the world brings upon him painful anguish. Perhaps if we knew today of the future catastrophic and cataclysmic upheavels in national and international structures we would be overwhelmed with grief and anguish. Any man of God grieves over the tribulation and oppression of others any time it occurs. Most Americans who can remember the atomic holocaust over Hiroshima, Japan, and its consequences, even though Japan was at the time America's enemy, remembers his horror and compassion for those Japanese who suffered in it. Perhaps the stupidity and gross sensuality of the Babylonians visualized by Isaiah even as their enemies marched toward their city, also caused the prophet to be upset. Again, amazingly, Isaiah predicts the exact situation among the Babylonians upon the night of their downfall (Cf. our comments in Daniel, chapter 5). Belshazzar was eating and drinking with his noblemen when the handwriting appeared on the wall and Cyrus and the Medes appeared inside the city. The Medes were upon them so suddenly the Babylonians hardly had time to prepare (anoint with oil from their pagan altars) their shields for war. This anointing was probably some superstition seeking the aid of their gods in battle.

Isaiah 21:6-10. VERIFICATION: Who is this watchman? It is our opinion that God was instructing Isaiah to appeal to those who believed his prophecy to pass along this prophecy to future generations who would watch diligently as historic events fullfilled and verified Isaiah's predictions. These future generations of a faithful remnant would then read and remind all who would hear that Isaiah's prophecies were sure and certain. God would chasten His people, but He would also deliver them. Joel bids those who witnessed the locust plague to pass on the information from one generation to another in order to interpret God's actions of chastening in the world. Jeremiah predicted the death of Hananiah. Hananiah's death verified Jeremiah's authenticity as a prophet (Cf. Jeremiah 28:5-17). The Elamites used asses and the Medes used camels as animals of warfare. When the Judeans of the future should see this great mass of mounted warriors approaching Babylon they should know their deliverance from Babylon's captivity was near. All their songs and sighings of oppression in captivity would cease. The Persians in two short years would begin (536) the restoration of the Jews to their land. The word lion is not in the best, most ancient, Hebrew texts. It is not in the Isaiah manuscript of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The cry of those with faith to take Isaiah at his word and watch is: Fallen, fallen, is Babylon! Babylon's gods are impotent and they are ground into the dust of destruction.

Fallen Babylon proclaimed the defeat of the great enemy of God's people and their deliverance. In a certain sense, this is the basic theme of the entire book of Isaiah. It is the prelude to the triumphant messages of conquest and joy found in Chapter s 40-66. It is the same message John the apostle sees in a vision concerning the Roman empire in Revelation 18, which is symbolic of God's final defeat of His enemies and the deliverance of His people. Babylon was symbolic of all the forces opposed to God and His redemptive work in the earth. Especially did she symbolize the forces of sensuality and worldliness as they oppose God and His kingdom in luring humanity to commit adultery with the gods of carnality. That is why Babylon is called a mistress and a whore. The overthrow of Babylon in the book of Revelation is a prelude to the joyous conquest of Revelation 21-22.

Isaiah's heart goes out to God's people, so long threshed by their oppressors. They have been ground into the earth as. grain on a threshing floor, but the precious grain is God'S. He will separate the wheat from the chaff by the Babylon captivity. And when the Medes have delivered Judah from Babylon, the wheat-seed will produce a harvest in the Messiah. What the aged prophet had heard from Jehovah, he tenderly but forth-rightly declared to all who would listen and believe.

QUIZ

1.

Why was Isaiah grieved at this vision?

2.

How many years before the actual downfall of Babylon is Isaiah probably predicting it?

3.

How would Isaiah know it?

4.

In what detail does Isaiah predict it?

5.

Why would Isaiah be told to set a watchman to tell of these events when they began to be fulfilled ?

6.

What does Babylon symbolize in the redemptive working of God?

7.

Who is his threshing?