Isaiah 47:10-15
SS Lesson for 06/05/2022
Devotional Scripture: Ps 50:16-22
The prophet Isaiah had a lengthy ministry in Judah. (The books of Isaiah and 2 Kings contain most of the information we have about the prophet Isaiah.) Isaiah 1:1 places that ministry in the days of “Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” The first dated event is the death of Uzziah (also called Azariah; 2 Kings 15:1, 6–8, 17, 23, 27) in about 739 BC (Isaiah 6:1), the same year Isaiah received his call. The final dated event is the death of King Sennacherib of Assyria, who died in 681 BC (37:38). Isaiah had the most direct association with two kings of Judah: Ahaz (Isaiah 7:1–17) and Hezekiah (2 Kings 19–20; Isaiah 38). Isaiah seems to have had free access to the palace. This has caused some to think that he may have been a member of the royal family. Judah experienced great changes politically, economically, militarily, and spiritually during Isaiah’s prophetic ministry. Uzziah in Judah and his contemporary Jeroboam II in Israel did well militarily. The land area under the control of the two nations was similar to what it had been in the days of David and Solomon (2 Kings 14:28). Jotham succeeded Uzziah as king of Judah and became mighty because of his good life before the Lord. But the people were corrupt spiritually (2 Chronicles 27:1–2). Ahaz followed Jotham on the throne and became the spiritual opposite of his father. Ahaz even practiced child sacrifice (2 Kings 16:3). Ahaz and Judah were attacked by Israel, and Judah suffered greatly. Hezekiah eventually succeeded Ahaz, and Hezekiah was a faithful follower of the Lord. Judah prospered at first, but then was devastated militarily by a king of Assyria, Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13–16). The exile that had befallen northern Israel in 722 BC was also to befall Judah, but not at the hands of the Assyrians. Isaiah 39:5–6 predicts a captivity in Babylon. (Isaiah 36–39 runs parallel to 2 Kings 18:13–20:19.) Isaiah wrote as though Babylon had already conquered Judah, but his prophecies predated Babylon’s existence as an empire by about 150 years! At the time Isaiah wrote, Babylon was a major city in the Assyrian Empire. Babylon rebelled between 700–689 BC in an attempt to overthrow Assyria, which destroyed the city in retaliation. Even so, the Babylonians ultimately destroyed and replaced the Assyrians. A key event was the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria’s capital city, in 612 BC. God had at least two plans for the Babylonian Empire: to bring about the end of the Assyrian Empire and to punish the people of Judah because of their idolatry (2 Chronicles 24:18; Isaiah 10:3–19; etc.). Babylon would take Judah into captivity in waves. This began in 598 BC (2 Kings 24:10–16) and culminated with the destruction of Jerusalem and its aftermath in 586 BC (2 Kings 25).
Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, your merchants from your youth; they shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you
Isaiah described Babylon’s fall to the Persians in 539 b.c., more than 150 years before the event took place. The Babylonians, Judah’s captors, would become captives.
47:1-3. When conquered, Babylon would become a humbled servant, sitting in the dust, an act depicting great mourning (cf. Jonah 3:6). The words Virgin Daughter personify the people of a city as a young, innocent girl (cf. Isa. 23:12; 37:22), probably meaning that the city’s walls had never been breached. The people would no longer be tender and delicate like a virgin because of the hardships they would face. As servants of the conquerors, they would have to grind the flour, unable to worry about their clothing or modesty. Some of them would have to flee across streams. Many of them would be raped and abused (47:3).
47:4. This verse records the response of Israel when they would sense the relief coming to them because of Babylon’s defeat. Seeing God’s vengeance on their captors (v. 3b), they would praise the Lord for they would recognize that release from exile would come from God, not themselves. So they would call God their Redeemer (cf. comments on 43:14), the Lord Almighty, and the Holy One of Israel (cf. 1:4).
47:5-7. The Lord had used Babylon to judge Judah, but that ruthless nation, like Assyria (cf. Isa. 10), had abused its power (cf. Hab. 1:6-11). So God’s sentence was pronounced on Babylon: no longer would she be... queen of kingdoms (cf. “eternal queen” in Isa. 47:7). Babylon was considered nearly impregnable. Babylon had been able to conquer Judah, God’s inheritance (see Deut. 4:20), only because God allowed it (Isa. 47:6). Merciless, the Babylonians even treated the aged Jewish captives harshly. Therefore God would treat everyone in Babylon harshly (v. 3b). The Babylonians never considered the possibility that they would not be in a position of power forever (v. 7). Babylon thought she was the eternal queen (cf. v. 5).
47:8-11. Babylon thought that she could never be defeated (v. 8). But the Lord said that she would lose her children and become a widow.... on a single day, speaking figuratively of her desolation from defeat (cf. Jerusalem as a widow, Lam. 1:1). Though Babylon thought she was unique—I am, and there is none besides me (Isa. 47:8, 10)—she was wrong; God is the One who is unique, as Isaiah had stated repeatedly (43:11; 44:6; 45:5-6, 14, 18, 21-22; 46:9). Babylon prided herself in her sorcerers who supposedly “told the future” and cast spells to influence others (cf. 47:12). Sorceries (vv. 9, 12) translates kešāpm, a word used in the Old Testament only here and in 2 Kings 9:22; Micah 5:12; Nahum 3:4. It suggests seeking information about the future by means of demonic forces. Such supposed knowledge, however, was unreliable, for the sorcerers could not foresee Babylon’s forthcoming calamity and would not be able to conjure it away.
47:12-15. The Lord mockingly urged the Babylonians to keep on in their spells and sorceries (cf. v. 9), which the city had been involved in since childhood (cf. v. 15), that is, since the nation was founded. In sarcasm He suggested the astrologers and stargazers... save them. Astrology was common in Babylon (cf. Dan. 2:2, 4-5). But their work was worthless, like mere stubble, the dried stalks of grain that burn quickly. Those religious leaders could not save even themselves, let alone Babylon. Yet they persisted in their error.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
10 "For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, 'No one sees me'; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one else besides me.'
11 Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know.
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
10 "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?
17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19 These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.
11 "'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Strike your hands together and stamp your feet and cry out "Alas!" because of all the wicked and detestable practices of the house of Israel, for they will fall by the sword, famine and plague. 12 He that is far away will die of the plague, and he that is near will fall by the sword, and he that survives and is spared will die of famine. So will I spend my wrath upon them. 13 And they will know that I am the Lord, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak-places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.
23 He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness; the Lord our God will destroy them.
8 He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
19 Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
12 "Stand now with your enchantments and the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth, perhaps you will be able to profit, perhaps you will prevail.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from what shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before!
15 Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, your merchants from your youth; they shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.
11 Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts:
18 But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals. 19 The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said.
19 When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.
7 The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to be brought and said to these wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom." 8 Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. 9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.
2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky,
3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them.
15 He said to me, "Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this." 16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.
7 "You shall have no other gods before me. 8 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
7 In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.
13 Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind. 14 As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
1 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand — 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. 3 Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste — nothing escapes them. 4 They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. 5 With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.
4 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire," says the Lord Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
The nation to be judged
This section of Isaiah on "The Lord’s redemption of His servant [Israel]" (Isaiah 44:23 to Isaiah 47:15) has so far included: an announcement of redemption (Isaiah 44:23-28), the identification of the instrument of redemption-Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1-13), and a reminder of the uniqueness of the God of redemption (Isaiah 45:14 to Isaiah 46:13). It now concludes, by depicting Babylon-the nation from which the Lord would redeem His people from captivity-as a proud woman full of self-confidence. In her case, as in so many others, pride goes before a fall. This section is another oracle against a foreign nation (cf. chs. 13-23; Jeremiah 46-51; Ezekiel 25-31) and an oracle of salvation for Zion (cf. Isaiah 45:14 to Isaiah 46:13). The main point of this chapter is not primarily to predict Babylon’s fall, however, but to glorify the power and grace of Yahweh, using the destruction of Babylon as a backdrop.
Verse 1
God depicted Babylon here as a rather prissy virgin. The city, representing the kingdom of Babylon, had, like a virgin, thus far not experienced the breaching of her walls by invaders. The Lord summoned her to sit on the ground, rather than on the throne that she intended to occupy. Sitting in the dust was an act that depicted great mourning (cf. Jonah 3:6). She thought that she would be a queen, but in reality she would become a common, even a humiliated, beggar. Other peoples had regarded her as superior, but she would no longer be that. The Chaldeans were the residents of southern Mesopotamia, who had been the leaders in throwing off Assyrian dominance, and had provided the leadership for Neo-Babylonia.
Verse 2
Babylon would need to do servile work, grinding meal by rotating a millstone (cf. Exodus 11:5; Job 31:10; Matthew 24:41). She should remove her veil, which she, as an upper-class lady, had worn previously to hide her beauty from commoners. Removing her veil would disgrace her. She should also take off her long skirt and uncover her legs, so she could work in the fields, and wade through the irrigation ditches of the rivers. She would become not only a beggar (Isaiah 47:1), but a servant.
Verse 3
In the ancient world, people regarded nakedness as a shame because it left them open to the gaze of others, and so rendered them defenseless. People seen naked were often taken advantage of. Thus to be uncovered was to be shamefully exposed. Babylon had regarded herself as someone special and superior, but now it would become clear that she was just like every other nation. God promised to take vengeance on Babylon for exalting herself to a place that He alone deserves. He would not spare anyone deserving humiliation.
Verse 4
The foregoing description of God humbling Babylon, for essentially the same reason He humbled Egypt in the Exodus, drew an exclamation of praise from Isaiah. Almighty Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, would again redeem His people from a nation that had lifted up itself in pride and had oppressed God’s chosen people. "These verses assert two principles which lie at the heart of divine providential government of the world: retribution (3cd) and the centrality of the people of God (4)." [Note: Ibid., p. 372.]
Verse 5
Babylon would no longer be the queen of the nations, having many other kingdoms under her authority. Rather than enjoying the public activity and prominence that go with being a leader, Babylon would find herself sitting in silence and darkness. "From the blare of world publicity and the glare of the palace lights to the silence of obscurity (Isaiah 47:5)!" [Note: Grogan, p. 277.] The Lord became more specific about Babylon’s sins and the reasons He intended to punish her in the following pericope (Isaiah 47:5-11).
Verse 6
Babylon had not been kind to the Israelites whom Yahweh had handed over to her. She had not really conquered Judah; God had given the Judahites over to the Babylonians. The Babylonians had been unmerciful toward the Israelites and had made life hard even for their elderly, those who deserved mercy simply because of their age. The Babylonians were not as hard on the Israelites as the Egyptians and the Assyrians had been. It was their arrogance more than their physical cruelty that made them unmerciful.
Verse 7
The mark of Babylon’s arrogance was that she assumed that she would continue to rule the world forever. She had defeated Assyria, which had been the most powerful world ruler for 300 years, and there was no power on the horizon that Babylon could see that would threaten her sovereignty. She had not considered that all nations are subject to Yahweh’s sovereignty, that no nation is self-sufficient or self-existent. She had failed to consider that someone more powerful than herself could call her to account for her treatment of the people she had conquered.
Verse 8
Babylon was sensual (a lover of luxury) in that she assumed that what she enjoyed were her rights by virtue of her superiority. Her present condition had led her to think that she would always enjoy provision, protection, status, and security. But she could not avert the doom that would come on her because she had exalted herself to God’s place. The pleasure-loving lady of leisure would become a childless widow.
Verse 9
She would lose her empire and her population with unexpected suddenness. In spite of the sorcery and magic that Babylon relied on for protection, God would bring judgment on her. "Babylon was proverbial in the ancient world for its development of the magical arts. So firm was this association that in Daniel, ’Chaldean’ is a term for magician (Isaiah 1:20; Isa 2:2, 27, etc. . . .). The great Babylonian interest in astronomy was prompted by an even greater interest in astrology. The names given to the astrological constellations today are translations of the ones originated by the Babylonians. More than anything else, magic is engaged in to ensure good fortune and prevent misfortune." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 249.]
Verse 10
Babylon felt secure in mistreating people because her great learning and wisdom in the magical arts had led her to conclude that she was superior and invulnerable. Knowledge puffs up, and one of the delusions it spawns is that people who know more are as morally and ethically responsible as everyone else, since they are not. A corollary is that if I can get away with something, it’s all right. Such thinking forgets that there is a sovereign and righteous God in heaven to whom we are responsible. "Chaldean Babylon . . . combined the practical atheism of the freethinker with astrology, necromancy, and crass superstition." [Note: Archer, p. 642.]
Verse 11
In spite of how the Babylonians thought, God would bring judgment on them suddenly that incantations would not affect, sacrifices could not deflect, and magic could not anticipate. Daniel 5 describes Belshazzar’s feast, which took place on the night Babylon fell. Cyrus took the Babylonian king and his city completely by surprise, and the empire fell suddenly. "Cyrus took Babylon effortlessly, and by morning every citizen of the empire was not a Babylonian but a Persian." [Note: Motyer, p. 372.]
Verses 12-13
God sarcastically challenged the Babylonians to continue to trust in their mediums and horoscopes, as though they might be able to deliver them from the fate He announced. They were not about to humble themselves, as the Ninevites did in Jonah’s day. If there was any time the Babylonians needed help from their wise men, it was before the Lord visited them with judgment. Yahweh’s denunciation of Babylon comes to a climax in the final four verses. In spite of her pride, Babylon would need a savior, but there would be none for her.
Verses 14-15
However, their powers would be no match for the consuming judgment of God that was coming on them like a fire. It would sweep everything in its path away, the astrologers as well as their predictions. They would become the fuel for this fire that would be like a wild forest fire, not a comfortable campfire. "They [the astrologers] do not even have the enduring power of wood in the fire, for they are consumed instantly [as stubble], and are not able to save themselves from the flame that devours them. If they cannot save themselves it is foolish to look to them to save Babylon." [Note: Young, 3:243.] False religion offers the comfort of a fire, but it turns into a furnace of destruction. The philosophical leaders of Babylon would not be saviors in that Day of Judgment. In fact, there would be none to save then. "These few words at the end of Isaiah 47:15 capture the whole argument of chs. 40-47: everybody needs a savior; the gods and the magical worldview on which they rest cannot save; the Lord who stands outside the cosmos and directs it according to his good purposes can save; which shall we choose?" [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 256.] The fulfillment of this prophecy came when Cyrus invaded Babylon in 539 B.C. But the similarities between this chapter and Revelation 17, 18 remind us that a future eschatological destruction of Babylon is also coming. "Those who have turned from the living God to the daily horoscope in our own society would do well to heed this passage." [Note: Grogan, p. 278.] "The point of chapters 41-47 is that the entire structure and system of the Babylonian Empire (represented by her idols) was developed by humans [cf. the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11]; Babylon had no lasting divine sanction. Just as an idol is of human fabrication, with no autonomous power or usefulness of its own, so the entire Babylonian system of society, economics, and politics was a human fabrication which in time would collapse. Israel, then, must reserve her worship, her ultimate commitment, for YHWH. This commitment must stand above all other systems and values. YHWH may grant these systems (including Assyria, Persia) temporary sanction to do his will, but he also reserves the right to repudiate and destroy them. Only YHWH deserves worship." [Note: John D. W. Watts, "Babylonian Idolatry in the Prophets As a False Socio-Economic System," in Israel’s Apostasy and Restoration: Essays in Honor of Roland K. Harrison, p. 121.]
(Adapted from URL:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc/isaiah-47.html)
Israel can be likened to waiting for justice that never seemed to be within reach. Advancements in DNA technology became the antidote to the “magic” of all the circumstances that allowed the killer to go unpunished for so many years. But no amount of luck or skill would prevent Babylon’s fall, just as it did not prevent the murderer’s conviction. God is not surprised at what happens among and within the nations of the world. Every group of people falls under God’s jurisdiction, and he can use any and all nations to fulfill his purposes. We Christians do well to remember and trust that God sees the injustice and violence around us and has a plan to right all wrongs. Though our enemies may never see the error of their ways or repent, we know our faith in God is not misplaced and will result in our seeing his plan come to fruition. Faith in anything else results in disappointment and misplaced priorities. May we trust his timing and wait patiently for the day he destroys wickedness once and for all. His promises are steadfast.
Isaiah, God's messenger, predicted the fall of Babylon. The prophet's word came true in around 539 B.C. when the Medes and the Persians suddenly surrounded and captured Babylon. Overnight the Babylonians lost everything, like a widow who unexpectedly lost her mate.
Trusting in the Wrong Thing - This Babylonian nation placed its trust in the wrong god and worldly philosophies. Isaiah pointed out several reasons for their destruction. The Babylonians cruelly oppressed the Jewish nation (Isa. 47:6). They looked down on other territories bragging that they could never be brought low (47:7). The pagan country relied on their false beliefs, religious rituals rooted in demonic activity. Babylon became known for its sorcery and magic. When the Babylonian kings made significant decisions, they called in the so-called wise men, well versed in divination. The nation prided itself in sorcerers supposedly with the ability to tell the future. But the authorities before the monarch proved to be less reliable than the weatherman, ignorant about the future.
No Trust in God - The Lord's prophet attempted to tell Babylon only the heavenly Father knows about upcoming events. Even if the so-called wise men reported the approaching calamity correctly, they were helpless to keep it from happening. Isaiah prophesied, in sarcasm, challenging the Babylonians to call on their false belief system to save them when the Medes and Persians surrounded the city. Call on them now, Isaiah taunted. But history records the truth; the nation was conquered. No one withstood God's judgment.
Trust in God Today - Sadly, the Babylonians do not stand alone in their proud, self-centered thinking. Today, countless people read their horoscope daily, call psychic hotlines, go to fortunetellers, and use other such methods to govern their decisions. They refuse to believe the Bible, ignore Christ, and mix unbiblical truths with Christianity. Like the pagan nations, there is a day of reckoning for these kinds of actions. The outcome is not going to be good. The Scriptures plainly state, those who ignore God and His instructions, looking to human-made, demonic philosophies, will pay the price. As believers, the question always needs to be in the forefront: Who and what we are trusting?