Isaiah 13:1-18 - Homiletics

The fall of Babylon a type of the general punishment of the wicked.

Scripture deals with history altogether in the way of example. Whether the subject be Assyria, or Syria, or Egypt, or Babylon, or even the "peculiar people of God," the object is to teach men by the facts adduced what they have to expect themselves. In Isaiah 10:1-34 . Assyria, here Babylon, is held up as a warning to sinners. The absolute certainty that punishment will overtake them at God's hands is the main lesson taught; but, beyond this, something is also taught concerning the method and (so to speak) economy of the Divine punishments; as, for example, the following:—

I. THAT GOD PUNISHES BY MEANS OF INSTRUMENTS , WHICH ARE GENERALLY PERSONS . God has two sets of instruments—natural agents, such as storm, lightning, blight, pestilence, etc.; and intellectual and moral agents, or persons. It depends entirely on his own will whether he will employ agents of the one kind or of the other. In dispensing good to man he employs largely natural agents, "making his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust" ( Matthew 5:45 ). But in punishing men he seems to make use, to a greater extent, of persons. Now he raises up a tyrannical and oppressive king, like Rameses II . or Nebuchadnezzar, to carry out his sentence of suffering; now he allows a democratic assembly to establish a reign of terror in a sinful ]and; anon he uses the arrows of savage hordes, or the guns and bayonets of disciplined hosts, to chastise an offending people. Once only has he ever used his power to strike with sudden death on a large scale, and even there he employed a spiritual agent; it was " the angel of the Lord," who " went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and fourscore and five thousand" ( 2 Kings 19:35 ).

II. THAT THE INSTRUMENTS ARE FOR THE MOST PART QUITE UNCONSCIOUS THAT GOD IS USING THEM . We are told this distinctly of Assyria. "I will give him a charge … howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so" ( Isaiah 10:6 , Isaiah 10:7 ). And it was, no doubt, equally true of Babylon. The " hammer of the whole earth" ( Jeremiah 1:1-19 :23) did not know that she was being used to "break in pieces the nations, and to destroy kingdoms" ( Jeremiah 51:20 ). She too "meant not so," but was only seeking her own aggrandizement. Even the Medes and the Persians, though "called from a far country to execute God's counsel"( Isaiah 47:11 ), were unconscious of their call-blind instruments in the hand of Jehovah, as much as if they had been an army of locusts. But this only shows the power of God the more, who can make not only good men serve him, but had; not only angels, but devils.

III. THAT GOD 'S PUNISHMENTS COME SUDDENLY AND TAKE MEN BY SURPRISE . Neither Assyria nor Babylon bad much warning of their fate. Each seemed well-nigh at the zenith of its power when the final blow came. "I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon," says Jehovah, "and thou wast not aware"( Jeremiah 1:1-19 :24); and again we are told, "Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed" ( Jeremiah 51:8 ). God's punishments are apt to come, even on individuals, suddenly. When a man says to his soul, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," then comes the sentence of God, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" ( Luke 12:19 , Luke 12:20 ). Job's example is an extreme one ( Job 1:13-19 ); but modified instances of men crushed by quick blows of unexpected calamity are within every one's experience. Destruction comes upon God's enemies generally "at unawares" ( Psalms 35:8 ).

IV. THAT ON FINDING THEMSELVES THE OBJECTS OF DIVINE PUNISHMENT , MEN ARE FILLED WITH TERROR AND DESPONDENCY . The terror and despondency of the Baby-Ionians are strongly marked in the descriptions both of Isaiah and Jeremiah; e . g . "Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrow shall take bold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another" ( Isaiah 13:7 , Isaiah 13:8 ). "The land shall tremble and sorrow … The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight; they have remained in their holds … they became as women" ( Jeremiah 51:29 , Jeremiah 51:30 ). Some such feelings come upon all who are conscious that the hand of God is laid upon them, not for chastisement, but for punishment.

V. THAT DIVINE PUNISHMENTS SELDOM STOP AT THEIR IMMEDIATE OBJECTS , BUT PASS ON AND AFFECT OTHERS ALSO . Partly, this would seem to be inevitable from the interconnection of man with man, and of nation with nation; but partly, also, it appears to be the result of the Divine will, which is set on punishing sin, and wherever it finds sin must punish it. Let Israel have to be punished for certain sins, Judah will be found to have committed the same sins; Judah must therefore participate in the punishment. When God arises to judge one nation, he, in a certain sense, arises to judge the whole earth; there must be equity in his dealings. If he has punished Babylonia, and Egypt is as bad, he must punish Egypt; if Egypt is no worse than Ethiopia, he must punish Ethiopia. The sin of Sodom brought destruction on all the cities of the plain—that of the Canaanitish nations on them, and on many of their neighbors. A Jehoram provokes God by his idolatry, and is deservedly smitten ( 2 Kings 9:24 ). An Ahaziah, far less guilty, but still guilty, shares his fate ( 2 Kings 9:27 ). The punishment of Babylon led on to the punishment of the "world for its evil" ( Isaiah 41:11 ), and to such a general depopulation of Western Asia as made a man more precious than the gold of Ophir ( Isaiah 13:12 ).

VI. THAT DIVINE PUNISHMENTS ARE OFTEN COMPLETE AND FINAL . It was said of Assyria, "There is no healing of thy bruise" ( Nahum 3:19 ). And a similar finality attaches to most judgments upon nations. Babylonia, though she made some desperate efforts to throw off the Persian yoke, never recovered herself. Egypt, a few years later, sank finally under foreign dominion. The ten tribes lost their separate existence after their captivity, and became merged in Judah. Judah's nationality was obliterated by Titus. The history of the world is a history of nations whom God has punished for their sins by final destruction. And the punishment of individuals, too, is often final. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram "went down quick into hell" ( Numbers 16:30 ). Uzzah was smitten with sudden death for touching the ark ( 2 Samuel 6:7 ). Ananias and Sapphira tell dead for uttering lies ( Acts 5:5 , Acts 5:10 ). The question of punishments in another world is not here at issue. What the example of Babylon teaches is, that God's punishments, so far as this world is concerned, are often final.