Isaiah 47:1-15 - Homiletics

The fall of ancient states a warning to modern ones.

History has been defined as "philosophy teaching by examples." It is only on the supposition that there are lessons to be learnt from them that historical inquiries or historical records can be regarded as of any value or importance. In a certain sense it is no doubt true to say that "history never repeats itself." The exact circumstances, even of those historical events which most nearly resemble each other, are always in many respects dissimilar. But the value and use of history lies in the fact that, speaking broadly, history does repeat itself. Its events, as Thucydides observes, recur—"the same, or nearly the same"—and will do so "while human nature remains what it is" (Thucyd; i. 22). Hence history teaches lessons, and among its most important lessons are those that it teaches to existing states or communities, by the example which it sets before them of the careers and ultimate fates of former states and communities, which existed under more or less similar circumstances. In most cases we have to speculate on the causes which produced the decline and fall of empires, kingdoms, countries; and thus our conclusions can seldom be more than probable conjectures on the subject. Still, they are often of a high value. But a very much higher value attaches to the instances when an inspired writer delivers to us the Divine view of the causes which brought about the fall of a nation; for here we stand on firm ground—we have a solid and assured basis upon which to rest; and we may draw out the lesson which the writer's words convey with a certainty that we shall not mislead or cause an unfounded alarm. Now, according to Isaiah, the downfall of Babylon was produced by four principal causes; and the lesson to be learnt from her fall is avoidance of four vices. The fall of Babylon warns states—

I. AGAINST LUXURY . Babylon was "given to pleasure" (verse 8), was "tender and delicate" (verse 1), or "delicate and luxurious." It is generally allowed that luxury saps the vigour of states, destroying the severer virtues of courage, manliness, and endurance, and at the same time producing a degeneracy of the physical nature, a loss of muscle, of tone, of fibre. It is, no doubt, difficult to draw the line, and to say what exactly constitutes luxury; but certain practices, common in most modern as well as in many ancient states, may be distinctly regarded as "luxurious." The worst and most fatal of these is unchastity. If the manhood of a nation indulges generally, or widely, in licentiousness, if purity in man is a rare thing, we may be sure that the national character and the national strength are being undermined. The vice of unchastity gnaws at the roots of a nation's vigour, and brings a premature decay. States should take such measures against it as they take against a pestilence. They should strive to keep it out. Having once admitted it, they should seek to stamp it out. If they cannot do this, if the vice is too deeply ingrained to be got rid of, then they must look out for speedy disaster, culminating in ruin. Another dangerous vice, likewise to be carefully guarded against, is intemperance. This, too, affects both body and soul, inflames and so exhausts the one, degrades and enfeebles the other. Of less account, but still coming under the head of luxury, and therefore to be avoided, are gluttony, sloth, effeminacy, over-refinement. Of such it may be said, "Hoc nigrum est; hoc tu, Romane, caveto."

II. AGAINST CRUELTY . Babylon "showed no mercy" (verse 6); "upon the aged, very heavily she laid her yoke" (verse 6). Cruelty has less direct tendency to weaken a nation than luxury; but still it weakens in certain ways. It alienates the subject races towards whom it is shown. It exasperates foreign enemies, and causes a people to be hated even by those who have not themselves suffered at their bands. But its deleterious effect is probably, in the main, due to God's hatred of it. God abominales oppressors ( Isaiah 1:21-24 ; Isaiah 3:12 ; Isaiah 5:23 , etc.), and takes care to punish them. "Woe to the oppressing city!" says God by Zephaniah ( Zephaniah 3:1 ); and again, by Nahum ( Nahum 3:1 ), "Woe to the bloody city!" "Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth" ( Jeremiah 51:25 ). God pours out his anger against the cruel and truculent, making them experience in their turn the sufferings they have caused to others, and thus bringing them to destruction.

III. AGAINST PRIDE . Babylon thought that she was "a lady for ever" (verse 7). She "said in her heart, I am, and none else beside me" (verses 8, 10). She had such an overweening opinion of herself that she " dwelt carelessly" (verse 8), despised her enemies, made slight preparation against them. Her pride, therefore, like her luxury, by its natural working, seriously diminished her strength for resistance, making her negligent and improvident. But it was also among the causes which especially called down God's judgment. "Pride," as we are told, "goeth before destruction" ( Proverbs 16:18 ), and nothing seems so to provoke the Divine vengeance. "By that sin fell the angels." God "brings down the high looks of the proud." "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" (ch. Isaiah 2:11 ). When God brought low Assyria, the object was to "punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks" ( Isaiah 10:12 ). When Babylon was chastised, it was "because she had been proud against the Lord—therefore were her young men slain in the streets, and all her men of war cut off" ( Jeremiah 1:1-19 :29, 30). Pride, therefore, is a vice especially to be eschewed by states, if they desire continuance , and would fain be "ladies for ever."

IV. AGAINST FOOLISH SUPERSTITION . There is a δεισιδαιμονία which is praiseworthy, rather than blamable, as was that of the Athenians ( Acts 18:22 , Revised Version). Babylon is not rebuked because she really venerated her gods, poor shadows of Divinity as they were. She is blamed because she superseded, or overlaid the worship of her gods with various meaner superstitions. Bereavement and widowhood came upon her "for the multitude of her sorceries , and for the great abundance of her enchantments" (verse 9). It is addiction to magic which is especially "her wickedness" (vet. 10), in which she has "trusted;" and it is this wickedness, together with the other three vices already spoken of, that has caused the sentence of destruction to go forth against her. Modern states may well take the warning to heart. When religion is discredited, superstitions speedily usurp her place. Such monstrosities as Mormonism and spirit-rapping, which disgrace the nineteenth century, are superstitions as degrading as any to which the Babylonians gave way, and may well bring down a Divine judgment on the nations which encourage them or think lightly of them. Such superstitions certainly cannot "save" those who trust in them (verse 13); but it is not so certain that they may not destroy.