Word this morning for our sermon as we go through Isaiah. Now, as you know, I'm not going to preach all of the verses and chapters of Isaiah. We're going to kind of go through it in order. And turn to chapter 13 is what we'll look at this morning. But remember Isaiah was a prophet in the Old Testament in the southern kingdom of Judah. And he prophesied around 760 BC to 700 BC during the king's reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. So, when I was looking at what text in Isaiah to preach this past week, or, you know, last week, I was looking through the teens, you know, Isaiah 13, 14, 15, and 16, and so on. These chapters are where Isaiah prophesies judgments against different nations around Israel. So I'm not going to preach them all, but I picked verse 13 kind of as a summary to show you what, or to let you hear what a judgment from Isaiah sounded like against other nations back then. So this one's about Babylon. So here's how we're going to look at this this morning. I'm going to read verses one through five, that's kind of the first section, and then I'll preach on it, and then I'll read the second section and preach on it, and then the third and preach on it. I've done that before, but I just wanted to give you a heads up. So listen carefully to God's word. Isaiah 13, verses one through five. The oracle concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw, On a bare hill, raise a signal, cry aloud to them, wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. I myself have commanded my consecrated ones and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exalting ones. The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude. The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together. The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of His indignation to destroy the whole land. That's how far we'll read for now in God's Word. Well, people of God, you know that there are some heavy and hard topics in life that aren't fun and pleasant to talk about. But they're true and sometimes you do have to talk about them because they're realities in the life we live. I mean, some of these things, you can give other examples, but for example, if you ignore good advice, you disobey many rules and make a lot of bad choices, your life is most likely going to turn out miserably, and you'll be in a terrible spot. It's kind of a hard discussion, but it's a reality, and it's true. You know, for example, if you get into drugs or addicted to something else, your life will probably spiral downhill very quickly. It's not a pleasant topic, but it's true. If you sleep around or just sleep with random people, you're probably gonna get some kind of a disease and hurt many people and hurt yourself. Not pleasant to talk about, but it's true, and we need to realize that. And so when we come to texts like Isaiah chapter 13, and we'll read more of it, but it's a heavy topic, and it's not necessarily fun to talk about. But it's true, and it's for us as part of God's inspired Word, and it's for us today. So the main theme of chapter 13 really has to do with God's judgment upon the unrepentant wicked. God's judgment upon the unrepentant wicked. And so I told you there's three parts to this text and to this sermon, and right now we're going to look at verses 1 through 6. And this, you could maybe title verses 1 through 6, The Coming Battle. the coming battle. So first of all, as we look at this text in chapter 13, last week we read in chapter 12 about this great song that God's people will sing in that future day, praise and worship. But then Isaiah changes the subject to the oracle concerning Babylon in chapter 13, verse 1 there. Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw this oracle and he spoke it against Babylon. Now that word for oracle, I don't know what translations you use, but it could mean something like burden. One commentary even called this the burden of Babylon, meaning there's a burden against Babylon that Isaiah is going to speak. Who is Babylon? Obviously, books have been written about ancient Babylon. It was a great city in the ancient Near East. I'm not going to go into all the details, but Babylon back then in Isaiah's day was a city located on the Euphrates River. If you know where modern-day Baghdad, Iraq is, it was about 60 miles from Baghdad, right in that area. And the city of Babylon actually dates back to the Tower of Babel. So in the Hebrew text, Babylon and Babel are the same. It's just B-B-L. So when an Israelite would hear about Babylon, they'd probably think back to the Tower of Babel. Remember those arrogant people building this tower up to make a name for themselves? So you get this connotation, this thinking of Babylon. And back then in Israel's day, although Babylon came to more power after Isaiah's day, but even back in Isaiah's day, Babylon was leading the way in many areas, like astronomy and politics, writing and literature. So Babylon was kind of a capital of the world back then in some ways. But as we know from scripture, Babylon also was a symbol of power and prestige and evil and arrogance. So Babylon would mean, you know, like Sin City or Arrogance City. When you hear the word Babylon, you're not thinking, you know, a beacon for justice and goodness. And not everyone in Babylon was signing up for the Peace Corps, you know. Babylon was not a good place. It was a symbol of arrogance and evil. And that's why in the New Testament, in Revelation, John would call Babylon, even later as a, you know, kind of imagery, the mother of earth's abominations. So that's who Isaiah is prophesying against. It's a burden against that wicked city of Babylon. And there's a battle coming. Did you notice that in verse 2, Isaiah says, Probably saying, come in the gates of Babylon for this battle. And you can tell right off the bat that they're not coming for a party. They're not coming for a game. But God is calling these people for battle, as we'll see. But who is God calling? In verse three, it is kind of confusing. I've commanded my consecrated ones, mighty men and proudly exalting ones. Now those words or phrases are interesting. It's probably not the Israelites. I don't think he's calling the Israelites to battle. And it doesn't sound like it's angels, as we'll see later. But if you look ahead to verses four and five, it's a mustering of hosts for battle. And in verse five it says, they're coming from a distant land, from the end of the heavens. So you got this great imagery that God is raising up this army for battle. And you know if you're on a plane, a prairie, and you look way out in the distance, you can see where the sky touches the ground, it looks like. God says he's mustering an army from that far away to come and do battle. And it even says there that the Lord of hosts is doing this in verse 4. And there's a word play in the Hebrew, it's Yahweh of host is mustering a host for battle. And so this army is in God's sovereign control. Whoever the army is, God is the high commander of it. Now if you think about it too here, as I said, this is a call for the coming battle. It's a noisy thing. Look in verse 4. Two molt on the mountains, the sound of two molt on the mountains of a great multitude, an uproar of kingdoms, nations gathering together. In the Hebrew text, it's like a staccato. There's this little poetry. And it's very noisy, isn't it? If you were there, you know, I know it's imagery and poetry, but if you were there, you could hear this army gathering together like a stampede. It's not like there are 20 special forces guys who are creeping up on the enemy. But this is a huge army mustering for battle, the sound of a stampede. And you can see them coming from a distant land. But what is God calling this army together for? Well, it does say very clearly in the end of verse four, for battle. A war is coming. And it also says in verse five, it's the Lord and the weapons of his indignation to destroy the whole land. So they're coming for battle, to destroy the whole land. And even in verse three, you can't miss that little phrase that says, to execute my anger, to execute my anger. Or the NIV says, carry out my wrath against all the earth or the whole land, a different way to translate it. So again, in this context, you know that, okay, so how do you read this? Well, you know already that it's a burden against Babylon. So it seems like here, in this poetry, in this imagery, in this prophecy, that God is mustering this huge, noisy army for battle against Babylon. But also, then you get a hint, it's against the whole earth. The whole land. Land could be translated earth, like I said. God is angry with the wicked, and they'll be paid for their evil. And so, as I said, this is prophetic and poetic literature. You've got to be careful not to take it too literally. Because, you know, if you're standing up on a mountain and a whole army can't really come on a mountain, and this big of an army is not going to be able to fit through gates at the same time, and armies don't literally come from the end of the heavens. So it is prophetic and poetic literature, but the point of this poetic prophecy literally is that God is a sovereign divine warrior, and he's going to bring judgment to the unrepentant wicked. And nothing can stop this army. This is a great, huge, terrible army. And we learned this earlier in Isaiah that this is one of the themes of Isaiah's ministry, the hard truth that God is going to judge the wicked who don't repent. His army is coming for the battle. All right, well, let's read the second section. So the coming battle. Now, the second section is verse six through 16. It's called the coming day. The coming day, verses six through 16, again, God's word. Whale, for the day of the Lord is near. As destruction from the Almighty it will come. Therefore all hands will be feeble and every human heart will melt. They will be dismayed. Pangs and agony will seize them. They will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look aghast at one another. Their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light, the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore, I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken out of its place at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. And like a hunted gazelle or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people and each will flee to his own land. Whoever is found will be thrust through and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. So this is the coming day. And Isaiah starts this section in verse six by saying, wail or weep in lament. That's what this word means. It's like to cry out in a lament because something terrible is about to happen. Because the day of Yahweh is near. It's coming. And it's a destruction from the Almighty, it says in verse 6. And for Babylon, or for anyone who hates God and His anointed, this is bad news. So Isaiah is saying, weep now, because the day is on the way, because woe is not far away. So wail in anguish. And Isaiah goes on, after calling the people to wail, he says in verse 7, he talks about the feeble hands and the melting human hearts. It's probably the Babylonians. Their hands are going to be weak. The New Living Translation says, every arm is paralyzed with fear. When this battle comes and the day of the Lord comes, their hearts are going to drop with fear. They're going to be overcome with dread. I don't know if you've ever been paralyzed by fear. You were so afraid you literally couldn't move. That's what it sounds like the Babylonians will be like. And it even says there in verse 8 that they're going to look at each other aghast and their faces are going to be aflame. So if you could see it in their faces, they would have no hope. There's no hope in their eyes. It's just horror and hopelessness. And their faces aflame means something like flushed with fear is how the CSB puts it. Their anguish and terror is going to be like a woman in labor. It's going to be horrible for them. And so the people of mighty and proud Babylon They're going to be reduced to weak people who are afraid and can't do anything. And in verse 9, there's that repetition, Behold, the day of the Lord comes. It's not just near, but it's on the way. It's a day of wrath. It's a day of destruction of the land and of the sinful people in the land. And that's exactly what verse 11 says, I will punish the world for its evil. I'll punish the wicked people for their iniquity and the arrogant will fall. That verse 11 is pretty important here to understand the context. God says, I'm going to put an end to the pomp of the arrogant. I'm going to bring down the proud people. And we know this is a Bible teaching. God opposes the proud. Or we know Proverbs says, pride goes before destruction. So Babylon, in all of its arrogance, is going to be laid low by God. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And so this pride here in verse 11, and when we think about Babylon's pride, you can read verse 14 later today, it talks about Babylon's pride. But it's not just pride like when you brag about winning a basketball game. It's not just like being proud as if you know it all. You know, there are some people who think they know it all and they're kind of proud that way. That's not good. But this kind of pride is deeply evil arrogance. And like I mentioned in chapter 14, Babylon actually says, I'm going to set my throne on high and make myself like the most high. So this is arrogance where they think they're God. And God says, I'm going to bring that low. The satanic pride is going to come down. And it's going to be such a terrible day that it says in verse 10 that the stars of the heavens and the constellations in the sky aren't going to shine. The sun is going to be dark when it comes up and the moon won't give off any more light. Now that's very interesting. Just pause there a moment. the old Mesopotamian story. There's an old Mesopotamian story that says the constellations were the divine assemblies of the Mesopotamian god Marduk. So when you'd see the constellations, they would think, oh, those are the assemblies of our god Marduk. But Isaiah says, yeah, the stars aren't going to shine so much for the assemblies of Marduk. Or some ancient Near Eastern nations believed in a sun god or a moon god. But here they're not shining. There are no sun gods or moon gods. And this darkness can remind us even of the Exodus plague. A judgment came and there was darkness on the land. And so that will happen in the day of the Lord. The heavens will tremble, the earth will shake at Yahweh's wrath, verse 13 says. So when the day of the Lord comes against Babylon, it's like creation is coming undone. It's like the opposite of the creation story. God's common grace is withdrawn and there's chaos and disaster and disorder all around. Now one more verse to look at here before we, or a couple more verses before we go to the last section. Verse 14 talks about like a hunted gazelle or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn kind of and flee to his own land. So you know what a gazelle is like when a lion is chasing it? That's what the Babylonians are gonna be, they're gonna be fleeing. And there's gonna be no shepherd to watch over them or protect them. So that's imagery again. And they're trying to escape, but it says in verse 15 they can't. They'll be thrust through, and they'll fall by the sword. So people are going to be running everywhere, and no shepherd is going to be to guard them, and they're going to be thrust through with the sword, even to the darkness of verse 16, that hard text, where it says their infants will be dashed in pieces right in front of them, their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be ravished, which is an old English word for raped. And so this invading army is not going to show a drop of mercy on Babylon. It's shock and awe kind of warfare. Blitzkrieg, scorched earth warfare where you take no prisoners. A day of the Lord is a terrible thing. So the day of the Lord is a day of no's for people who don't trust in God. No protection, no escape, no mercy, no hope. One preacher said humankind without God is without safety and without home. Okay, well let's finish this difficult text off. We'll read verses 17 to the end of the chapter. This is the coming doom. So we have the coming battle, the coming day, and the coming doom in verse 17 through 22. Behold, I am stirring up the meads against them who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold, Their bows will slaughter the young men. They will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations. No Arab will pitch his tent there. No shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures. Their ostriches will dwell, and their wild goats will dance. Hyenas will cry in its towers and jackals in the pleasant places. Its time is close at hand, and its days will not be prolonged." So in this third and last section for this morning, you can see where this doom is coming from. So before this, Isaiah's saying that Babylon's going down in a horrible and harsh way. It's a day of darkness, the day of the Lord for Babylon. But now it says the Medes are the ones who are going to come in and ravish Babylon. Now the Medes, by the way, are people from Medea. It's a nation in ancient Iran. If you remember history, Cyrus the Persian defeated the Medes, and sometimes the Medes and the Persians go together. So basically, the Median army is going to come into Babylon and attack and flatten the nation. And God is sovereignly behind it. God is stirring up the Medes to go flatten Babylon. So in verse 17, it talks about the Medes a little bit. It says they have no regard for silver and they don't delight in gold. That means they're not attacking Babylon to get rich. And it means that there's no money that Babylon could pay the Median army to turn around. You know, sometimes if an army is going to attack, you could bribe them and give them tons of cash to say, you know, we'll give you all this gold if you turn around and not attack us. But the Median army would say, no, we're not here for gold, we're just here for blood. That's what Matthew Henry said, it is for blood they thirst and not gold. And it says very clearly that the Median army is not going to show any mercy. Verse 18, young men will be killed by bows and arrows. Children will not be shown mercy by the Median army. They won't have any pity on the children. When the Median army comes in, the Babylonian children will be destroyed. And so, this kind of evil still happens in wars, doesn't it? It's terrible evil. I mean, this is like the height of evil. Pregnant women aren't given any concern. And one commentary said, the more people turn their backs on God, the less human they become, therefore the less humane. And again, Isaiah goes on and says Babylon in verse 19, that the glory of the kingdoms, you know, the Chaldeans, another word for Babylon, is going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. Remember that? That's huge biblical imagery. This great nation of Babylon is going to be made like Sodom and Gomorrah. And you know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? That fire from heaven just flattened them. And so Babylon will share the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. And so, you know, there's one point of a lesson here, a brief application. The wages of sin is not fun and dancing and laughter and pleasure. You know, Babylon thought we can live however we want and reject God and be our own gods. But where does that get them? Well, not fun and excitement and pleasure. But pain and sorrow and destruction. And where are Babylon and Sodom and Gomorrah today? They're gone. Now, we'll finish up in a second here. The last few verses basically talk about how Babylon is going to be a wasteland. In verse 20, it says that it's never going to be inhabited. No Arab, you know, Arabs would wander and pitch tents wherever they would wander. No Arab is going to go there and do that. No shepherd is going to, you know, lead sheep through Babylon, or their sheep through Babylon. And it says instead in verse 21, wild animals will lay down there, and Babylon, the people's houses will be full of howling creatures, like hyenas or owls. Ostriches will dwell there. An ostrich was kind of a large bird that would hunt rodents in the desert, not like an ostrich we think of. And it says that wild goats will dance there. And what in the world does that mean? Well, it could be an Old Testament reference to a demon, a goat-shaped idol, something like that. Whatever it is, it's not good. And so even in verse 22, it talks about hyenas crying in the towers and jackals crying in the pleasant places. So you can kind of picture this imagery where Babylon is just going to be a wasteland where there's not many people, but just wild animals living where people should live. And not nice, kind wild animals, but wild animals. And animals are going to overtake their pleasant places like their gazebos in their gardens. So this is powerful poetic imagery that great and prosperous Babylon will become like Mordor at night, literally a God-forsaken place, a wilderness that you just can't live in. Maybe you've read some of those dystopian novels where, you know, 50 years from now there's no electricity and civilization collapses and wild dogs are running through the streets and crows are nesting in the skyscrapers and there's not many people left. That's kind of the picture we get of Babylon. So what do we make of that? So one thing to say is, you know, when a critic of the Bible reads something like this, they'll say, this is why I don't believe in God. This is exactly one of those texts that shows how God is cruel. He's brutal. Where's the God of love here? Now we'd have to agree and say, this is a brutal text. I mean, it's not just PG, it's above PG. It's not going to be a text that's quoted as the verse of the day on some Christian radio station. It's a hard text. But the main point is clear that God is going to punish Babylon for her evil, arrogance, and wickedness. And the text also hints very clearly that God will one day punish all evil, arrogance, and wickedness. That's justice. It's not an unfair, cruel God. It's justice. They'll pay for their heinous crimes. One day, God will punish the wicked who don't turn from their sins, and they'll get what they have coming to them. It's justice. And I would say that, I would argue this, if somebody who says this, well, this is why I don't believe in God, because of all this cruelty, I would say, you know, one of the deep cries of the human heart is for justice to be done. Do you know what I mean when I say that? Maybe you read about those terrible atrocities in different countries, and even in our country, where innocent children are killed by terribly cruel people. Maybe you've read about the terrible sex trade that's actually happening in our country. Or maybe you hear about gangs recruiting young children into a life of crime and drugs, or worse evils. And deep in our heart, we think, that's not right. That's not good. and we can't stand it because it's injustice. And so our hearts hurt and ache because there's injustice before us. And so the Christian worldview here from Isaiah 13 and other parts in scripture is that God will avenge the wicked who don't repent and they'll get what they have coming. They won't get away for their heinous crimes, but they'll have to face the great judge of all and be paid back for their evil. So that's a hard reality, but it's a reality. And it does satisfy one of those longings in our hearts for justice to be done for the wicked who don't repent. And another thing it teaches us is the sovereignty of God. You know, yeah, this is not like a soft teddy bear God, but the sovereign creator of all who is just and he will repay wicked. And in his mysterious providence that our tiny little brains can't fully fathom, God uses one evil kingdom, the Medes, to destroy another evil kingdom, the Babylonians. He is sovereign that way. He's not the author of sin, but he's sovereign and he can use sin to punish sin, as it were. God didn't twist the Medes' arms and say, you know what, go be brutal to them. Here, I'll tell you exactly what to do to Babylon. But the Medes were a wicked nation themselves, and it's their fault for their sin. They can't blame God. They were the savages, not God. And so Alec Montgier says, it is not therefore that the Lord acts savagely, but that sin is a savage thing in its outworking. So God and his sovereignty uses one sinful nation to punish another sinful nation. One different angle yet to think about as we wrestle with this text is in Romans 1 verse 18 and following. Remember Paul teaches that God gave them over to their sin? So Babylon rejected God, they hated God, they were arrogant, they thought they were better than God and they wanted to be their own gods. And God essentially said, okay, you want that? Fine, I'll let you go in your sin. And you know what? I'll let the Medes go in their sin too and we'll see what happens here. Good luck with that. So that's another angle to think about. So if you were back there in Isaiah's day and you were in Hebron or Jerusalem listening to Isaiah, You would think as an Israel, or somebody from Judah, God is gonna judge evil. Okay, you would say God is gonna judge a wicked nation. And that would sit well with you, you understand that. But you should also think, and this is for us today, I want to escape that wrath of God. I don't want that to be me. I don't want to be any part of Babylon when the day of the Lord is here. Now there's a New Testament text that says as much. Revelation 18. Come out of Babylon, my people, so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues. Come out of Babylon, my people. Come out of that kind of wickedness so you don't share in her sins or receive any of her plagues. Escape the wrath to come. So there is an implicit call to repentance like Isaiah will talk about elsewhere. One more thing. This is the last thing I'll mention this morning. I didn't mention verse 12. I think there's a glimmer, a teeny little pinprick of hope in verse 12. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Ophir was a place known for really good gold. And it says people are going to be scarce like this great gold from Ophir. But there's going to be some left. God's not going to wipe out everyone, but there will be a remnant. He will spare some, and that's what Isaiah talks about elsewhere. He will spare some in mercy. And so when we read hard judgment texts like this in Isaiah, don't start getting critical of God. Read the other texts in Isaiah that we've read that were so clear a call to repentance and the great mercy and forgiveness of God for those who come to him. We already talked about chapter 1 being washed whiter than snow. We already talked about that great remnant theme in chapter 6. We already talked about that great theme about a light coming and a great king who will rule in justice and peace in a great eternal kingdom. So don't forget about those other great texts in Isaiah. Especially that one that we'll look at in maybe in a couple weeks, the suffering servant who himself comes to bear God's wrath, remove it from us, and give us peace and healing. So the day of the Lord is coming like this. This is an Old Testament poetic way to say that God will avenge himself on the wicked. But you can escape. by trusting in the Word of God and in that great King Jesus, the suffering servant who died on the cross for sinners to absorb God's wrath and remove it from us. It's a hard chapter of the Bible, but thankfully it's not the only chapter in the Bible. Judgment is coming, but there is also mercy and hope for those who turn from their sins and trust in the Messiah, Jesus. Amen. Let's pray.