Bible Reading Reflection from Isaiah 13-23

 [Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (FG), a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible]

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟛:𝟙𝟡

"And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."

In verse 3 we see God raising up proud people to...??? To punish the proud people of.... in v11. Babylon's fall was predicted and was fallen, gone!

BTW, arrogant America will surely be gone too. God will be raising up a wicked nation to humble her. Perhaps China! It will be a treat to see if it happens in our lifetime!

In the Scripture, we see God raising up wicked people to punish, and righteous people to administer justice. Both are raised by God. Even Genghis Khan is said to have justified his invasion by saying that he was a punishment of God to punish the nations! 😎 A cool guy! 😂

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟜:𝟡

“Hell from beneath is excited about you, To meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you, All the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones All the kings of the nations."

There are some people hell will be excited to meet. Some criminals will be excited to meet some police put in prison.

Heaven is excited to meet the righteous with "Well done! My faithful servant." Hell will be with, "Have you become like us?" v10.

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟝:𝟝

"My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction"

Moab ought to be judged, and so God judged them, yet God was crying for them as well. A God who judges and is compassionate at the same time. Or a compassionate God who judges.

Well, we cannot judge as God did, that is His prerogative. But we can imitate His compassion. It's easy for us to despise the corrupt wicked people, it may be a good practice to pity them!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟞:𝟡

"Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for over your summer fruit and your harvest the shout has ceased."

Moab must be punished for its wickedness, but more so it's because of God's love for righteousness. It's expressed through the emotions of Isaiah! Hmm! Likewise, America must be humbled, and so England, France, and those elites. They are proud.

Chinese or whoever will humble them soon. And what will the Chinese do to them and the rest of the world with their ideology of communism? How ever so, it must come. The proud ones (those who are irreligious) with all their resources, potential, and privilege will be humbled by God. How sad to see them wasted! But it must be, to prove that if you live in God's world, you better know God's directions!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟟:𝟟

"In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel."

A day is coming when everyone will confess Yahweh is God. Many sinners will repent, seeing the judgment of God. Hardly do we hear people turning to God in their heydays; it was usually in their doom days or gloomy days.

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟠:𝟝

"For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms And the flower becomes a ripening grape, Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives And remove and cut away the spreading branches."

What a rich analogy of judgment! Isaiah is the Paul of the Old Testament in terms of literature!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟡:𝟚𝟜-𝟚𝟝

"In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.’"

In verses 1-17, it's a terror against Egypt, but from v18-24, it's favor upon Egypt. That's the God of the Bible. Judgment against sinners but Salvation to those who repent. To destroy the wicked and to prosper the righteous. No escape, no, not a joke or a mock; God will repay accordingly.

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟚𝟘:𝟛

“And the LORD said, ‘Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years as a sign and token against Egypt and Cush.’”

That's more than a thousand days. Hmm! How many of us would be willing to do that? Not one minute, hour or day, or a few weeks. But 3 years of summer, winter, autumn, spring, rainy seasons. Just for a sign. And if God demanded such a life of solitude, shame, and suffering from Isaiah just for a sign, won't the punishment be severe? And so verse 6.

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟚𝟙:𝟡

“‘Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.’ And one said, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.’”

So, Babylon was fallen. Babylon has become a metaphor for wicked power in the Bible. And so wicked power will always fall! God is not tired of the world. He watches everyone and will repay everything.

He knows even those ants that crawl under the fallen leaves which are under the dead fallen trees on the floor of a deep forest where no soul has ever trodden! God protects them from predators and provides them with food and shelter from storms.

This is still God's world, and He continues to judge the wicked.

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟚𝟚:𝟙𝟟-𝟙𝟠

"'Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you headlong, O man. And He is about to grasp you firmly. And roll you tightly like a ball, To be cast into a vast country; There you will die And there your splendid chariots will be, You shame of your master's house.'"

What word pictures in this prophecy! Isaiah is a literary giant of the Bible!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟚𝟛:𝟙𝟟

"It will come about at the end of seventy years that the LORD will visit Tyre. Then she will go back to her harlot's wages and will play the harlot with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth."

Reading a chapter of Isaiah each day could be a boring discipline because we aren't familiar with those nations mentioned in it. Anyway, keep reading!

At least, it impresses upon our mind that God is serious, and judgment is a key theme of the Bible!