Isaiah 13 - Prophecies about Babylon

"The oracle concerning Babylon...I have commanded My consecrated ones, I have even called My mighty warriors, My proudly exulting ones, To execute My anger...to destroy the whole land"

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 This is a warning...

 

Isaiah didn't write this passage for us. We've been taken care of. Isaiah wrote this prophesy for Babylon and Assyria. For the Philistines and Moab.

Or, basically...anybody or anything that has been our source of trouble.
The remains of Babylon are found in present-day Iraq, about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Baghdad. All that remains of the original ancient famed city of Babylon today is a large mound, or tell, of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Originally a minor administrative center, Babylon became an independent city-state in 1894 BC.  The Babylonians were more often ruled by other foreign migrant dynasties throughout their history, such as by the Chaldeans and their fellow Mesopotamians, the Assyrians.

Throughout the duration of the Neo Assyrian Empire (911–608 BC) Babylonia was under constant Assyrian domination or direct control. During the reign of Sennacherib of Assyria, Babylonia was in a constant state of revolt and suppressed only by the complete destruction of the city of Babylon. In 689 BC, its walls, temples and palaces were razed, and the rubble was thrown into the the sea bordering the earlier Babylon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon

And, Isaiah wrote this prophesy just 11 years earlier:And every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them;

they will writhe like a woman in labor. It's a situation that, humanly, we all relish: Finally, the bad guys get what's coming to them. The day is coming when God will punish the world for its evil. He will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud.

Now, of course, all this has a historical foundation. Babylon was destroyed...never to be inhabited again. It also has an apocalyptic fulfillment when Christ returns to reclaim his creation.

Turns out it was all about pride. Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, saw itself as having no peer...even God. When that happens, bad things result.

But we shouldn't rejoice. We've been "read into" these future events so we can join Isaiah in warning the Babylons around us. It causes God great anguish when the wicked perish without repenting. He loves us all. It should cause us the same sense of sadness and loss.

I know...they didn't listen to Isaiah either. That's not the point.

Live boldly out there today...