Isaiah 21-23 "The Oracles against the Nations II"



Over the last three weeks

we have been looking at the oracles concerning the nations in Isaiah 13-23.

There are ten oracles in two groups of five.

Over the last two weeks we looked at the oracles concerning the mighty powers:

Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, and Egypt.

Babylon alone will be able to defeat Assyria,

but they themselves will be destroyed by the hand of the LORD,

swept away with the broom of destruction.



We concluded last time on a note of hope.

Egypt and Assyria will gather together to worship God with Israel.

Tonight, however, we get a darker picture.

Isaiah does not have a progressive view of history.

There is no steady march of progress in Isaiah's view.

Rather, things are getting worse.



Tonight we look at the final five oracles:

concerning the wilderness of the sea

concerning Dumah

concerning Arabia

concerning the valley of vision

and concerning Tyre.

The titles of these oracles are cryptic.

There are clear references to help us understand the historical situation,

but the cryptic titles point us beyond the historical situation

to the principles of divine justice.



The oracle "concerning the wilderness of the sea" is a reference to Babylon.

Babylon is, after all, a desert land beside the Persian Gulf.

But there is a double meaning here.

The sea is often used as an image of the power of the nations,

and Babylon is a powerful nation.

Between 722-702 Merodach-Baladan secured the independence of Babylon

from the Assyrian empire.

In chapter 39 we will hear about Merodach-Baladan's attempts to bring Judah

into an anti-Assyrian coalition.

But Babylon, the wilderness by the sea, is compared to another wilderness by the sea:

the Negeb.

The Negeb was the mountainous desert to the south of Jerusalem.

It is a dry and parched land with little use for man or beast.



So Isaiah declares "As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness,

from a terrible land."

A message is coming from Babylon-

and even as Merodach-Baladan's messengers come to the king,

a stern vision is told to Isaiah: "the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys."

This would appear to be the Babylonian message.

Assyria-the traitor and destroyer-has gone too far.

Elam and Media have joined with Babylon,

and now Merodach-Baladan promises to bring Assyria's power to an end.

"All the sighing she has caused I bring to an end."

This would sound like good news.

But Isaiah's response is one of horror (21:3-4)

This is the same language as 13:7-8 (read)

Though he longed for the twilight of the Assyrian Empire,

he is horrified to see Hezekiah joining the alliance. (21:5)

The celebration of the princes is the cause of Isaiah's mourning.

But God tells Isaiah

"Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees."

And so Isaiah sets up a watchman to see what may come.

The watchman cries out: (8-9)

Babylon will not stand.

Babylon will fall.

Remember that Isaiah has already told us that Babylon will destroy Assyria (13-4)

But Babylon is not a stable ally.

Like Egypt and Cush, Babylon too will fall.

Revelation 14 and 18 will echo this cry: Fallen, fallen is Babylon.

But of course, by the first century A.D., Babylon had been deserted for centuries.

Revelation sees "Babylon" as the manifestation of earthly power

wielded in opposition to the kingdom of Christ.

But Isaiah was the first to use it in such a fashion.

The watchman watches throughout the night,

and in the watches of the night, horsemen come in pairs

declaring the fall of Babylon and her gods.



The oracle concerning Dumah consists of only two verses.

Dumah was one of the sons of Ishmael. (Gen 25:4)

Isaiah connects Dumah with Edom (the location of Seir).

And here an Edomite calls out to Isaiah the watchman,

"Watchman, what time of the night?"

"Watchman, how much longer?"

And Isaiah replies, "morning comes and also the night.

If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again."

Israel's brothers are asking, how much longer must we endure through this Assyrian night

and they come to the watchman of Zion to inquire.

But Isaiah has no good news for them.

Come back later.

The hour has not yet come.

Yes, Isaiah brings a message of hope,

but that hope may be long in coming.

The people of God must often endure through many trials before coming to glory.

The oracle concerning Arabia concludes chapter 21.

The nomadic Dedanites lived far to the south,

and the tribe of Kedar was the northernmost of the Arabian tribes.

They too had fallen under the sway of Assyria.

In 703 the Arabs joined with Merodach-Baladan of Babylon,

but they were overthrown by Sennacherib of Assyria.

Babylon became independent, but Assyria was still too strong in the west.

Read 13-17.

The lesson is simple.

The Gentiles cannot stand against the power of Assyria.

But that is not because of Assyrian strength.

It is because Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken.

When the God of Israel speaks, the fates of the nations are sealed.



In the first cycle of oracles that we looked at over the last two weeks,

Israel was treated in the fourth of the five oracles,

and was condemned for allying with Damascus.

Now in this second cycle of five oracles, the people of God again come in the fourth place.



The oracle concerning the valley of vision consists of two parts.

An address to Jerusalem (22:1-14),

and a message to the house of David through Shebna and Eliakim (22:15-25).

It is called an oracle concerning the valley of vision,

because of the blindness of the people.

They are rejoicing and celebrating-but they do not see what God is doing.

The context of the oracle is the deliverance of Jerusalem from Assyria.

The people are celebrating.

Why are you celebrating, O Jerusalem?

Why do you exult in this temporary relief.

Isaiah will weep bitter tears concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.

(Cities are often called the "daughter" so it is a reference to Zion.)

"For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day."

Once again the Day of the LORD appears as a day of darkness and destruction.

"A day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision,

a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains."

Because Elam and Kir are coming.

Elam was an ally of Babylon, and an enemy of Assyria,

so this must refer to the coming Babylonian invasion that was still a century away.



But in that day, Judah did not trust in Yahweh.

Isaiah is using the perfect tense to speak of the future.

It is so certain that he speaks as though it has already happened

(sometimes called the prophetic perfect).

You looked to the weapons of the armory.

You saw the breaches of the city of David were many.

You did not look to him who did this.

Nor did you see him who planned it long ago.

In the valley of vision, in the midst of trials and tribulation,

where do you look?

Who do you see?

Verses 8-11 portray a people busy as bees preparing for the defense of the city.

They are hurry and scurry, but they do not look to God.

The reference to making a reservoir between the two walls may refer to Hezekiah's tunnel

which he built in order to provide a water supply within the walls of Jerusalem.

All of the cleverness of the people, however,

will not avail to save them.

Their walls are strong, their weapons are sharp, and they have plenty of water,

so they do not need faith!

Or do they?

God was the one who formed the mountain of Jerusalem.

He created this part of the world as an aid to faith.

Canaan was always a dry land.

It only became a land flowing with milk and honey through God's blessing.

To forget God is to set yourself up for disaster.

And in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning.

But did you listen?

No, there was joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

eating flesh and drinking wine.

"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

God calls for repentance, but the people respond with thanksgiving!

They do not think that they are going to die.

Isaiah is not reporting their words, when he says "tomorrow we die,"

but the attitude of their hearts.

They do not realize that they are at the brink of death,

but it will find them.

The people of God are not looking to God.

They are blind men living in the valley of vision.

And Yahweh declares that "this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die."

The people believe that they will be saved by their works,

but Yahweh declares that the wages of sin is death.

It is only by faith that Jerusalem can be delivered from her enemies.



Once again Isaiah connects the distant with the proximate.

The future of Jerusalem will be prefigured in the present by Shebna and Eliakim.

Shebna was the steward of the house of David.

But the word for "steward" here has the idea of a fawning lackey,

rather than a royal figure.

Shebna is "over the household"-and seems to have enjoyed his position.

He rode in a glorious chariot and had planned a splendid tomb

to memorialize his name forever.

But Isaiah declares that Yahweh is going to cast him down. (17-19)

And in his place he will put Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, (20-24)

Eliakim is praised as a strong and noble figure.

All the people will turn to him as a quasi-Messianic figure.

He holds the key of the house of David.

He is a secure peg.

He will become a throne of honor.

Eliakim is everything a steward should be.



But in that day (verse 25)



Eliakim cannot hold the weight of the house of David.

He is a strong peg,

but he was designed to be the Messiah.

He is not the deliverer.

ONLY GOD CAN SAVE!!

Even the best of men is still mortal.

He may be a good and wise steward,

but he is not the Son of David.

He is not the Messiah.



Finally, Isaiah declares the oracle concerning Tyre.

Tyre had submitted to the lordship of David,

and Hiram, king of Tyre, had supported David and Solomon in their glory.

Perhaps that is why Tyre now receives the honor of the final place.

And like the fifth oracle in the first sequence (Egypt),

this oracle also speaks of the conversion of the nations.



But it starts with the destruction of Tyre and Sidon.

The Phoenicians were the great traders of the day.

"You were the merchant of the nations"

The ships of Tarshish refer to a distant trading port, possibly in Spain or North Africa.

And they are called to wail and mourn over the loss of one of their favorite ports.

(This call to wail both opens and closes the lament in verses 1-14)

But as verses 8-9 make clear, this judgment was according to God's purpose.

Yahweh of Hosts has defiled "the pompous pride of all glory,

to dishonor all the honored of the earth."

But at the end of seventy years, God will restore Tyre to her wages.

Once again she will prostitute herself to the nations.

But now her wealth will be holy to Yahweh.

He will use her wealth for the furtherance of his kingdom.

And those who dwell before him will prosper because of Tyre.

There is an initial fulfillment of this when Tyre provided some of the supplies for the new temple

(Ezra 3:7)

but it points even further into the future to speak of the day

when Tyre and Sidon would be brought into the kingdom of God.



But Dt 23:18-19 specifically forbids the bringing of the wages of a prostitute

into the house of the LORD in payment for a vow

How can the prostitute Tyre bring its wages to Yahweh?

The prostitution in view is trading.

And the point Isaiah is making is that the prostitute will be reformed.

No longer will Tyre hoard its wealth,

but will use its wages in the service of Yahweh.



What is the point of these oracles?

We will see this more next week,

but there is a contrast between two cities.

The city of man and the city of God.

The City of God is not to be confused with Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, after all, is one of the condemned cities!

But one by one the military powers of the day were condemned in the first section,

and the religious and economic powers of the day are condemned in the second.

This is an important lesson for us.

If Jerusalem could not be called the city of God,

then no city-no nation-on earth can ever claim to be the city of God.

The earthly city cannot hope to "become" the city of God.

The best the earthly city can do is be like the reformed Tyre-

to provide for the city of God.