12 I will make mortal man [f]scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of hosts
In the day of His burning anger.
14 And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,
Or like sheep with none to gather them,
They will each turn to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.
15 Anyone who is found will be thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
16 Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.17 Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.
18 And their bows will [g]mow down the young men,
They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,
Nor will their eye pity [h]children.
19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;
Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there,
Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there.
21 But desert creatures will lie down there,
And their houses will be full of [i]owls;
Ostriches also will live there, and [j]shaggy goats will frolic there.
22 [k]Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers
And jackals in their luxurious palaces.
Her fateful time also [l]will soon come
And her days will not be prolonged.
And it gets worse… Something I didn’t catch in the first part of the chapter, partially due to differences in translation, is that this chapter is a prophecy against Babylon. Isaiah finished his prophetic writings nearly 100 years before Babylon would conquer Judah, and here he continues with his message from God.
At this point, they weren’t even the dominant power, but somewhat subject (I think) to the Assyrians. Or at the very least, they were neighbors, but certainly the Assyrians were still the dominant player in the region. And we find out, over a hundred years early, that the Medes will wipe Babylon off the face of the earth–quite completely, as it “will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”
If one ever needed proof of God’s omniscience (“all-knowing-ness”), here we go. In the days of Daniel, well after his friends are tested in the fiery furnace, Babylon would be defeated suddenly, while the king was feasting and reveling without a care in the world. And it was the Medes who would do it, after all that time.
God knows our tomorrow also, and next week, and next year. He knows what we are going to do before it happens, He even knows how we will hurt him again. Still God loves us, as the perfect Father, and calls us back to Him. He knows us, as the Son, familiar with our weakness, and sympathizing with our trials and testings.
Above all that, knowing all that He does, He desires to guide and direct us, to share His wisdom with us. We don’t deserve that, not even a little bit, but God does it anyway. Can we trust Him? If you can trust no one else, trust the One who carries you through the fire, much like He did with Daniel’s friends (Daniel, chapter 3). He desires what is best for you, and in the words of Jude, “God is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy…”