13 The [a]oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
2 Lift up a standard on the [b]bare hill,
Raise your voice to them,
Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.
3 I have commanded My consecrated ones,
I have even called My mighty warriors,
My proudly exulting ones,
To execute My anger.
4 A sound of tumult on the mountains,
Like that of many people!
A sound of the uproar of kingdoms,
Of nations gathered together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering the army for battle.
5 They are coming from a far country,
From the [c]farthest horizons,
The Lord and His instruments of indignation,
To destroy the whole land.6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near!
It will come as destruction from [d]the Almighty.
7 Therefore all hands will fall limp,
And every man’s heart will melt.
8 They will be terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
And abase the haughtiness of the [e]ruthless.
Somehow, we keep coming back to pride. Either I really need to hear it, or you do, or all of us–probably the latter. This chapter seems even more extreme than anything we’ve seen before. This was not just the Assyrians, bringing temporary affliction, but God planned to “exterminate its sinners from it (the land)”. To do so, he was bringing an even larger army, that would make “every man’s heart melt.”
It seems cruel, and so Isaiah states it to be, but in contrast to the deeds done in pride and haughtiness? Probably less and swifter than they (or we) would deserve. I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes of late, and the cases of human cruelty, though fictional, are in no wise the worst mankind is capable of. One only needs to turn on the news (but don’t really) to hear how low we can sink.
In our pride, we are better than so and so, and their rights or feelings don’t matter nearly so much as ours. It is no wonder Jesus said (multiple times) the second most important command is to love your neighbor as yourself (or “who is just like you”). He didn’t make that up, it wasn’t new, but God commanded it way back in Leviticus 19.
Were these people doing it? Not at all, the widows and orphans, the poor and destitute, were all cannon fodder for the elite, the craven. Are we following it? Are we really? It’s far too easy to look at someone who is down on their luck, who doesn’t look very presentable, or whatever the case may be, and say, “thank God I’m not like that!”
Someone else said something all too close to that (Luke 18:9-17), and Jesus stated clearly there was no forgiveness for such a person (who thinks too highly of themselves). So as the song says, “humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up…” Not to power or fame necessarily, as that might be too much for us to handle, but to a station that is far more than we deserve, sons and daughters of the King of Glory. Remember it is He who has lifted us, it is not of our own doing, “lest anyone should boast.”
So don’t (boast), but remember the widows, the orphans, the unkempt, the swindlers, the unjust, the sinners, all the ones who so desperately need God, and who need our love, the love that only comes from loving God desperately.