December 19, 2018: Day 18 – Isaiah 14

We have three nations that are mentioned in this oracle.  Again, this is where you need to look at that map to understand who is involved here.  There was a coordination among the nations which was not to the advantage of Judah and Israel.  Oh, so I say Judah and Israel because it was a divided kingdom, but combined they were still the people of God.  Israel was the northern part of the kingdom and Judah was the southern part of the kingdom.  You can see that on the map.  So both Judah and Israel were considered the good guys.

You see the prophet Isaiah first speaks about a unification in the first verses.  This unification is seen in the Lord having compassion on his people.  This is where it all starts.  Then he begins to speak out against Babylon.  From Babylon in vs.4 he then moves on to speak out against Assyria in vs. 25 who will be  broken.  If you see Assyria on the map it is north of Babylon, so quite some distance from Judah and Israel.  Next we find the Philistines in vs.29.  You can see Philistia was on the shore to the West of Israel and Judah.  

These were all arch-enemies of the people of God and so Isaiah takes pleasure in giving these oracles which inevitably speak of their demise.  There is an underlying current of a desire that the Lord would come quickly to make it happen right away.  Again, this Advent sense of anticipation.  I don’t encourage an anticipation that would forecast the destruction of nations, but I guess we can’t have it all.