December 18, 2018: Day 17 – Isaiah 13

Yes, it is blurry, but it is a map that we will need in order to understand the next 15 chapters.   So we begin here in chapter 13 and it takes us through chapter 27.   These are oracles, or statements from the prophet Isaiah, that speak about the future of Israel and the nations that surround it.  This first one speaks about Babylon.  You see Babylonia on the second map to the East of Judah and Israel.  This oracle is against Babylon.  It describes a time when they will get what is due them, primarily because they destroyed Israel and Judah and now their destruction is close at hand.

If you look at vs.16 you can see a scene depicted that is brutal and tragic.  It should remind you of Psalm 137:9 which depicts a similar image of children being dashed against the rocks, but then takes the next step of the plundering of the homes and the ravishing of the wives.  The oracle speaks of Babylon becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah that was overthrown by God.  This oracle is really bad news for Babylon who had taken the Israelites into captivity.  Now they are going to be punished for that, and punished severely.

Interestingly it is thought that the garden of Eden was in that region of the world, around Babylon.  You have the intersection of the rivers which the Scripture describes in Genesis, but if you look at vs.21 to the end you see that the wild animals will inhabit that land.  But these animals are not as peaceful as they were described back in chapter 11 where we found ourselves going back to how God created things.  This, instead, seems to be the antithesis of what we saw in 11.  I know in Eden there were no “goat-demons” that were dancing.  What an image that creates.