II Corinthians 2:14

Isaiah 14:7-9, 12-15

“Hell From Beneath is Moved For Thee”

Isaiah 14:7-9, “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.”

Isaiah chapter 14 is about the judgment of God. God is a God that loves mercy and judgment. Law and grace is mercy and judgment. The gospel of Jesus Christ is mercy and judgment. The gospel of Jesus Christ is judgment because there is the judgment of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of the world and there is judgment against those that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1:8 says, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In Isaiah chapter 14 judgment is pronounced against the kingdom of Babylon and the king of Babylon. In talking about the judgment of God what should be noticed first is Isaiah 14:1, “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land.” In talking about judgment one thing is certain God always keeps His promises. There will always be mercy for the believers in Jesus Christ and for the nation of Israel.

God is always meting out judgment on this world and on the nations. There seems to always be a competition in the world between the nations of the world regarding which nation will become the most powerful, the most glorious, the most splendorous. This competition between men began in the days of Nimrod and the tower of Babel. This competition often results in great violence and murder and war on the earth because men are evil. But there is an answer to the question of the judgment of God and which nation is going to become the nation above all nations. Isaiah 14:1, “For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land.” The LORD Jesus Christ has chosen Israel and the LORD Jesus Christ will yet choose Israel.

Isaiah chapter 14 is a very important chapter in the Bible because it teaches us some very important gospel truths about the last days of the age of grace before the great tribulation. In the context of Isaiah chapter 14 judgment against the kingdom of Babylon is described. What is also mentioned in this great judgment against men and the kingdom’s of men is Satan and judgment against him. Isaiah lived in the days before King Nebuchadnezzar, in the days before Jeremiah, in the days before the Babylonian empire became a great empire which crushed Israel and destroyed Jerusalem and brought into the captivity of slavery all the Jews.

Babylon and the king of Babylon mentioned here in Isaiah chapter 14 is symbolic of the antichrist who will rise to power and his kingdom of New Babylon. History repeats itself. There is always an antichrist on the rise. An antichrist rises up, goes forth to conquer, conquers and then is cast down into judgment. We can see this happening over and over and over just in the last 300 years with the king of England in the 1700’s, Napoleon in the 1800’s, and Germany in the 1900’s during WW1 and WW2.

What is the burden of the LORD? What is the new thing that God is doing in the world today? Is the earth at rest? Or is the earth stirred up in judgment?

Isaiah 14:7-9, “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.” In the Bible the last days are also called the age of grace. The last days are also called perilous times. How far into the last days are we? 2000 years. The end of the age of grace is coming. The return of Christ is coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 says, “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and then that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

Isaiah chapter 14 tells for us some important details about the end of the age of grace, the great tribulation, and the opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ during these perilous times of grace.

In Isaiah chapter 14 Assyria or modern day Iran was the most powerful nation. During this time and during this, chapter Isaiah chapter 14, the kingdom of Babylon or modern day Iraq suffered the judgment of God. After Isaiah comes Jeremiah the prophet and the days of the kingdom of Babylon and the head of gold. It seems only accurate to expect the same kind of a repeat in terms of the rise and fall of nations at the end of the age of grace and the rise of the kingdom of New Babylon.

Very recently in the course of human events in this world Iraq has gone into judgment and Iran is on the rise as a nation. In talking about the New Babylon of the great tribulation what should be considered is that it is in a way a great world wide government with the similarities both of the Roman Empire and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. We see this movement in the world today more than ever with the mingling of Muslim and Christian countries culturally, politically, economically, and militarily.

These changes in the world have become very noticeable since the 1970’s. The two greatest characteristics of New Babylon will be pride and confusion. The word Babylon means confusion. The reason Babylon in Jeremiah and Isaiah is used to picture the kingdom of the anti Christ is because the very first kingdom of men was the kingdom of Babel established by Nimrod. Babylon is Babel and New Babylon is Babylon. All 3 are really of the same thing, domination and control and opposition against Jesus Christ by Satan. Babel was a kingdom ruled by Satan, Babylon, was a kingdom ruled by Satan, and New Babylon will be a kingdom ruled by Satan.

Genesis 10:8-10, “And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.”

In talking about Babel and Babylon and what the New Babylon will be like Genesis chapter 11:1-9 says, “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

One of the characteristics of Babel and Babylon is how those involved in Babel and Babylon are very much in opposition to the will of God. They do the opposite of what God’s Word teaches. God told man in the days of Babel to scatter and reproduce in the way of a man with a maid and inhabit all the earth. They did just the opposite under Nimrod. They gathered together against God. One of the greatest examples of what is opposite of, “the way” is homosexuality. Homosexuality is opposite of the way of a man with a maid. Homosexuality destroys this world. The way of a man with a maid in marriage glorifies the name of Jesus Christ. Choose ye one way or the other. My bowels! My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab. One way of measures how wicked the world is and how much opposition in this world there is against Jesus Christ and His eternal truth is by how much homosexuality there is in the world. God loves the way of an eagle in the air and the way of a man with a maid.

The great characteristic of Babel was its unity in opposition to the will of God. Unity is good if it is the right kind of unity. Christians should have a unity through a love in the Spirit, a unity through the truth of the Word of God. Ephesians 4:13 says, “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.”

The characteristics of the end of the last days and the characteristics of New Babylon during the 7 years of the Great Tribulation will be a unity, a worldwide unity against Christians, a world wide unity of false religion against Jesus Christ and His Word: even a unity against man and woman in marriage. This kind of unity is the kind of unity in which liberty and freedom is taken away from men women and children and men are put into a very cruel and dominating slavery in which they cannot even buy or sell food. If you cannot even feed yourself you have lost the most basic God given freedoms required for human life. My bowels! My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab.

The other characteristic of Babel was its tower. Man builds towers today, satellites. They reach unto the heavens. And just as high as the satellites are today, so too is the height of the pride of man. Towers, be they towers of stone or towers of sound will not no matter the height reach God. You can only ascend into heaven by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. We live in the days of the fall of splendor. In other words man thinks he is increasing in the world when really because of his sinfulness and pride and his turning away from the truth of the Word of God man is decreasing and falling, falling away, away from grace and into lasciviousness.

Isaiah 14:7 “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.” Consider the words rest, and quiet.

There a repetitive cycle in this world, mountains and valleys, law and grace, war and peace, lines, and dots, 6 and 9, 0’s and 1’s, old and new, rest and quiet, moving and stirring, water and fire. In Isaiah chapter 14 a judgment was pronounced on Babylon. God used the nation of Assyria to judge Babylon. After this time of judgment came a time of peace: rest and quiet.

Genesis 8:4, “And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” After the worldwide judgment in the days of Noah when God judged the world with a flood the ark rested. Zechariah 1:11, “And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.”

Rest and quiet. It has been about 4000 years of rest and quiet since the worldwide judgment of the Genesis flood in the days of Noah. The ark rested. In Isaiah’s day the earth rested. In Zechariah’s day the earth was at rest. We, in the past 100 years, in the past 2000 years, yea in the past 4000 years, yea in the past 6000 years have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Hearken O ye children of men and listen for Thus saith the LORD, Isaiah 14:7 “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.”

In this world there is always mercy and judgment in Jesus. But the days are drawing nigh for the time that God will shake the nations and judge the nations for all their wickedness against Him. If you listen carefully you can feel it in the earth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. My bowels! My bowels! I am pained at my very heart.

Isaiah 14:8, “Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon saying, Since thou art laid down no feller is come up against us.” The fir trees and the cedars; the roots and the songs. The fir trees are cypress trees. The wood of cypress trees make for musical instruments. The cedars are strong because their roots are strong. With the wood of a cedar tree you can build a house.

Whenever God brings a judgment upon this world such as World War 1 or World War 2 it both an example of what the time of the Great Tribulation will be like and also a new thing in the earth for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After such a judgment the earth finds a time of peace a time of rest a time of increase in the grace and the Word of God, just as in the days when God used Assyria to judge Babylon. This is what is symbolized by the fir trees and the cedar trees.

Isaiah 14:7-8 “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon saying, Since thou art laid down no feller is come up against us.” Mercy and judgment in Christ Jesus; War and peace: both are the right hand of God. We can see these 0’s and 1’s, these mountains and valleys, these times of mercy and times of judgment, times of law and times of grace over and over and over again in history.

Regarding the just and holy and true judgment of God there is a judgment this world has only seen the half of: the water and the fire. We had the water in the days of Noah the waters of God’s judgment on all the world. Since that time for nigh 4000 years we have had the rainbow of God’s promises because God is a God of love and grace and God keeps His promises.

When you think of a rainbow what do you think of? Do you think of the promises of God? Or do you think of homosexuality? The world, most of the billions of people in this world think of homosexuality and lasciviousness instead of the grace of God. When the world turns away from the way, When the world turns away from the way of a man with a maid they are becoming a world of Nimrod’s, hunters who hunt after the flesh in their lasciviousness and in their violence.

Isaiah 14:7-8 “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon saying, Since thou art laid down no feller is come up against us.” The United States and much of the world at least since the days of the 1920’s after world war 1 have broke forth into singing. In talking about judgment: the judgment of God is always good and always just. The bowels of God will be comforted with His judgment on this world through the fire of His indignation.

We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. They have broken forth into singing. The Christians have walked too and fro through the earth suffering for the name of Jesus Christ. They are lost in their sins. We see rainbows and promises. They see lasciviousness.

Now when I looked upon thee and passed by thee behold thy time was the time of love. There is a time and a season for all things. There is a time for mercy and a time for judgment. There is a time to turn from your sins to Jesus. No opportunity lasts forever in this world. Is the world turning from it’s sins to Jesus Christ? Is the world turning from homosexuality or turning into it? God loves the way of a man with a maid. God wants romance between man and woman to increase in this world on two wings of a great eagle just as an eagle increases with the wind beneath its wings.

Isaiah 14:9, “Hell form beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” To move and to stir is healthy for the bowels of the world. My bowels! My bowels! My bowels shall sound as a harp.

Whenever the judgment of God comes upon the world on any network or any nation such judgment cleanses the world, overturns it, and adds time to these last days. Time is grace. Time gives men the opportunity to repent of their sins to Christ and receive eternal life.

“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: It stirreth up the dead for thee.” Bring them in! Bring them in! Bring them in from the fields of sin. No one escapes the judgment of God because God is all powerful, all knowing, all seeing and holy. When the final day of judgment comes at the white throne judgment in a way it will be opposite of how it was for Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. On the cross of Mount Moriah in the city of Jerusalem the sins of all the world were laid upon the Lamb of God. At the white throne judgment all the world will be laid before the white throne of God and all men will be judged according to whether or not they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior or whether they have trusted in their own sinfulness.

In thinking about judgment, the righteous and just judgment of God the Bible says in Revelation 16:7, “And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.” Revelation 19:2 says, “For true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”

True and righteous are the judgments of the Lord God Almighty. The judgment of God is what shakes the nations and sifts the nations. The judgment of God moves and stirs just as it is healthy for a man’s bowels to move and to stir.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 15:17-18, “Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.” That which goes into the belly is cast out into the draught. My bowls! My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp.

My bowels! My bowels! I am pained at my very heart. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for the world because the sword is drawn, the Word of God is drawn. Mercy and judgment and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are going forth into this world to consume because of the glittering. Hell from beneath is moved for thee and me to meet thee and me at our coming. It stirreth up the dead for us.

In talking about the judgment of God in these verses of Isaiah, Isaiah 14:7-9, we see these 4 words: rest, quiet, moved, and stirreth.

Sometimes a city is at rest and quiet. And sometimes a city is moved, and stirred. Sometimes a nation is at rest and quiet. And sometimes a nation is moved and stirred. Sometimes the world is at rest and quiet and sometimes the world is moved and stirred. There is a time and a season for everything. There is a time and a season to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to warn men to repent of their vile ungodliness and take the opportunity of the grace and love of Jesus Christ. But when the time of rest and quiet is past then the time for the world to move and stir comes. When Jesus comes Jesus comes quickly. Revelation 3:11 says, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” Revelation 22:7 says, “Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” Revelation 22:12 says, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22:20 says, “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

Psalms 72:8, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” A river is a network. There are many different kinds of networks in this world but from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth Jesus is the one with the dominion over all things.

The world is moving and stirring. The world has lain quiet and at rest for 4000 years since the judgment of God came upon the earth in the days of Noah the preacher. In those days the world had only 8 Christians. The rest of the world went into homosexuality, devil worship, slavery, drugs, violence, whoremongering, idolatries, murders and every abomination imaginable.

The whole earth is at rest and is quiet they say. But I say My bowels! My bowels! From sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth. It stirreth up the death for thee. This is the age of grace. Grace; grace unto it. But these are perilous times and therefore now is the time of love! And thus now is the time of opportunity; the opportunity for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is why in Isaiah chapter 14 in talking about the judgment of God on this world Lucifer is mentioned. Satan is Lucifer. Isaiah 14:12-15, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

In talking about the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ The Bible says in the gospel of Matthew chapter 21:1, “When the morning was come.” Jesus began His road to the cross in the morning. Did you know that Lucifer was called the son of the morning! This means that in the beginning when God created the angels Lucifer was given a special opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The But he threw it away. The word angel means messenger. What a waste Lucifer made of his opportunities! Yet God’s grace never goes to waste.

This is why in talking about Babylon and the last days and the twinkling of an eye and New Babylon which arises during the hour of the great tribulation Lucifer is mentioned. Even though though the devil is in complete opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ God still uses the devil to accomplish his will. He uses the devil in the moving and stirring up of the nations, in the sifting of the nations with the sieve of vanity and in the casting of waste into the draught.

There are no rewards to be earned in hell and there is no glory to be found down in the sides of the pit. There are no crowns to ware.

When the morning was come! Jesus is coming. And when He does it will be morning and it will be night. There is a great opportunity to live for Jesus Christ in this age of last days of grace. God’s grace never goes to waste. Those that throw away their opportunities like the devil did God will give those opportunities to someone else someone who is willing to do whatever God wants them to do for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the lost souls of this world. Isaiah 14:18 says, “All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.”

In regards to an exceeding weight of glory; the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ notice the words that Lucifer said in Isaiah chapter 14:13-14, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Of course the devil is not like the most High. The devil is every bit contrary to that which is good and true and just and holy and loving and pure.

Whenever it is the last days of something then those are days of opportunity. These are days of opportunity: the opportunity to live for Jesus Christ. Good is the Word of the LORD. Romans 8:17 says, “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

The devil threw it away but I will not. Anyone who turns from their sins to Jesus Christ becomes a joint-heir with God. We the people of this world who become true believers in Jesus Christ will ascend into heaven one day, we will be like the most High. Daniel 12:3 says, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”

The whole earth is at rest and is quiet they say. They break forth into singing. Hell from beneath is moved. It stirreth up the dead. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is stirring up the world. Turn from your sins to Jesus and find rest, eternal rest and eternal life; resting in the exceeding weight of the glory of God.

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off for ever. Isaiah 14:7, 9, “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee.”

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