Isaiah 13:11

The Bible says in Isaiah 13:11-22 “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.”

Isaiah 13:11 is a continuation of the previous verses in which the Bible is telling us about the Day of the Lord when Jesus will return to the earth to destroy the enemies of God and to set up the Kingdom of the Messiah. The Bible speaks of this event also in Revelation 19:15-16 and says, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

One of the reasons that Jesus will return to the earth is to punish sin. He said in Isaiah 13:11, “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.” Of course, He always punishes sin, but this will be a world-wide punishment. He said, “I will punish the world for their evil.” This time of world-wide judgment is called in the Bible “the great tribulation.” Jesus spoke of this time in Matthew 24:21-22 and said, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.”

In speaking of the actions of the world that result in God’s judgment being brought upon the whole world, Isaiah 13:11-13 uses the words “evil,” “wicked,” and “iniquity.” But then in describing this evil, wickedness, and iniquity, Isaiah chapter 13 uses the words “arrogancy,” “proud,” and “haughtiness.” How sinful and how awful is the pride of man. That is because the pride of man causes man to rebel against God, and causes man to continue on in his own way, instead of in God’s way. It says in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Also, it says in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

The destruction that the Lord will bring upon the earth in the Day of the Lord will be a terrible destruction indeed. This is because God is very, very holy; and mankind is very, very sinful. In describing the destruction that will come in Isaiah chapter 13, the Lord said, “I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” The Lord also said that during this time of great tribulation every man would “flee every one,” and he said, “Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.” Concerning the loss of human life, there is no worse calamity than to see young children perish. But even that will happen when this judgment falls upon the whole earth. It says in Isaiah 13:16-18, “Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.”

It is important to notice that Isaiah 13:19 speaks of Babylon in regards to the last days. It says, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” Of course, Babylon was the country that conquered Judah, destroyed the temple of Solomon, and took the people captive in the time of the prophet Isaiah. But Babylon is symbolic of much more than the land where Babylon once stood in what is today called Iraq. We first see Babylon very early in the Bible when Nimrod set up a kingdom of domination in the Middle East.

The first mention of Babylon is in Genesis chapter 10 and it says in 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, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.” It seems that the most noticeable characteristic of Nimrod and therefore of the kingdom that he ruled is found in the phrases “mighty one in the earth” and “a mighty hunter before the LORD.” Nimrod was “mighty” compared to other men. He had might and he had power over them. Nimrod was “a mighty hunter.” In other words Nimrod hunted men in order to dominate them and to control them. That is the great characteristic of Babylon: it dominates and controls the people of the earth over which it reigns. An interesting verse is found in Revelation 14:8 about Babylon. It says, Revelation 14:8, “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” In some way all the nations of the earth did “drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” In other words other nations followed the example of Babylon. The word “wine” is used because it is as though the nations are drunk. There seems to be no rational explanation for the crazy things that they do. It is as though they are drunk with wine. Of course, there will be a price to pay as there always is for rebellion against God, and thus “wrath” is mentioned. God’s wrath will surely come upon the future Babylon, just as His wrath came upon the Babylon of the past.

Concerning the destruction of Babylon in the end-times, there are several verses in the New Testament that emphasize how great that destruction will be. It says in Revelation 16:19, “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” It says in Revelation 18:2, “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” It says in Revelation 18:10, “Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.” It says in Revelation 18:21, “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.” These verses tell us that it will be a violent destruction. It will be a sudden destruction. And it will be a complete destruction.

Another one of the descriptions about Babylon and its destruction is found in Revelation chapter 17. The Bible says in Revelation 17:1-9, “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” One of the things that this passage tells us is that Babylon will have a very close association with false religion. That is why the words “fornication” and “whore” are used. The believers who make up the church of Christ are called the bride of Christ, who have been made pure by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, the false believers are called the opposite because of the degree to which they have turned away from the truth.

One thing to keep in mind about the “Babylon” of the last days is that it appears that the name Babylon is being used symbolically. In other words the Babylon of the last days probably is not what we know today as Iraq. As a matter of fact the language used in Revelation chapter 17 makes us think of Rome. For example, it says in Revelation 17:9, “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” This was written by the Apostle John in the first century and would have been a clear designation to Rome. Rome was an empire of the same spirit as the original Babylon: a violent country that conquers and dominates people, and is full of false religion. The Babylon of the last days will be the most powerful country in the world and the richest. Of course, it will come to a sudden and violent end because of the judgment of God that will come to it. Individuals can escape the judgment by calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from their sins.

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