Isaiah 47:1

In Isaiah chapter 27 God is announcing the judgment that will come upon the nation of Babylon. Jesus is King of kings. Jesus raises up and He casts down both individuals and entire nations. Sin will receive punishment unless the sinner finds forgiveness in Christ because God is a holy God and because He is the Judge of the whole earth. The Bible says in Isaiah 47:1-9, “Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children. But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.”

In describing the wickedness that the Babylonians had come to, there are two primary spiritual problems with the Babylonians that are mentioned: 1. They were living in pleasures. 2. They had set themselves up as God in a form of humanism. Concerning living in pleasures, it says in the first part of Isaiah 47:8, “Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly.” God does give enjoyment and pleasure as a part of life, but there is a point at which a line is crossed and the pursuit of pleasure goes to an extreme and becomes linked to selfishness and sinfulness. That happened in Babylon, and it is happening today. Concerning setting themselves up as God, the phrase that is used to describe this is interesting. It says in Isaiah 47:8 that the Babylonians say in their heart, “I am, and none else beside me.” That is a phrase that can only be said truthfully of God. In other words, the Babylonians had become humanistic: the human ability had become their God. Once again we must say that this is something that is taking place in our day and age. If the Babylonians came under the judgment of God for these failures, then what will happen to people of the earth in the future? It says in Revelation 8:13, “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”

The Bible says in Isaiah 47:10-15, “For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.” Isaiah 47:10 mentions four sins committed by the people of Babylon. The first sin is that they “trusted” in wickedness. Of course, human beings should learn to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one thing to commit wickedness, and we are all sinners, but it is something much worse to trust in wickedness. Not only do they know that what they are doing is wrong, they actually think that they need to rely upon and depend upon wickedness in order to prosper in this life. We can see that happening with many of the liars of our day. Not only do they willingly lie, but they think that lying is a requirement to success. They lie even when there is no reason to lie, because they trust so completely in lying, and the habit of their life is to lie.

The second sin committed by the Babylonians is that they said to themselves “None seeth me.” In other words they thought they could sin and get away with it. They forgot that God sees everything, and that they are accountable to God. It is a sobering reality to wake up to the fact that the Lord sees everything we do. We would live holier lives if we were better aware of the presence of God to see all that happens. The Bible says in Psalms 11:4, “The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.” The Bible also says in Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Just like the Babylonians, people talk themselves into sinning when they think no one is watching. God is always watching.

The third sin committed by the Babylonians is understood by the statement that they made to themselves: “Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.” Knowledge can lead to increased wickedness because of the following sequence of events that is all-too common. 1. A person gains knowledge. 2. That person becomes lifted up with pride because of the increased knowledge. 3. The person sins even more because of the pride. The goal is to gain knowledge, and yet to stay humble. Jesus knows all things, and He said about Himself in Matthew 11:29, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” It says in First Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” and then it says in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

The fourth sin committed by the Babylonians had already been mentioned once before in the previous verses. According to Isaiah 47:10 the Babylonians said within their heart, “I am, and none else beside me.” But that is a phrase that only God can truthfully make. It shows that the Babylonians were setting themselves up as God, and it shows the progression downward that the heart of man can take. As time passes, those who do not trust in Christ start trusting in themselves. Instead of giving God the glory for the good things that happen to them, they give the credit to themselves. This same spiritual falling away still happens. It is described in Romans 1:21-25 that says, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Notice what was going on with the Babylonians as described in Isaiah 47:13. It says, “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” In other words the Babylonians wanted to know the future, and they turned to the wrong means to try and protect themselves against the uncertainties of the future. It is amazing, but we still have “astrologers” and “stargazers” in the form of horoscopes, palm-readers, and fortune-tellers. Of course, instead of “monthly prognosticators” we have daily prognosticators from everything including the weather, the economy, politics, and world events. Everyone is trying to tell us what is going to happen. But only God knows what is going to happen. That is one reason that it is important to trust in Jesus Christ. If you know the One who holds the future in His hand, you will be secure even though you yourself do not know the future.

The Bible says in Isaiah 48:1-9, “Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name. I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.”

In Isaiah 48:1-9 God tells us a very interesting reason why He has given prophecy. Of course, we know that one reason the Lord tells us about events of the future in the Bible is so that our hearts will be comforted knowing that the future is in God’s hands. But Isaiah 48:1-9 tells us a reason for Bible prophecy that is not very flattering to human nature. Concerning man’s nature, the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” The Lord said that the Israelites during the time of Isaiah were so proud and self-deceived that they would have taken credit to themselves for good things that happened to them. Therefore, the Lord told them about those events such as the restoration of Jerusalem, before they happened. This way everyone would know that the Lord brought goodness and favor to the land. Prophecy gives everyone who sees the prophecy come to pass a better opportunity to praise God and to give Him glory for what He has done.

But once again we see the mercy and the love of God through Christ emphasized even though people are not what they should be. The Lord says in Isaiah 48:9, “For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.”

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