SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/14/2013
9:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God announces
the Victory
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Isaiah 21:1-10; 14:24-27
Message of the
verse: We have been looking at some
of the things that Isaiah has written about Babylon in the last few Spiritual
Diaries. We mentioned that the things
that he is writing about certain nations (10 nations) are called burdens for it
was a burden for him to write them. Today
we will look at the final thing that he writes about Babylon in the section we
are looking at now.
God announces the victory (Isaiah 21:1-10): “1 ¶ The oracle (burden) concerning the wilderness of the sea.
As windstorms in the Negev sweep on, It comes from the wilderness, from a
terrifying land. 2 A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one
still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay
siege, Media; I have made
an end of all the groaning she has caused. 3 For this reason my loins
are full of anguish; Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor. I
am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see. 4 My mind reels,
horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into
trembling. 5 They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they
drink; "Rise up, captains, oil the shields," 6 For thus the Lord says to me,
"Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees. 7 “When he sees
riders, horsemen in pairs, A train of donkeys, a train of camels, Let him pay
close attention, very close attention." 8 Then the lookout called, "O
Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, And I am stationed every
night at my guard post. 9 “Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen
in pairs." And one said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are
shattered on the ground." 10 O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the
threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I
make known to you.”
Dr.
Wiersbe sys that the “wilderness of the sea” is probably the area around the
Persian Gulf, and goes on to say that the Assyrians attacked the Babylonians in
689 B. C. Once the Assyrians defeated the Babylonians it opened up the area he
mentions as the wilderness of the sea and thus they would take charge of all of
it.
The
reason that Isaiah felt the pain of Babylonians defeat was because this would
allow the Assyrians to defeat the Northern Kingdom of Israel. If it would have been in 539 the Jews would
have rejoiced: for it would have meant release from captivity. However in 689 Babylon’s defeat meant the
destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the devastation of the Southern
Kingdom. The phrase that Isaiah writes “Babylon is fallen, is fallen” is also
seen in Jeremiah 51:8 and then John writes the same phrase in Revelations 14:8
and also 18:2. John writes this in
Revelations because the religious and political system of Babylon will be
defeated for the last time as shortly after this the Lord Jesus Christ will triumphal
return to earth to reclaim the earth for the glory of God.
I
have mentioned that we will be looking at ten different nations that Isaiah is
writing about and so because the next one he writes about, Assyria, is very
short, just four verses I want to look at it today too.
Assyria (Isaiah 14:24-27): “24 The LORD
of hosts has sworn saying, "Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it
will stand, 25 to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My
mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from
their shoulder. 26 “This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this
is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. 27 “For the LORD of
hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand,
who can turn it back?’”
While
we were studying the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel we heard
Nebuchadnezzar say these words, “"All the inhabitants of the earth are
accounted as nothing, But He
does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of
earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ’What have You done?’” Elsewhere in Daniel Nebuchadnezzar will also
state that it is God who raises up nations and then brings them down again and
we see the same idea in his short section of the 14th chapter of
Isaiah. We see in Isaiah 10:5-6 the
following statement: “Woe to Assyria,
the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, 6 I send it against a godless nation And
commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize
plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets.” God used Assyria to punish the Northern
Kingdom of Israel.
We
read about the defeat of Assyria in the 37th chapter of Isaiah as
God would send an angel to kill 180,000 Assyrian’s in one night and thus the
Assyrians would be defeated in the land of Judah.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: We see that
Babylon would begin in the early chapters of the book of Genesis and would end
in the last book of the Bible, and what this teaches me is that Babylon is all
about man where Jerusalem is all about God and God will use Babylon throughout
the history of the earth. Oh it may not
always be called Babylon, but the political and the religious systems that are
against God will be seen throughout history.
The good thing comes as Isaiah writes Babylon is fallen, fallen.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust in the Lord to lead me and
to guide me so that I will not be prideful in what the Lord does through me.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 46:1-10
1 God is or refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear
though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of
the sea; though the waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its
swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a river whose streams make glade
the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the most high. 5 God is in the midst of her, she will not be
moved, God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He
raised His voice, the earth melted. 7
The Lord of hosts is with us, the God or Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
8 Come behold the works of the Lord, who has wrought desolations in the
earth. 9 He makes wars to cease to the
end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the sword in two; He burns the
chariots with fire. 10 “Cease striving
and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted
in the earth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Jericho” (Joshua 2:1).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who was the woman Samson
loved?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
8/14/2013 10:39 AM
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