KNOCKED OFF TOP SPOT
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, you are our bright morning star, the radiance of God’s glory, our coming King. To you I bring my adoration and praise.
Read ISAIAH 14
14 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob;
once again he will choose Israel
and will settle them in their own land.
Foreigners will join them
and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
2 Nations will take them
and bring them to their own place.
And Israel will take possession of the nations
and make them male and female servants in the Lord’s land.
They will make captives of their captors
and rule over their oppressors.
3 On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has come to an end!
How his fury[a] has ended!
5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
6 which in anger struck down peoples
with unceasing blows,
and in fury subdued nations
with relentless aggression.
7 All the lands are at rest and at peace;
they break into singing.
8 Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon
gloat over you and say,
“Now that you have been laid low,
no one comes to cut us down.”
9 The realm of the dead below is all astir
to meet you at your coming;
it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—
all those who were leaders in the world;
it makes them rise from their thrones—
all those who were kings over the nations.
10 They will all respond,
they will say to you,
“You also have become weak, as we are;
you have become like us.”
11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,
along with the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread out beneath you
and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[b]
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you stare at you,
they ponder your fate:
“Is this the man who shook the earth
and made kingdoms tremble,
17 the man who made the world a wilderness,
who overthrew its cities
and would not let his captives go home?”
18 All the kings of the nations lie in state,
each in his own tomb.
19 But you are cast out of your tomb
like a rejected branch;
you are covered with the slain,
with those pierced by the sword,
those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,
20 you will not join them in burial,
for you have destroyed your land
and killed your people.
Let the offspring of the wicked
never be mentioned again.
21 Prepare a place to slaughter his children
for the sins of their ancestors;
they are not to rise to inherit the land
and cover the earth with their cities.
22 “I will rise up against them,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors,
her offspring and descendants,”
declares the Lord.
23 “I will turn her into a place for owls
and into swampland;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
24 The Lord Almighty has sworn,
“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
25 I will crush the Assyrian in my land;
on my mountains I will trample him down.
His yoke will be taken from my people,
and his burden removed from their shoulders.”
26 This is the plan determined for the whole world;
this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
27 For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
A Prophecy Against the Philistines
28 This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died:
29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
that the rod that struck you is broken;
from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,
its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.
30 The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
But your root I will destroy by famine;
it will slay your survivors.
31 Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!
Melt away, all you Philistines!
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,
and there is not a straggler in its ranks.
32 What answer shall be given
to the envoys of that nation?
“The Lord has established Zion,
and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”
Footnotes
Isaiah 14:4 Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac; the meaning of the word in the Masoretic Text is uncertain.
Isaiah 14:13 Or of the north; Zaphon was the most sacred mountain of the Canaanites.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Rise up, Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.’1
Think Further
Many of us find it difficult to integrate expressions of God’s judgment into our thinking about God and the world. We readily respond positively to God’s renewal. We rejoice in the divine compassion that transforms a deceiver like ‘Jacob’ (v. 1) to create ‘Israel.’ We identify with the restoration of his people and we glory in the ‘foreigners’ who join them. However, as Isaiah constantly argues, judgment and restoration are not separate and opposite elements. They go together. Salvation comes through judgment of sin and death and the devil. Rescue necessitates defeat of powers that hold us (v. 3). None of us sit comfortably with the idea of children slaughtered (v. 21), Assyrians crushed (v, 25), or Philistines destroyed by famine (v. 30). However, all of us (even materialists and atheists) want to see right triumph, oppression stopped in its tracks, and wicked powers overthrown (vv. 4–6). There is rejoicing when judgment delivers lands ‘at rest and at peace’ (v. 7) and when God’s people are set free from oppression (v. 25).
Judgment comes when humans set themselves up as demi-gods (vv. 13–15). They act as if they hold divine power, making themselves equal with God, if not greater. It does not take much imagination to take Isaiah’s scathing analysis of their pride-ridden rule and apply it to our world. World history is replete with examples of people who have exalted themselves to de facto divinity. God will not brook such rivalry, especially as it results in human and ecological tragedy (v. 20). He brings humiliation on these rulers. They die and their grandeur dies with them (v. 11); they are denied a proper burial place (vv. 19, 20) and their lineage is cut off (v. 21). We heed the warnings around abuse of power and overweening pride. Our comfort is that these will be thwarted.
Apply
Where do you see the indicators of the sins of Isaiah 14 in our contemporary world? If you long for God’s judgment to be exercised, how do you express that?
Closing prayer
Mighty God, there is no justice or mercy that matches yours. Thank you that Jesus’ victory on the cross assures me of my own victories and gives me hope for the future.
1 Ps 94:2
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