Isaiah 14:1-23.  Yesterday we started a new section of Isaiah.  It contains ten messages about the destruction of various proud and powerful nations.  The message yesterday was about Babylon.  I made the point that Babylon was a weak nation during the lifetime of Isaiah but it was not non-existent.  I also mentioned that the original message seemed appropriate for Hezekiah’s time (728-686).  During Hezekiah’s reign in Judah Assyria attacked the land and took the northern kingdom, Israel, captive.  The Assyrian’s would remove leaders and certain skilled people from an area after they captured it.  They would then bring other people from another distant part of their empire in to take their place.  By transplanting parts of a group of people they hoped to break up any tribal loyalties.  The northern kingdom was taken captive in 7222 BC.  Although the Assyrians attacked Judah, the southern kingdom, also they were not able to take the capital of Jerusalem.

Hezekiah’s father was Ahaz.  Ahaz promoted Baal worship (a false Cannanite god, see 2 Chronicles 28:1-4).  He also did not follow the advise of Isaiah but rather invited the Assyrian king to come and defend him, for which he paid a great deal of money.  After defeating Israel and Aram the Assyrians attacked Judah.  Ahaz stayed pro Assyrian in spite of the betrayal.  Hezekiah shared leadership with his father for 13 years.  For the last four years of that overlap he appears to have been the chief leader.  After the death of his father Hezekiah began to reform the spiritual life of Judah and even influenced Israleites who remained in the area of the former northern kingdom.  He also removed the places of idol worship from the land (2 Kings 18:3).  Although Hezekiah was anti-Assyrian he wisely did not stand up to Assyria right away.  During the early part of his reign following his father’s death he was occupied with reforming the spiritual life of the nation.  During those early years Assyria was ruled by a very strong king, Sargon II.  Sargon died in 705 BC and was succeeded by his son, Sennacherib.  Several of the local leaders in the area around Judah saw an opportunity to get out from under Assyrian rule.  In those days smaller nations had to pay tribute, a kind of tax, to the king of a ruling nation or face invasion.  These kingdoms joined together in an alliance against Sennacherib.  Included in this alliance was Egypt (a much larger power but still subject to Assyria at the time).  After consolidating his power at home, Sennacherib marched troops west to deal with the rebellion.  He defeated many of the alliance members to the north of Judah and along the Mediterranean coast.  He then turned his sights on Jerusalem.  With the alliance in shambles Hezekiah decided to pay a tribute by removing silver objects from God’s temple and gold from the walls to pay off Sennacherib.  Sennacherib’s generals marched on Jerusalem anyway.  As the Assyrian generals taunted and threatened from outside Jerusalem, Hezekiah joined up with Isaiah and prayed about the situation asking God for help.  God helped by bringing Egypt into the fight.  The Assyrians retreated from Jerusalem to meet the Eqyptians.  With the direct help of an angel the Egyptian army destroyed 185,000 troops of the Assyrian army.  Sennacherib returned to Assyria where he was murdered by his own children.

The world wrongly saw this as a victory for Hezekiah and sent gifts of honor to him in Jerusalem. Based on 2 Chronicles 32:22-26 and 2 Kings 20:1-21 it appears that Hezekiah proudly accepted these gifts for himself and did not pass the honor on to God.  As a result God made him very sick and Isaiah told him he was going to die.  Hezekiah repented of his pride immediately and God had Isaiah tell him he would live another 15 years (2 Kings 20:1-6; 2 Chronicles 32:24-26).  Ss I said yesterday Babylon was not a major player at this time but they did have a presence.  As we have seen with Judah and the other kingdoms in the alliance, smaller nations were always looking for an opportunity to be free of the larger nations.  At the time of his illness the Babylonians took the opportunity to approach Hezekiah about another alliance, with them.  During that meeting Hezekiah showed the representatives from Babylon all of his wealth and works.  Apparently his pride was not completely gone.  As you might guess from our reading in Isaiah so far, God was not pleased with Hezekiah’s pride and informed him that eventually the very nation he was bragging to would one day carry his descendants and wealth away.  The siege of Jerusalem was in 701 BC and theses other events happened at the same time.  Hezekiah died in 686 BC.  Historically Babylon did become a world power but not until almost 90 years later.  The Assyrian capital, Ninevah, fell in 612 BC to the Babylonians.  The Assyrian king retreated west and called on Egypt for help.  This occurred in 609 BC.  Egypt was able to hold off the Babylonians in the area which had formerly been Israel.  After about 3 years the Egyptians tried to gain more territory but were defeated at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC and the Neo (or new) Babylonian empire became the new world power.  At that time the new king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, took some leading people captive from Judah including Daniel (Who wrote the book of Daniel).  In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar again invaded, this time in response to a rebellion by Jehoiakim king of Judah.  Jehoiakim die before Nebuchadnezzar arrived and his 18 year old son was left on the throne to face the wrath of Babylon.  He was taken captive along with many of the ruling family and also the prophet Ezekiel.  In 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar again invaded in response to yet another rebellion and conquered the city.  He destroyed the temple and took all of the people as captives back to Babylon.  100 years after the death of Hezekiah the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled.

As we read yesterday Babylon’s days were numbered too, they would be taken over by the Mede’s.  Babylon would remain a symbol of the pride and self-sufficiency of mankind until the day of the Lord however (see yesterday’s post for more).  The post yesterday moved from a future day when God would establish his forever kingdom and destroy the man’s kingdoms to a prophecy about the specific kingdom of Babylon.  This prediction about the end of the Neo-Babylonian empire (539 BC) would not come to pass for over 100 hundred years after the death of Isaiah (no later than 642 BC).  Today’s reading is a continuation of the message about the destruction of Babylon.  Remember that each of the ten messages starts with the idea of it being a “burden” which Isaiah must deliver.  Also contained in this first “burden” is a message about the destruction of Assyria.  We will read that part tomorrow.  And remember we have already seen a prediction of the defeat of Assyria in chapters 8-11.  The fact that this message combines hope about the destruction of both Babylon and Assyria tells us that they both were important at the time the message was first given.  This would fit the time of Hezekiah when Assyria was still in power but Babylon was trying to build an alliance.

In Isaiah 14:1-3 we see that God will have mercy on Israel and will bring them back to their land.  God’s promises are secure.  The rest of today’s reading is in a poetic form in Hebrew.  This poem or song is a word or saying against Babylon.  In the poem or song the king of Babylon is filed with pride and many of his actions are seen as unfair.  But his lovely life and his lovely attitude about himself are contrasted with an ugly future.  Instead of the world praising him they will praise his destruction.  Death is excited to meet him however and has prepared a luxurious bed of maggots for him with worms for a blanket (Ugh!  Can anyone say eternal Fear Factor?).  At the end of the song we see that this total destruction of both the king and his empire are from God.  Some early Christian leaders connected Isaiah 14:12 with Luke 10:18 and felt that Isaiah 14:12 was a description of Satan being expelled from Heaven.  There are many parallels between the attitudes and other descriptions of Satan and this description of the king of Babylon (See also Revelation 9:1; 12:7-9).  It is certainly possible that this song uses compares the evil Babylonian king with the devil but the meaning remains the same, pride leads to destruction and humiliation.  As with the rest of Isaiah so far the duel themes of judgment and mercy are both present.  Pride and the idea that we can do it on our own lead to destruction and humiliation (Can you think of anything worse that a bed of maggots and a blanket of worm?)  On the other hand if we leave our lives and eternities in God’s hands he will take care of us.  Lord help me trust you more.  Give me wisdom about what to do when.  It doesn’t seem like Hezekiah was in trouble for making an alliance, you even used it to save his kingdom.  But he was in trouble for taking the credit after you gave the victory.  Help me be wise and do what is right.  Help me give you the credit when things work out.  Thank you for your patience and mercy.