Well, good morning, and if you are just joining us, we are, as we have said, partway through
the book of Isaiah, which we're working through this term.
There is something quite majestic about the scope of this book.
It has a grandeur in its scope.
The second verse of Isaiah calls the heavens and the earth to bear witness, and in the
very last paragraph, we read of a new heaven and a new earth.
And so the journey of the book of Isaiah is from creation to new creation, such is the
scope of it.
It is cosmic, and cosmic renewal in a grand scale is what this book is about.
In God's wisdom and in his providence, that cosmic renewal is being worked out through
this little nation of Judah, being played out through the pages of history.
In this little nation.
And yet, as we open the book of Isaiah, it is quite dark days for Judah.
You see, Judah is sitting, waiting, cowering in the corner like a little puppy, waiting
for the mighty Assyrian army just on the other side of its northern borders to take up its
arms and walk in and annex Judah, as it has done Israel previously.
And so the question for Judah is, where is your security?
What is it that you are hoping for?
Where is it you look for your hope?
If you were here last week, the main idea was to turn to God's king for hope.
In repentance and faith, turn to God's king.
Today, it's linked to that idea, but it's turn away from other things as well, is the
point of today's message.
And so if you've got the St. Paul's app, three points.
God and the nations.
God and Judah.
And God and us.
So let's kick off, first of all, God and the nations.
Isaiah 1 to 12, which is where we finish last week, is the first main section of this prophecy.
And it began with a focus on Judah, and it ends with a focus on the nations.
And as we pick up the second major section of this book, which is chapters 13 to 27, we
begin with a focus on the nations, and we end with a focus on Judah.
As a relatively small nation, it was constantly threatened by great powers.
And Judah, therefore, was constantly tempted to look to political and military alliances in
order to save her.
And so our concern today is really chapters 13 to 23, or really 13 to 27.
And if you've got a Bible in front of you and you flick through the pages, you'll see the
chapter headings or the section headings, and those section headings will tell you exactly
what these chapters are all about.
Now, they are 10 oracles, prophecies against the nations that are surrounding Judah.
They are structured into two groups of five oracles, and each of the two groups of five begin
with Babylon, the nation of Babylon.
Now, Babylon historically is known as one of the seven wonders of the world.
It's also the sacred capital and power base of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, who you can
read about in the Old Testament book of Daniel.
And the reason Babylon comes first in both sections of five oracles is that in Bible thinking,
Babylon is not just a real place, but it also is a symbol of collective human defiance and
rebellion against God.
Babylon was historically built on the site of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
And the Tower of Babel being the monument to human desire to push God out of life and to make
a name for ourselves.
It's the ultimate symbol, Tower of Babel, Genesis 11, the ultimate symbol of human rebellion against
God.
And it's a symbolism that's carried right through into the New Testament.
1 Peter 5, verse 13, the apostle Peter refers to the Roman Empire as Babylon.
And likewise, the apostle John announces the ultimate downfall of prideful world powers at the end of time in Revelation 18,
using the word Isaiah 21, fallen.
Fallen is Babylon.
Babylon.
And so as we consider the grand scope of Isaiah, we also note that Babylon rises at the beginning of the Bible and it falls at the end of the Bible.
Babylon represents all that stands against God.
All that is rebellious against God.
All that is an enemy of God.
All that is about human pride and achievement without God.
And even in chapter 13, which is our focus today, we are to understand that what is prophesied here about Babylon is more than just the nation.
In verse 11, we read God saying, I will punish the world for its evil.
What that means is, as we look at chapter 13, and please have your Bibles open because you really need to have your Bibles open.
I'll even pause for you to let you get it.
Excellent.
Going for apps, Bibles.
If you need a Bible, put your hand up or take one from the person next to you.
What this means is, as we read about Babylon here in chapter 13, we are reading about the great cities of our own day.
What does God say to London, Tokyo, New York, Beijing, Dubai, Sydney?
You could extend that and ask, what does God say to the great multinational companies of our day?
BHP and Apple and Amazon and Google and Meta.
And what's more, what does God say about the great ideologies and opinion formers and culture shapers of our day of liberal democracy and Islam and secularism?
What does God say to everything that we have built for ourselves?
Verse 6 of chapter 13.
Wail for the day of the Lord is near.
It will come like destruction from the Almighty.
And then down into verse 9.
The day of the Lord is coming, a cruel day with wrath and fierce anger to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.
Both of those verses mention the day of the Lord.
It represents both a particular time in history and something far deeper and greater as well.
It's first a reference to the year 539 BC when the Babylonian Empire finally fell.
It finally fell to the Medi-Persian Empire under Cyrus.
But it also refers to a day that is yet to come when the Lord Jesus will return.
We see this at the end of the Bible.
And do what he did here to Babylon to bring judgment upon the pride and the arrogance of all who dare to oppose him.
And most of Isaiah 13, which was just read out to us, is a vivid description of what that day will be like.
What is it about our society that makes God in?
Well, in one verse, we are given a telling insight into the mind of the judge of all people.
Verse 11.
I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
In its essence, evil is the opposite of everything that's good.
Evil is not a category that is reserved for some people, but not others.
It's a category that's reserved for all people, not just the worst of people.
It's described in verse 11 as arrogance, pride, haughty, as sin.
As the German theologian Martin Luther wrote, the human heart is curved in on itself.
Definition of pride.
Curved in on itself.
Looks to itself.
That's the essence of the problem.
We put ourselves where only God should be.
Now, I'll be frank with you.
I do not tend to think of my neighbours or even of myself as evil.
And yet, I have done things.
I have said things and thought things that have caused harm to others.
And I still do.
I've acted.
I do act for my own advantage at the expense of others.
I did it yesterday.
There was a long line of traffic.
I rammed up on the inside and pushed in.
The guy behind me didn't like it.
But my car was bigger than his.
In its essence, evil is the opposite of everything good.
It is my heart curved in and of itself.
Think about myself first.
I departed from the good ways of the God who made me.
And God says humanity must be held accountable for it and he will punish the wicked for their sins.
God will bring low the pride, the proud.
He will bring low the pride, the presumption of those who exalt themselves.
And so I ask you, have you ever believed your own publicity?
Have you ever refused to let God be God?
Have you ever thought that his word is mistaken, misguided, wrong?
Have you ever justified your behaviour?
Even used the Bible to justify your behaviour?
Have you ever justified your behaviour?
And so in verse 2, he will muster a mighty army through whom he will punish the proud.
Raise a banner on a bare hilltop.
Shout to them, beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded those I prepared for battle.
I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath.
Those who rejoice in my triumph.
Listen, a noise on the mountains like that of a great multitude.
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms.
Like nations massing together, the Lord Almighty is mustering an army for war.
They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens.
The Lord and the weapons of his wrath to destroy the whole country.
That's God speaking to Babylon.
And the immediate result of God's judgment here is agonising helplessness, as we've all said in verse 6.
It's sobering.
Human greatness will come to nothing.
Weapons, it says he, will fall from limp fingers.
Nerves will flee from every heart.
And it's in this moment that the bankruptcy of human pride is laid bare.
And the impotence of all sources of security, hope and trust that we have built for ourselves will be gone.
The flaming faces of verse 8 is shame.
The shame of realising that my rejection of God has just been foolish.
We will all be in the same boat, but we'll all sing it upon ourselves.
The shame of rejecting God.
The foolishness of it.
And verses 9 to 18 is a devastating description of God's judgment.
It is gut-wrenching.
And so this should cause us to ask,
what is it that we are trusting in to defend ourselves against Almighty God?
Nothing will stand.
Verse 19 is really telling Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
the pride and glory of the Babylonians,
will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
You see, this is a message to Judah.
Babylon's not hearing this.
This is a message to Judah.
And God's saying here, have a look at Babylon, Judah.
Look at it.
The jewel of the kingdoms.
And all Judah could see in that moment was the jewel of the kingdoms.
This great city, the glory and the splendour of Babylon.
The first city in human history to get beyond 200,000 inhabitants.
The glorious city that had spectacularly throughout its history defied God and succeeded.
God says it will fall.
Judah, it will fall.
Look to that hope and it will fall.
And it did.
It fell.
And as we're told, it will never be rebuilt again.
In 1983, Saddam Hussein started to rebuild Babylon to again be a symbol of greatness in the world.
He portrayed himself as the new Nebuchadnezzar, the new king of the Babylonian empire.
He had his name inscribed on the bricks as Nebi before him did in the original Babylon.
He had large portraits of himself put alongside King Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance of the rebuilt Babylon.
And signs throughout the city declared, this was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, king of kings, to glorify Iraq.
He ended up in a hole in the ground, running for his life.
Defiant to the end, he is dead and God, gone.
And the city that he was building for himself is still a ruins in the desert that you can visit today.
And so here the prophecy of Isaiah, nearly 3,000 years before that,
she will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations.
There no nomads will pitch their tents.
There no shepherds will rest their flocks.
But desert creatures will lie there.
Jackals will fill her houses.
There the owls will dwell.
And there the wild goats will leap about.
Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds.
Jackals, her luxurious palaces.
Her time is at hand and her days will not be prolonged.
You see, the message for Judah here as it gazes at great Babylon is very simple.
Empires will come and go.
Societies will rise and they will fall.
Great companies and institutions will burst onto the scene and disappear.
The rulers and kings will come and go.
And you will live.
And you will die.
I am so grateful to God for his timely providence of preaching today on Isaiah 13 to 23
and watching the coronation of King Charles III yesterday.
He's here and one day he will go.
The British Empire has risen and it will fall.
The Church of England has risen and it, with all its pomp and ceremony yesterday,
it too, unless it repents, will fall.
The grand scope of God's purposes from creation to new creation will continue.
Jesus sits on his throne alone.
From everlasting to everlasting.
So, why is this for Judah?
Why is Judah hearing this?
Why is God revealing this to Isaiah for his people?
Now, the first thing to say is that what Isaiah is not doing in these chapters,
Isaiah is not a self-righteous moraliser standing on the edges of society,
waving his finger at society going,
tut, tut, tut, tut, tut, tut.
You naughty people.
As the Church has done in society.
That's not what's happening here.
Neither is Isaiah simply a social reformer.
All these chapters consist of brutal oracles against the different nations of the world
for their pride and their rebellion.
And Isaiah never went on a preaching tour to those nations.
They never heard these oracles.
Isaiah isn't taking the platform of the United Nations,
decrying the behaviour of the foreign powers.
These oracles are recorded for the people of God.
Designed to build the faith of the people of God
and to deal with their idolatry.
It's about kicking idols and building faith.
That's what these chapters are about.
The primary purpose is to teach God's people about God,
about his absolute control over every nation of the world,
about the perfection of his justice.
They're designed for God's people to trust him,
to lean on him,
to cling to his word.
You see, the main issue in the opening chapters of Isaiah
is that Judah didn't trust in God.
They looked to other things for their security.
And what is amazing about that
is that we read in the early chapters
that they had their religion.
They were doing their sacrifices.
They were going to church.
They were doing their community groups.
They were reading their Bibles.
So to speak.
But God was not functionally the center of their life.
They were looking to other nations
as their security in the end.
As a nation, Judah desired to defend her borders
against a foreign aggressor,
which is not a bad thing.
It's a good thing.
The problem is that Judah, in that moment,
decided to go with human wisdom
and to trust in other nations for that security,
rather than the God who had rescued them
from slavery in Egypt,
who provided for them
and had for well over 2,000 years of their history
protected them.
And so God is demonstrating to Judah
in these oracles,
the naivety
and the futility
of trusting in human resources
and power and wisdom.
You want to go to Babylon, Judah?
It will soon be like Sodom and Gomorrah.
What about the Philistines?
What about Cush?
What about Egypt?
What about Moab?
No.
And so what is happening in these chapters
is that God takes his people on a journey
around the compass,
wherever Judah looked.
She is seeing nations whose glory is fleeting
and whose fate is sealed.
And there is nowhere
that she can look for her security
but the Lord,
the Lord who is the Lord of all the earth,
the ruler of nations,
the judge of humanity.
In chapter 17,
Judah is told to look to Damascus.
Look at Damascus.
This is their brothers to the north,
the ten tribes of Israel to the north.
Assyria destroyed those ten tribes of the north,
sorry, destroyed Damascus in 732 BC.
Ten years later,
it completely obliterated the nation.
Look to Damascus.
What was their problem?
What did they do?
They foolishly aligned themselves with Syria
in order to defeat the Assyrians.
And they lost.
But the real reason for her downfall
was her long, long history of idolatry.
Long history of idolatry
which eroded her single-minded commitment
to Yahweh,
to their God,
and opened her up to the politics of convenience
and worldly wisdom
instead of trusting their God.
And so,
in chapter 17,
verses 7 and 8,
we have the pivotal passage of repentance.
In that day,
people will look to their maker
and turn their eyes
to the Holy One of Israel.
They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands.
In other words,
don't just look to God
for your hope,
but turn away
from your false gods
at the same time.
what we see here
is that God
has declared war
on idolatry.
It's in the New Testament
as well.
And it's particularly
in the New Testament
that we see
how God has declared war
on our idolatry.
we are to look to our maker
who on Mount Zion
took on the role
of Babylon for us.
He took on our rebellion
and our sin
and became
the consummate enemy
of God.
The eternal
and glorious,
the eternal
and glorious
maker
and judge
of humanity
experienced
demise
for us.
He experienced
shame
for sin,
shame
for rebellion,
shame
for our idolatry.
He experienced
death.
And yet
his resurrection
was a triumphant
victory
over all
the corrupt
political processes
and the false
allegiances
that resulted
in his undeserved
death.
The Jewish
nationalism,
the betrayal
of Judas
for 30 pieces
of silver,
the cruelty
of the Roman
cross
were all
expressions
of the Babylonian
principle
in this world.
And on
Mount Zion
as the nations
looked on
our maker
cried out
his last breath
it
is
finished.
And with
those words
God's
enemies
can now
be his people
and find
refuge in him
not fear
refuge
refuge.
And so
God is
inviting us
here
to
look
across
history
see
how
empires
have
fallen
and
realize
that
they
are
all
pointers
to
a
great
and
even
greater
and
more
terrible
day
of
judgment
when
we
will
give
an
account
before
God.
That's
what he's
doing
here
with
Judah
and
looking
at
Babylon
and
these
nations.
We
are
invited
to
read
the
writing
that's
on
the
wall
just
as
King
Belshazzar
did
as he
partied
carefree
on the
very night
the
Babylonian
empire
fell.
It
was
overrun
and
the
writing
was
on
the
wall
and
we're
meant
to
read
the
writing
that's
on
the
wall
as
he
did
on
that
night.
It's
written
right
across
human
history
God
has
numbered
our
days
we
have
been
weighed
on
the
scales
and
found
wanting.
How
are we
able to
stand
against
the
almighty?
The
only answer
is captured
in the
Christian
song
lyrics
dressed
in his
righteousness
alone
faultless
I
stand
before
the
throne
on
Christ
the
solid
rock
I
stand
all
other
ground
is
sinking
sand.
That's
the message
for
Judah.
That's
the message
for
Judah.
So let's
just close
off and have
a look at
us for a
moment.
this whole
chunk of
Isaiah
has the
aim of
demolishing
any
confidence
that we
might have
in our
own
resources
and human
wisdom
and human
methods
and
ingenuity.
It's
designed
to crush
our
idols
and to
build
faith.
Not
just to
turn to
God
in
faith
but it's
designed
to crush
our
idols
our
other
alternative
gods
that we
have
built
our
lives
on.
Now
idolatry
looks a
little bit
different
for us
than it
did for
Judah.
It might
have
similar
roots
but
for
instance
we
might
be
looking
to
other
nations
for
our
ultimate
security
rather
than
God.
That's
possible.
But
there's a
word in
the New
Testament
that
means
inordinate
desires
and it's
strongly linked
to the
idea of
Old
Testament
idolatry.
Every
single sin
that we
commit,
every
thought,
every
action
that we
have
that's
a sin
has a
deeper
source
to that
action.
There's a
sin
that's
beneath
the
sin
and the
sin
that's
beneath
the
sin
is that
each
one of
us
has
idols
that
we
trust
in
rather
than
Jesus
Christ
for
our
outstanding
with
God
and
others.
Romans
1 tells
us
that we
create
idols
because
we
want to
have
control
over
our
lives.
We
don't
want to
trust
God.
We
want to
control
our
lives
ourselves.
Galatians
4 tells
us
idolatry
is linked
to our
self
salvation.
1
John
5 tells
us
the
idolatry
is taking
good
things
and
making
them
ultimate
things.
They
are
things
that we
really
get our
sense
of
worth,
our
value,
our
security.
As
soon
as our
loyalty
to
anything
leads
us to
push
God
to
one
side,
his
word
to
one
side,
idolatry.
It can
be a
physical
object,
it could
be a
property,
it could
be a
person,
it could
be an
activity,
it could
be a
role,
it could
be an
institution,
it could
be a
hope,
it could
be an
image,
it could
be a
pleasure,
it could
be a
hero,
it could
even
be
a
theology.
idolatry.
And so
there's a
whole range
of them
and they're
all different
for all
of us.
We can
have a
power
idolatry,
an
approval
idolatry,
a comfort
idolatry,
a giftedness
idolatry,
a control
idolatry,
a helping
idolatry,
a dependence
idolatry,
an independence
idolatry,
a work
idolatry,
an achievement
idolatry,
a materialism
idolatry,
a religion
idolatry,
an irreligion
idolatry,
a cultural
idolatry,
a family
idolatry,
a relationship
idolatry,
a suffering
idolatry,
an image
idolatry,
an ideology
idolatry,
and on the
list goes
and goes
and goes.
And these
oracles
are designed
to pull the
rug out
from all
of them
and to
show us
their
powerlessness
because
everything
you put
at the
center of
your heart,
the center
of your
life.
If it's
not your
maker,
it will
control you.
It will
cause you
to work
for it.
It will
cause you
to give
yourself
to it.
Only
Jesus
Christ,
our true
maker,
our true
sovereign,
our true
savior,
gives
himself to
us to set
us free.
These
chapters
here are
designed to
expose our
own idols
for the
powerless
jokes that
they are.
If you're
not convinced
of that,
I would
invite you
in this
week to
visit two
places,
the rubbish
tip and
the cemetery.
There you
will discover
the end
of all
life and
the end
of all
things.
The rubbish
tip and the
cemetery.
The
cemetery.
future.
The
future.
The
future.
The
future.
The
future.
The
future.
The future.
Judah
looked to
the nations.
What are
you looking
to?
What are
you looking
to?
I'm going
to do
what I
did last
week.
Close
off our
time together.
I'm going
to invite
you to
bow your
heads.
Put your
hands out.
I'm going
to ask you
some questions
that might
just get
the start
of the ball
rolling for
you and
then I'm
going to
pray for
us.
Let me pray
to start
with.
Jesus
help us
to see
you.
Help us
to love
you.
Help us
to obey
you.
And in
doing that
help us
to see
the idols
of our
heart that
displace you
from the
center of
our hearts.
And so I
ask you
what is
your
greatest
nightmare?
What is
it that you
worry about
the most?
What
brings
out of
me the
strongest
emotions?
What do
I rely
on or
comfort
myself with
when things
go badly
or become
difficult?
What makes
me feel
the most
self-worth?
What am
I the
proudest
of?
What do
I need,
I mean
really need
other people
to see
in me?
What do
I really
want and
expect out
of life?
what would
really
make me
happy?
I wonder
if the
way we
answer those
questions
expose the
heart that
would defy
God if it
had to.
gracious God
we confess
that we
have built
our hearts
and our
lives around
things that
are good
but not
the best
and so we
confess our
idolatry.
We have
made these
things
absolutes
things that
love us.
And what
are they
compared to
you?
If we
have you
we don't
have to
have these
other
things.
These
idols
cannot love
us,
help us,
give us
hope or
significance or
save us as
you do.
and so
we ask
that you
would please
forgive us.
Please
forgive us
for trampling
on your
love for
us.
Please
forgive us
for our
lack of
gratitude,
our lack
of grateful
joy for
all that
you've done
for us.
As
hard as
it is,
we desire
to push
these idols
out from
the centre
of our
lives.
They are
repulsive
to you
and will
only lead
to our
ruin.
And so
help each
one of us
to see
them clearly,
to weigh
them against
all of your
goodness and
to expel
them from
the centre
of our
lives by
your grace.
Replace
them with
your gospel
by your
spirit for
your glory
and our
joy.
Amen.