Isaiah 14
v.1
The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.
These verses are saturated with allusions to the Exodus from Egypt and the entry into Canaan. The New Exodus theme, which is so important later in the book, is the controlling motif here. The clue to this is given in the words “once again he will choose Israel.” The expulsion of Israel from Canaan at the Exile would certainly make it look as if the covenant, so often flagrantly broken by the people, had finally been set aside by God. In fact, however, such was the depth and persistence of his steadfast love that his covenant purpose was never eclipsed by their unfaithfulness. His new choice was a reaffirmation of the old in the return from Babylonia.
v.2
Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.
When Israel left Egypt, many other people left with them. There were also many aliens within their gates (Ex 20:10; 22:21; et al.). Jethro, Rahab, and other believing Gentiles found a place within the covenant of God with Israel. So it would be again (cf. 56:3-8). Furthermore, the nations in the land would become servants to them (60:9-14; 61:5), just as the Gibeonites had (Jos 9). We can find parallels to much of this in the actual events of the return from exile, for it was a decree of the Gentile Cyrus that was its immediate human cause (Ezr 1-4; cf. 6:1-12).
v.3
On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage,
v.4
you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!
There are, however, elements of the prophecy that were not fulfilled at this time, especially in the picture of God’s people governing their oppressors. No doubt these are properly eschatological, so that the fulfillment at the return from Babylon itself foreshadows God’s ultimate purpose for the people.
v.5
The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
v.6
which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.
v.7
All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing.
v.8
Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon exult over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no woodsman comes to cut us down.”
v.9
The grave 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.
v.10
They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”
v.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.
v.12
How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
Moreover, this passage itself seems to be echoed by the Lord Jesus in Luke 10:18, where language applied here to the king of Babylon is used of Satan. Nothing could be more appropriate, for the pride of the king of Babylon was truly satanic. When Satan works his malign will through rulers of this world, he reproduces his own wicked qualities in them, so that they become virtual shadows of which he is the substance.
To interpret v.12 and the following verses in this way means that the passage points to Satan, not directly, but indirectly, much like the way the kings of the line of David point to Christ. All rulers of international significance whose overweening pride and arrogance bring them to ruin under the hand of God’s judgement illustrate both the satanic and the antichrist principles.
v.13
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
Verse 13 reminds us of the Tower of Babel (Ge 11:1-9), though the endeavor to be like God takes us right back to Ge 3. Here Satan first sought to reproduce in human life his own proud aspirations for equal status with God. The possession of power can, of course, prove disastrous in creating a desire for utter supremacy. One who is fitted for high authority must be aware that he faces grave spiritual danger.
v.14
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
It is a strange paradox that nothing makes a being less like God that the urge to be his equal, for in Christ, he who was equal with God, stepped down from his glorious throne to display to the wondering eyes of humankind the humility of God (Php 2:5-8).
v.15
But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.
v.16
Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,
v.17
the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?“
v.18
All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.
v.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,
We know from the Egyptian pyramids and other royal tombs how much stress was put on proper burial in the Fertile Crescent in OT times. How horrifying to a great king of Babylon and to his contemporaries would be the prospect of his lying out in the open, unburied, his royal body indistinguishable from those of his soldiers, to be thrown into a common burial pit!
v.20
you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again.
v.21
Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities.
The reference to the conqueror covering the earth with cities is perhaps a reminder of Ge 10:8-11, possibly implying that this Babylonian dynasty was following the ways of its great predecessor, Nimrod. Many rulers have sought to perpetuate their names through great city-building enterprises (cf. also Ge 11:4). No throne, no tomb, no progeny, no cities—in all these ways the Lord abases those who seek self-exaltation.
v.22
“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD.
v.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.
v.24
The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.
v.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.”
v.26
This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. 27For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
God is sovereign over human history. All nations will have to submit to his judgement. This principle will be seen in relation to other nations—both small and great—in the oracles that follow. God is not like a man who makes plan and finds he has no power to put them into effect. Perfect wisdom and absolute power find their unity in God.
v.28
This oracle came in the year King Ahaz died:
v.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.
v.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.
v.31
Wail, O gate! Howl, O city! Melt away, all you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a straggler in its ranks.
v.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.”