A Parody of a Funeral Song
“Weird Al” Yankovic brought the parody of songs to my attention back during junior high school years. A parody is “an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.” Scott Kramer has put on Youtube.com a parody of one of the songs from Frozen – “Let it Go.” If you like parodies, or if you have little girls who sing that song ad nauseum, you might enjoy that parody. I did. It has already had nearly two million hits. Frozen is a good movie with, obviously, catchy tunes. But one (especially a dad whose daughters can break out into any one of those songs at the drop of a hat!) can get too much of a good thing.
Isaiah used this same type of technique in his day. Isaiah 14 is a taunt, or mockery, of a funeral song, sung about the nation of Babylon. Chapter 14 is at the very beginning of a long series of chapters detailing God’s judgment on nations of the world, including Israel and Judah. These chapters (13-39) mock mankind’s pride and arrogance and insist that the only object of one’s hope ought to be the God of heaven.
In 14:1-4, Isaiah promises Israel (Judah) deliverance. “The Lord gives you rest” (vs 3). Finding identity as the children of God, Israel can then take up this “taunt” (NASV – vs 4) or “parody” of a funeral dirge against the king of Babylon.
The mockery comes in verses 4-21. Man – I’m sure you can think of a few – often believes that he is the savior of the world, the messiah. Man thinks that if he can have his way, the rise of the oceans will slow and the planet will heal. Man thinks that if others will simply follow him, wars will end and one’s nation will be secured. But, take a look at Isaiah’s parody of the funeral song against Babylon.
When Babylon is gone – “the whole earth is at rest and is quiet; They break forth into shouts of joy” (vs 7). Babylon thought they controlled the world; the world was at rest, however, when Babylon was gone. “Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come” (vs 9) and Sheol (the waiting place of the dead, here personified) calls out to the spirits of the dead, the leaders of earth, to respond to Babylon. But when they respond to the self-appointed savior, they call out – “You are just like us! Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you and worms are your covering!” (vs 11). In Sheol, there are no distinctions between the elite and the grassroots.
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Once in the waiting place of the dead, the spirits will ask, “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms” (vs 16)? They also say, “You have ruined your country, you have slain your people” (vs 20).
The problem with Babylon is that they constantly looked down on those upon whom they trampled. She never looked up at the One under whose eye she conducted her affairs. “I will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the Lord (vs 22).
God will never be mocked. Pride will always be brought low – James 4:6-7.
–Paul Holland
