Babylon plays a major role in biblical history from the time of the invasion of Israel until the New Testament period. After being inhabited by the Persians and the Greeks, it slowly lost its economic power and importance. But, the city was not vacated until the second century of the Christian era, according to the church historian Septimius Severus.
In Isaiah’s day, the Babylonian exile is still in the future. Yet, Isaiah predicts it but, more importantly, predicts its downfall and Israel’s subsequent return to Palestine under King Cyrus of Persia (Isaiah 46-47).
When I got a little cocky in my teenage years, my dad use to threaten me, “Son, am I going to have to take you down a notch or two?” In Isaiah 47:5-7, God promises that He is going to take Babylon down a notch or two. When He gets finished, others will no longer call her the “Queen of Kingdoms.”
God was angry with His people and was using Babylon to punish the Jews. That was all true. But Babylon went further than necessary and was arrogant about it all, even mistreating the elderly and the helpless. Babylon thought to herself, “I will be a queen forever,” but she never gave God any thought.
How dangerous it is for Americans to think that because we are and have been for two generations a world power, that America will last forever. I find myself being tempted to think, who in today’s world can conquer the United States of America? Setting the U. S. military aside – the best armed military the world has ever seen – what nation could or would even dare invade the U. S. of A.? The 2nd Amendment practically guarantees that no nation can succeed in invading the U. S. of A. But, it’s that type of thinking that led to the fall of Babylon and the fall of Rome and every other world power.
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“This is the problem of a people whose gods are simply themselves written large. They have no one outside themselves, over against themselves, to remind them that even if they are the greatest the world has ever seen, they are not the standard of greatness” (Oswalt, 247).
You see, just like you and I feel today about our own country, the people of Babylon “dwelt securely” (47:8). Or so they thought. She never thought she would be a widow. She never thought she would be childless. Babylon believed she had outgrown the need for God. “[A]ny nation that claims to have absolute authority is sure to face the wrath of an angry God who will not share his glory with anyone else” (Smith, 305). I don’t know about clinging to guns but I’ll continue to cling to my religion, thank you very much. Because my God is greater than the gods worshiped by the politicians in Washington.
Babylon felt secure in her wickedness, deceiving herself by her own wisdom and knowledge but “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” (Prov. 9:10; “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” – 1:7).
–Paul Holland
