Babylon in Isaiah 43

Isaiah 43

1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee,

O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear

not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee

by thy name; thou art mine.

2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be

with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not

overflow thee: when thou walkest through the

fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the

flame kindle upon thee.

3 For I am the LORD thy G-d, the Holy One of

Israel, thy Savior: I gave Egypt for thy ransom,

Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast

been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore

will I give men for thee, and people for thy

life.

5 Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy

seed from the east, and gather thee from the

west;

6 I will say to the north, Give up; and to the

south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and

my daughters from the ends of the earth;

7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I

have created him for my glory, I have formed him;

yea, I have made him.

8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes,

and the deaf that have ears.

9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and

let the people be assembled: who among them can

declare this, and shew us former things? let them

bring forth their witnesses, that they may be

justified: or let them hear, and say, It is

truth.

10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my

servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and

believe me, and understand that I am he: before

me there was no G-d formed, neither shall

there be after me.

11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is

no savior.

12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have

shewed, when there was no strange G-d among you:

therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD,

that I am G-d.

13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is

none that can deliver out of my hand: I will

work, and who shall let it?

14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy

One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to

Babylon, and have brought down all their

nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the

ships.

15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of

Israel, your King.

16 Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the

sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

17 Which bringeth forth the chariot and horse,

the army and the power; they shall lie down

together, they shall not rise: they are extinct,

they are quenched as tow.

18 Remember ye not the former things, neither

consider the things of old.

19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall

spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even

make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the

desert.

20 The beast of the field shall honor me, the

dragons and the owls: because I give waters in

the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to

give drink to my people, my chosen.

21 This people have I formed for myself; they

shall shew forth my praise.

22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but

thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of

thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honored me

with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to

serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with

incense.

24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money,

neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy

sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with

thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine

iniquities.

25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy

transgressions for mine own sake, and will not

remember thy sins.

26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together:

declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers

have transgressed against me.

28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the

sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and

Israel to reproaches.



'In the immediate future G-d would deliver them

from Babylon (vv. 14-21). In spite of G-d's

goodness to them, Israel would not respond (vv.

22-24). G-d reminded her that only He would be

able to blot out her transgressions or punish her

for her sins (vv. 25-28). This prophecy will be

fulfilled in the millennial kingdom.' p. 111,

Walvoord.


Chapter 43 is an end-time prophecy of the

restoration of Israel. As Walvoord points out,

it will realize complete fulfillment in the

millennial kingdom of heaven. But in the present

age, there is a partial fulfillment seen in the

revival of the nation of Israel. Other than the

fulfillment of prophetic scripture, there isn't

any solid reason for the existence of the modern

nation of Israel. It's possible to imagine any

number of other possible scenarios for a homeland

or modern community for the people of hebrew

decent. Yet, we see the modern revival of the

nation. As a nation, they can never be

assimilated because they are and always have been

chosen to represent the kingdom of heaven, in the

age of man. Look at all the other population

groups defined by a unique culture and dialect

that have been assimilated by their geographic

location. The U.S. is a good example of the

assimilation of people from all over the world

who came for a variety of reasons in order to

find a better life, and willingly surrender their

national identity to become part of another.

There may be other nations that have endured over

the millennia, but Israel has an enduring

identity that is not only defined by a geography,

but by the ancient text of scripture.


Israel is unique because of these two features,

and I would have to agree with the premise of

scripture, that it is also unique because it is

the modern representation of the kingdom of

heaven. It's not the kingdom of heaven. It is a

modern symbolic representation of the kingdom of

heaven, just as it has always been. Look at

verse one. '... But now thus saith the LORD that

created thee...' If you cling to the myth that

there are millions of years of evolutionary

ascent involved in the history of man, then the

premise of scripture falls apart. There is no

special symbolic significance to the nation of

Israel, because it is just something that was

made up by creative writers (prophets) over a

period of thousands of years. On the other hand,

if you are willing to consider the span of

'recorded' history in light of the text of

scripture, well, then another scenario emerges

from the fog of history. Besides, it's a stretch

to imagine that there is a coherent prophetic

message, spanning millennia, that can be

manufactured in the minds of men, no matter how

creative they might be. The text of scripture

hasn't been revised. It has survived the test of

time. And remember that in the larger context,

that prophetic scripture describes the ongoing

conflict between the kingdom of heaven and the

kingdom of man, represented symbolically by the

nation of Israel and the nation of Babylon, the

worship of G-d and the worship of everything

else.


11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is

no savior.

12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have

shewed, when there was no strange G-d among you:

therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD,

that I am G-d.

13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is

none that can deliver out of my hand: I will

work, and who shall let it?

14 Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy

One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to

Babylon, and have brought down all their

nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the

ships.

15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of

Israel, your King.


This passage from the book of Isaiah makes that

declaration in plain and simple terms. The

creator has designed it this way. He is the one

who decided how he will be represented in the

modern age of man, and he has graciously let us

in on the arrangements. It's the other kingdom

that is reluctant to reveal itself for what it

is. But we have been given that description in

the text of scripture as well.


It's not as if everything has been done cloaked

in mystery. We have the testimony of what we

know as the New Testament, and all of the current

community of believers, to whom this passage

applies. There will be, at the end of time, a

restoration of the kingdom of heaven (all

believers) represented in this passage by the

restoration of the nation of Israel. That means

that the kingdom of heaven is an eternal

(infinite) extension of what we now see as, in

symbolic form, the nation of Israel. In the text

of scripture, there is nothing hidden about what

we see moving across the stage of world history.

The only problem that we have now is that there

is, in the age of the kingdom of man, an effort

to seduce as many as possible into assimilating

the culture of the kingdom of man with the

enticement of, well, the 'freedom' to do as you

please, which is really only a facade for serving

other gods. The end of that story is described

in some detail in the book of the Revelation. It

appears that there are many who will fall under

the spell of the false advertising campaign of

the latter times. The seduction of idolatry

never ends, until it ends.


But in this passage from the book of Isaiah,

there is another end in store for those who wish

to place their hope in Jesus. They will find

another destiny in the kingdom of heaven.

You can see that there is no rational way to

reconcile these two different views of the past,

present and future. The text of scripture

provides a unique description of events that is

at odds with the prevailing views of the kingdom

of man. It's always been that way. Some wish to

worship their creator, and some wish to create

other objects of worship. Both of these beliefs

cannot be correct. There is a structure to the

universe that informs us that even living in this

dimension, you have an option to be mistaken, but

at any point in time the design of creation is

going to overule all attempts at fantasy in the

long run. In other words, some things are

possible and some things are not. '...I will

work, and who shall let it?'


In the closing verses of this passage, is the

warning that there is a penalty to rejecting the

worship of G-d. If we choose to go another way,

then we meet with the consequences of that

choice. We find ourselves, just as the ancient

hebrews did, taken into captivity by the

Babylonians (the kingdom of man). In modern

times we see what that is like in terms of the

vain pursuit of keeping up with the Joneses, and

the genuine lack of satisfaction that it

produces. How many do you know who are quite

satisfied with what they have? It seems to me

that there is a high level of disatisfaction,

that only increases with the accumulation of more

things. It's something that caught me by

surprise in my personal life. The more I had,

the more I wanted. We don't even give it a

second thought. We just accumulate. Then we

wishfully, call it something else. When, in

fact, the one essential aspect of life is

worship. And the summary question is, Whom will

you worship? Jesus put it into this question,

Whom do men say that I am? The disciple Peter

came up with the right answer. (Matthew 16:15-16)