Wednesday Bible Study: Drive-by Isaiah part 6

 

 

I think I have taken enough notes for 2 posts, so let's see where we end up today, starting in chapter 23.

Unlike Ezekiel 27-28, which equate "the Ship Tyre" with future Babylon (and Revelation 18), this oracle on Tyre seems actually to be what was to happen to the city itself.  Tyre in Isaiah's day and forward was their version of New York City- the commerce capital of their world.  Based on an island just off the coast, it was founded by neighboring Sidon, itself founded colonies on Cyprus, Carthage, and further, as well as giving us the foundations of our alphabet.  But now, something bad was about to happen.

Isa 23:1  The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them.
Isa 23:2  Be still, O inhabitants of the coast; the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.

From which direction was this coming?  The Lord asked, and answered:

Isa 23:8  Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?
Isa 23:9  The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

Isa 23:12  And he said: "You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, cross over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest."
Isa 23:13  Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people that was not; Assyria destined it for wild beasts. They erected their siege towers, they stripped her palaces bare, they made her a ruin.
Isa 23:14  Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is laid waste.

Even at this point- our last time check put us just inside 700 BC- the "Land of the Chaldeans", AKA Babylon, was basically what Assyria intended, and they were 'a people that were not'.  But once Assyria fell, and Babylon pushed Egyptian influence from the area, Tyre would be no better off than Judah:

Isa 23:15  In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king. At the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:
Isa 23:16  "Take a harp; go about the city, O forgotten prostitute! Make sweet melody; sing many songs, that you may be remembered."
Isa 23:17  At the end of seventy years, the LORD will visit Tyre, and she will return to her wages and will prostitute herself with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.

The same 70 years Judah was exiled to Babylon, Tyre would be 'forgotten'; though the siege engines of Nebuchadnezzar couldn't breach her, she could be cut off, and would be eclipsed by Sidon those 70 years.  I found somewhere that at one point in the 13-year siege that its king Ithobaal fled to Cyprus- which Isaiah also saw:

Isa 23:12  And he said: "You will no more exult, O oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon; arise, cross over to Cyprus, even there you will have no rest."

The end of the chapter closes the prophecy with Tyre being allowed by God to return to its prominence- which it did after Babylon fell to Persia in 539 BC.

There are three verses that I want to touch on in chapter 24, which is a description of the Tribulation God will strike the Earth with at the end.  One is a verse I want you to keep in mind for when we hit chapter 28:

Isa 24:7  The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
Isa 24:9  No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

I'm just going to leave that there for now,  The second is a verse that should be familiar...

Isa 24:19  The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken.
Isa 24:20  The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.

This gets expanded on in Revelation 16:

Rev 16:17  The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"
Rev 16:18  And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.
Rev 16:19  The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
Rev 16:20  And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.
Rev 16:21  And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

The third is a bit of confusion in translations.  Some, like the ESV, render it thus:

Isa 24:16  From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, "I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed."

But apparently, 'The Righteous One' is not the correct translation, as this would seem to indicate God, and Keil and Delitzsch point out this is a term nowhere else used for God.  Others translate as this:

Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. 

Here in the KJV I think we have the gist of what is going on, as this also will tie into chapter 28 and the deal that Israel will make with the Antichrist.  Everyone of an earthly mind will sing praises over the deal; but Isaiah knows better.

Chapter 25 is like a sweet breeze, a brief respite from the tales of disaster, as Isaiah describes the world after the Second Coming:

Isa 25:8  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. 

But it will be a short respite, as 27 and 28 return to the judgment that will bring them there, and the deal with Antichrist.