Isaiah 13

How bad can it get? We live our seventy or so years in this life and face the joys and trials that the Lord ordains for us. It is common for those who begin to see names that they recognize in the obituaries and who are finished their stage of greatest usefulness to feel that their lives are over. Many they loved are now gone. Some people even outlive almost all of their family and friends and find themselves daily feeling like they are virtually alone. Some are able to adjust to this with a calm and joyful demeanor, and are happy for the kindness of strangers. Others seem to be overtaken by bitterness. All may at times consider that their lives are finished and that there is little reason for the next sunrise.

It is easy to overestimate the difficulty of our own lives, or even the challenge that our nation and culture is facing. We imagine that we are facing the worst of all possible outcomes, a hypothesis that will not stand up to any reasonable examination. The worst problem that human beings have is not the loss of friends, family, comforts, or health, or even the loss of public decency. The worst problem that we have is the wrath of God against us for our sin.

For the next several chapters in Isaiah we are called to consider the devastation of this most serious problem, for the Lord has a word to speak against the arrogant nations of the world. He has already been speaking about Assyria, the empire which had Babylon as a crown jewel, and that was eventually overtaken by the strength of the Babylonians. But now God uses His prophet to speak a word against Babylon directly.

One of the challenges of great might, wisdom, or beauty is that pride can be nurtured within our hearts. We forget that there is a God who is above us, the one in whom we live and move and have our being. This pride will lead to a man’s destruction and it is to be resisted. At times a whole society may be swimming in arrogance, and the danger of God’s wrath is so near that it would seem that there is no way out.

Babylon would one day be destroyed. She would face her own day of the Lord. Her pomp, her arrogance, and her ruthlessness would be put to an end. This kind of judgment from God on a society is surely worse than our own personal tragedies. But what will we do when the Lord comes as the judge of all the earth?

There is a sense in which the nation of Babylon specifically stands for all the great cities of the earth. There is no power that can withstand the judgment of God. A great day of terror is coming that is called the Day of the Lord. The challenges that we, the church, or our societies face are only a small foretaste of that horrible day of final judgment. What if our infants are killed in a moment of violence? What if our wives are raped? What if our houses are plundered? Yet this is still nothing when compared with the eternal wrath of God.

Do you hate today’s present trial that you cannot bare? Know that the Day of the Lord is far worse than that trial that would seem to be the worst of all possible enemies at this moment. Babylon, and all the glory of the kingdoms of this world for which she stands, will be brought very low. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged by God with destruction. Do you want that destruction today, when your time has not yet come?

You feel that you cannot stand the trial that the Lord has ordained for you today. How will you stand on the Day of the Lord? How can you stand the wrath of God against sin – which is an eternal wrath? You cannot stand this, but our valiant champion has taken this wrath for you on the cross. Despite the cross of grief or pain that you have at this moment, if Christ has swallowed up death for you, then you can be made to bear patiently the present day of trial by His grace. The pill is no doubt bitter, but do not think that it is the worst medicine you could possibly have. Do not reject the comfort of friends and the encouragement of the Word. Receive every day as a blessing from the Lord. But remember especially this: that the Son of God has taken the Day of the Lord for you on the cross.

It is a fearful prospect to have your nation destroyed. But God is bigger than Babylon, and He is stronger than your personal grief. As you hear these accounts of the righteous wrath of the Lord against the kingdoms of this world, remember that God has made you persevere thus far. It would appear that there is a crown of glory that awaits you, for God has repaired your broken life, and has helped you through days of trial and torment through the cross of His own beloved Son.