Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20030914.htm

ISAIAH: GOD'S DIRECTIVES TO THOSE TROUBLED AT GOVERNMENTAL APOSTASY
Part X: God's Salvation From Our Own Discouraging Spiritual Defeat
(Isaiah 13:1-14:23)
  1. Introduction
    1. One of the most difficult trials a nation or person can face is that of recognizing he has sinned and failed the Lord, and then of "picking up the pieces" to climb out of the pit of failure to head toward victory. In such a case, embarrassment, fear, frustration and sorrow can fill the heart as Paul notes in 2 Cor. 2:5-11, leading one to "quit" or even become suicidal due to Satan's effort to drown him in his remorse.
    2. While prophesying Israel's coming demise under judgment, Isaiah was used of God to meet this challenge in a manner that gives us instruction toward edification (in Isaiah 13:1-14:3 as follows):
  2. God's Salvation From Our Own Discouraging Spiritual Defeat, Isaiah 13:1-14:23.
    1. The prophecy of Jeremiah 21:1-13, 14 predicted the nation Babylon would invade and conquer Judah in judgment for the nation's sin.
    2. However, in GRACE, God's promise to the nation that was rooted in the Abrahamic Covenant supplied Judah UNCONDITIONAL restoration following repentance (Isaiah 13:1-14:23):
      1. God announced through Isaiah that Babylon, Judah's coming invader, would one day be destroyed never again to be rebuilt, Isaiah 13:1-22:
        1. Babylon's cruel destruction by another nation is described in Isaiah 13:1-19.
        2. God further said Babylon would become a desolate place, never to be rebuilt again, Isa. 13:20-22. [TO THIS DAY, BABYLON'S RUINS CONTAINS THESE VERY ANIMALS DESCRIBED BY ISAIAH STILL LIVING IN ITS RUINS!] By 20 B. C., the secular writer, Strabo, indicated Babylon was a "vast desolation," and "the desert wanderer (the Arabian) shunned the site because it became an omen of ill fortune," cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Isaiah 13:19-22.
      2. However, the land of Judah, though it would be conquered by Babylon in the short-term, would yet be destined for a marvelous renewal that Babylon could not experience, Isaiah 14:1-23:
        1. According to Isaiah 14:1a, God's mercy would once again restore Judah's welfare.
        2. The blessed results of this restoration are given in Isaiah 14:1b-23: (a) Abraham's seed would return to the Land of Promise, Isa. 14:1b. (b) The Gentiles would look to (the united nation, Israel) as their leader rather than one to be ruled, Isa. 14:1c. (c) Israel would master the Gentiles rather than be in slavery to them, Isaiah 14:2. (d) Israel would experience mental and emotional victory over its former fears and grief that had plagued her under Gentile rule, Isa. 14:3. (e) Israel would take up the proverb of Isaiah 14:4-23 about Babylon, the nation that once dominated her: (+) This proverb gives a taunt against the king of Babylon, Isa. 14:4b-21 [Some view this taunt against the human king given in figurative form that critiques the false pagan Semitic views of the deification of kings (Bib. Know. Com., O.T., p. 1062) indirectly tells of Satan's fall into sin (Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, ftn. to Isa. 14:12 (Luke 10:18). As such, Satan's fall came with five (prideful, cf. 1 Tim. 3:6) "I wills" in Isa. 14:13-14: (-) "I will ascend . . . (ambition for a higher role than God gave him);" (-) "I will exalt my throne above the stars (fig. of ruling angels);" (-) "I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north' [i.e., saphon, or Mt. Zaphon where Semitic pagans held the gods lived, Ibid., B.K.C., O.T.] (govern the universe, the "north" being over the north star[?]);" (-) "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds (gain God's glory)" and (-) "I will be like the Most High." [Satan thus seeks to USURP God's role and in SELFISH AMBITION MIMIC Him out of PRIDE , cf. 2 Cor. 11:13-15.] (+) This proverb in the short-term tells of Babylon's coming fall, Isaiah 14:22-23.
Lesson: God's unconditional, positional promises to Israel were the basis of her forgiveness, renewal and future blessings following sin. However, Babylon, though greater than Israel in Isaiah's era, would fall without hope as she had no such promises of God's UNMERITED FAVOR, or GRACE.

Application: Following spiritual defeat, we have NO recourse but God's UNMERITED FAVOR to find cleansing from sin and restoration of blessing (cf. Psalm 51:1-8 on David's confession following his sin with Bathsheba). May we RELY on God's GRACIOUS PROMISES of cleansing and restoration following painful spiritual defeat to find hope, renewal and healing, cf. 1 John 1:9.