This installment of the End Times According To Isaiah is all about Babylon. The fact that I’ve included  Isaiah 13-14:23 in this series demonstrates my belief that Babylon has never been destroyed in the manner Isaiah will describe for us here, and that there is a major role in the end times for this ancient city.  In all the Bible, the only city mentioned more often is Jerusalem.  In fact some have gone so far as to characterize the Bible as “A Tale Of Two Cities,” Babylon, the city of Satan, versus Jerusalem, the city of God.  Not surprisingly the two are always in contention.

Babylon is the origin of every counterfeit religion and mythology, every attempt to deny and defeat the truth of God’s word. It’s the place where man rebelled against God at the beginning of the Age.  Why then is it so difficult for people to believe that Babylon will rise to prominence again for man’s rebellion at the end of the Age? Is not Satan the motivating force behind man’s rebellion?   Those who want to allegorize the End Times references to Babylon simply don’t understand the spiritual significance of this great city. Just like the one whose city it is, Babylon was, now is not, but will come again and go to its destruction. (Rev. 17:8)

Isaiah 13 … A Prophecy Against Babylon
An oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw:

Raise a banner on a bare hilltop, shout to them; beckon to them to enter the gates of the nobles.  I have commanded my holy ones; I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—those who rejoice in my triumph.

Listen, a noise on the mountains, like that of a great multitude!  Listen, an uproar among the  kingdoms, like nations massing together!  The LORD Almighty is mustering an army for war.

They come from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of his wrath— to destroy the whole country.

Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.  Because of this, all hands will go limp, every man’s heart will melt. Terror will seize them, pain and anguish will grip them; they will writhe like a woman in labor.  They will look aghast at each other, their faces aflame.

See, the day of the LORD is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.  The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins.  I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.   I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:1-12)

Isaiah begins with a general statement identifying when Babylon’s ultimate destruction will come.  It will be during the time when the Lord judges the world for its evil, a time often called The Day Of The Lord, or the Great Tribulation. To make sure we understand this, we see the same reference to the sun, moon, and stars in Matt. 24:29 where they signal the end of the Great Tribulation.

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger.

Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.  Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished. See, I will stir up against them the Medes, who do not care for silver and have no delight in gold.  Their bows will strike down the young men; they will have no mercy on infants nor will they look with compassion on children. (Isaiah 13:13-18)

The Medes were partners with the Persians who conquered Babylon in 539 BC. But nothing like what’s described here happened at that time.  As foretold in Isaiah 45, the Medes and Persians took Babylon with out a battle.  In fact it was several days before all the residents discovered they had become a Persian City. The Medes, called Kurds today, are a fiercely independent people whose homeland straddles the borders of Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Having been persecuted by all three countries, and particularly by Iraq, it won’t take any special incentive for them to settle their score with Babylon when the time comes.

Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians’ pride, will be overthrown by God  like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there.

But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about.  Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces.    Her time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged. (Isaiah 13:19-22)

The ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah weren’t discovered until centuries after they disappeared in a fiery blaze that turned everything to ash. Evidence shows that balls of sulfur up to 9000 degrees F (5000 C.) rained down from heaven burning everything in sight and melting the sand into glass. The entire ecosystem perished and the land became a barren wasteland, never again inhabited.

In contrast Babylon was continuously inhabited after its capture, first by the Persians, who made it a provincial capitol, and then by the Greeks when they conquered the Persians.  Alexander the Great died there after conquering the known world. Babylon remained a province of the various iterations of the Persian Empire until 650AD, almost 1200 years after it was first conquered. Today a small town called Al-Hillah stands among the ancient ruins.

In the mid 1980’s Saddam Hussein spent millions in a restoration project, turning Babylon into a ceremonial city for weddings and other special events. Today’s Iraqi leaders have plans for completing Babylon’s restoration, making it into a cultural center complete with shopping malls, hotels, and perhaps a theme park.  The US government recently donated $700K to fund studies on the renovation. The plan is that one day soon millions of people will visit Babylon again.

The original language of this passage contained words that are believed to be the names of demons.  The animal names are said to have been substituted to make the passage understandable to western minds.

Isaiah 14 … The King of Babylon
The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

Nations will take them and bring them to their own place.  And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land.  They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.(Isaiah 14:1-2)

In those days, at that time,” declares the LORD, “search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare. (Jeremiah 50:20)

Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations. Their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned, I will pardon.” The LORD dwells in Zion! (Joel 3:20-21)

Isaiah 14 opens with a reminder that at the End of the Age God would remember His people and bring them back to the Land He promised would be theirs forever. Many settlers would be converts to Judaism from among the Gentiles of Europe, working alongside descendants of the 12 tribes to build their country anew. We’ve already seen how Gentile nations like England and the US have helped make this happen.  Soon, the enemies who oppress them today will be their subjects, even their servants.

Other prophecies yet to be fulfilled tell of a day when the Lord will so completely forgive Israel that even those who search for an accusation to hurl will find nothing.  It’s hard to imagine how such a change could come about. Zechariah explains what will make it possible.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (Zech. 12:10)

Once the nation’s eyes are opened to the Messiah, It’s like a new day dawning. They’ll find that His  blood has covered even the sin of shedding it, and He’ll once again be pleased to dwell among them, and this time it’ll be forever. (Ezek 43:7).  And now, back to Babylon.

On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage,  you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end!  How his fury has ended!  The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.

All the lands are at rest and at peace; they break into singing.  Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon exult over you and say, “Now that you have been laid low, no woodsman comes to cut us down.” (Isaiah 14:3-8)

In chapter 13 we saw the destruction of the city.  Now the Lord has Isaiah turn to the one who has caused all the world’s problems.  As we’ll see, He isn’t talking about Nebuchadnezzar, or even the anti-Christ.

The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you— all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones—all those who were kings over the nations.

They will all respond, they will say to you, “You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.”

All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you. (Isaiah 14:9-11)

The King of Babylon will join those who have foolishly chosen to follow him down through the ages. All the world’s mighty men will finally see that he was no better then they. Though he promised them great things, even “all the Kingdoms of the World”, in the end he can’t even save himself from the wrath of God, and will share their miserable fate.

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!

You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:12-14)

The King James reads  “Lucifer, son of the morning” in verse 12 rather than “morning star, son of the dawn.”  Lucifer is a word that means “light bearer” and comes from the Latin translation of verse 12.  The Hebrew phrase is “Heylel ben Shakar” and is possibly the devil’s real name.  Heylel is from a root word that means “to shine” in the sense of foolish boasting or making a show of oneself. It’s the source of the title “the shining one”.  Ben means “son” and shakar means “dawn.” So Heylel ben Shakar means “shining one, son of the dawn”.

When he translated the Bible into Latin in 382-384AD, Jerome used the word Lucifer for heylel in Isaiah 14:12, giving the devil a new name. Some later translations incorrectly use morning star instead, perhaps to avoid personifying him.  But the real Morning Star is Jesus, as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:19 and as Jesus Himself said in Rev. 22:16. (Being a Latin word, Lucifer is not found in the Hebrew Scripture. The name Satan comes straight from the Hebrew haSatan which means “the adversary”, so it’s not really his name either, but is part of his job description.)

Having established that the Lord really had Satan in view, not the earthly king of Babylon, Isaiah then disclosed the basis for his rebellion. Satan set out to ascend to heaven and raise his throne (seat of power) above all other angels, to sit there on the mount of assembly, on its utmost heights.  That means he wanted to be officially recognized as superior to all the angelic host and be the object of their worship and praise, and even beyond that to make himself equal to God, at least in one respect.

Like The Most High
I believe Isaiah’s use of the title Most High in referring to God was intended to show that Satan didn’t delude himself into thinking he could ever be recognized as the Creator. The first use of the phrase Most High in connection with God appears in Genesis 14:18. Then, in verse 19 Melchizedek blessed Abraham in the name of the Most High God, calling Him the possessor of Heaven and Earth. Satan wasn’t trying to replace God as Earth’s Creator.  He wanted to possess it, and everyone in it.

When he couldn’t get it legitimately, he stole it by getting Adam and Eve to disobey God.  We know this because in the wilderness temptation he offered all the kingdoms of the world to the Lord, saying they had all been given to Him. (Luke 4:6) While the Lord rejected his offer, He did not dispute his claim. This is why Jesus called Satan “ the prince of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30,16:11), why Paul said he is “the god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) and why John wrote, “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19)  It’s also why Paul wrote about the Lord redeeming the creation, not just you and me. (Romans 8:19-21) With His blood He redeemed everything Adam had lost.

But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.  Those who see you stare at you,  they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,  the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?”

All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.  But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit.

Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will not join them in burial, for you have destroyed your land  and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked  will never be mentioned again. Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. (Isaiah 14:15-21)

In middle Eastern thinking, killing a man is not the worst you can do to him. The worst thing is to deny him a decent burial afterward. Satan will spend the 1000 years of the Kingdom Age amid the rotting corpses of his followers, denied the courtesy of his own tomb. In contrast to the Righteous Branch, he has become the rejected branch. By deceit he gained the Earth and its inhabitants, but he destroyed one and killed the other. At the end of the 1000 years, he and his followers will be raised, but to slaughter not  inheritance. (Rev. 20:7-15)

“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD Almighty.  “I will cut off from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD.

“I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of  destruction,” declares the LORD Almighty. (Isaiah14:22-23)

The passage comes to a close with a repeat of its initial  message. Babylon will be destroyed, but after seeing the extent of it’s destruction, we know it hasn’t happened yet.  Jeremiah 50-51 tell the same story in even greater detail, confirming Isaiah’s account. And for his version of Babylon’s destruction (Rev. 18) John borrowed language from both these prophets. It’s clear they were all talking about the same event. By the testimony of two or three witnesses a thing will be established. (Deut. 19:15) More next time.

The next view Isaiah gave us of the End times is found in chapters 11-12 and concerns the Messiah.

Isaiah 11, The Branch From Jesse
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:1-2)

We wouldn’t know this except by looking back, but Isaiah was foretelling that the royal line of David, from whom all of Israel’s Kings came, would be cut down like a tree, lie dormant, and then be restored. The process would begin about 150 years after Isaiah wrote this when the Lord pronounced a blood curse on the Davidic line, saying no more would these sons of David ever rule over Israel. (Jeremiah 22:28-30). The line would languish, like the stump of a chopped down tree. All during the Babylonian captivity and for 500 years afterward, there was no King over Israel. And then one day a shoot would spring forth, a Branch that would bear fruit. Since Jesse was David’s father and David was not the Branch, this is a reference to the Messiah, the ultimate Son of David.

There is so much here, and we have to take the time to apprehend it. First is the use of the word Branch. Notice that it’s capitalized, signifying that it refers to a person. There are four references to the Messiah as the Branch, and each of them carries a special modifier. Jeremiah 23:5 tells of a Righteous Branch, a King. Zechariah mentions “my servant, the Branch” (Zech. 3:8) and “the man whose name is the Branch” (Zech. 6:12). Finally, in a previous installment, we saw the Branch of the Lord in Isaiah 4:2.

I believe it was Clarence Larkin who first discovered that these modifiers were depicted on the four ensigns that identified the camps of Israel, four groups of three tribes each. They were located around the tabernacle in the wilderness on the four points of the compass. In those ensigns the figure of a lion represented the Righteous King, an ox represented the servant, the ox being a beast of servitude, the face of a man is self explanatory, and the eagle represented God.

But there’s more. The representations of these four modifiers are also revealed as the four faces of the Cherubim in Rev. 4. And they represent the dominant themes in the four gospels as well. Matthew wrote to the Jews proclaiming Jesus as Israel’s Messiah, the Lion of Judah. Mark showed Him to be the obedient servant of God, Luke portrayed Him as the Son of Man, and in John He’s the Son of God.

It’s pretty clear that the Branch is a Messianic title. The branch from the stump of Jesse is the Messiah, born of the Tribe of Judah into the Davidic line.

I Promise
But there’s something even more amazing going on here. Remember, God promised David that someone from His family would reign in Israel forever. David wanted to build God’s house, but God declined, saying He needed a man of peace and David was a man of war. So God chose David’s son Solomon to build the Temple and during Solomon’s reign Israel experienced peace as never before (or since). As for David, God promised to build him a “house”, making his dynasty everlasting (1 Chron. 17:1-14). From that time forward a descendant of David’s through Solomon’s branch of the family tree would sit on the throne in Jerusalem as King of Israel.

But by the time of the Babylonian captivity, these kings had become so evil and rebellious toward God that He finally said, “Enough”, and cursed the royal line, saying no son of theirs would ever reign over Israel again (Jer. 22:28-30). The last legitimate King of Israel was Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah, who reigned for only 3 months in 598 BC. Was God breaking His promise to David?

In announcing the coming Messiah, the angel Gabriel promised Mary that her son would sit on David’s throne , the first one to do so since the curse had been pronounced, and when He did it would be forever. (Luke 1:32-33) But what about the cursed line of David? How could God promise such a thing to Mary?

Here’s How
If you compare the 2 genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38, and you’ll discover that Mary and Joseph were both of the tribe of Judah and descendants of David. Joseph descended through Solomon, the royal but cursed line, while Mary’s genealogy goes through Solomon’s brother Nathan. In actuality Joseph and Mary were cousins, though many times removed.

Mary had no brothers, and so in order to keep her family’s land in the tribal inheritance according to the Law, she had to marry someone also descended from David. (Numbers 36:1-13) Joseph fit the bill and being in the royal line had a claim to the throne, but carried the blood curse. No biological son of his could ever legally qualify as Israel’s king, but Joseph could secure Mary’s right to inherit her father’s land.

When Mary accepted Joseph’s offer of marriage she also made good her unborn son’s claim to the throne of Israel. Their marriage put Jesus in the royal succession as the legal son of Joseph, as Luke showed in his genealogy (Luke 3:23), but allowed Him to escape the curse since He wasn’t Joseph’s biological son. But remember, He was a biological descendant of David’s through his mother and therefore of the “house and lineage of David.” This made Him the only man on Earth since 600BC with a legal right to the throne of David. It took a virgin birth to do it, but God kept His promise to both David and Mary. David’s throne will be occupied forever, by Mary’s son.

And finally, in verse 2 we see the seven fold Spirit of God, an Old Testament construction of the Holy Spirit, who came to dwell in Jesus at the time of His baptism (Matt. 3:16) and empowered all of His miracles. This was necessary because the Lord’s mission required Him to live His life only in the strength of a man. In order to redeem Adam’s lost progeny, He had to be Adam’s kinsman. This is why Luke, who portrayed Jesus as the son of man, traced His genealogy all the way back to Adam.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. (Isaiah 11:3-5)

The striking contrast between the Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah is evident.Psalm 2:8-9 confirms that He will rule the nations with an iron scepter. Rev. 19:15 agrees and adds that He’ll strike down the nations with the word of His mouth.

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Once the Messianic era begins, peace will be it’s most distinguishing characteristic. In part 1 we saw that in the Messianic Kingdom nation would no longer take up arms against nation. Now we see that the Millennial peace will extend to the animal kingdom as well. In a later installment we’ll see that the creation itself will burst forth in joyful song.

In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.

He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim. (Isaiah 11:10-13)

The first re-gathering of the nation took place after the Babylonian captivity. The second one officially began in 1948, continues to this day, and will be complete after the Battle of Ezekiel 38. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. (Ezekiel 39:28) After 2000 years, God’s people will have come home from the Diaspora and will be a single Kingdom again for the first time since 900 BC.

They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west; together they will plunder the people to the east. They will lay hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. The LORD will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that men can cross over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from Egypt. (Isaiah 11:14-16)

Chapter 11 closes with yet another promise that as the end of the age draws near the people we erroneously call Palestinians today will cease to be a problem for God’s people by reason of conquest. Israel will take hold of them and place them under subjugation. These verses likely refer to the battle of Psalm 83, which is very possibly the next event on the prophetic calendar.

The Egyptian Sea is the Red Sea and it’s gulf could be either the gulf of Acaba or the Gulf of Eilat, the two “rabbit ears” at its northern end. The mighty Euphrates, traditional boundary between East and West will become seven streams. The highway for the remnant from Assyria completes the idea that no longer will any natural boundary prevent God’s people from coming to His Holy City.

Isaiah 12, Songs of Praise
IIn that day you will say: “I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” Isaiah 12:1-6

In the past, when Israel was in the land and at peace with God, the whole world stood in awe of the incredible blessing that accompanies a covenant relationship with our Creator. It’s been a very long time since that has happened, but at long last God’s people will be one with Him again, and again the whole world will be blessed. More next time.