Isaiah’s messages were warnings of trials yet to come and of joys yet to be experienced. Prior to his death in the early to mid 7th century BC, he not only predicted the fall of Israel ad Judah, but he also predicted the fall of mighty Babylon the empire that had only begun to rise. We know of the nation’s rise and fall. We know of Daniel and his friend’s impact on the nation and its successors. But in 690BC, neither Nebuchadnezzar nor his son Belshazzar were even a distant thought.
Still, God allowed Isaiah to see the night when the Medes and Persians ended the siege by sneaking in through the water source that fed Babylon. That was some 150 years in the future 539 BC. What a great reminder that God is Omnipresent–in all places and times at once. He is never surprised or never late. He knew in Eden that His son would die at Golgotha. He knew that a day would come when men would be redeemed. He also knew that His Son would return, and this world would change.
We are grateful that God is patient and has held his hand to allow all who would follow him the opportunity to do so. As with the life and death of Methuselah, (When he dies, judgement follows), God never intends to be subtle. As we see more of the prophetical words rising to view, we need to personally prepare through prayer and submission for the shaking and completion of his plans. We cannot control the world or its behavior, but we can as Hezekiah did, cry out for God to stay His hand and extend grace. Moses interceded for a wretched people. Hezekiah prayed for mercy and received it. James said it best in James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
Let us become a people of prayer. Let us get our hearts in order and follow God closely and humbly. Then we can claim as Jonathan Saul’s son, “Come on, perhaps the Lord will Work for us.” I Samuel 14:6.
God Bless You
Behold, the day of the Lord comes,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,
and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.
12 I will make people more rare than fine gold,
and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place,
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.
14 And like a hunted gazelle,
or like sheep with none to gather them,
each will turn to his own people,
and each will flee to his own land.
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.
18 Their bows will slaughter[d] the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
no Arab will pitch his tent there;
no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and their houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches[e] will dwell,
and there wild goats will dance.
22 Hyenas[f] will cry in its towers,
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand
and its days will not be prolonged.
Walking With God 