Truly one of the odd prophecies delivered by Isaiah for several reasons. Moab, the country grown from the ancestors of Lot was not a favored country for Israel. Throughout its history, Moab was never friendly to Israel and, as Israel returned to occupy Canaan, Moab did not assist nor make peace with Israel. While the struggle was on again/off again Israel was never allied with Moab.
So, when reading the prophecy, Isaiah grieves the demise of Moab which is legitimate not sarcastic. It is a prophecy with a time frame, 3 years. Moab was a wealth land. Its people affluent–so the prophecy that they would be destroyed within a day is daunting. According to Isaiah the destruction would be complete, and the people left penniless and homeless. It is the relation to Israel and the possible destruction of Israel that caused Isaiah’s pain.
Isaiah was truly personally vested in his visions from the Lord. In Isaiah 16, Isaiah even makes mention of the coming Messiah. The destruction of Moab is a foretelling of the complete destruction of the region. The point is that the destruction would pass. Isaiah would find the promise in the destruction. The promise of a ruler that would establish a throne of peace. Such a promise provided hope to Israel, to Moab, and to us. No matter the depth of life, God’s promise is to restore and redeem His chosen.
As part of that group, His chosen, we are called to follow him closely and trust Him completely. In that journey, we will not always know what lies ahead. What we can be sure of is that God is never surprised, nor is He ever out of control. Like Isaiah, we must cling the promise and endure the trials. In that, we will find peace and eternal life with Christ.
God Bless You
A prophecy against Moab:
Ar in Moab is ruined,
destroyed in a night!
Kir in Moab is ruined,
destroyed in a night!
2 Dibon goes up to its temple,
to its high places to weep;
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is shaved
and every beard cut off.
3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the roofs and in the public squares
they all wail,
prostrate with weeping.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,
and their hearts are faint.
5 My heart cries out over Moab;
her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.
They go up the hill to Luhith,
weeping as they go;
on the road to Horonaim
they lament their destruction.
6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up
and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone
and nothing green is left.
7 So the wealth they have acquired and stored up
they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.
8 Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;
their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,
their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.
9 The waters of Dimon[a] are full of blood,
but I will bring still more upon Dimon[b]—
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
and upon those who remain in the land.
Send lambs as tribute
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
to the mount of Daughter Zion.
2 Like fluttering birds
pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.
3 “Make up your mind,” Moab says.
“Render a decision.
Make your shadow like night—
at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
do not betray the refugees.
4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
be their shelter from the destroyer.”
The oppressor will come to an end,
and destruction will cease;
the aggressor will vanish from the land.
5 In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
one from the house[a] of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.
This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab. 14 But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.”
Walking With God 