We are and always will be “at war” with the one cast from heaven for wanting all power, control and glory for himself.  He didn’t want to do what God said, he wanted to be God.  This evil of self first appeared to Adam and Eve, God’s first created humans, in the form of a serpent in God’s perfect garden to draw them away from all that was God.  Because God gives his created humans the power of choice, they chose evil’s glossy presentation of self as the better way to live.  God cannot be where sin is with lies, manipulations, trickery, so Adam and Eve were banished from the garden of His Holy Presence.  But God still loved…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

So ultimately, God made a Way to lead people back to His Truth so that eternal Life, real Life, could be possible after falling for evil.  Evil is Babylon in this prophecy of Isaiah.  This is a prophecy against Babylon. The word “Babel” means “gateway to a god” and sounds like the Hebrew word balal, which means “confusion” (See also Gen. 10:8–10; 11:1–9).

In Scripture, Babylon symbolizes the world system that humans have built in defiance of God. Jerusalem and Babylon are contrasting cities: One is the chosen city of God; the other is the wicked city of sinful humanity. The city of God will last forever, but the rebellious, human city will ultimately be destroyed (See also Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17, 18).

Isaiah 13, The Message

Babylon Is Doomed!

The Message on Babylon. Isaiah son of Amoz saw it:

^2-3 “Run up a flag on an open hill.
    Yell loud. Get their attention.
Wave them into formation.
    Direct them to the nerve center of power.
I’ve taken charge of my special forces,
    called up my crack troops.
They’re bursting with pride and passion
    to carry out my angry judgment.”

^4-5 Thunder rolls off the mountains
    like a mob huge and noisy—
Thunder of kingdoms in an uproar,
    nations assembling for war.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling
    his army into battle formation.
They come from far-off countries,
    they pour in across the horizon.
It’s God on the move with the weapons of his wrath,
    ready to destroy the whole country.

^6-8 Wail! God’s Day of Judgment is near—
    an avalanche crashing down from the Strong God!
Everyone paralyzed in the panic,
    hysterical and unstrung,
Doubled up in pain
    like a woman giving birth to a baby.
Horrified—everyone they see
    is like a face out of a nightmare.

* * *

^9-16 “Watch now. God’s Judgment Day comes.
    Cruel it is, a day of wrath and anger,
A day to waste the earth
    and clean out all the sinners.
The stars in the sky, the great parade of constellations,
    will be nothing but black holes.
The sun will come up as a black disk,
    and the moon a blank nothing.
I’ll put a full stop to the evil on earth,
    terminate the dark acts of the wicked.
I’ll gag all braggarts and boasters—not a peep anymore from them—
    and trip strutting tyrants, leave them flat on their faces.
Proud humanity will disappear from the earth.
    I’ll make mortals rarer than hens’ teeth.
And yes, I’ll even make the sky shake,
    and the earth quake to its roots
Under the wrath of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    the Judgment Day of his raging anger.
Like a hunted white-tailed deer,
    like lost sheep with no shepherd,
People will huddle with a few of their own kind,
    run off to some makeshift shelter.
But tough luck to stragglers—they’ll be killed on the spot,
    throats cut, bellies ripped open,
Babies smashed on the rocks
    while mothers and fathers watch,
Houses looted,
    wives raped.

^17-22 “And now watch this:
    Against Babylon, I’m inciting the Medes,
A ruthless bunch indifferent to bribes,
    the kind of brutality that no one can blunt.
They massacre the young,
    wantonly kick and kill even babies.
And Babylon, most glorious of all kingdoms,
    the pride and joy of Chaldeans,
Will end up smoking and stinking like Sodom,
    and, yes, like Gomorrah, when God had finished with them.
No one will live there anymore,
    generation after generation a ghost town.
Not even Bedouins will pitch tents there.
    Shepherds will give it a wide berth.
But strange and wild animals will like it just fine,
    filling the vacant houses with eerie night sounds.
Skunks will make it their home,
    and unspeakable night hags will haunt it.
Hyenas will curdle your blood with their laughing,
    and the howling of coyotes will give you the shivers.

“Babylon is doomed.
    It won’t be long now.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Warren Wiersbe shares the history of Babylon with us:

“God punishes His enemies. The city of Babylon was completely destroyed in 689 B.C. by Sennacherib and the Assyrian army, but it was rebuilt by Sennacherib’s son. In 539 B.C., Darius the Mede captured the city (Daniel 5:31), but he did not destroy it. In the centuries that followed, Babylon had its shining moments, but after the death of its last great conqueror, Alexander the Great, the city declined and soon was no more. Isaiah’s prophecy of this chapter was fulfilled, for the city was not rebuilt.”

Evil doesn’t win.  Evil never wins.  God always wins in the end.  We have two choices to follow.  We must choose well for our very lives depend on it.

Choose Jesus.  Believe in Jesus, repent of the sins of evil and be saved for eternity.  In the meantime, we have the power of the resurrected Christ living in us to help us in all the details of life now!  We choose Him because, while we were yet sinners, He chose us and died to save us from the punishment we deserve.  There is NO ONE like our God.  There is no one but Jesus who can save us from our selfishness and resulting sins.

Lord,

Thank you for saving my soul for eternity. Thank you for being with us always. Thank you for the confidence in knowing that you win over evil.  Always.  Thank you for wisdom to choose well. Thank you for power to abide by choosing You above all.  Thank you for the Way to Truth that gives Life here now and forever with You.

In Jesus Name, Amen