As a relatively small nation threatened by great powers, Judah was constantly tempted to look to political and military alliances to save her. Chapters 1-12 began by focusing on Judah and ended with proclamation of the nations. This second major section (chapters 13-27) begins by focusing on the nations and ends with Judah. But the net massage is the same. Salvation is to be found in the Lord alone. While Assyria falls into the background here, it is not forgotten entirely. The nations in view in chapters 13-23 were all threatened by Assyria at one time or other, and were all actual or potential partners with Judah in anti-Assyrian alliances.

Babylon was no newcomer to the world stage. It had a history reaching right back to the tower of Babel, and was therefore a fitting symbol of that arrogant pomp and power of the world that were characteristic of the nations as a whole in their rebellion against God. Babylon had already had one great period of glory in Isaiah’s day, and it was soon to have another before its end came. But come it would; Isaiah was certain of that. The story of Babylon was, for him, the story of all nations that defy God.

This symbolic significance of Babylon becomes more and more apparent as the oracle unfolds. The historical Babylon was not in fact overthrown by the Medes in a violent bloodbath and its site left abandoned, as verses 17-22 would indicate if taken literally. It surrendered without a fight to Cyrus the Persian, who had already achieved ascendancy over the Medes. But in Isaiah’s day the Medes were the barbarians of the ancient Near East, living beyond the eastern fringe of the civilized world and always threatening to overwhelm it. The Lord’s announcement that he will stir up…the Medes (v. 17) is a declaration that he has already settled upon the destruction of Babylon and all that it represents. Isaiah is not so much describing Babylon’s eventual fall as pointing to what that will represent. The fall of Babylon merges, in this oracle, with the final, great day of the Lord, when all human arrogance will be judged in cosmic, larger-than-life terms because of the greater reality that it anticipates and points to: the eventual fall of the whole world system which stands in opposition to God.

Isaiah 13:1-22 Reflection Questions:
Where do you look to first when you are threatened by someone or something (work, school, family)?
Going with Isaiah’s definition of “Babylon,” do you see that playing out in today’s world stage?
Why would today’s “one world order” that many want, in opposition to God?