Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: Isaiah 45-48
Isaiah 47:8
Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
What was the cause of ancient Babylon’s downfall? What will be the cause of the future Babylon’s downfall? In 536 the great Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus and Darius. That was the same Cyrus that Isaiah prophesied of in 44:28 and 45:1-13. In Revelation 18:21 this is recorded of the future ecclesiastical-political Babylon: And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Why? Both, ancient Babylon and the Babylon of Revelation, suffer from the same four sins.
One. Given over to pleasures. One of the sins that Paul mentions for the end times is, …lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. II Timothy 3:4. Worldly pleasures have done, and are doing, more damage to the cause of Christ than perhaps anything else.
Two. Overconfidence. …that dwellest carelessly… Carelessness often is the outgrowth of being overconfident. There was a man one time that was overconfident in his abilities as a service technician for x-ray equipment. When changing out a relay, he did not think he needed to disconnect the power to the control box. Just thought he could reach in there with a screwdriver, pop out the relay, and press a new one in. This had been performed dozens of times and always without issues. But this time! This time he bridged that screwdriver over two contactors. Not only did he completely fry the control box, he had to pick himself up off the floor from across the room. Fortunately, he did not die; if he had, he could not have written this devotion for today. The next day they moved him into sales.
Three. Boastful. …I shall not sit as a widow. Most widows in the times of the Old Testament had to depend upon others for support. Sometimes a widow had no one to support her as she was a “widow indeed”. Paul wrote about these in I Timothy 5:5 teaching New Testament Christians to honor them and support them in and through the local churches. But, Babylon was boastful saying in their heart that no one would ever need to support them as widows. They were strong, they could take care of themselves, they needed no-one, especially God. What could He do for them that they couldn’t do for themselves? One, He could have kept them from being conquered, two He could keep them from eternal death. They were overconfident as they soon would learn.
Four. Conceited. …neither shall I know the loss of children… They would never experience their children dying in the streets due to war, famine, disease or otherwise. That is what they thought. They were wrong. Conceit is subtle, it sneaks into a person, and they don’t even know it. But others do. God does. Twice Paul warns of being “wise in your own conceits” (Romans 11:25, 12:16). This is very good advice.
Not only did Babylon have these accusations levied against them from Jehovah. They said in their heart that they were the “I am”. This was blasphemy in the first degree. They said … that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me… they made themselves equal with God.
Not only all of this, in Isaiah 47:9 He said of them, But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. Sorceries and enchantments are scourges on any nation at any time. They did experience the loss of their children and widowhood. It happened in 586 BC., it is recorded in Daniel 5, and it will happen again at the end of times! For the Lord God hath spoken it.
Dr. William T. Howe
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