Isaiah 21:1

The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. A grievous vision is declared unto me... Go up, O Elam. Besiege, O Media. All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. Therefore are my loins filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold of me as the pangs of a woman that travails. I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me. The night of my pleasure has he turned into fear unto me.

When the prophet finally sees his enemy destroyed, the long-awaited night of pleasure turns to fear — a warning to all who feel safe behind their walls.

Where We Are in Isaiah

As we continue with the burdens of Isaiah, it is important to remember where we are in the book. The first twelve chapters deal with God's judgment spoken to His own people, primarily the southern kingdom. After the reign of Solomon, the nation was split by civil war into two nations: the northern ten tribes and the southern two tribes. During Isaiah's ministry, God moved in judgment against the northern ten tribes at the hands of the Assyrians, as we saw in Isaiah 10, and He would continue to move the Assyrians down into Judah to judge the southern tribes as well. Isaiah spoke prophetically to Judah, calling them to repentance as God readied to punish them.

At Isaiah 13 there is a sharp turn, as God begins to direct His prophetic punishment against the surrounding nations — Babylon, Assyria, Edom, the Philistines, the Moabites, and others. Now, coming to chapter 21, we see God speaking a burdensome judgment upon "the desert of the sea."

Identifying Babylon

We can tell from this passage that God is speaking to the Babylonians. In verse 2, He calls out who He will use to judge them: the Elamites and the people of Media — the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medo-Persian Empire, led by Cyrus the Great in 539 B.C., would overrun the city of Babylon under King Belshazzar. You can read about that in Daniel 5. We also know this is Babylon from verse 9: "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and all the graven images of her gods has he broken unto the ground."

This is not the first time God speaks prophetically against Babylon — we saw it in chapters 13 and 14. That judgment partly came to pass in 539 B.C. when the Medo-Persians overran the city, though the city itself would not be physically destroyed for another couple hundred years.

The Spiritual Babylon Behind the Physical

There is yet a coming judgment upon Babylon, for the book of Revelation shows it still unfulfilled. We here at Calvary Chapel hold a futurist view of prophecy, believing Revelation is still to be fulfilled. Revelation 18 announces, "Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen." There has long been discussion about whether that Babylon is an actual physical city or a spiritual empire. I believe it very possibly could be a literal city; much of the wealth of the world's wealthiest nations is flowing into that region called today Iraq, once called Babylon, and it is possible Babylon will rise again as a great entity — only to be ultimately judged.

But more than the physical city, it is the spiritual entity behind Babylon that God will ultimately judge. Back in Isaiah 14 we saw the wicked spiritual king over that Babylonian system — Lucifer. God is going to judge him, casting him bound into the lake of fire at the very end. Every one of us should be looking forward to that day. Every physical battle in this realm is a manifestation of a spiritual battle behind the scenes — and this is precisely what Isaiah opens our eyes to.

We saw this in Isaiah 10, where the Assyrians conquered the Syrians and the northern ten tribes not by their own strength, wisdom, or chariots, but because God gave them strength as a judgment from His hand. The conquests under Tiglath-Pileser, Sennacherib, and Sargon were really at the hand of the Lord. So the skirmishes around us indicate a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes.

A Grievous Vision

Babylon was both a spiritual foe of God's work and a physical foe of His people. The children of Israel would be taken captive under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C., spending seventy years there before the Medo-Persians under Cyrus set them free.

You would think that Isaiah, an Israelite, would rejoice to see his enemy destroyed. Imagine having a great enemy bent on your destruction, and in the night God shows you a vision of them being destroyed by His wrath. You might expect anticipation, even excitement. Yet when Isaiah saw it, it came as a grievous, heavy vision: "The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils."

The Medo-Persians would deal treacherously with Babylon because of Babylon's own wicked, treacherous dealing — in a sense, you get what you pay for. We see the same principle in Isaiah 33:1: "Woe to thee that spoils... when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled." As Jesus said, "Judge not, that you be not judged; for with what judgment you judge, it shall be measured back to you." God told Babylon, "I will deal with you in the same way." And "all the sighing I have made to cease" — Babylon had made many nations groan, and God would end that groaning by destroying her.

The Night of Pleasure Turned to Fear

Notice Isaiah's reaction in verse 3: "Therefore my loins are filled with pain... I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing of it... The night of my pleasure has he turned into fear unto me."

There are at least two good interpretations. It may be that Isaiah himself, seeing the measure of God's wrath poured out, is moved with fear and bowed down with pain. Or these words may describe the response of the Babylonians themselves as the wrath of God comes upon them. The night Isaiah expected to be a pleasing sight is now made fear to him — or, alternatively, the Babylonians were literally in the midst of a party when destruction came.

The Handwriting on the Wall

Let us turn to Daniel 5. According to Herodotus, Babylon was a great and awesome city — he tells us it had 56 miles of walls, 320 feet tall and 80 feet wide, wide enough to ride four chariots along the top, with over 250 towers. The city expanded over fourteen square miles. If you lived inside those walls, you would feel very safe.

When the Medo-Persians came against the city, King Belshazzar felt secure — "Who can come against us?" As a sign of how safe he felt, he threw a great party, gathering a thousand of his lords for a drunken feast that lasted several days. In the midst of it he called for the gold and silver vessels his great-grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and they drank from them.

In the same hour there came forth the fingers as of a man's hand, and wrote... upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace... Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

This proud king who felt secure saw the handwriting on the wall, went pale, his knees knocked together, and his bowels were loosed. His wise men could not interpret it, so the queen mother reminded him of Daniel.

Daniel's Interpretation

Daniel was brought in. Belshazzar offered scarlet, a gold chain, and a third of the kingdom, but Daniel said, "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing." He gave Belshazzar a history lesson: God had given Nebuchadnezzar a great kingdom, but when his heart was lifted up in pride, he was deposed and driven out to live like a beast, his body wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that "the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men."

Then Daniel said, "O Belshazzar... thou hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this." Belshazzar had drunk from the temple vessels and praised gods of silver, gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone, while refusing to glorify the God in whose hand his breath was. The writing was: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN — God has numbered your kingdom and finished it; you are weighed in the balances and found wanting; your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Belshazzar clothed Daniel in scarlet and put a gold chain on him — but he did not receive the message and repent as the Lord was calling him to do. "That night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Mede took the kingdom."

Caught Crying "Peace and Safety"

What Belshazzar did not know was that while he feasted and thumbed his nose at the army outside, the Medo-Persians had diverted the Euphrates, which ran beneath the walls. With the water level dropped, Herodotus tells us, the army walked in knee-high water under the walls. At the very moment Belshazzar saw the handwriting, they were already entering the city. Babylon was so large that many of its people did not realize for several days that they had been overtaken. But that night Belshazzar was killed.

This is exactly what Isaiah prophesied more than a hundred years before. In verse 5, "Prepare the table" — they prepared the feast that night. "Watch in the watchtower, eat and drink: arise, ye princes, anoint the shield." They were at ease, crying peace and safety, but there was no peace. As Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." The day of the Lord came like a thief in the night for Babylon — and it will come the same way again.

As in the Days of Noah

Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 24. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man... But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came." Luke 17 adds the days of Lot: they ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, and built, until the day Lot left Sodom and fire rained down.

It will just be business as usual, with people saying "peace, peace" right up until sudden destruction comes. And there is that great three-word verse, Luke 17:32 — "Remember Lot's wife." Make it your memory verse tonight: a reminder to us and to the whole world that a day of judgment is coming.

Set a Watchman

What then should be our response? In verse 6: "Go and set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." Babylon was not ready; they lived under a false security. This is the very word God speaks to us. After Jesus describes the day of the Lord, He says in Matthew 24:42-44, "Watch therefore... for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." He repeats it in Matthew 25:13. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:6, "Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." Peter says in 1 Peter 4:7, "The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." And John records Jesus' words in Revelation 16:15, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth."

The Babylonians were complacent. How many today have erected walls around their lives, feeling safe in their own religiosity, or even in their denial that there is a God? So many atheists today think, "There is no God, so He surely won't come in wrath" — but that is the ostrich with its head in the sand. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." That is not an insult; it is a statement of fact. Notice that Babylon's lack of vigilance had nothing to do with ignorance — they could see the enemy amassing. Their downfall came from an unworried, apathetic self-security.

The Watchman's Report and Faithful Witness

The watchman now declares what he sees in verse 7 — a chariot of horsemen, a pair of donkeys, a pair of camels. The Persians often used donkeys and camels in war. The word translated "chariot" is difficult; it can mean a troop or body of riders. The watchman over Babylon sees the Medes and Persians coming, and cries in verse 9, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground."

This connects with the judgment on Babylon the Great in Revelation 18:1-2. Revelation 18 will come to pass just as Isaiah 21 came to pass in 586 B.C. The judgment on Babylon some 2,600 years ago foreshadowed the great judgment God will bring on the whole earth — what we commonly call Armageddon.

In verse 10 Isaiah says, "that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." Many Old Testament prophets did not fully comprehend what they saw and heard, yet they were faithful witnesses. Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel and cherubim and could hardly explain it, but God told him to write what he saw. John, told "What thou seest, write in a book," recorded twenty-two chapters of things he surely did not fully understand. In 1 John 1:3 he says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." That is our calling too. I stand before you as one who does not have all the prophecies figured out — far from it — but as a faithful witness declaring what Scripture says. A man recently asked me, "Do you believe in the end of the world?" I said, "Yes — the Bible says it ends with a fervent fire." I don't know every in and out, but I want to be a faithful witness, like Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John.

The Burden of Dumah

In verse 11 Isaiah picks up another judgment, in perhaps the two most difficult verses in the entire book — and since Isaiah is one of the most difficult books, perhaps the most difficult verses in the Bible. "The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come."

The word Dumah means the same as our English word "dumb" — silence. Seir was a mountainous region in Edom; the Edomites descended from Esau. Someone calls out of Edom to the watchman — Isaiah — saying, "Is the night almost over?" The night speaks of the Assyrian invasion: "Is this Assyrian invasion almost ended?" Isaiah answers, "Yes, the morning is coming, but don't get too happy too quickly — the night will come again." The Assyrian invasion would soon end, but the far more severe destruction by the Babylonians would also come.

The application is this: judgment will come upon the earth, and it will be severe, complete, and inescapable for the wicked. Romans 1 tells us "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." People ask, "Where is the sign of His coming? Why has He waited so long while the world grows worse?" Thankfully, our God is long-suffering and patient. How many of you are thankful Jesus did not return five years ago, because you would not have been ready? He is not refusing to come — He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." So the morning comes, but also the night; if you will inquire, inquire.

The Burden of Arabia

Verses 13-17 speak a judgment on the Arabians that would come quickly. Verse 16: "Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail." A hireling contracted for a year would count it exactly — so within the exact counting of a year this would come. The Arabians are pictured fleeing as refugees from the Assyrian sword, not even standing to fight. In verse 14 the inhabitants of Tema bring them bread and water; Tema is believed to be in our modern nation of Yemen. The Assyrians come down from the north, and the Arabians flee south toward Tema, where they are provided for.

Flee for Refuge to Christ

So chapter 21 reveals judgments literally fulfilled thousands of years ago upon the Babylonians, the Edomites, and the Arabians. But for us living in 2010, they foreshadow the coming judgment on the whole world that we will see in chapter 24 — a judgment inescapable for those present when the Lord comes. Isaiah 24:17-18 says, "Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare." Amos 5:19 says it would be as if you fled from a lion and a bear caught you, and fled from the bear into the house, and leaned your hand on the wall and a serpent bit you. The wrath of God will be inescapable.

There is therefore only one place to turn. Hebrews tells us we "flee for refuge" in Christ. We sang it tonight — In Christ Alone. He is our refuge and strength, our ever-present help in trouble. So my announcement to this world is: if you have not done it yet, flee for refuge to Christ, and do it now. "Look up, your redemption draweth nigh." The Lord has tarried two thousand years and may wait another ten, another hundred — but His tarrying is not refusal. He is giving opportunity for men to find refuge in Christ. Let this day be the day of salvation.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for Your word. As Amos said, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" Lord, help us to be bold to speak forth Your word, to declare it clearly and plainly in these wicked days, even though many will call it foolishness — for we know it is the fool who refuses to turn to You. Give us by Your Spirit boldness to share the truth as we are equipped in Your word: the reality that You will come again, and when You come, the wrath of God will be poured out upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness. Thank You, Father, that You have given us refuge in Your side, set a hedge of protection around us, and proven to be our sure and steadfast foundation and rock. We look forward to Your coming, and so we say, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.