Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 4, part 2

Isaiah 21:8, 9 says,

⁸ Then the lookout called, “O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, and I am stationed every night at my guard post. ⁹ Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

The prophet either heard a lookout speak in his vision, or he found himself speaking as the watchmen. “Lord” is not Yahweh but Adonai, which refers to one in authority. Sometimes the word is used of God, but in this case it is probably a reference to his superior in the army to whom he was reporting. Hence, it seems likely that the prophet was observing the scene and hearing what the watchman on the tower was reporting to his commander.

As Vigilant as a Lion

The NASB (above) seems to ignore the Hebrew word ariy, “lion,” that appears in the Hebrew text. The KJV reads,

⁸ And he cried, “A lion [ariy]: My Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights.”

The “lion” seems totally out of place in the KJV. However, Dr. Bullinger says that we should read, “as a lion, O Lord.” The Commentary on the Whole Bible, by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, tells us on page 453,

8. A lion—rather “(the watchman) cried, I am as a lion;” so as is understood… The lion’s eyelids are short, so that, even when asleep, he seems to be on the watch, awake; hence he was painted on doors of temples as the symbol of watchfulness, guarding the places.

The watchman in Isaiah’s vision, then, was being watchful and vigilant. He reported what he saw to the commander—“a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.” This was taken by another to mean that Babylon had fallen or was about to fall. Such an immediate response from a soldier or the commander would be highly unlikely, but the prophet heard this as a revelation that the fall of Babylon was imminent.

Destroying Babylon’s Images

The prophet also saw the destruction of Babylon’s (graven) “images of her gods.” When Cyrus and Darius took Jerusalem, they did not destroy Babylon’s religious system, for it was actually some temple priests who had assisted the Persians in overthrowing Babylon. I wrote about this in Daniel, Prophet of the Ages, Book 1, chapter 8, page 72.

“During the ten years that King Nabonidus was away from Babylon, his son Belshazzar ruled in his place. Nabonidus’ absence meant that some key yearly celebrations of the Babylonian gods could not be celebrated, which angered many of the priests of Marduk. They knew that Nabonidus favored Sin, the moon god, and this ultimately caused them to leave open the gates of the city leading to the Euphrates River, allowing Cyrus’ troops to take Babylon in 537. Cyrus drained the river upstream and walked into the city through the riverbed.”

Isaiah’s vision, then, was only partially fulfilled when the Medes and Persians took Babylon. A greater fulfillment is yet to come when the gods of Mystery Babylon are overthrown and when Jesus Christ is proclaimed King and Heir of all things. To destroy Babylon’s false gods is to set the nations free from the gods that would usurp the rightful position of Jesus Christ. In practice, this means setting the captives free by showing them the truth through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah’s term “the images of her gods,” is a quotation from Deuteronomy 7:25, which says, “The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire.” The context shows that the worshipers of the true God were to eliminate the false gods of the people that they conquered. Under the Old Covenant, such conquest was done by the power of the sword, and the arm of flesh was assisted by God to accomplish this purpose.

Under the New Covenant, believers have been given “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). This “word” comes through the tongue, which is pictured as a sword throughout Scripture. Hence, “out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword” (Revelation 1:16), and Hebrews 4:12 says,

¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This New Covenant sword is far more effective than any carnal weapon. The sword of the Spirit is “able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart,” and not merely judge men’s actions. When this Sword is used, all heart-idolatry is exposed and cast down, bringing repentance and salvation to the world, instead of bloodshed.

Religions use force and threats of violence when they lack truth and lack the power of the Holy Spirit to change the hearts of the people. Hence, they tend to convert men by force and coercion, creating servants of religion instead of the sons of God.

Fallen, Fallen is Babylon

That which Isaiah heard in his vision applies specifically to Mystery Babylon, for it is in that context that we read in Revelation 14:8,

⁸ And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

Again, we read in Revelation 18:2,

² And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.”

While we know that this applied to the old city of Babylon, John tells us that it applies in a greater way to the “Babylon” at the end of the age, the spiritual city that opposes the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Threshed People

Isaiah 21:10 concludes the prophecy against Babylon, saying,

¹⁰ O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! What I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I make known to you.

Some say that the prophet was referring to the people of Babylon who were to be “threshed” when their city and empire was destroyed. However, Cyrus and Darius took the city of Babylon intact with very few casualties. The Bible records only the death of King Belshazzar. We can hardly say that the people of Babylon were threshed.

It is clear (to me) that Isaiah was speaking of the captives of Judah that he foresaw as captives in Babylon. God had sent them into exile to be “threshed” by the judgment of God. Threshing was a common metaphor for judgment. So we read in Proverbs 20:26,

²⁶ A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the threshing wheel over them.

In other words, a wise king judges with compassion. His purpose is first to give justice to the victims of crime, but secondly it is to restore the sinner to the rights of citizenship. If possible, he should winnow them as with barley, but if necessary, he should thresh them as wheat. In both cases, the purpose is to eliminate chaff and preserve the good grain.

John the Baptist said that the purpose of the Holy Spirit was to burn the chaff (Matthew 3:12). Chaff is obtained by winnowing barley or by threshing wheat. The Hebrew word picture is about getting rid of the flesh, the carnal desires and lawless tendencies in men.

Isaiah 21:10, then, was a reference to the divine judgment upon God’s people. Where the NASB (above) reads, “my afflicted of the threshing floor,” the literal Hebrew text reads, “son of my threshing floor.” As we have shown many times, the Hebrew language often used “son” as a metaphor connecting a man with something else. In this case, a son of the threshing floor was a son that was being corrected.

The prophet understood that Judah was destined to go to God’s threshing floor on account of the nation’s persistent disobedience. The threshing floor in question was Babylon itself. God sent them into exile to purify them of their idolatry (“chaff”). Indeed, the threshing floor did its work, because the Jews thereafter no longer built graven images for themselves. The Old Covenant had this positive effect upon them in that it changed their behavior and actions in regard to idolatry.

The deeper problem of heart idolatry, however, persisted, for only the New Covenant can change the hearts of men. By rejecting the Mediator of the New Covenant, the Jews forsook the only solution to this greater problem. Thus, they remained in bondage as children of the flesh, striving to be justified by the power of their own will through the Old Covenant vow.