Exposition by Max A Forsythe
A very popular movie from the fall of 93 was been nominated for several Academy Awards. Schindler's List was unusual for a major motion picture today, because it was made in black and white. That artistic decision allows the use of some film clips from the World War Two era. We might also add that the use of black and white lessens the horror of the holocaust subject material. The memories of the Nazi death camps are bad enough in black and white. Providentially we may believe such horrors in color are better left to the memories of the people who were there. A few years ago, one of our history teachers at school brought in two eight millimeter reels of color film shot by an American Army doctor when he was in Germany in 1945. As the story goes, Kodak had just introduced a small home movie camera with color capability. His wife sent it over by mail with two reels of film. One of the reels was of Russian soldiers serving in the British Army.
The other reel was of Dachau, one of the worst death camps inside of Germany proper. Even worse camps were on the Eastern marches of Poland. But the full horror of the camps is highlighted by those brief color scenes. I don't think that CBS, NBC or anyone else has anything like it. Since we showed those clips, the film in question has unfortunately disappeared with the death of their owners.
I once read that people dream differently; the majority of people dream in black and white. Only a few visualize color in their sleeping mind's eye. I say all of this to lead us up to the short ten verses that we will consider from Isaiah today. The impact of this dire vision of death and destruction has afflicted Isaiah. The vision is full of color and detail, like some vivid painting of Dante's hell. Yes, the people being destroyed in Babylon deserve everything coming to them, but the sheer horror of the vision haunts his mind for a period of time. We see in verse three that his body is racked with pain, labor like pangs seize him, he is staggered by what he hears and bewildered by what he sees. His heart falters as he trembles with fear, the twilight allows nightmares to come, and these are the cause of distress.
In the thirties, a radio reporter was covering the docking of a German airship The Hindenburg. Minutes away from completing its transatlantic journey, the hydrogen filled ship burst into flame and exploded. The reporter described the details, then told his audience he couldn't go on because the scene was so horrible to behold. Fortunately, Isaiah does not fully describe the vision that has caused him so much grief. But what we have is grim enough; let us be thankful that we have been spared the full color of Isaiah's vision. Like much of the rest of Scripture, we are only given enough information to warn us of horrors beyond our comprehension, and hopefully, beyond our experience.
Now, the vision has a subject and a purpose. The subject of this vision is the end of Babylon. In verse one, the Desert by the Sea is identified as the place of judgment. In an older language than Hebrew, the Akkadian phrase "land of the sea" applied to the region about the Persian Gulf. Into this region there will come a violent storm. How very much like Operation Desert Storm from recent history. And this is the military type of storm that Isaiah really has in mind. An invader will come from the desert, from a land of terror. The city in question will be betrayed and looted. In verse two Elam and Media are identified as the attackers bringing an end to the "land of the sea".
In verse five we see that the inhabitants will set tables and spread rugs for a feast. Much like an audience in a tense thriller movie, Isaiah warns the feasters to prepare for battle. Certainly we do not know the full significance of the purpose of oiling their shields; however we may well understand that there was some military purpose to it. The short years I served in the Army, I remember spreading a lot of oil around to maintain the rifles and equipment that I was responsible for!
In the next verse, the scene shifts to the future for a fuller understanding. Isaiah is told to post a lookout to report what will happen. Then the Lord shows Isaiah what the next generation will see and hear as this oracle is brought to fulfillment. If the lookout will be fully alert, a man in a chariot will report "Babylon has fallen, has fallen!" And so we learn in this verse the name of the chief city of the "land by the sea". Babylon the great, Babylon the conquering empire, Babylon, the enemy of all the nations of the Mid-east. "Babylon has fallen, has fallen!" As we shall see in the last verse, there in fact is one greater than Babylon. Even as the Russians have learned, there is one greater than Moscow. There is even one greater than Washington and New York, as well. Why is it that great cities in all ages begin to think too highly of themselves? Like ancient Rome, the financial and United Nations "capital" of the world likes to call itself "the big Apple".
In the twenties there arose an argument between the New York office and the Washington office of the regulatory agency that watched over the Stock Market. The argument was not over what to do about the runaway prosperity generated by the stampede in stock prices. No, the argument was over something more important! Which office, the one in Washington or New York, was superior to the other? While the bureaucrats fiddled, Wall Street crashed and burned in 1929. The riches and treasures drained from countless banks and businesses went up in smoke. The entire economy went down the drain after the party years of the roaring twenties. All the false images of that time were shattered on the ground. So shall all the false images of every age end in the same way. Certainly, the gruesome gods of Babylon and other pagan cultures devoured the lives and treasures of assorted peoples in many ways. These false gods worshipped by the Babylonians proved unable to protect the leaders and their city by the Tigris and Euphrates "sea".
In the last verse Isaiah turns his attention to the people of Jerusalem. "O my people", he calls, those who have been and will be crushed on the threshing floor, "O my people", consider this oracle carefully. Carefully, yes, because it comes straight from the Lord Almighty, from the God of Israel. Will we listen and hear the terror implied in this vision, will we grieve for the worldly and their punishment, or would you rather grieve with the world in the day of destruction? We can certainly see in the threshing floor image that God's harvesting of the elect is not without some discomfort. The ways of the worldly are harsh indeed. But harsher still will be the final judgment visited upon all those who would imitate the conquering life of Babylon. So those in Jerusalem who must wait to see the destruction of Babylon, may know from Isaiah's vision, that the Lord will have His day.
A decade or more ago, a local fire department was called to clean up a mess. It seems that a young man under the influence of some drug thought he was superman. So he stood on the tracks and tried to stop a roaring locomotive. The firemen searched over a mile and a half of track to pick up the pieces. Yes the end of the worldly is tragic indeed, and we may well lose our appetite as Isaiah calls us to consider their common end. How much better it will be for us because we call on the Awesome Name of the Lord Almighty, the only true God. May we be found in Him today and always. Amen.
Resources Used:
llis, Charles..
The Wells of Salvation.
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentery Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
19 February 1994
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.