The Fall of Empire

Introduction

As we continue our series Isaiah: Yahweh Alone is God, we come to a text that features the fall of empire.

The historical empire whose demise is prophesied in our text is Babylon. But symbolically “empire” in the Bible refers to the concentration of economic, political, military, and even religious power and its use to oppress others through violence and expand the empire’s reach. “Empire” is the institutional manifestation of Sin, the collective attempt at human greatness apart from God.

Babel and its famed tower in Genesis are the first example of empire in Scripture, and God’s swift judgment on it is the first of many such judgments.

The biblical prophets contain many oracles against empire. Think of Jonah and Nineveh, which had a good ending for Nineveh, but not so much for Jonah. But then about 100 years later, Nahum prophesies Nineveh’s fall, and this time the prophet says, Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty? (Na 3:19).

Ultimately, the empire of man and the kingdom of God collide.

There are a couple of ways we want to hear Scripture today.

First, “empire” will always be with us until the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah (Rev 11:15). Christians are citizens of heaven and citizens of specific countries on earth. And it’s always difficult for us to hear clearly the Bible’s critique of our own nation.

“Nation” and “empire” are not identical terms, but nations can exhibit characteristics of “empire” to the degree that they use economic, political, military, and religious power to oppress their own people or others and to pursue greatness apart from God. Every nation to some extent participates in empire because no nation is God’s nation.

So, because empire will always be with us, we need to hear Isaiah’s warning today and recognize that the threat of empire is always present. And I say this fully aware that our nation just celebrated its independence.

(I will give you some thoughts at the end on how we, as Christians, can best serve and love our nation.)

Second, we should hear Scripture today recognizing that “empire” is an institutional manifestation of sin, and each one of us is a sinner. We abhor Hitler, not because he was a sinner, but because he is the human symbol of the Nazi empire. So we can see many of the things the prophet condemns in Babylon in ourselves. And we should take warning. We’re going to look at the fall of empire in three parts: doomed, defiant, and deceived.

Doomed.

Isaiah 1–4
“Go down, sit in the dust,
Virgin Daughter Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
queen city of the Babylonians.
No more will you be called
tender or delicate.
Take millstones and grind flour;
take off your veil.
Lift up your skirts, bare your legs,
and wade through the streams.
Your nakedness will be exposed
and your shame uncovered.
I will take vengeance;
I will spare no one.”

In the last chapter of Isaiah, the prophet took aim at the gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, and exposed the differences between false religion and true religion. With the false gods exposed and fallen in the prophecy, now the nation that trusts in them is prophesied to fall.

At the end of chapter 46, Yahweh said, I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel. Salvation for God’s people and God’s city necessarily entails judgment for Babylon—because Babylon was the one that held them captive.

So, naturally, chapter 47 opens with Babylon’s demise: Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter Babylon.

Cities in antiquity were usually feminine. The great city of Rome was symbolized by the goddess Roma. The Statue of Liberty is a lady, Lady Liberty.

In Proverbs, Wisdom and Folly are portrayed as women. Madam Folly, Lady Wisdom.

In Isaiah, Zion is depicted as a woman, and Babylon is depicted as a woman. In this poem, we see Babylon’s humiliation, Babylon’s doom. All the language is language of demise: Go down, sit in the dust . . . sit on the ground without a throne, queen city of the Babylonians. This is sarcasm: You’re a queen without a throne. Not much of a queen! No more will you be called tender or delicate. Why not?

Because she’s going into slave labor. Verse 2, Take millstones and grind flour; take off your veil. Lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams. Millstone work was often the work lowest slaves did. Instead of being pictured in royal garb, fallen Babylon is at the mill, grinding, working, barely clothed.

Verse 3, Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. In the Old Testament, idolatry is often framed in terms of adultery, Israel’s unfaithfulness to God by going after other gods. So here Babylon’s nakedness likely refers to the many gods the city went after, which is shameful and brought her to nothing.

So, these verses describe the passage from honor to shame, from queen on a throne to a slave sitting in the dust.

Babylon’s disgrace, however, does not come about simply at random. History enthrones and dethrones nations. No, God takes responsibility for this.

Verse 3b, I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.

You have to admire the audacity of a nothing-God (as Yahweh would’ve been considered by Babylon) and a prophet of a nothing-nation (as Israel would’ve been considered by Babylon and everyone else) to declare that the world’s greatest empire would sit in the dust because this nothing-God was taking vengeance. That’s audacious. The nerve!

See, God says, I’m taking Babylon down as retribution for their evil against my people.

Isaiah 47:4
Our Redeemer—the LORD Almighty is his name—is the Holy One of Israel.

Three key convictions about who Yahweh is are brought up in this verse:

He’s a Redeemer (that is, a restorer).

He is the Holy One of Israel (that is, nothing in the created world can even come close to being compared with him).

And he is Almighty (that is, even though it seems that he is a nothing-God fighting for a nothing-nation, you just wait, because he has announced that he is bringing Babylon down, and nothing can stay his hand).

No one other than Israel’s God could bring about Babylon’s doom. God is fighting for his people.

Babylon is doomed for her defiant obstinacy. Let’s talk about how she was defiant.

Defiant.

Isaiah 47:5–7
“Sit in silence, go into darkness,
queen city of the Babylonians;
no more will you be called
queen of kingdoms.
I was angry with my people
and desecrated my inheritance;
I gave them into your hand,
and you showed them no mercy.
Even on the aged
you laid a very heavy yoke.
You said, ‘I am forever—
the eternal queen!’
But you did not consider these things
or reflect on what might happen.

Sit in silence, go into darkness.

We sit in silence at times when we’re numb from grief, shock, exhaustion, terror. In the aftermath of 9/11, you’d see people on the streets of New York covered in ash, sitting in silence, dumbfounded.

Silence and darkness are properties of death. The grave is dark and quiet. Again, for this humiliating fate to be predicated on the queen of the Babylonians was laughable.

Verse 6 is theologically difficult. I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged, you laid a very heavy yoke.

God brought judgment on his people, by which they were desecrated. He gave them into the hands of Babylon, and yet Babylon is not thereby excused of its wickedness.

God uses the wickedness of people to bring about his purposes, but the wicked are still accountable for their actions.

The clearest example of this is the crucifixion of Jesus. God planned from eternity past the death of his son. It was God’s plan for our salvation. But he used the wickedness of Romans and Jews to bring it about. Listen to how the early Christians prayed.

Acts 4:27-28 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

Who conspired against Jesus? The Gentiles and the people of Israel.

But then the Christians say, They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. They were acting fully on their own volition and evil intent. But God’s power and will had decided beforehand this death, the death of his son, should happen.

Likewise with Babylon. Babylon was thirsty for blood and glory. They ravaged Judah, but God says, I gave them into your hand.

And they’re still accountable to God. God says, You showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke.

God calls Babylon to account for their lack of compassion.

But the empire also functioned as if it was unaccountable to anyone.

In verse 7 we read, You said, ‘I am forever—the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.

Babylon has God-like pretensions. I am forever—the eternal queen. It imposes a heavy yoke on people and shows no mercy because it thinks that it can get away with it.

Isaiah 47:8
“Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure,
lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
or suffer the loss of children.’

Do you hear the God-like pretensions, saying to herself, I am, and there is none besides me? That’s exactly what God says about himself. How defiant! How brazen!

Babylon said, I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children. In the aftermath of war, a defeated nation would have a lot of widows, who lost their husbands in the battlefield and in the most cruel cases children also were lost.

Listen to what Babylon did to Judah in the siege. This is from Lamentations 2:11–12, My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within; my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away in their mothers’ arms.

That’s what Babylon did to Judah, but Babylon says, That will never happen to me. I will never become a widow or lose my children.

Babylon lives in luxury and feels indestructible. But listen to God’s response.

Isaiah 47:9
Both of these will overtake you
in a moment, on a single day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and all your potent spells.

It’s amazing to me how God can reverse fortune in a moment, on a single day.

We think we’re so in control of our lives because we have the markets, the military, our institutions of learning, and then overnight a relatively mild virus shuts down the world. You remember March 2020.

God says to Babylon, Loss of children and widowhood will overtake you on a single day. He says They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells.

Unmerciful. Indulgent. Indifferent to the plight of the oppressed. Unaccountable. With God-like pretensions. These are some of the charges against defiant Babylon, and they are doomed. But they’re also deceived.

Deceived.

Isaiah 47:10–11
You have trusted in your wickedness
and have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you
when you say to yourself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
Disaster will come upon you,
and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you
that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
will suddenly come upon you.

The prophet here brings up one of the things for which Babylon was famous: sorcery and astrology.

They had chants, charms, rituals, omens, false prophets, magicians and astrologers who supposedly could read the future and manipulate it by magic arts.

To the Babylonians, these things were wisdom and knowledge. To the prophets of Yahweh, these things were wickedness. The future belonged only to God, who knows the future and writes the future.

Two opposite approaches to the future.

The prophet says, Your wisdom and knowledge, which are wickedness, mislead you. So you think you’re indestructible. You say to yourself, “I am, and there is none besides me,” but disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away.

The prophet brings up the suddenness and inevitability of this disaster. It’s all happening in a moment, on a single day, suddenly.

Isaiah 47:12–13
“Keep on, then, with your magic spells
and with your many sorceries,
which you have labored at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed,
perhaps you will cause terror.
All the counsel you have received has only worn you out!
Let your astrologers come forward,
those stargazers who make predictions month by month,
let them save you from what is coming upon you.

The prophet here uses sarcasm.

It reminds me of Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal, when they have a face-off to see which God answers by fire. So the prophets of Baal dance around the altar to their god, but there was no answer. They slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. They’re trying to get their god’s attention.

But Elijah starts taunting them. He says to them, Shout louder! Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he’s sleeping and must be awakened.

Of course, Baal never answers.

(When we were in Israel, we went to Mount Carmel where this confrontation happened. You could see Nazareth in the distance. Incredible!)

Isaiah is doing something similar with this prophecy. He says to them, Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries. Perhaps you will succeed. Perhaps you will cause terror. Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month. Let them save you from what’s coming upon you.

His point is: It’s futile.

Isaiah 47:14–15
Surely they are like stubble;
the fire will burn them up.
They cannot even save themselves
from the power of the flame.
These are not coals for warmth;
this is not a fire to sit by.
That is all they are to you—
these you have dealt with
and labored with since childhood.
All of them go on in their error;
there is not one that can save you.

Babylon’s astrologers, magicians, and stargazers are like stubble. Who is the fire that will burn them up?

Elijah’s God answered by fire on Mount Carmel.

Moses’ God appeared to him for the first time in the fire.

The fire of Yahweh burns the stubble of Babylon.

It didn’t matter that Babylon was known for her magic arts. She was deceived. She lived in error.

And God says, there is not one that can save you. Babylon is doomed.

Isaiah prophesied when Babylon was queen of the world and Yahweh was the nothing-God of a nothing-nation, and yet it is a matter of historical record that Babylon swiftly was brought down. No one worships Bel and Nebo today. Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God of Jesus, is worshiped by billions.

So let me give you a brief word on how to think about the empires of the world and how to serve and love our nation.

Jesus launched his kingdom within the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was vicious and bloodthirsty. Listen to the Roman historian Tacitus as he puts these words on the lips of the Pictish king Calgacus. Here’s what he says about the Romans: They ransack the world, and now that the earth fails to contain their all-devastating grasp, they scour even the sea: if their enemy has wealth, they are greedy; if he is poor, they are ambitious; neither East nor West has satiated their hunger… They plunder, they murder, they rape, all in the name of their so-called empire. And where they have left desolation, they call it ‘peace.’

That is the empire within which a Galilean preacher of humble origins said, The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! (Mark 1:15).

This announcement sounds like the nothing-God of a nothing-nation, once again speaking through a nothing-prophet, was audaciously taking on Rome. What a farce! Rome would crush this preacher and condemn his followers. And yet it only took a few centuries before Rome fell, and Jesus Christ marched on.

Hear these words from the historian Will Durant, written 80 years ago: There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.

There is only room for one king. Without taking any single life but giving up his own he gives life to all who bow to him.

Only God brings his kingdom to earth.

Jesus announces The kingdom of God has come near. Jesus builds the kingdom of God by his death, resurrection, and sending of his Spirit upon his followers. He alone establishes and uproots kings and powers. He alone by his power and predetermined plan will bring this age to an end and usher in the kingdom of God in the fullness of time, where the glory of God covers the earth like the waters cover the sea.

He doesn’t need the help of any nation or government to do this, but he calls nations and governments to account for ruling without righteousness and justice.

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear and trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalm 2:10–12).

We as Christians work for the kingdom.

We do not bring the kingdom to earth. We do not build the kingdom of God. Only God does that. But we work for the kingdom of God. As we build our families, do our vocations, speak truth to power, engage in civic and political discourse, live holy lives, and do a hundred other things, we reflect the hope that Jesus is king and he will one day remake the world.

We do not put our hope in our nation or any other nation, but we work to bless our nation, we seek the welfare of our cities, we serve in the humility of wisdom and knowledge that says that we each, like Babylon of old, want power and empire and trend toward being unmerciful, indulgent and indifferent to the plight of the oppressed, unaccountable, and with god-like pretensions.

That’s the word from our king. That’s the word of the kingdom. Let us take refuge in him. Let us take refuge in his blood.