Mercy and Judgment

Isaiah 14:1-11

1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. 2 Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the LORD; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

3 It shall come to pass in the day the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:

"How the oppressor has ceased,
The golden city ceased!

5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
6 He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.

7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.

8 Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, 'Since you were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.'

9 "Hell from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.

10 They all shall speak and say to you:
'Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?

11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.'

The Lord promised mercy on Jacob but judgment on the King of Babylon and all that he pictures for us.  After all the gloom and doom concerning the Day of the Lord in the previous chapter, God assures the remnant of His chosen people that they will find mercy and a home still.  Others of the surrounding nations will come to join them as a picture of the Gentiles joining them in Christ when He comes in His church of all whom He calls to Himself.  Then those were made servants to Israel and Rule over them, but in the Messiah we are all made servants of Christ and not subservient in service to each other (Galatians 3:28).  The Lord was to bring rest from sadness, fear, and bondage, which Christ Jesus does for us as well.  He will wipe away every tear (Revelation 7:17, 21:4), take away our fear of eternal torment as our due punishment for sin (1 John 4:18), and release us from sin’s bondage (Romans 8:15, Hebrews 2:14-15).  Israel was able to pronounce the Lord’s judgment against the king of Babylon who is symbolic of the ultimate oppressor in the form of the Antichrist and his rule in the latter days.  We have the Lord Jesus Christ who has pronounced that one’s demise of judgment in the lake of fire and can rest assured that we will have justice in the end over the oppressor of our souls and wicked rulers under the sway of the wicked one who is Lucifer and the devil of old (1 John 5:19, Revelation 12:9, 20:10).  That is in the next part of this chapter to be spoken of tomorrow.  We do know that just as the king of Babylon of old was judged and then cut down and called from the place of the dead known as Hell and Sheol, so will the Adversary and enemy of all God’s creation be cast down in the final judgment to a lake of everlasting eternal fire that does not consume as it enacts justice through suffering.  All pride against the Lord will end up there along with all in the world who led others astray and away from the Lord in their temporal dominance over others.  The whole earth will rejoice with singing praise to our Redeemer’s victory in that day of judgment and mercy!