The Fall of Babylon

Isaiah 21:1-10 

1 The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea.
As whirlwinds in the South pass through,
So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

2 A distressing vision is declared to me;
The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,
And the plunderer plunders.

Go up, O Elam!
Besiege, O Media!
All its sighing I have made to cease.

3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain;
Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor.
I was distressed when I heard it;
I was dismayed when I saw it.

4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me;
The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

5 Prepare the table,
Set a watchman in the tower,
Eat and drink.

Arise, you princes,
Anoint the shield!

6 For thus has the Lord said to me:
"Go, set a watchman,
Let him declare what he sees."

7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,
A chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels,
And he listened earnestly with great care.

8 Then he cried, "A lion, my Lord!
I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime;
I have sat at my post every night.

9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!"
Then he answered and said,

"Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
And all the carved images of her gods
He has broken to the ground."

10 Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor!
That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts,

The God of Israel,
I have declared to you.

The God of Israel was declared to Babylon before she fell by His hand.  The message came as from the dry desert on a whirlwind, a disturbing and painful vision for Isaiah to witness and tell of the treachery and plunder of the sinful nation being judged and sentenced.  The pain was as if a woman in labor, no small suffering of anguish, and fear made the heart skip a beat as the night filled with fearful boding to come.  He commanded a watch to be set on the tower so they could continue to eat, drink, and be merry (Luke 12:19) until the watched reported anyone approaching.  The watchman saw a chariot and a lion as he watched day and night to guard the city.  When the chariot finally approached him, he heard the proclamation that Babylon had fallen (Revelation 14:8, 18:2) and her idols smashed into the dust where they came from.  As Jeremiah 51:33 tells us, the time of Babylon’s harvest on her threshing floor had come as will all by God’s hand of judgment seen in Matthew 3:12 and other places.  This is why Isaiah witnessed of the God of Israel and told of Him to the hearers and readers of this warning.  We likewise bear witness of the fall and judgment of the spiritual Babylon of the world under the sway of the wicked one who will also be judged and thrown down in the end for good.  The God we declare in the gospel of Jesus Christ is our witness of the coming judgment and the only deliverance through the Son of God who died in our place that we might hear, see, believe, and receive Him as or sure salvation from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).  The message is for all who have been given repairs to hear to turn before judgment overtakes you.  Learn from the Babylon which was and the one which is to come.  God’s threshing floor keeps only the good seed and the rest is burned in the end.  Turn and live!