For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 47:4-7

4 Our Redeemer – the Lord Almighty is his name –
    is the Holy One of Israel.

5 ‘Sit in silence, go into darkness,
    queen city of the Babylonians;
no more will you be called
    queen of kingdoms.
6 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.
7 You said, “I am for ever –
    the eternal queen!”
But you did not consider these things
    or reflect on what might happen.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Isaiah declare? v.4
2. What does the Lord tell Babylon to do and why? v.5
3. What does the Lord say He had done with His people and why? v.6a-c
4. How had Babylon acted? v.6d,e
5. How had they responded at that time? v.7a,b
6. What had they not done? v.7c,d

B. Think:

1. Why does the Lord tell off Babylon?
2. What had that actually been?
3. What does that tell us about the discipline of the Lord?

C. Comment:

The Lord continues to rebuke Babylon. The interesting thing about what He says, is that it hasn’t yet happened when Isaiah was writing. This was a prophetic word for the future after the exile; there is no other way to view it.

First of all Isaiah can’t stop himself making a simple declaration of who the Lord is. A prophet is a truth teller and in the midst of this word against Babylon, the prophet declares that the Lord, who is their Redeemer, is the redeemer of ISRAEL. That needs to be borne in mind throughout all He says about Babylon.

Then the Lord chides Babylon and speaks again of its downfall, but then explains why. The Lord has been angry with the ongoing idolatry of Israel and so took them into exile (all in the future) and in the process razed Jerusalem and it’s temple to the ground. This was absolutely devastating to Israel. Babylon had carried the inhabitants away to exile. Only a remnant in the land stayed in the land, and even they eventually fled to Egypt.

Babylon has taken Israel into basic slavery and had treated them harshly. What Babylon has not realised was that all of this was the Lord’s doing and part of His removing and then reconstructing Israel. Now Babylon will be held to account for their bad attitude.

D. Application:

1. Being an instrument of correction gives you no excuses.
2. God expects us to show grace and mercy at all times to all peoples.

Passage: Isaiah 47:8-11

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.”
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.
10 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.”
11 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.

A. Find Out:

1. How does the Lord now address Babylon? v.8a,b
2. What was Babylon saying to itself? v.8c,d
3. What does the Lord say will happen to them? v.9
4. Despite what? v.9
5. What, again, had they been saying? v.10
6. But what will happen to them? v.11

B. Think:

1. How was Babylon saying it felt secure?
2. On what was it relying?
3. Yet what was going to happen to it?

C. Comment:

The Lord has spoken to Babylon about the fact that they had been part of God’s plan of dealing with Israel but had done it harshly and without mercy. Now they will be held to account.

But first we have to note the sense of security that they felt. They believed that they had become so great and that there was no one else like them, so obviously there was no one who could be a threat to them.  Or at least, that was how they saw it!  They also had magicians and casters of spells and relied on the occult and believed that they were in control of these sorts of powers (as all such people wrongly believe!) and this added to their sense of security, as false as it was.

You think your future is secure, says the Lord (v.8e), well it’s not! Despite all the things you rely on, disaster is going to come on you! Three times in verse 11 the Lord declares this with different words – disaster, calamity, catastrophe! There is no room for misunderstanding here!

It doesn’t matter how secure you may feel, if the judgement of God comes, NOTHING will keep you! Nations rely upon size, strength, big armies, strong economies or whatever, but if God’s wrath has been incurred then nothing will protect that nation. God does hold nations to account and when He does, His judgement WILL come.

D. Application:

1. The anger of the Lord is a fearful thing. We should fear it.
2. The anger of the Lord only comes on ongoing sin. Repent of it.

Passage: Isaiah 47:12-15

12 ‘Keep on, then, with your magic spells
    and with your many sorceries,
    which you have laboured at since childhood.
Perhaps you will succeed,
    perhaps you will cause terror.
13 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.
14 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.
15 That is all they are to you –
    these you have dealt with
    and laboured with since childhood.
All of them go on in their error;
    there is not one that can save you.

A. Find Out:

1. What does the Lord say to them to do? v.12
2. What does He say about their seers? v.13
3. What does He say they are like? v.14
4. What does He say they cannot do? v.14
5. So what does He conclude about them? v.15

B. Think:

1. Who does this passage speak to?
2. What does it say about how long this has been going on?
3. What does it conclude about them?

C. Comment:

The Lord has been speaking against Babylon and has warned that a calamity will come upon them. Now He speaks against those seers practising magical arts to foretell the future.

He derides them in verse 12. It’s like He says, “Come on then, you’ve been trying this stuff throughout your life. Keep on, you never know, it might work one day!” Divine sarcasm is cutting!

He addresses the people: “Come on then, look to these so called astrologers, these ones who have done nothing for you except weary you with false hopes, see if they can tell you about what I’m going to bring on you!”

No, He goes on, they are going to be burnt up in what is coming and they can’t even save themselves (meaning, if they were sensible and could see the future, they would do something about it, even if it were just to flee).  This destruction that is coming is not going to be any minor affair, a fire you could sit comfortably beside.  All they can do, these foolish delusional, false predictors or the future, is keep on in their error, misleading the people and giving them false hope. They will not save the people of Babylon. God has decreed what will happen and both people and astrologers will not stop it. The only thing that would stop it is whole-hearted repentance, and they are not going to do that.  No, they WILL be destroyed.

D. Application:

1. Judgement is only averted by whole hearted repentance.
2. In God alone is salvation. All else is doomed.