Vengeance
We begin
Isaiah 14 with a bit of a difficult passage from a New Testament understanding
of God. From the perspective of the Old
Testament, this passage sounds great.
The Hebrew people will once more be chosen by God. The people who have oppressed them will then
be oppressed by the Hebrew people. Those
who they now serve will then serve the Hebrew people. From the perspective of the Old Testament,
this passage is a straight “vengeance is a dish best served cold” kind of
passage.
However,
this passage is a little more difficult to reconcile with the teachings of the
New Testament. Are we to long for
vengeance? Does not Jesus tell us to
love our enemies and not lord ourselves over them? How can we make sense of this passage in any
way other than through the easily read vengeance perspective that comes so
naturally out of the Old Testament perspective?
For one
thing, you will notice that the passage says that God will “choose again” His
people. We know from prior chapters that
He will choose them because they return to Him.
He will choose them because they humble themselves and serve Him. Also, you should know that the Hebrew words
in verse 2 that are occasionally translated as “slave” are most often
translated as “servant” throughout the rest of the Old Testament. If we put this all together, we see that the
people who now enslave the Hebrew people will eventually come to serve those
who will serve God. It’s not about dominance or vengeance. It is about service under God. In that frame of reference we can see what
God is actually all about as He works through the Hebrew people.
Babylon
The question
then has to be asked. What is the fault
of the Babylonians? What is it that the
Babylonians do that is so bad except to be the tool that God uses to humble the
Hebrew people?
The answer
is fairly simple. Look at verses
12-13. The Babylonians – especially
their king – believed themselves to be so great that they could ascend to
godlike status. They believed themselves
to be so great that they could never be conquered. They believed themselves capable of taking on
the whole world and dominating it. In
fact, they believed they could become gods.
I seem to
remember a similar story about a group of people who gathered together at some
point in order to become gods. The built
a tower thinking themselves to be so great.
How did God react to such an incredible display of hubris? God divided them up and caused them to spread
throughout the world. The message in
that story in Genesis is the same as the story of this oracle against the
Babylonians. When we become so inflated
with pride that we think ourselves to be a rival of God, God will deal with
us. We will fall. We will fall hard. There’s a reason we have a saying that goes
like this: “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”
Or perhaps you prefer the cliché: “Pride comes before the fall.” Or maybe you like the truism of children:
“The bigger you are, the harder you fall.”
All of these expressions speak about the problem of the
Babylonians. They thought more of
themselves than they really should have.
Assyria
We have two
more nations with which we can deal before ending this chapter. The next up on the list are the
Assyrians. The text tells us that God
has purposed the destruction of the Assyrians.
Unfortunately, the text doesn’t tell us why - at least not
directly. The words in this section deal
much with destruction, breaking, and trampling.
We know historically (and from the rest of the Bible) that the Assyrians
sought to destroy the whole of the Hebrew land.
However, God did not desire them to destroy that much. Thus, while they were God’s tool, they were
greedy. They wanted too much. The sought their own desires instead of doing
what God has allotted for them to do. In
their greed, they sought to destroy the Hebrew people entirely. Because of their focus on destruction and
overextending their reach, God will seek their destruction.
Philistia
Finally, the
last oracle of judgment that we come upon in this chapter is the one against
the Philistines. We know that the
Philistines were a constant thorn in the side of the Hebrew people, but this is
not actually the reason given for their judgment. Instead, what they are guilty of is thinking
that their salvation had come but not humbling themselves to God because they
had been saved. This is why the
beginning of this section begins with “rejoice not, oh Philistia.” This is why there is so much language here
about not being sure in their celebration.
Let me put
this in historical context for you. The
Assyrians were threatening Israel and Philistia. For a time, the Assyrians pulled back. The Philistines saw this and thought they
were saved. They thought perhaps their
own might had convinced Assyria to go war against another nation. They rejoiced, thinking their threat was
gone. But they did not realize it was
from God. They did not give praise to
the Almighty. So what happens? The Assyrians return and finish what they
started. Sargon II, an Assyrian ruler,
conquered Philistia and made them an Assyrian province.
In the end,
we see judgments against pride, greed, and refusal to acknowledge God. It is such a shame that humanity is as it
is. All God asks for is humbleness, and
we as human beings are often so loathe to give Him that one simple thing.
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