Devotional Commentary on Isaiah 47

Isaiah lived in a time when Assyria was the main power and Babylon was on and off rebelling against them. In this chapter, the Lord revealed to Isaiah the Fall of Babylon.

The Fall of Babylon had some meanings to preteristic scholars since they wanted to attach it to the 539-538 BCE event. But, it must be kept in mind that Babylon also fell in the days of Sargon II when Isaiah was still alive. The Fall of Babylon is said in the Annals to be the 12th palu [palu was a term used almost like ‘governership’ and was assigned every year to a different governor to help the counting system in a frame of time reference]. In my calculation of the 11th palu = 9th palu = 713 BCE [there are two systems: one recognizing the Usurper beginning and one not, so it is later] the year that the rebellion and war with Babylon happened was in 712 BCE. Then later there was also a takeover again by Sennacherib, the son of Sargon II where he was in coregency with his father for two years. The only way one can make the rebellion of Merodach-Baladan occurring in the beginning year of Sennacherib [without claiming errors in the cuneiform texts of Assyria] is to make Sennacherib’s two years reigning over Babylon precede his ascension to the Assyrian throne as sole ruler the 12th of AB 705 BCE. The war started in this year after the winter of 705 BCE, namely on the 20th of Shebat and continued through spring, summer and autumn of 705/4 BCE. Since the beginning year (reš šarrutiya) started the 20th of Ab and extended to Nisan of 704 BCE and the war started two month before the end of the reš šarrutiya = beginning of the reign, therefore the scribe of the Bellino cylinder, K 1680 is not in error [as scholars want to claim] but calculated correctly. Because modern scholars like Stefan Timm (1989) miscalculated the Bellino cylinder, K 1680, therefore he argued for an adjustment of the 3rd campaign of Sennacherib from 701 BCE to 703 BCE brushing many cuneiform texts and the Bible off the table of his calculation. Adventists cannot allow modern criticism to rule so destructively over the texts of the Ancient Near East more than two and a half millennia ago. There was thus a fall in 712 BCE under Sargon II and one in 705 BCE under Sennacherib his son. In this way all sources are correct and none are contradicting each other.  

The Fall of Cities genre in the prophets are not just historical, the scenes are loaded with attachments and far reaching strings. God used in prophecy the female to represent religion and in this case He is addressing the religion of Babylon and Chaldea as the virgin daughter of Babylon and the daughter of the Chaldeans (v. 1).

M. L. Andreasen summarized Ancient Babylon’s condition in chapter 47 as follows in his Sabbath School Quarterly in 1928 page 19-20: “Babylon was given to pleasure, was tender and delicate. Vice and folly sapped her strength. Gluttony, effeminacy, overrefinement, luxury, pride, self-exaltation, were among her besetting sins. Babylon said in her heart, ‘I am, and none else beside me.’ Pride was a dominant trait. And pride goes before destruction.“

Andreasen then argued that what was in history will repeat itself in the eschaton, that is in his own times as a living expectant Adventist hope believer.

“The sins that caused Babylon's fall are prevalent now, and will bring about the same results.” Andreasen recognized the long-distance strings attached in prophecy of historical events.

The description of the Fall of Babylon in this chapter almost convinced us that it was directed to the events of 539-538 BCE but the strong connections that this prophecy has with Revelation 18 (see vv. 8; 9; 15) simply means that John in Revelation was shown the same event as yet unfulfilled. People may argue: are you now trying to read the New Testament into the Old Testament? It is the same Spirit that reveals in both cases.

Drawing on Daniel 4:31 and relating it to Isaiah 47:1-5, M. L. Andreasen cited from Education by Ellen White to indicate that Isaiah was fulfilled in the days of Belshazzar: ““To the ruler of Babylon came the sentence of the divine

Watcher: ‘0 king, to thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from thee.’

‘Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon,

Sit on the ground; there is no throne. . . .

Sit thou silent,

And get thee into darkness, 0 daughter of the Chaldeans;

For thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.’” Ellen White, Education, p. 176. “This was fulfilled in the time of Belshazzar.”

The characteristics of this female are mixed: she was called “tender and delicate” (v. 1e); queen of kingdoms (v. 5d); she profaned the heritage of God (v. 6b); sensual one (v. 8a); wicked (v. 10a); she deceived herself claiming everlasting status quo (v. 7a): queen forever; never a widow (v. 8e); never lose children (v. 8f); incomparable “there is no one besides me” (v. 10e). The condition is absolutely decided for “for which you cannot atone” (v. 11d).

About verse 6 and their treatment of senior citizens M. L. Andreasen explained in his 1928 Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah 47 page 20: “The inheritance, the holy land, had been polluted, and Israel carried into captivity. Babylon had shown Israel but little mercy, and the ancient people, literally, aged people, had been compelled to work hard.” “’Given to pleasures.‘ Babylon is not much different now. ‘Dwellest carelessly.’ Belshazzar was dancing and drinking while Death stalked without! Dancing the last night of probation! Dancing on the brink of the abyss! Dancing while the Hand was about to write Babylon's doom!“

While Andreasen in 1928 pulled the historical event of 539-538 BCE through to 1928 with modern Babylon, the preterist F. Delitzsch in Vol. II 1890 page 222 also considered this chapter in line with Revelation 18: ““Babylon says further (like the Babylon of the last days, Rev. xviii. 7): I shall not sit as widow (i.e. in such lonely sorrow, Lam. i. 1, iii. 28, and withdrawn from the world, Gen. xxxviii, 11), and not suffer loss of children, orbitatem; she would be a widow, if she lost the nations and " the kings who committed fornication with her" (Rev. xviii, 9), for the relation of a nation to its temporal king is never thought of after the manner of Jehovah's relation to Israel, She would be a mother robbed of her children, if war and captivity robbed her of her population.” Was Delitzsch an Adventist before he became something else?

There is no mercy for this entity as opposed to human beings who can convert into an improved future relationship with God. And here lies the key: every time a prophet is describing the Fall of a City genre in prophecy like Tyre or Babylon, the issue is that its essence is the egocentric sin of Lucifer in Heaven and the Rebellion in Heaven Event is rehearsed. One can hear the rebellious heart and thoughts of Lucifer echoing in Babylon. Apostate religion is in prophecy a harlot and in vv. 2-3 God is describing that He will expose her evil “your shame also will be exposed” (v. 3b).

The judgment is not by Cyrus or Gobryas or Persia or human instruments. The judgment is from God. When God was angry with His remnant He gave them over into the hands of apostate religion in Babylon and “you [harlot religion of Babylon] did not show mercy to them” (v. 6d).

The Redeemer of spiritual Israel or the Remnant is “the Lord of hosts . . the Holy One of [spiritual] Israel” (v. 4). The prophecy is about the Remnant of God and His relationship to them and the sin of apostate religion in Babylon to touch the apple of His eye.

Apostate religion said a couple of things: “I am and there is no one besides me” (v. 8d; 10e); she was involved in wickedness (v. 10a); her [apostate religious] wisdom and understanding “they have deluded you” (v. 10c); she was involved with “many sorceries” (v. 9d-e); she oppressed the geronti (v. 6e); she had no mercy on the remnant of God (v. 6d).

God pronounce the judgment or punishment of this apostate Babylon: “two things shall come on you suddenly in one day” the loss of children and widowhood (v. 9a-b); evil will come on her (v. 11a); disaster will fall on her (v. 11c); destruction about which you do not know will come on you suddenly (v. 11e-f).

The destruction is with fire since “fire burns them” (v. 14b); “they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame” (v. 14c); “there is none to save you” (v. 15d). God also has room to mock the harlot by saying she should ask astrologers, stargazers, those who predict by the new moons to “stand up and save you from what will come upon you” (v. 13).

M. L. Andreasen cited from a source in 1928 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 21 which is actually the Hemerological texts genre. There is the example of a forecasting text or predicting text in the Iraq Museum, IM 50969 for that Babylonian king Nazimarrutash and it says that in the first month of Nisan on the 27^th day: “that he does not go travelling”. In the second month on day 9: “that he does not eat a fish: that would make him sick”. In another tablet that was copied by a scribe in the temple of Nabu before the Fall of Babylon in 539-538 BCE, text V R 48-49 (by R. Labat 1948) indicates for the king: “that one purifies his garment: the heart will be joyful” on the 16^th of Nisan. These predictions were a year ahead in set months of 30 days each and a divine year of 360 days only. Interesting is that he is said for the fifth month Ab on day 30^th “that one does not eat meat of pork, in which he does he will get the disease MAŠ-KA-DU.” The same is said in the 6^th month of Teshrit 27^th day: “that he does not eat meat of pork, or meat of beef; it will bring a damage.” These were the kinds of fortune-telling that was going one by the star-gazers and astrologists in Isaiah’s day until way after Daniel. Daniel in chapter 2 also did not want to eat beef but rather just a vegetable pulp (liquidized vegetables).

Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 223 [English Translation] cited Herodotus and Diodorus views that Babylon was the birthplace of astrology and magic. If they refer to the Tower of Babel problems (2640 BCE) as the origin of astrology and magic, they would be on target but if they mean the later Babylon, the answer would be negative. But here is what they said: ““Babylon was the birthplace of astrology, whence came the twelvefold division of the day, the horoscope, and sun-dial (Herod, ii. 109), and also the home of magic, which claimed to be able to control the course of things, and even the power of the gods, and to direct them at will (Diodorus, ii. 29).“ Delitzsch was of course an Akkadian scholar who wrote grammars, dictionaries and many books on Assyria, Sumer and Babylonia for example. A real Assyrian specialist. He may be outdated here and there and criticized to be too creative in thinking by modernists, but he is very resourceful. Examples, says Delitzsch, can be seen in Rawlinson Vol. III pages 51-64 and also in Vol. V pages 48-49.

Lucifer who became Satan will burn in the fire of Hell just before eternity starts. It is the last historical event and the extermination of evil. None can save him. He cannot find atonement for his deeds any longer then since He crucified God on the cross and revealed His true character.

Delitzsch in Vol. II 1890 page 225 indicate also that fire in the original must be understood not as “comfortable fire for warmth”; “no hearth-fire to sit in front of, but, on the contrary, consuming, eternal, i.e. annihilating flames.”

Dear God

Grant that in this symbol of the harlot of apostasy of religion the apostate religion of spiritual Babylon of the world will not find support from us. Claim us as part of Your remnant and be for us the Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts and Holy One of spiritual Israel. Amen.