Isaiah 21

This chapter contains messages against Babylon, Edom and Arabia.

·        21:1-10: Babylon is called the Wilderness of the Sea.  This likely refers to the waters of the lower Euphrates that were diverted so as to run between the two walls around the city of Babylon as part of its defense.  This passage details in advance the downfall of Babylon at the hands of Cyrus who drained the water of this moat to give his army (of which Elam and Media were part, v2) entrance into the city.  God’s watchman (Isaiah, v3-4) saw this coming.  But, as Daniel 5 describes and history confirms, Cyrus entered the city while the unsuspecting princes ate and drank (v5).  Thus Isaiah cries out (v6-9) the fall of Babylon, a message that is comforting to God’s people who were threshed by Babylon (v10).  Again we see that the nation God would use to judge His people He will then judge for their own sinful pride.

o   The last part of v9 is quoted in Revelation 18:2 and applied to Messiah’s enemies in the end times.  Babylon is likely not just a symbol but is in some way significant to the pervasiveness of evil in the latter days.  Study Zechariah 5:5-11 and Revelation 17-18 and this will be verified.  These passages are quoted later because they fit the later occasion; they are not just taken out of thin air.  

·        21:11-12: The message against Edom is short but powerful and applicable at all times.  Dumah is a chief city of Edom (the kingdom east of a line from the lower end of the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, also called in Scripture Mt. Seir) but its use here likely refers to the meaning of the name.  Dumah means silence or a place of silence.  It refers to the judgment that is coming.  The watchman says morning (a comforting time) is coming but it will be followed by yet another night (a fearful time).  Edom’s only hope is to return, to come back to the Lord.

·        21:13-17: The people of Dedan and Kedar were the primary tribes that occupied Arabia (the peninsula we call Saudi Arabia).  The Dedanites who lives in the South would have fled from the swords of the enemy, likely referring to the time of the Assyrians.  Isaiah is specific about the people of Kedar in the north of Arabia.  Within a year, according to the year of a hired man refers to a very specific time.  At that time Kedar’s glory would fall and her archers, in whom she took pride, would be diminished.  Key to this is not that Isaiah could read the politics of the day; it is that the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.

Do you see the Lord saying something to us today?  He still resists the proud.  He still calls people to repent, to turn to Him.  He, the LORD God of Israel, is still speaking today.