God gave Isaiah prophecies for the nations that surrounded Judah. Some of them were the super powers of the time, others were smaller, but all of them had long histories.

And none of them exist today. The prophecies we read in Isaiah were given many years in advance of the events, but they all came to pass.

King Hezekiah Succeeds King Ahaz

King Ahaz was the son of King Johoshaphat, the great reformer and educator of Judah.

Unfortunately, Ahaz undid all of the good his father had done as soon as he became king. He turned to the idolatry Jeroboam introduced in Israel, and he followed the Baal worship of King Ahab. He adopted the gods of the Assyrians and built an altar to them at the temple in Jerusalem before he finally closed the temple itself.

Ahaz was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the tombs of the kings. That honor was reserved for the kings who honored God. His son Hezekiah succeeded him and, fortunately, began to lead Judah back to the worship of God again.

A Prophecy for Babylon

Babylon was not a super power yet when Isaiah spoke these prophecies. They were under the domination of Assyria, but within eighty years Babylon would conquer Ninevah and overthrow the Assyrian Empire. Less than thirty years after that Babylon was going to conquer Judah.

But Isaiah’s prophecy against Babylon extended even beyond the conquest of Judah. He foresaw that some fifty years after the defeat of Judah, Persia was going to conquer Babylon — and Babylon was going to disappear into oblivion.

“Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; there no nomads will pitch their tents, there no shepherds will rest their flocks.” Isaiah 13:19-20

Thousands of years later, the site of ancient Babylon has been identified, but it has been extremely difficult to excavate and nearly impossible to restore. Saddam Hussein attempted and failed to rebuild Babylon in the 1980’s. Military bases were built there temporarily during the Iraq war, and since then a group of archeologists have been trying to get the site identified as a UNESCO Heritage Site, but it has never met the requirements. So far, Isaiah’s prophecy that Babylon would be utterly destroyed and never inhabited again has remained true.

Kings in the Realm of the Dead

Isaiah took a detour in chapter 14 to address the kings in the world who believed they were all-powerful and could rule the earth. Isaiah had some news for earthly leaders who thought they could avoid God’s plans for them: They were going to die eventually and fall into his hands anyway.

“The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you – all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones – all those who were kings over the nations.

They will all respond, they will say to you, ‘You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us . . . Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew cities and would not let his captives go home?’” Isaiah 14:9-11, 16-17

No king or dictator, no matter how powerful he seems, lives forever.

God Decides the Destiny of Kings

There were many leaders in the 20^th and 21^st centuries who aspired to rule the world through war, genocide, starvation, and relentless attacks on their people. Perhaps the most notorious was Adolf Hitler, but there were also many others who were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their own citizens.

A seminary professor was asked once, “If God is sovereign, how do you explain Hitler?” The professor asked in reply, “Where is Hitler now?”

Here’s Isaiah’s answer to that question:

“How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended! The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.” Isaiah 14:3-6

No One Can Take the World Away from God

The only power that has come close to ruling the world apart from God is Satan. He told Jesus that all the kingdoms of the world had been given to him and he could deliver them to Jesus if he worshiped him. While it’s true that Satan has had major influence in every nation on earth, Jesus told him the Scriptures say to “Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.” Luke 4:1-8

God alone is worthy of worship because as the Bible says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” (Psalm 24:1)

From ancient times to the present there have been people who tried to take control of the world, but they all die eventually and then they go where God sends them. Their descendants generally are not able to carry on where they left off.

“Let the offspring of the wicked never be mentioned again . . . they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities.” Isaiah 14:20-21

Prophecies Against Assyria and Philistia

Assyria was a formidable power whose empire covered most of the modern day middle east. They ruled with cruel aggression and intimidation, but they didn’t last very long after they conquered Israel.

“The Lord Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen. I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.” Isaiah 14:24-26

King Nebuchednezzer defeated Assyria less than a hundred years later.

The Philistines were elated when Israel and Judah were conquered. They thought they would regain the territory taken from them in the Israelite conquest of Canaan, but it was not to be. God was going to leave a poor remnant of his people in the land, but he would do away with the Philistines.

“The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine; it will slay your survivors.” Isaiah 14:30

The Philistines disappeared from history following the Babylonian conquest of Judah. The Babylonians left the poorest and weakest of the Israelite people behind when they deported the Judeans to Babylon. God protected them there while he eliminated the Philistines.

A Message About Moab

Isaiah’s prophecy against Moab made him weep. The Moabites were distant cousins of the Israelites and that may have been why Isaiah felt their loss so deeply. He knew the nation very well, from its rivers, mountains, and ravines, to the delicacies of its raisin cakes and the ripe fruit from its orchards.

Moab had historic ties to Israel through Ruth, the Moabitess who was King David’s great-grandmother. But mostly their relationship had been contentious. Nevertheless, Isaiah was sad to see Moab go.

“My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail.” Isaiah 16:11-12

Moab had been proud and resistant to God, turning to other gods instead. Now the Lord was going to deal with her.

“But now the Lord says: ‘Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.’” Isaiah 16:14

We don’t know whether the people of Assyria, Philistia or Moab believed the prophecies spoken against them. Most people tend to disbelieve dire predictions until it’s too late, but we know now that Isaiah’s prophecies were accurate. Everything God said through him regarding the nations came to pass.

Tomorrow we will resume the story of Judah and the religious reforms of King Hezekiah.