Isaiah Chapter 47 Verses 1 – 15
• To understand this intricately, not fully, there’s probably far more than we will explore in one Bible study and even elements that our finite understanding will have to just pause until we are with the Lord, but to get a grasp on Isaiah 47, we need to survey Babylon in its entirety. It’s beginning to its coming end…
• Perhaps you know this but Babylon was the first kingdom established on this earth. Before it there were places, cities, towns, villages…, but no kingdoms. That designation alone was reserved for God’s kingdom. We read of this kingdom in Genesis 11:1-9. We know from the Bible that Nimrod (according to Genesis 10:8-10) was a “mighty one on the earth, a mighty hunter before the Lord, and the beginning of his kingdom was Babel…” This is the first use of the word “kingdom” in the Bible…
• Now, you also need to know that according to Flavius Josephus, Nimrod established his kingdom not on original or primary authority but on derivative authority. He placed himself in opposition to God, and in tyrannical deception, he turned the people away from God. I don’t know if you’ve ever considered this but the building of the tower of Babel, establishing the kingdom of Babylon and himself as the king, was to rebel directly against the God of the flood. (Nimrod was the grandson of Noah) This is all according to that trusted historian Josephus who writes that Nimrod built his tower to protect humanity against another flood.
• Josephus writes in his Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1 Chapter 4, “[Nimrod] said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers” So, the motive for building the Tower of Babel, according to Josephus, was to protect humanity against another flood. Further, according to Josephus, Nimrod “persuaded [his subjects] not to ascribe [their strength] to God, as if it were through His means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness.” And truly, this is the kingdom that is not only obviously the anti-kingdom of God but also the kingdom that has destroyed so many, literally billions of people, entire nations, throughout the time of creation…
• This kingdom today is entirely alive and well. Babylon at its finest, but clothes itself in so many names and movements. From “pride” to “love is love” to the Declaration of Independence which states that, “we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Tell that to those who perished in the flood…
• Every nation, some far more than others, every people, every movement, even the church as a whole has been polluted with this kingdom of darkness. Simply people elevating self to the level of God and even higher than God Himself. This is the fruit of the fallen world and why the Bible speaks of the entire earth as fallen.
• 1 John 2:17 tells us, “The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” This is why in the end, all the kings of the world will fall, revealing who and what they are. Psalm 72:11 tells us, “All kings shall fall down before Him; all nations shall serve Him,” because they do not today. All nations of the earth today…, serve Babylon. And the earth is fallen and therefore I have called this out in the past and here again tonight, Babylon the Great is simply, the Fallen…
• It is the spirit behind the beginning of kingdoms apart from the one true kingdom of God…, and it is the spirit of the Great Harlot of creation that will remain until the end until this earth, the entirety of the Fallen are done away with. Revelation 18:2 calls all this to the carpet, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…” That is the revelation! We say that we are living in the Fall of man and within each of us is the fallen nature, and calling it by its proper name, it is Babylon, the Great Harlot. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage…”
• Babylon is the proper name, the earthly calling card of the very essence of evil, the spirit of self-seeking…turn over to Zechariah Chapter 5…wickedness is her name and where are they taking her? Shinar or Mesopotamia and what is the capital of Mesopotamia? Babylon…
• Ok so we know the beginning, we know the current state, Isaiah 47 tells us what will come of her and so let’s look at the end… Revelation 17:1-5, now Revelation 17:18, and I’d like to read to you Revelation 18… (notice the similarity in Revelation 18:7 and Isaiah 47).
• She says there at the end of verse seven, “I’m queen man, and am no widow…” In the Greek John hears her say, “I am no chera.” Chera, a derivation of the word charis or grace…, “I have no need for grace…” in other words. I’m good on my own, accept me as I define and identify myself, not interested in God’s definition and therefore no need for grace…, God knows my heart! Grace? Don’t need to receive it, don’t need to give it. And so yes, she is wickedness but who is she also? Religion! No need or focus on grace, I am doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts!
• The same spirit behind self-seeking is behind religion and this is how Babylon as infected the church. The spirit of antichrist is the spirit of pride. The Great Harlot. Babylon… The opposing Spirit is the spirit of humility, worship and love. To serve the Lord over self and to serve other before self. That is humility! This is the power of the cross of Jesus Christ. Where humility was crowned with an everlasting crown!
• Allowing humility and rejecting pride WILL be hard. Shame and guilt will come in the eyes and judgments of others as you come clean and live unto God, but that is called Godly sorrow… 2 Corinthians 7:10, a wonderful verse, an essential verse, a verse that is wasted on this new age no repentence cheap gospel! 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” And notice what wickedness says…”no” to sorrow!
• But here’s the secret. It’s either sorrow now, humility now, salvation now…or sorrow later and death. Because its Revelation 21:4, after the new heaven and the new earth, all things made new, that John hears another voice from heaven, and the message, “there shall be no more sorrow.” So, check this out…folks living for themselves, not submitting to God, why? Most of them just as the harlot spirit guides in Revelation 18, just so that they won’t see sorrow.
• I mean think about it. Why does the drunkard drink? Why does the drugger drug? Why do the wicked argue for their and perspective rather than pursing peace? To avoid sorrow. But the truth is, the reality and fact is, that sorrow is only taken away by God as He wipes away every tear…as He chips death and sorrow and selfish tears out of our personality…and so the very thing that wickedness even promises, is a lie…
• She says “I won’t see sorrow,” and that is the promise of the passing pleasure of sin…but at its core it’s pathetic…because it indeed brings sorrow but that sorrow as 2 Corinthians tells us and Revelation 21 shows us, does not deliver…it destroys. You want to be unlocked from sorrow, get after God…; put the bottle down, quit lighting up, back off from the bickering and serve, speak no evil any longer against him, against her, and accept the calling God has placed on your life to serve them…and yes it will stink! Sorrow for sure! But God promises you, and He cannot lie, that sorrow will produce Godliness and that Godliness will produce salvation in the situation and detach you from the deception that has captured all nations. The Fallen. We are to come out and to be separate from this Great Harlot of pride and that is to be holy!
Isaiah Chapter 47 Verses 9 – 11
• This is how you know where to ascribe power and authority. Where can desolation come suddenly and destroy, disturb and dumbfound? Can that happen to God? Nope. Can that happen to me? Yep. So, if I choose to ascribe power and authority where it can be defeated, well, that’s just dumb. And that is pride… That is egotism, arrogance, that is a lack of humility. See it for what it is and maybe we won’t embrace it as much!
Isaiah Chapter 47 Verses 12 - 13
• That’s interesting. Astrologers, stargazers…, the word “astrology” literally means ‘divining the heavens’ and virtually everywhere in the Bible looking to the skies for divine information is not pleasing to God. Deuteronomy 18:14 says, “For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.” What has God appointed for us? His Word! In fact, 1 Samuel 15:23 likens the sin of rebellion against God to the sin of divination which he actually calls arrogance! Jesus said that it was the wicked generation that sought signs such as can be interpreted as divine messages…
• In Daniel, when King Nebuchadnezzar had his dream, he called for the interpreters in the kingdom of Babylon and according to Daniel 2 he summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers, the stargazers…, but did they get it right? They didn’t… Should we watch the skies and the stars and the natural order of things, concentrating on that to tell us who we are, where we are and when we are? Definitely not. We ought to seek the Lord in His Word primarily!
• Look at it this way… If we study the stars and are enraptured with interpreting signs and wonders then we are always grasping for clues and when and is it now, when will it be, and we are always wondering and perhaps even partially right…, but, study the word and live Godly, worshipful, humble, hopeful and ready entirely whether the Lord returns now or next November, and you are NEVER “perhaps” partially right but constantly correct!
• And then God lumps in with these folks “monthly prognosticators.” This month its this thing, next month its that…, moving month to month from this sign, this wonder, this divination, this thing, this subject…, Jesus was never like that. He was consistent and His single focus was the Father and reaching the lost not for His own glory but for their saving and salvation! He was about them, not about His own interests, hobbies or imaginations…
Isaiah Chapter 47 Verses 14 – 15
• Not a one, nothing else has any power to save other than God who has declared Himself to be Savior and then shown forth His power by raising Himself out of death! Ultimately, it’s a call for the people of God to shift their focus and hope and trust off of all of the things of the world, off of self, self-image, self-protection, self-serving…, all of these things are Babylon, the antichrist, the Great Harlot, the Fallen…, the leader is Satan himself (that’s why she rides the beast) and that is who folks are following in all of these foolish things… all the things that will perish along with him, them and it. Surrender your life to Jesus, who stands every day against what has destroyed so many and many times is destroying us…