xiii. 1. _The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of
Amoz did see._
In 2 Kings xvii. we find an account of the invasion of Israel by the
Assyrians (vers. 1-6). Then follows a long enumeration of the sins
which had brought this Divine visitation upon the ten tribes, ending
with the words, "So was Israel carried away out of their own land to
Assyria unto this day" (ver. 23). If the scourge was no longer in the
hands of the king of Assyria, it would be transferred to other hands
not less terrible.
1. Would this scourge destroy the life of the Jewish nation? This was
the awful question which presented itself to the minds of the
prophets when they saw one and another limb of this nation lopped
off, when they saw that a great numerical majority of the tribes
would be carried away. Isaiah's eyes were opened to see whence the
permanence of the race was derived, how great critical moments in its
life discovered Him who was everlastingly present with it. The child
born in hours of trouble and rebuke had borne witness to him of the
continuance of the regal family as well as of the people of God's
covenant, when the rage of their enemies as well as of their own
faithlessness were threatening them with destruction. Nor was this
all. In the miserable, heartless reign of Ahaz the vision had been
presented to him of a "Rod coming out of the stem of Jesse, which
should stand for an ensign of the people. To it should the Gentiles
seek, and His rest should be glorious." Consider _the Rod out of
Jesse, what it betokened_ (Isa. xi. 10-12). The immediate fruits
which Isaiah saw coming out of this root might have appeared in the
days of any patriotic and prosperous prince, and did actually appear
in the latter days of Hezekiah. No doubt Hezekiah might become, and
did actually become, "an ensign to the nations," just as Solomon had
been before him, one to whom they brought presents, whose alliance
they sought, whose elevation out of a deep calamity was a proof that
some mighty God was with him. But--
2. Though we need not seek in any more distant days than those of
Hezekiah for a very satisfactory fulfilment of these predictions (and
let it never be forgotten that what may seem to us, when we look back
over 3000 years, an exaggerated description of deliverance and
restoration, must have seemed inadequate and almost cold to those who
experienced the blessing),--though Hezekiah was a rod out of the stem
of Jesse, and though the Spirit of the Lord did rest upon him
(xi. 2),--though the peacefulness and order of his last years might
faithfully carry out the symbols of the wolf and the lamb lying down
together, yet it was no less impossible for the prophet to think
chiefly of Hezekiah when he was uttering these words than it would
have been for him to fancy that he was the King whom he saw sitting
on the throne, and his train filling the temple in the year that
Uzziah died (chap. vi. 1-4). There was, however, this great blessing
which came to Isaiah from his being able to connect the Divine King
with an actual man--the belief that a man must embody and present the
Godhead, that only in a man could its blessedness and glory appear,
acquired a force and vividness from his hope of Hezekiah's government
and from his actual experience of it, which we may say, without
rashness or profaneness, would have been otherwise wanting in him. In
using that language, we are only affirming that any method but the
one which we know the Divine Wisdom has adopted for conveying a truth
to a man's spirit must be an imperfect method. Hezekiah's existence
was necessary to the instruction of Isaiah, and through him of all
generations to come. Perhaps Shalmaneser and Sennacherib were, in
another way, scarcely less necessary.
Apparently the prophet passes in this chapter to an entirely new
subject. The Assyrian seems to be forgotten. He opens with the burden
of Babylon; he goes on to the burden of Damascus, &c. But Babel or
Babylon represented to the prophets the attempt to establish a
universal society, not upon the acknowledgment of the Divine care and
protection, but upon the acknowledgment of a mere power in nature
against which men must try to measure their own. The order and
history of the Jewish nation were made, from age to age, silently to
testify against it. "Babylon is the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of
the Chaldees' excellency" (ver. 19); her time is near to come, and
her days shall not be prolonged (ver. 22). But these and similar
words must refer to more than the destruction of a certain Chaldean
city then or afterwards. How can we limit them to it when we find
such words as those in vers. 11-13? Instead of being, as some
suppose, an interpolated fragment, the burden of Babylon comes in to
make all the visitations upon the other tribes of the earth
intelligible. They are diverse but harmonious portions of the same
Divine message to man--a message of terror, but also of deliverance
and hope. In chap. xiv. we find how wonderfully these are combined.
But though most feel something of the grandeur of this poetry, and a
few the truth of this prophecy, we do not enough consider upon what
both are founded. The God-Man was the ground upon which the Jewish
nation stood; here you have the contrast--the man-god; he would
ascend up to heaven and exalt his throne above the stars of God. This
is the natural ruler of a society which counts the gold of Ophir more
precious than human beings. We have here the Babylonian power and the
Jerusalem power, that parody of human and Divine greatness which is
seen in an earthly tyrant, that perfect reconciliation of Divinity
and humanity which is seen in the Redeemer. Consider both images
well. Both are presented to us; we must admire and copy one of them;
and whichever we take, we must resolutely discard the other. If we
have ever mixed them together in our minds, a time is at hand that
will separate them for ever. The Babylonian mark and image, your own
evil nature, a corrupt society, the evil spirit, have been striving
to stamp you ever since your childhood. Each hour you are tempted to
think a man less precious than the gold of Ophir; the current maxima
of the world take for granted that he is; you in a thousand ways are
acting on those maxims. Oh, remember that in them, and in the habits
which they beget, lies the certain presage of slavery for men and
nations, the foretaste of decay and ruin, which no human contrivances
can avert, which the gifts and blessings of God's providence only
accelerate. May God grant us power to cast Babylonian principles out
of our hearts, that when they come before us we may despise them and
laugh them to scorn, knowing that not against us but against the Holy
One the enemy is exalting himself. In that day may we be able to sing
the song which the prophet said should be sung in the land of Judah
(xxvi. 1-4).--_F. D. Maurice, M.A.: Prophets and Kings,_ pp. 272-290.