Isaiah 13:2
2 Lift ye up [nasa'] a banner [nec] upon the high [shaphah]
mountain, [har] exalt [ruwm] the voice [qowl] unto them,
shake [nuwph] the hand, [yad] that they may go [bow']
into the gates [pethach] of the nobles. [nadiyb]
KJV-Interlinear
2 Lift up a standard on the bare
hill, Raise your voice to them, Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of
the nobles. NASB
In a warning to Israel,
and similarly to Gods own people, which includes all believers, Isaiah writes
of the impending destruction of Babylon, which at this writing did not exist as
an empire yet.
An empire of proud
nobility and beautiful gardens, Babylon will be laid to waste like a desert. The invading armies, God, will simply walk into
that proud city without invitation, but as the victor.
People tend to look to their
present, to their possessions, to their projects and goals and to their
pursuits in life as they appear before their eyes right now.
The problem with that
is, that people do not look to their destiny, or to the end result of their
life. They presume that what is happening now will continue on, and that is the
biggest mistake that anyone can ever make for their life.
Now is short term and
temporary. This moment, this second is
gone in an instant. Today and tomorrow
and next week will be gone soon enough.
But ones entire life will one day end and then what?
And here God sends out
a call to arms, to prepare for battle.
God call is to no one
in particular as it is not His army that the call is directed, it is the call
itself which is a warning to all, that is important here. If God destroys His
enemies, then how much more will He discipline His own?
Putting up a banner on
a high mountain is placing the call, the notice, the banner on such a high
place that all can see it, so that no one can miss it, so that everyone is
aware that war is coming, and it is coming because God says that it is coming.
If God says something
then it will be, so certainty can be placed on Gods declaration. The banner so all can see, the voice so all
can hear, the hand so all can see the ultimate and certain resolve in Gods
command and call.
And the end result, the
nobles, the arrogant, the naïve, the indifferent, all who are opposed to God,
all who have ignored His mandates, all who have rejected Gods truth, will end
up as a desert.
Their beautiful
gardens, their valuable possessions, their opinions of themselves, all that
they are or have or want, will be gone. And these things will not simply fade
away, they are going to be destroyed just as things and people are destroyed in
a violent and destructive war.
So, sit up and take
notice, lest you and yours will end up just as Babylon ended up. Because just as that empire disappeared in the
past, there is going to come a time again, when the attitudes and patterns of
life that it demonstrated back then, will again be destroyed. But, the next or last time will be in a
violence that is beyond comparison, and it will be thorough.
God has called. Who will listen or even care?
