Isaiah 14:5
5 The LORD [Yahovah] hath broken [shabar] the staff [matteh] of the
wicked [rasha`], and the sceptre [shebet] of the rulers [mashal]. KJV-Interlinear
5 "The Lord has broken the
staff of the wicked, The scepter of rulers NASB
The staff and the
scepter are symbols of the power and authority and the will of the rulers and
leaders and people of any given nation. So, when a person or nation holds the scepter,
then they possess the power and authority to rule. And, when they lose the
scepter, then they have lost the power and authority to rule.
When Babylon was first
invaded and destroyed, shortly after Isaiah’s time, that was at the hands of
the Persians led by Cyrus. God’s authority and will was a part of that history.
When Hitler rose to
power and fell, his destruction was of the hands of the Allied forces. God’s
authority and will was a part of that history.
When any leader or
nation or person for that matter, rises to whatever position they are in, God’s
will is a part of that event.
God’s will is involved
in every event that has ever occurred, or ever will occur, in all of human
history.
That does not mean that
the event was right or correct, this only means that God’s will was involved no
matter what the event might happen to be.
God appoints all
leaders, and God removes all leaders. God gives and God takes away. Jesus
Christ is God, and Jesus Christ controls history.
Jesus Christ controls
history in three ways.
First, is his direct
control. He directly creates life. He directly created the universe. He
directly created the angels. He directly creates life in every human being.
Second, he controls
history through indirect control, allowing the free will of man to function freely.
Evil can rise and another evil can rise against that first evil, and good can
rise against either one of those evils, creating a conflict of the nature that
you might see in jungle.
Third, he controls
history through the laws of establishment, which are divine laws that function
throughout history and throughout society, providing stability within the
functions of society throughout history. Divine laws of establishment include
volition of man and his freedom to choose, principles of marriage and family
and authority, the principles of economics and free enterprise, the principles
of freedom and liberty, the principles of patriotism and nationalism, the
principles of freedom through military victory, and many, many more.
At the end of our
current dispensation which we call the church age, the rapture will occur,
removing all believers in Christ from the face of this earth. Simultaneously,
the restraint against evil which has existed here on earth in society, will be
completely removed, leaving a world full of people who will be unbelievers,
without any sense of restraint for anything they choose to do, or choose not to
do.
The levels of crime and
chaos will rocket right off of the charts. The evils of government will reach
unbelievable levels. And except for those people who discover Christ through
the gospel, and their spiritual life through doctrine, there will be no
restraint from evil, across the entire planet.
This makes the seven
year period tribulation the absolute worst period in all of the history of
creation.
There will be no honor,
no integrity, no loyalty whatsoever in anyone, for anything.
Evil will run rampant,
and as we saw in our study of Revelation, and some of the studies in Isaiah,
the abuses and atrocities of people against people will be beyond imagination.
Toward the end of the
tribulation, which you recall is only seven years long, the vast majority of
the worlds population will have already died. So by the time Christ returns at
the second advent, most of the worlds population will have killed itself off.
Thus far we have only
been studying the fall of Babylon. And in the next several chapters we will be studying
other nations surrounding Israel, their decline, and destruction, at their own
hands and at the hands of others, as well as at the hand of God.
God brings with him
into history all of the tools that are available to him. And as such, with the
power of foreknowledge and the power of giving and taking and the power of
putting people in the right place at the right time in history, then God can
and does control the outcome of everything, even in the face of man’s attempt
to chart his own course through history.
Through well over six
thousand years, God has sustained human history, and spite of all of the wars,
all of the diseases, all of the disasters that have occurred in history, that should
have destroyed man many times over long ago, we are still here. But no thinks to ourselves or to human
ingenuity. God alone has kept us here on
this planet.
However, when man is
given complete control and authority over his own destiny, during the
tribulation, then within seven short years man will bring on his own, all of
humanity to the brink of extinction.
Therefore, in order to
save humanity, Christ has to destroy evil. And that is the example portrayed
here in the destruction of Babylon.
