The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 55 Discussion

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Isa 13:1-11 The Day o​f The Lord Shall Come As Destruction From The Almighty

Isa 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Isa 13:2  Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
Isa 13:3  I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
Isa 13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
Isa 13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Isa 13:7  Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
Isa 13:8  And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isa 13:11  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

The verses of this chapter will reveal that the judgment of Babylon within us is also the day of the Lord within us. This chapter begins with:

Isa 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

Isaiah 13:1 is the first of nine times the phrase, "the burden of..." is found in this book of Isaiah:

Isa 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

Isa 15:1  The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence.

Isa 17:1  The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

Isa 19:1  The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

Isa 21:1  The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.

Isa 21:11  The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

Isa 22:1  The burden of the valley of vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops?

Isa 23:1  The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

Isa 30:6  The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.

Each and every 'burden' is a pronouncement of judgment upon the subject of that 'burden'. What I hope will strike us all is that this "day of the Lord, [which] shall come as destruction from the Almighty" (Isa 13:6), is especially associated with this "burden of Babylon". As we will see, this particular 'burden' spiritually is called a "great whore" which is placed as a very great burden indeed upon a scarlet colored beast in Revelation 17:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit [as a burden] upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: [And who is this burden on this scarlet colored beast?]
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

That is right! This burdensome woman is called "Mystery, Babylon the Great", and she is said to be "the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." She is not called 'mystery Sodom' or 'mystery Samaria', she is called "mystery Babylon the great".

This "the burden of Babylon" is, of course, very heavy and very hard to carry. In historical terms this chapter of Isaiah is simply the prophecy of the destruction of the kingdom of Babylon when Belshazzar saw the hand  writing out his fate on the wall of  his palace. That very same night he was killed, and the kingdom was given to Darius the Mede as recorded in Daniel:

Dan 5:25  And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
Dan 5:26  This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
Dan 5:27  TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Dan 5:28  PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
Dan 5:29  Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Dan 5:30  In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
Dan 5:31  And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.

It is important for our spiritual understanding to know that Babylon was God's servant whom He sent to punish His own people who had gone to the Assyrians and then the Babylonians seeking protection instead of looking to their own God who had brought them up out of Egypt through the death of the firstborn of Egypt and through the drying up of the Red Sea, and had given them dominion over all the land of Canaan.

Notice what God Himself calls Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, whom God used to destroy the kingdom of Judah and carry them off into 70 years of Babylonian captivity. This is how God speaks of Babylon:

Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

Spiritual Babylon serves the same purpose for God's people today that physical Babylon served for God's physical people, Israel, back in the time of ancient Israel. That purpose was and is to offer God's people love and solace in the times of distress which are sent from the Lord to prove us and to demonstrate our lascivious and wicked ways and our inability to trust in our rightful spiritual husband.

This is what Israel did in times of trouble:

2Ki 15:20  And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.

2Ki 16:8  And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

2Ki 18:14  And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

2Ki 18:16  At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Physical Babylon was an unbearable burden to both Israel and Judah. The Chaldean Assyrians carried off Israel into captivity just prior to the Babylonian Chaldeans who carried off Judah into physical captivity. Being taken captive is truly a 'burden' which cannot be borne:

2Ki 24:10  At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
2Ki 24:11  And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it.
2Ki 24:12  And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
2Ki 24:13  And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
2Ki 24:14  And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.

2Ki 24:20  For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

It is through the anger of the Lord that we, too, are made to be the captives of the unbearable "burden of Babylon". As the historical physical nation the Lord used to punish his unfaithful, harlot wife, who was physical Israel, Babylon is represented by its king, Nebuchadnezzar. But Babylon becomes "Mystery Babylon", a spiritual harlot who is a unbearable burden on God's spiritual Israel:

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit [as a burden] upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: [And who is this burden on this scarlet colored beast?]
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Ancient Israel came out of Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple of God:

Ezr 1:1  Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Ezr 1:2  Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Ezr 1:3  Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
Ezr 1:4  And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

But at the Lord's appointed time even the king of Babylon must be judged and destroyed. The Lord has devised a way to destroy those whom He used to punish His own people, and that is what He does to Babylon:

Isa 13:2  Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

This is God Himself lifting up a banner to which He is calling the nations to judge and to destroy Babylon. It is He alone who rules in the kingdoms of men:

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

As always spiritual progress is by God's design foreshadowed by physical historical events. The Lord Himself raises up and puts down outward historical nations, and He also raises up nations within us, and at His predestined date He destroys those nations within us and calls us to come out of those nations and into the kingdom of God. What that means is that it is on His schedule that we come out of spiritual Babylon and into "Jerusalem above":

Isa 13:3  I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.

The Hebrew word translated 'sanctified' simply means to set apart for a special purpose, whether that purpose is physical or spiritual, whether that purpose is for good or for evil. In this case, God has sanctified, or set apart, the enemies of Babylon for the special purpose of destroying Babylon in the same way He had previously set aside the Chaldean Assyrians to destroy Israel and later the Chaldean Babylonians to destroy and carry away captive wicked, rebellious and unfaithful Judah and Jerusalem.

Here is what we read earlier about how God used the Chaldeans to punish His own wicked, unfaithful people:

Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Isa 10:7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

God is the moving force who is sending the Assyrian Chaldeans to punish His people. To accomplish His purpose it is He who put it "in His heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." In the same manner the last part of Isaiah 13:3 is not telling us that the enemies of Babylon "rejoice in [the] highness" of the God of Israel. Quite the contrary. What we are being told is that those whom God uses to destroy Babylon within us, and those He will use to destroy the physical Babylon, which symbolizes the world's great religions, the "great whore" who sits upon and rules over the kingdoms of this world, will rejoice "in His highness", the highness of His purpose. They will rejoice in unwittingly doing what He is sending them to accomplish for His own purpose and plan, "after the counsel of His own will", just as Joseph's brothers rejoiced in sending Joseph as a slave into Egypt, as God intended to be done:

Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

So it is with those nations God sends to destroy Babylon.

Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

So it was with the Assyrian Chaldeans:

Isa 10:7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

When the day arrives for the "ten nations" to destroy the great harlot, it will be God Himself mustering the host though, like Joseph's brothers, they will be completely unaware they are doing His bidding.

Isa 13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

"The Lord of hosts musters the host of the battle." That statement is true within us, and it is true without (the outside of) us in the kingdoms of this world. We can of ourselves do nothing, and while the "great men" of this world would never admit it, the truth is that their every move has been written in God's book of every 'great man's' life and in the life of every man great or small before any of those days were. When God's time arrives for any event to happen, then it will take place. Our Creator wants us to "know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men". But the Lord's hand is far more involved in the affairs of mankind than simply deciding who will rule in the kingdom of men. He also wants us to know that it is He who is also working every event within our lives and also all things in the lives of all men:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

When "the Lord of hosts musters the host of the battle" he 'musters' whomsoever he wills from wherever He wills. When our nation made the fateful decision to invade and occupy the nation of Iraq, I heard from many people who said, "I'm just happy all of the bombing and violence is taking place over there and not over here." We always feel we can sin against our Lord and at the same time distance ourselves from the fruit of our ways to which our Lord tells us:

Isa 13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

This all sounds so very dire to our carnal mind, which has no stomach for the messy unpleasant work of the cross and the judgment of God, and indeed 'the day of the Lord' is a dire day for our flesh and for this outward world and all of its nations simply because of this immutable truth:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

History has proven that all physical life is temporal and fleeting, and therefore physical life is not really lasting abundant life. Only spiritual life in "a spiritual body" is lasting, abundant and therefore true lasting life. It is because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God that any man who has not been given faith in the things of the spirit will feel that there is nothing positive about the scriptures, simply because our flesh and blood does not want to be judged and destroyed. Such a thought is foolish and repugnant to our flesh.

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

As with all things, "the day of the Lord" has both and inward and an outward time of fulfillment, as well as a dispensational end-time fulfillment. "The day of the Lord" is the day of judgment whether it is taking place spiritually within us, physically without us as outward nations historically rise up and are judged and fall, or the destruction of all nations both when they are subdued to the physical rule of God's elect "for a thousand years" or the destruction of all flesh in the lake of fire.

This phrase "the day of the Lord" is repeated 26 times in scripture:

Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Isa 34:8  For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

Jer 46:10  For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

Lam 2:22  Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Eze 13:5  Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.

Eze 30:3  For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

Joe 1:15  Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Joe 3:14  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

Amo 5:18  Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.

Amo 5:20  Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

Oba 1:15  For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

Zep 1:7  Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
Zep 1:8  And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

Zep 1:14  The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

Zep 1:18  Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Zep 2:2  Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD'S anger come upon you.
Zep 2:3  Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.

Zec 14:1  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Paul also speaks of 'the day of the Lord Jesus' in which it is made more clear that this 'day of the Lord' is the time of our judgment.

1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2Co 1:14  As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

In every case, "the day of the Lord comes as destruction from the Almighty" to the already dying nations of this world and the dying kingdom of our old man. Therefore the day of the Lord is as crucial to our salvation as the birth pangs of a physical birth are in the birth of a child, because there is no true life except "through death":

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The new man is nourished by the day of the Lord and is given the faith that is essential to having any appreciation of "the things of the spirit". However, the natural man receives not the things of the spirit, and:

Isa 13:7  Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
Isa 13:8  And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

Here is the New Testament spiritual way of saying the same thing these verses are saying in terms which are understood by the natural man within us:

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day [of the Lord] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The day which will declare and reveal of what sort our works are, and that day is "the day of the Lord". The burning up of all of our "wood, hay and stubble" is the work of 'the day of the Lord' in the life of each and every man of all time.

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

"The sun shall be darkened... and the moon shall not cause her light to shine." This is the basis for all the other prophecies of a time in our lives when the truth is simply not made available to us. This is a time when there is no light to be seen from either the sun or the moon. This is a time when we are not learning anything of Christ from neither Christ and His Christ, nor from His unfaithful wife.

Here are the other later prophecies warning us of this time of trouble:

Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Act 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

It is in this darkened state, in the day of our judgment, that we begin to be judged and we begin to "learn righteousness":

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Isa 13:11  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

"I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible" is the humbling fruit of the wrath and fierce anger of the day of the Lord. We were given this same message concerning this same "day of the Lord" back in Isaiah chapter 2:

Isa 2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Remember, this chapter concerns the judgment of Babylon:

Isa 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

In this chapter alone "the day of the Lord" is mentioned twice; first in verse 6:

Isa 13:6  Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Then again in verse 9:

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Babylon must be spiritually judged within us today just as it was judged and destroyed historically and physically. But let's never lose sight of the benefits of the spiritual judgments of God and of "the things of the spirit".

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Next week, Lord willing, we will cover these verses of the last half of this chapter on the severity of the judgment of Babylon:

Isa 13:12  I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isa 13:13  Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Isa 13:14  And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
Isa 13:15  Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
Isa 13:16  Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
Isa 13:17  Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
Isa 13:18  Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
Isa 13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 13:20  It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
Isa 13:21  But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
Isa 13:22  And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.