Normally today we’d be in the next Isaiah chapter, Isaiah 24.
But I feel compelled (if not for your sakes, dear readers, for my sake … to help further our perception of this Section of Isaiah) … to try to write an overview/summary of Isaiah chapter 13 through Isaiah chapter 23, all having in common this: some nation of the world is being addressed with (at least an initial) word of judgment, because of unconfessed sin!
The people of Israel had (almost constantly) trusted some ungodly Nation around her … for safety and alliance during hard times! (Even paying them “protection money” at times!)
And this trust angered Almighty God! (Isaiah 36:6 illustrates this issue. “Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.”)
For this reason (at least) … God has just (through Isaiah the Prophet) pronounced doom on nation after nation! PROVING THAT GOD IS OVER THE NATIONS, THE SOVEREIGN RULER OF THE WORLD! These nations are “nothing” to our great God!
Isaiah 40:15, spoken of God: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” What an “artist” with his words, Isaiah! What “word pictures!”
Thus Isaiah 13-23 illustrates Israel does not need these nations for “help,” because the day will come (the Millennium) when these nations will literally “serve” Israel!
This is specifically depicted in the last paragraph of Isaiah 23 … where Tyre has become a believing body of people … again in the Millennium … worshipping Almighty God and aiding/honoring the little Nation of Israel as her superior!
Here’s Isaiah 23:17-18, the chapter’s last thought: “The LORD will visit Tyre … and her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD (the believing Jews), to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.”
Subservience!
In summary, I saw this “string” of thought in a commentary earlier today. It’s helpful. “If the GLORY of the nations is nothing and if the SCHEMING of the nations is nothing and if the WISDOM of the nations is nothing and if the WEALTH of the nations is nothing … THEN WHY TRUST THE NATIONS? (A precis of chapters 11-23!)
ANSWER: NO REASON EXISTS!
Thus … TRUST IN THE LORD!
Wow!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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