Sovereign Over Kingdoms

Isaiah 47:5–15

“Sit in silence, go into darkness, queen city of the Babylonians; no more will you be called queen of kingdoms. I was angry with My people and desecrated My inheritance; I gave them into your hand, and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke. You said, ‘I am forever— the eternal queen!’ But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. “Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’ Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells. You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’ Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you. “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror. All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by. That is all they are to you— these you have dealt with and labored with since childhood. All of them go on in their error; there is not one that can save you.”

There’s a couple of themes in these collection of verses, God’s indictment against Babylon. The pride of life and self-reliance, and God’s sovereignty and human responsibility comes to mind. Babylon trusted in her diviners, her wisdom and knowledge (they were cutting edge at that time in technology and education) her military strength, her children, mighty warriors of the time (vv. 8–10), she became proud not acknowledging God’s sovereignty, that all blessing comes from Him alone, He grants victory to certain nations for His purposes (v. 6). This is point is driven home in one of her great leaders’ dreams/experience, hear the words of the prophet Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar: "This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms and gives them to anyone He wishes. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules (Dan 4:24–26).” In 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln exhorted his people warned against America’s pride in forgetting to acknowledge God, “intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!” And God allows evil, to whom He wishes but He is not whimsical, He is the Author of Life™ and the sole Judge of the Earth™ (Gen 18:25), but that evil is still the responsibility of those who freely chose it. The LORD hadsaid to His disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come (Luke 17:1, Matt 18:7).” Russian author, and victim of the Communist Soviet regime, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote “You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.” Let us always acknowledge God, and strive to love and obey Him, even in that He helps us because He wants us to succeed in righteous living: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight (Prov 3:5–6).” Father we trust in you and lean not on any wisdom of our own, forgive us our sins of pride, guide us through Your Holy Spirit and make our paths straight, in Your Son, Jesus Christ’s precious powerful name we pray. Amen.