ISAIAH 212007 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Isaiah 21

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007.

The nation of Judah has been somewhat obedient to the Lord, although they are very much rebellious and they've had good kings and bad kings and different times where they've turned back to the Lord. But as a whole, they've been digressing. They've been walking away from God and been getting farther and farther away from God, as well as the surrounding nations have been in rebellion to God.

And so in all of these chapters, God has been warning that there is a judgment that's coming. The instrument he would use to bring this judgment was the nation of Assyria. Assyria was going to conquer all of the land's

There in that region, except for the nation of Judah, God had promised that he would protect Judah from Assyria's attack. They would be affected by it and the surrounding cities of Judah would be affected by it. But Jerusalem itself, the capital of the nation, would be left intact and Assyria would not be able to conquer the city of Jerusalem.

But the surrounding areas were all going to be wiped out. Assyria was going to be used by God to bring his judgment upon all of those nations. But Assyria, well, they weren't content being God's instrument just on those nations. They were intent on Israel.

capturing Jerusalem as well. And they determined, hey, we've been so great and no other God has been able to stop us, and so we might as well, let's go ahead and conquer Jerusalem. Who cares what God says? Who cares God hasn't given us liberty to do this? We're going to do it because we are strong and we are great and we are able. And so they come against the nation of Judah and they besiege the city of Jerusalem.

But as you know, the Lord deals a death blow to the army of Assyria, wiping out 185,000 in a single night. And they go home wounded and that nation begins to decline very quickly. Assyria is very soon conquered by the nation of Babylon. Babylon then comes and retakes the whole region and Babylon is the nation that will eventually decline.

conquer the nation of Judah. Although during Assyria's attacks, they were protected, under Babylon, God allowed Judah to be completely conquered and the inhabitants to be taken captive to the area of Babylon for 70 years. Of course, that's the time that Daniel was ministering there in Babylon and you know a lot of those stories. And then after the 70 years, they would be released to come back to the land of Judah.

As we begin chapter 21, again, as God is pronouncing all of these judgments, he's dealing now not with the nation of Assyria, but with the nation of Babylon. So Assyria comes and inflicts God's judgment upon all these nations. Then God uses Babylon to bring judgment upon Assyria. But then Babylon becomes high and lifted up as well.

and needs to be dealt with according to God's judgment. And so now Isaiah is pronouncing, okay, after Babylon comes and conquers Assyria, then there's going to be another nation that comes and deals with Babylon because of their rebellion against God. And so we find here in chapter 21, the first part of this chapter is dealing with the nation of Babylon and the judgment that will come upon Babylon by the Lord.

In verse 1, he says it's the burden against the wilderness of the sea. The wilderness of the sea is a way of referring to Babylon. There's different ways that we could try to figure out why he refers to them as the wilderness of the sea. If you remember in the book of Revelation...

John the Apostle is taken and he's shown the city upon many waters, which is the nation of Babylon, talking about the influence that they have upon all of the world. In Jeremiah chapter 50 and 51, it also refers to Babylon as being a city on many nations or the seas, the multitudes, and having the influence upon the whole world.

So God is dealing with this burden or this judgment against us.

The city of Babylon, the nation of Babylon. And he describes it as a whirlwind. As a whirlwind comes from the south, he says, this freak storm or this really quick storm that comes through, comes in through the wilderness, the same thing is going to happen on the nation of Babylon. It's going to be a fierce, quick storm that comes over Babylon.

And he's pretty specific about who it's going to be and what is going to be happening. Here in verse 2, he says, "...go up, O Elam, and besiege, O Media."

Babylon was conquered by an empire that's known as the Medo-Persian Empire. The Medo-Persian Empire is really the joining together of two nations, the Medes and the Persians. The Medes are from the area known as Media, and so that's why they're called the Medes. And then the Persians were there south of the Medes, and they were the ones that were

and they were in the area that was inhabited by the descendants of Elam. And so Elam and Media speak of the Medo-Persian Empire that was going to come through quickly, like a whirlwind, like a fierce storm, and knock out the nation of Babylon.

Now as Isaiah is writing these things, the areas of Persia, the areas of Media, they're not world powers. They were really under subjection to the kingdom of Assyria at this point. But they were small peoples. They weren't great nations. They weren't really threats at that time.

the events that he's talking about here, the conquering of Babylon, will not take place until about 200 years after Isaiah is writing these things. 200 years is quite a significant amount of time,

If you can relate it to the United States of America, as we often do, our nation is just a little more than 200 years old. And so you can picture how much change is in the world over a time span of 200 years. Yet God is able, with complete accuracy...

to write these things in advance. Only God has that type of ability. Only God can write the future with such accuracy because He is God. He is the Creator. He's outside and transcends our limitations to time. He knows the beginning from the end. He knows and He knows

and without a shadow of a doubt, can testify of what will take place. He's not predicting like we can make predictions, and we can predict that it is going to be snowing up in the mountains this weekend, and most likely it will probably be true, but there's always the potential, you know, the jokes about the weatherman, you know, they're jokes for a reason, because, yeah, it's supposed to rain, and then it doesn't rain, or, yeah, for sure it's not going to rain, and then it doesn't rain,

And then you get all soaking wet. And so those are predictions. There's the element of doubt. There's the possibility of, that's not going to happen. But when God speaks, you need to know it will come to pass. There's no doubt. His word will be fulfilled. Not one letter, not a piece of a letter, not the dotting of an I or the crossing of a T will fade away until all of it is fulfilled, the scripture says.

It's all going to be accomplished. His word is perfect. His promises are true. They will come to pass. And so Isaiah is writing these things 200 years before they happen, and they happen exactly as he says. It's the Medes and the Persians united together that come against Babylon and are able to overthrow it.

In Isaiah chapter 45, we'll get to that in the coming weeks, but there are more details of Babylon's fall. Not just who will be doing, the nation that will be conquering Babylon, but specifically the commander who will be the commander who successfully attacks and takes the city of Babylon. His name is Cyrus. Cyrus.

He's the commander of the Babylonian army. And he was not born when Isaiah is writing these things.

This was probably 150 years before he was born, 200 years before the events take place. There in Isaiah chapter 45, it also tells us that Cyrus, that king who would come and conquer Babylon, would be the one who would let the Jewish people go back to their homeland, finishing the 70 years of captivity that God had promised, and then they would be released to come back and rebuild the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

I would encourage you, if it interests you, to take some more time and read through Isaiah chapter 45. Read through Jeremiah 50 and 51. Those two chapters in Jeremiah are great complements of this portion that we're looking at tonight. You'll see much more insight into the fall of Babylon as you look into those chapters as well.

But we find here that it's the prophecy, the judgment, that Babylon is going to be conquered. It's not the world power at the moment. It will be. It's going to conquer Assyria, but then God will bring judgment upon Babylon as well. Let's look on at verses 3 and 4. He says,

I want to pause here to reflect on how the vision of Babylon's fall affects Isaiah.

He's not super excited about this vision. He receives this burden about this nation that will be conquered. It's not a nation that he particularly knows. Again, Assyria is the world power at the moment. It's not a nation that he would be particularly fond of because this is the nation that God is going to use to judge the nation of Judah.

And so there's going to be war. When God uses them to judge the nation of Judah, it's not a little slap on the wrist, but it's a fierce war that takes place. And in war, there are things that, well, are shameful to talk about and disgusting to imagine, difficult really to visualize because the things of war are gruesome and they're graphic in nature.

And so they were going to bring horrible torment and sorrow upon the nation of Judah. The point being, Isaiah would have caused to rejoice if Babylon fell. Because Babylon was the one that was going to inflict so much pain upon the nation of Judah, upon God's people. Babylon was such a nation that a prophet leader who was...

living much later in the timeline as far as Isaiah was concerned, a prophet who would actually know of the nation of Babylon because it was a world power. This prophet, Habakkuk, looking at the nation of Judah, was crying out to God,

Lord, why are you allowing this nation of Judah to rebel so greatly against you? Why are you allowing such great sin? And God says, hey, I'm going to deal with them. I'm going to bring Babylon to come and conquer the nation of Judah. And Habakkuk kind of freaks out. He says, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, God.

They're way worse than we are. How could you use them to deal with us? That's not right. That doesn't seem just. And that's not fair, God. Habakkuk was freaked out, really, that God would use this nation because they were a cruel and powerful nation. Remember when Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh.

And he didn't want to go. Well, why didn't he want to go? Because they were fierce and cruel people. They were gruesome in their tactics. They were wicked in what they did. Their battles were ferocious. And what they did to those who were taken captive, well, we can't speak of them. It's just too difficult for us really to talk about.

And yet God wanted to save the city of Nineveh. And so he sent Jonah and Jonah's like, no way. Finally, you know, he gets swallowed by the great fish and he ends up going and God does the work. But then later they turn again against God. And so he has to deal with them in judgment. But Jonah, remember, he preaches and the whole city gets saved.

They all respond. They all repent. And he's upset. It shows him at the end of the book. He's sitting on the hill waiting. God, please pour out your judgment. Please strike down upon them. Please just wipe them out. He was looking for God to bring judgment upon them. He didn't want them to repent. And that's why he didn't want to go preach the gospel. In contrast to Jonah, we have Isaiah. Isaiah.

Look at this great heart. Look at how the vision affects Isaiah. In verse 2, he calls it a distressing vision. In verse 3, he says, my loins are filled with pain like the pangs of a woman in labor. In verse 3, he says, I was distressed. He goes on to say, I was dismayed. In verse 4, he says, my heart wavered. My fearfulness or in fearfulness, I was frightened.

It was something that was overwhelming to him, distressing to him, dismaying to him. He wasn't excited and rejoicing that God was going to judge this fierce, cruel people, but he was overwhelmed with compassion, overwhelmed at the destruction that would take place upon this nation. The point being, God is never excited about bringing judgment, and Isaiah is an accurate representation of that.

God's messengers should not be excited about the judgment of the wicked either. We should not be overjoyed when our enemy stumbles, the scripture tells us. In Ezekiel chapter 33 verse 11, God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his way and live. God does not have pleasure in the death of the wicked.

in bringing judgment, in inflicting judgment, in pouring out His wrath. He will do it because He is just and holy and it needs to be done. But we often have the picture of God as just eager, just, you know, He's got the whip in hand and He's just waiting. Just give me an excuse. I'll give you a reason to cry, you know, like your parents. I'll give you a reason. He's looking forward to it. We often think in our head, He's just looking for the excuse to strike us down.

But God is not that way. He's not excited about bringing this judgment. And Isaiah is not excited about this vision. Oh, great, they're going to be judged. He's overwhelmed that this is going to happen. He has compassion upon the people. The Lord says, I would rather that the wicked turn from his way. I would rather that the wicked repent and live. And we need to have that attitude. Sometimes Christians preach the gospel like God is looking forward to judging people.

There are always those who stand outside of the harvest crusade. And they have big signs and tell you how God is so anxious to judge everyone. You know, again, looking at the things of judgment, it's always amazing. You know, God is counteracting. We're looking at His judgments and understanding that He is just and holy. And then on Sunday mornings, reminded of His grace. If you will just turn from your way, He says, you'll live. Receive my grace and live.

He's not anxious to pour out His wrath. He's patient. He allows us to build up and store up wrath for ourselves. Not so that He can really bring it on hard when it's time, but giving us time to repent. 2 Peter 3.9 tells us that. He's long-suffering. He wants to give us opportunity to turn back.

He wants to give us opportunity to turn from our wicked ways and follow Him. God is not looking forward to judge. And you and I as His messengers, we need to have the same attitude. We need to have compassion. Hey, when your enemy is hurting, minister to them. Have compassion. Love them. When those who deserve it get what they deserve, have compassion. Share the love of Christ.

Allow God to use you to minister. We need to have the heart of Isaiah here. When we know the wrath of God is coming, the tribulation period, we know it's coming. And there are those who deserve it in this world. There's nations and countries that deserve the wrath of God. There's criminals and people that are deserving of the wrath of God. But it should never be in our heart something that we're overjoyed about.

God desires for us to look past whatever they've done to us, whatever they've done to others, and to understand that that is a person that he loves and that he desires for them to repent, that they might have everlasting life with him. That's the grace and the mercy of God. Oh, that they would turn, turn from your way and live. That's what God says in Ezekiel 33, when he says, turn, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die? Oh, house of Israel. There it's a call to Israel.

And maybe it's a call to you this evening. I don't know where you are or what you've been doing, how you've been living. God says, look, I don't want to bring judgment upon you. I don't want to deal with you according to your sin. I've been patient. I've been allowing you to store up a lot of wrath. But I will bring my judgment. So turn, repent, because I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And so that's God's heart towards Babylon. They're a fierce, cruel, gruesome nation. But God says, I'm not happy about this.

They're going to be dealt with. It must be done. But it's not something I'm overjoyed about. Let's continue on, verse 5 and following on. It says, Verse 6. Verse 7.

And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels. And he listened earnestly with great care. Then he cried, A lion, my lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime. I have sat at my post every night. And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen.

Then he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. And all the carved images of her gods he has broken to the ground. Verse 10. Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor, that which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. Here in verses 5 through 10, he continues now going back to the judgment that will become poured out upon the nation of Babylon.

Now, in verse 5, he says, prepare the table, set a watchman in the tower, eat and drink, arise you princes, anoint the shield. We have really little phrases of proclamations that are being made at the time of Babylon's judgment or Babylon's fall.

Babylon's fall was going to be swift. Remember, God said it was going to be like the whirlwinds that pass through. Something that just whoosh! It's already done and over with. It's not something that's going to be prolonged or last a long time, but it's going to be quick. And of course, although it was 200 years in advance, it happened exactly the way that God said. The fall of Babylon happened in a single night. The events are described in Daniel chapter 5.

In Daniel chapter 5, we have a man named Belshazzar, who was the king of Babylon. And Belshazzar was, well, he was an arrogant, evil, wicked king. But he had great confidence. Although the enemies of Babylon were around, there inside the city of Babylon, what were they saying? He says, prepare the table, set a watchman in the tower, eat and drink.

Although the enemies were around, Belshazzar organized a great feast. He organized a celebration of how great Babylon was. They felt, hey, nothing can touch us. Our walls are 300 feet high. Our walls are 80 feet thick. This is Babylon. It was very impressive as a city. Considered to be impenetrable. How do you overcome that, especially with Babylon?

B.C. technology. And yet, they were conquered. Belshazzar says, hey, prepare the table. We'll put a watchman in the tower. You know, that's kind of all we need. We just need someone to kind of look out. But that's all we need. Don't got to worry about mounting the army or establishing anything like that. We're just going to have a feast. We're going to celebrate how great we are that no one can get in here even though the enemies are around. He throws a feast.

But then comes the cry, Arise, you princes, anoint the shield.

To anoint the shield was something that you would do in preparation for battle. They would have these shields that would be either of wood or different material, and they'd be covered over with leather, and so they would anoint it with oil. They would put oil on it, and it would help deflect the blow of the sword. And so it would be harder to pierce through. It would be more effective at the weapons glancing off the shield instead of inflicting harm.

to those who were protecting themselves with it. And so they would anoint the shield to prepare for battle. And so here comes the cry, hey, we're under attack. Here they are feasting, they're having a great time. Belshazzar is profaning the God of the Jews by bringing out the articles from the temple. And you remember the handwriting upon the wall? God said, hey, your days are numbered. Mean, mean, tekel yufarsin.

Your days are numbered. You've been found wanting. And your kingdom is going to be divided between the Medes and the Persians. That very night, Daniel chapter 5 verse 30 says, That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. That night, Babylon was conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire, by Cyrus, the commanding officer. The judgment came exactly as God said.

There in verses 6-9, Isaiah is describing his vision, having set a watchman in the vision he sees, and he waits, and then the watchman calls out, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Interesting that it's phrased that way.

Saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The repeating of the words is fallen is the emphasis of how dramatic and devastating this is. It's unbelievable. They're fallen. It's been conquered. And it's a phrase that will be used in Revelation chapter 14 as well as chapter 18. There is the destruction of Babylon is complete. The final destruction of Babylon takes place there during the tribulation period.

And there the cry will go forth again. Babylon is fallen, is fallen as God's wrath is poured out and the city of Babylon is judged. In verse 9, he says, And all the carved images of her gods he has broken to the ground. Babylon is fallen and all of her images, all of her gods he has broken to the ground. God has knocked them off their feet.

The gods that they worshipped. God's judgment of a nation was, well, it was almost always or always upon the gods that they worshipped. Because God's judgment was not, again, because he just enjoys inflicting judgment and pain, but he's dealing with rebellion. And the fact that they refused to worship him as God and honor him as God. And so they would be worshipping these false gods. If you remember the nation of Egypt,

When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and there was the ten plagues that took place there and that process of bringing Pharaoh to the point that he would let the people go, those ten plagues were direct attacks against the gods of Egypt, showing Egypt time after time, your gods are false, you need to worship the true and living God.

And God will do that in our lives. He will do that when we begin to trust in other things. When we begin to place our hope and our devotion to other things in our lives, He will allow that thing in our life to be broken, to be destroyed. We need to be careful that we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, that we keep Him first in our lives.

Because he will one by one knock out those things that we trust in. Knock out those things that we're devoted to in place of him. Until all that's left, until we can realize and recognize, it's God that I must worship. It's God that I must be devoted to. And so all of her gods are knocked down. They've been broken. They've been shattered. God is proving once again, he is God. And there is no other.

And verse 10, Isaiah concludes this portion dealing with Babylon saying, that which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. I think it's a little humorous that Isaiah says this at the end because again, when he's writing this, Babylon is not a nation.

The Medes and the Persians, I'm sorry, they're a people, but they're not a powerhouse. They're not a powerful threatening people. And then the Medes and the Persians are even less of a threat. They're all afflicted by the nation of Assyria. It doesn't even seem possible. This is 200 years later that these things would be taking place. And so he wants to make it clear, hey, I'm just telling you what God told me. I know it sounds crazy, but this is what God said. And often when God speaks to us,

Just to warn you, when God puts something upon your heart, you, your own self, you'll probably say, that sounds crazy. I tell Cisco all the time. I think God's telling me this, but it just seems crazy. It just seems way out there. I don't know if this is really from the Lord. And we've got to wait and see more confirmation because it sounds crazy. And whenever God speaks to you,

Understand that, yeah, it might sound crazy. You might have desires and things on your heart that you go, "Man, where in the world is that coming from? That just is way out there. I can't even believe, you know, God would speak to me about that or want me to be involved in that." Or your friends or family or your neighbors or co-workers or, you know, other people around you might go, "You're saying, 'Well, this is what God showed me. This is what God spoke to me.'" And everybody else is going, "I don't know what this person thinks about. That's crazy!"

Then you can respond just like Isaiah. That which I've heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I've declared to you. That's all you need to know. Is it from the Lord? Can you say with confidence, this is what God has declared to me? And then you can count on that and bank on that. Because again, as we saw 200 years in advance, God is accurate. And so whatever he says to your life, whatever he says to you, even if it sounds crazy to you or the people around you, you will be obedient to God.

Be obedient to him because his word will be fulfilled. He will accomplish what he said. He wants you to do what he has called you to do. And so no matter what you think about it, be obedient. There's countless examples we could look at. Pastor Tom, moving his family to Okinawa. You know how many people talk to the family? You're crazy. Pastor Rick, about five years prior to Pastor Tom, moving his family to Okinawa. Are you crazy?

Grandparents saying, you're going to take my grandkids where? You're going to do what? And you don't know what you're going to do, how you're going to survive and what's going to happen? And time after time, we can look at examples like that. Yeah, often when God speaks to us, it sounds crazy. But I want to encourage you to be obedient because he'll be faithful. Where God guides, he provides. So step out in faith as God speaks to you. All the other gods, hey, if you begin to put other things in place of him, he'll knock those things out.

But if you are faithful to God, if you're obedient to Him, He'll support you, He'll uphold you, and He'll fulfill all the things that He's placed upon your heart. Let's go on, verses 11 and 12. It says,

Here in verses 11 and 12, we have now a new direction. God has been speaking about the fall of Babylon that will take place, but now he focuses to a different area, a different region. It says in verse 11 that it's the burden against Duma. There's some debate and discussion over what exactly this prophecy is all about. But

To summarize a little bit, it's believed to be about the region of Edom or the nation of Edom. The nation of Edom was just south of the nation of Israel. It was the descendants of Esau. You remember Jacob and Esau. And so the descendants of Esau were there in the region of Edom down south of the nation of Judah. And Duma is one of the cities in that region. The meaning of this prophecy though is not very clear. He says...

Watchman, what of the night? What of the night? And the watchman says, The morning comes and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire, return, come back. I like the way Pastor Chuck put it. He says, I don't understand this, so let's just move on. It is possible...

Speaking of the night and the morning, that this is saying that there is a moment of deliverance. The cry is, hey watchman, what of the night? Night being a picture of the subjugation or a time of trouble, as night often speaks of in the scriptures. And then morning is a picture of deliverance. And so the watchman says, morning comes, deliverance comes.

But then the night also comes. And so more trouble and destruction is coming, which was true. If you could think about it in the terms of Assyria being conquered by Babylon and you could see the people of the land going, all right, Assyria has been conquered. But then immediately, OK, more trouble. Now Babylon's conquering us. And now Babylon's taken over the whole region. Or you look forward again to the time when Babylon's conquered and a moment of rejoicing. All right.

Babylon's fallen. The kingdom that's been oppressing us has been knocked out. And now here comes the Medo-Persian Empire. Now they're subjecting us to serve them and so on and so forth. So that's possible. That's what it's talking about. But not very clear. So, like Pastor Chuck says, we'll just move on. Verses 13 through 15. It says, "...the burden against Arabia..."

Verse 16. Verse 16.

We end the chapter with kind of a contrast to the beginning of the chapter.

In the beginning of the chapter, the prophet Isaiah is writing about something that will take place 200 years later. But here this prophecy is going to be taking place within the year. Something that will be fulfilled in the lifetime of Isaiah. And God designed it this way on purpose. You know why? So here's Isaiah in the land of Judah being oppressed by Assyria. The people are freaking out.

What are we going to do? How are we going to prepare ourselves? How are we going to survive? And Isaiah is pronouncing God's word. God has promised he will protect you from the attacks of Assyria. But you need to repent. You need to come back to him. You need to get right with God. You need to do the things that God has called you to do. Well, how do we know you're from the Lord? How do we know we can trust your word? How do we know that you speak for God?

Well, God designed the ministry of the prophet to include these prophecies that will be fulfilled so that one year from now, the inhabitants of Judah could say, look, what he said came to pass. It was fulfilled exactly the way that he said it was. And so do the math. Hey, maybe we better listen to him for what he says about us. That's a problem we often have.

We look at the Bible and we say, oh, wow, that's great and that's neat and that's good stuff and good stories. But then we fail to take that step and say, look at all these things that have come true. Look at all these things that have been fulfilled. Look at all these things that the Word of God says. And we fail to take that step and do the math and say, I better live according to the Bible. I better put these things to practice. I better do what this book says. Much like the nation of Judah, who was later conquered by Babylon, and

Because they failed to put into practice. They failed to respond to the things that God has spoken through the prophets over the years. This burden is against the region of Arabia, verse 13 says. This prophecy, this judgment is going to be poured out upon Arabia. This area of Arabia is south and east of the nation of Judah. It's the land occupied by Saudi Arabia today.

The Deedanites were those who inhabited that land. They were descendants of Cush, Noah's son. If that's important to you, now you know it. And Isaiah is describing a battle that is going to be taking place. There's going to be this battle. There's going to be these warriors that come. They're going to flee and they're going to minister to certain needs.

but they're going to be destroyed. They're going to be taken over. And this prophecy, he says in verse 16, is going to be fulfilled within a year. Verse 16 says, "...within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail." The glory will fail.

It's not a complete destruction, it's not a complete annihilation, but it's a diminishing of glory. And so in those days, the land of Arabia was greatly diminished. And this was fulfilled in 716 BC, when King Sargon of Assyria invaded Arabia during his war with Egypt.

Egypt was always at odds with Assyria as well as Babylon, and there's always these battles that took place. And of course, they took place not in Egypt and not in Assyria, but in between. And so Arabia was one of those areas where the two armies met and collided. And Arabia was conquered by Assyria in that time as they came against the nation of Egypt.

Once again, God proves that He is the Creator and that He knows the beginning from the end. Whether it's 200 years in advance or within this year, He knows. He has proclaimed it. He has spoken it. And it will come to pass. Turn with me as we close to 2 Kings chapter 25. In 2 Kings chapter 25, I kind of want to go back to where we started.

The city of Jerusalem was going to be protected from the Assyrian invasion. They were going to be protected from Sennacherib who came and set himself up against God and wanted to defeat Judah, the nation of Judah. But the nation of Judah was on a decline because Judah was a nation of Judah.

Although they had good kings occasionally and they would turn back to the Lord occasionally, as a whole, the nation continued to turn away from the Lord and become more and more rebellious against God to the point that judgment had to come. Judgment had to come. It was inevitable. It had to take place. And I think I told you the wrong portion. Instead of 2 Kings, turn with me to 2 Chronicles. I'm sorry. 2 Chronicles, yes.

No, actually chapter 36, the very last chapter. They both deal with the same time frame. It was just, I was thinking in the wrong place. So, the nation of Judah is on a decline. They're rebelling against God to the point that God has to bring judgment upon them using the nation of Babylon. And in verse 15 of 2 Chronicles chapter 36...

It says,

Verse 2.

Verse 2.

Here at the end of 2 Chronicles, we find the end of the nation of Judah, the final fall of Jerusalem. It's under King Zedekiah.

He's finally conquered. He's beaten again by Babylon. But he says, the Lord had sent warnings to them by his messengers. Now, I don't know if it's just because I just recently taught this on Sunday or if God is putting this upon my heart because there are those of you who need to hear this. God is sending his warnings. On Sunday, we dealt with the subject of sin in regards to grace.

And God's grace is amazing and it's astounding. It's awesome the way that God deals with us graciously and gracefully. And He pours out and where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. But on Sunday we touched on a little bit those who just kind of count on and really take for granted the grace of God, saying, hey, God will forgive me. They continue on in sin. They continue on living the life that they're living without regard really to what God's Word says.

But the wages of sin is death. And I want to remind you, listen, God's word was fulfilled. The 200 year prophecy in regards to Babylon, it was fulfilled exactly every detail the way that God said. The 100 year, I'm sorry, not even 100, the one year prophecy in regards to Arabia, it was fulfilled exactly the way that God had said. Because God's word will come to pass. It will be fulfilled.

And God sent warnings upon warnings upon warnings to the nation of Judah, to the city of Jerusalem, saying, look, repent, my judgment is coming. And the people of Judah said, no, it's not. We're okay. We're strong. We're God's people. We have the temple. They had all these things. Like we can often say, I'm a Christian. I go to church. I read the Bible. There's grace. It's not going to happen. But you need to be reminded, God will be faithful to his word.

He says in verse 16 here that they despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. God's grace relates to his patience and that he gives us time to repent. He gives us time where, in effect, we store up wrath for ourselves.

And again, it's not so that he can have a lot to beat us up over, but it's so that we can repent. But we reach the point that we store our breath until there is no remedy. Just like the nation of Judah. Just like the other nations that God is having to deal with that we've been reading about in Isaiah. And I want to warn you, like the prophets were sent to Israel and to Judah to warn them. I'm here to warn you saying, look, you need to repent.

You need to get right with God. You need to live uprightly before Him. You need to do what He has called you to do.

Because He will be faithful to His word. And the wages of sin will bring death in your life. It will destroy your life. Just like every element was destroyed in the city of Jerusalem. The walls were torn down. The temple was torn down. All the gold, all the articles of the temple, everything was taken away. All the people were carried away captive. Everything about the city of Jerusalem, the nation of Judah, was completely wiped out. And that is what sin will do to your life unless you repent.

The fact that you're here, the fact that you're listening to this, means that there's still remedy. There's still time. God's saying, repent. But if you will not repent, watch out. Because you will reap what you sow. And if you sow to the flesh, you will reap destruction. But if you sow to the Spirit, you'll reap everlasting life. And so this evening, I want to remind you and challenge you, get right with God. His Word is true. He will fulfill it. He knows everything.

He knows. Whatever he needs to know about in your life, he knows. And he's going to deal with it. So let's get right with God. Let's live uprightly before him. Let's receive his grace and his forgiveness. And victory, listen, if it's a struggle that you feel you're in bondage to, that you're captive to, victory does not come by your preparations. We'll look at that next week as we get into chapter 22.

As Judah was expecting the attacks and they began to prepare, they began to fortify their walls and they would take down their houses and strengthen the walls and try to do all these things to protect themselves from the attack that would come. But it was going to come and it was going to happen no matter what they did because they were in rebellion to God. You can't escape it by your own plans and your own devices. You can't escape the bondage to some sin.

The bondage to sin. Jesus said, whoever sins is a slave to sin. You can't escape it by your own preparations and building up your own walls and trying your own systems and your own rules and regulations and your own sets of consequences for action that's taken or whatever you try to establish. You cannot do it that way. The only way that you can be set free is by grace. By receiving God's grace. By turning and repenting and crying out to God.

Like in Romans chapter 7 where Paul says, Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Crying out to God is the key to victory. Not walls, not foundations, not rules and regulations, not things that we establish. God's sending a warning to you. You need to get right. But you can't do it on your own. You can't do it with your techniques and systems. You need to cry out to the Lord. And you need to let Him do the work in you that He wants to do. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,

God, I pray this evening that you would do that work in our hearts. Lord, that we would recognize that your word is true and that it will be fulfilled exactly, precisely as you said it would be. And Lord, may it cause us to turn to you, to not rely upon ourselves, to not allow false gods to be set up in our lives, that we turn our attention away from you.

But God, may we be consumed by you. May we worship you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Help us, God. Lord, we do believe. Help our unbelief. God, we at times become in bondage to sin or to things in our life, and you want to set us free. So, Lord, we cry out to you by your grace, by faith in what you did for us upon the cross. God, those who are in bondage, I pray that you would set them free this evening.

as they cry out to You. Release them from the bondage of sin. Lord, those who have attacks mounting against them, those who have situations and things coming against them from all sides, may they not look to themselves, God. May they not try to fortify their own walls. But Lord, may they cry out to You and allow You the victory that You desire. God, for those who need to hear these warnings, I pray that they would pierce through, that You would speak to our hearts.

And that we would respond. That we would repent. Lord, if we hear your voice today, help us not to harden our hearts, but to turn to you and allow you to heal and bring restoration, to bring the abundant life that you desire for those who follow you. We thank you, God, for your greatness, your mercy, and your grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.