In the sermon titled 'The Burden of the Lord Against Babylon,' Peter Allison explores the prophecy in Isaiah 13, which foretells the downfall of Babylon. The sermon highlights the historical context of the prophecy, showing how it was delivered between 742 BC and 726 BC during a time when Assyria was the dominant power, and Babylon was merely a vassal state. Despite Babylon's minor status, Isaiah's prophecy accurately predicts its rise and eventual destruction 200 years later by the Medes and Persians. Allison explains the dual meaning of 'burden' as both a heavy weight and a divine proclamation of judgment. He emphasizes God's sovereignty in orchestrating historical events, demonstrating that God uses even those who do not know Him, like Cyrus of Persia, as instruments of His will. The sermon also addresses the fear and terror that God's judgment brings upon nations and individuals, likening the day of the Lord to a time of great upheaval and destruction. Finally, Allison reassures believers of God's justice and faithfulness, encouraging them to trust in His providence and the certainty of His word.

Our Scripture reading this morning is Isaiah 13. Hear God's Word. Hear God's word. The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amos saw. Lift up a banner on the high mountain, raise your hand to them, wave your hand that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have called my mighty ones for anger, those who rejoice in my exultation. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like that of many people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together, the Lord of hosts musters, the army for battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, to the Lord and his weapons of indignation to destroy the whole land. Wail for the day of the Lord is at hand, it will come as destruction from the Almighty, Therefore all hands will be limp, every man's heart will melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them, they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth, they will be amazed at one another, their faces will be like flames.

Behold the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and he will destroy its sinners from it, for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will halt the arrogance of the proud and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

Therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth will move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger. It shall be as a hunted gazelle and as a sheep that no man takes up. Every man will turn to his own people and everyone will flee to his own land. Everyone who is found will be thrust through and everyone who is captured will fall by the sword. Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes.

Their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the meads against them, who will not regard silver. And as for gold, they will not delight in it. Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not spare children, and Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation, nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there, but wild beasts of the desert will lie there, and their house will be full of owls, and ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will caper there, and the hyenas will howl in their citadels and jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night. Gracious Father in heaven, please Open our hearts to receive Your Word and open Your Word to us. Give us ears to hear what Your Spirit says to Your church.

Hearts to delight and obey, to understand, to perceive. Lord, remove the scales from our eyes and give to us a heart of flesh that is tender towards Your Word. And sanctify my sinful lips this morning that they may be the instruments of Your truth and Your grace through Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, chapter 13 begins a brand new section of this book of Isaiah, extending all the way through chapter 23.

And this section consists of 10 burdens of the Lord against various Gentile nations and against Jerusalem. And it begins with Babylon, which this burden covers all of chapter 13 and most of chapter 14. Now interestingly, the historical portions of Isaiah are arranged chronologically which I think enables us to bracket the date of this prophecy and that's there's some significance in that. And I think it enables us to bracket this between the years 742 BC and 726 BC. And I've laid out a simplified timeline in your outline there.

Chapter 1 tells us that the vision contained in this book took place in the reigns of Azaiya, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And chapter 6 then begins in the year that Isaiah died, which is 759 BC. And chapter 7 begins in the year Rezin and Pecca, king of Samaria, tried to take Jerusalem but couldn't. And that's in 742. That's Damascus or Syria.

In chapter 1428, just after this burden, is the burden against Philistia, and that begins the year Ahaz died, which is 726. And chapter 20, verse 1, begins when Tartan was sent by Sargon, who was the king of Assyria, and he besieged and took Ashtad, which was a Philistine stronghold. And that happened in 713, which was after the fall of the northern Kingdom in 721 BC. So you see that as we go through Isaiah, there is a progression. And then, of course, there's the miraculous deliverance in chapter 36 and 37 that Isaiah says happens in the 14th year of Hezekiah, which would be a little later in 713 BC after Assyria had come through and captured Ashdod and then captured all of the fortified cities of Judah except Jerusalem.

And if you look at a map of this era, the entire world at this point is essentially under Assyrian, the entire Mesopotamia world, that Middle East, is under all the, from Egypt all the way down to the Persian Gulf, is all that whole Fertile Crescent is under the dominion of Assyria, except this little little city of Jerusalem. It's a little enclave. And that was the miraculous deliverance, you remember, where the Syrian army of 185, 000 men are killed in one night by the angel of God. And so that would put this burden, if we look at that overall timeline and the fact that it's in chronologically ordered, that would put this oracle somewhere between 742 and 726 BC. Matthew Henry has it at 739, but I don't really know where that date comes from exactly.

But it's in the right range. But the significant point in this is that this prophecy of Babylon's downfall was not only given 200 years before it happened in it essentially beginning in 538 BC but but it's given at a time when Assyria was the dominant world power not Babylon Babylon was more of a vassal state to Assyria. In fact, it was outright conquered by Ezra Haddon, king of Assyria, a little later. And I think that's on your timeline. And so it not only prophesies that this nation, which isn't even a dominant nation, would become a great nation and then be judged, but it also names Who would be the agent of that judgment that the means would be there and this is all 200 years before these things Begin to happen so this is not a prophecy of things that anybody that is You know knowledgeable of the events of that day would have thought would happen It's not like saying that you know China's a today that you know China's a great nation and it might conquer some countries around it.

So this is a this is a very significant prophecy. In fact, it's those who do not believe the Bible, those scholars that don't believe the Word of God, say that this is so detailed and so specific and so far in advance that Isaiah couldn't even have written it because he couldn't have written that far in advance about these specific things he wouldn't have known they say and so they say this has to have been written by somebody else who wrote it after the fact and pretended to write it before. But we know, of course, that God is the sovereign who knows all things and governs all things. And He revealed this to Isaiah just as he's revealed his plans to his servants, the prophets all along. So this is a burden then against Babylon, the first of 10 burdens that are given in this section.

Burden is the word for a weight. You all know what a burden is. It's something you would use a donkey or a beast of burden to lift in that day, or today you would use a truck or a forklift. But burden can also refer to an utterance, something that's said, to a proclamation. And so you might have a translation that says the oracle against Babylon.

Now you might think, well what is the connection between an oracle and a burden? They don't seem to be related at first. But seeing how these two words are actually connected brings out the significance of what's being said here. You see, heavy news is news that is grievous, it's distressing, it's sorrowful, or it's filled with very severe consequences. We would say that's that's heavy news.

It's tragic, A solemn information that would weigh down our mind and our heart and put an emotional burden upon our spirit just as a heavy physical load would strain, exhaust, weary the physical body. Both the senses of this word are deliberately put together in Jeremiah 23 where the people come somewhat derisively to Jeremiah asking what is the burden of the Lord? Now they are sort of derisively asking what troublesome burden Jeremiah has from the Lord for them. They're asking what's some word from the Lord. And the Lord tells Jeremiah to say back to them, what burden?

I'm going to forsake you. Inferring that the people who are asking the question are the burden themselves, but they are being cast off and forsaken. And so they're no longer going to be a burden. These two words actually in Hebrew are closely related. They come from the same root word.

And So the burden of the Lord against Babylon is a declaration of woe that will come upon them. It's heavy news regarding Babylon. Later on in the book in Isaiah 39, Isaiah prophesied of the atrocities and the cruelty that Babylon would bring upon Judah. And he said, behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. So all the wealth, all the things that, the generational wealth that you've stored up, that you've gathered together, the cities you've built, the buildings, the infrastructure, it's all going to be dismantled, carried to Babylon, nothing left, says the Lord, and they will take away some of your sons whom shall descend from you, whom you will beget and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon just like Daniel fits into that.

But first you see before we get to that point, Isaiah tells Judah about the punishment that the Lord would bring on Babylon for the evil acts that are done to his people. Now this burden notice is visually delivered. It's something that Isaiah saw. Unlike Jonah who was actually sent to Nineveh with the burden of the Lord against Nineveh, Isaiah is shown this burden in a vision which he writes down for the people of Judah. It's for Judah to read.

As far as we know it, it's never delivered directly to Babylon like Jonah's message was delivered to Nineveh it's never delivered on any of these burdens in the next 10 chapters 11 chapters are never delivered to those nations to whom they're addressed. Nineveh was given grace in that this burden of the Lord against them was brought to them, but Babylon is not given that particular grace. Of course, they are given the grace of Daniel when he goes there and brings God's Word to Nebuchadnezzar later. And so this begins with the Lord raising a banner. And we saw last week that banners are for signaling.

And so with this banner, the Lord is summoning his army. These are his sanctified ones. They're the ones that the Lord is setting apart. That's what sanctified means, to set apart or commission to be the instruments of his wrath against Babylon, against this cruel nation that has enslaved and committed abominations, abominable evils against many people, like including Judah. And so the Lord is gathering this large army of people composed from more than one nation, and they're coming from far away, from distant lands, from the ends of heaven, and through them the Lord will bring the destruction of this whole land this army is said to enter the gates of nobles and interestingly the word Babylon means gate of God.

Babylon is the Greek spelling of the name, which in Hebrew is always babel. And most Bibles render it babel in Genesis, but it's Babylon everywhere else in the Bible. But it's a Saxon word in Hebrew. It's just a Greek versus Hebrew pronunciation of it. And so it's speaking here of a very ancient city on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, about 20 miles south of present-day Baghdad.

It's the city that was founded by Nimrod all the way back in Genesis 10. At the beginning of his kingdom, Genesis says, was Babel, Erek, Akkad, and Kalnah in the land of Shinar. We talked about that. And then from that land, he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Erer, and Challah. So the city was the site of the Tower of Babel, the tower that people intended to build into the heavens.

And archaeologists have found a structure there that's probably 100 meters by 100 meters square at the bottom that looks like it might have been a tower, whether that was the actual tower or another tower, we don't know. But this was the site where the Tower of Babel was built. And at the time it was conquered in beginning in 538 and and afterwards at that time in 538 especially the city was thought to be impregnable, like the Titanic was thought to be unsinkable. It had a double wall, and in some places there was a third wall. And the inner wall was some 20 or 25 feet thick you could Two chariots could pass each other on the top of this wall Herodotus thought it was 300 feet high some people doubt that today, but but it was an impressive city And some earth maybe rethinking that Herodotus had it right.

But nevertheless, it was an impressive city, such that Nebuchadnezzar could look out over this city that he had built and be proud of it, so proud of it, that the Lord had to humble him and make him eat grass like an ox and and live in the field like an animal because of his pride over the greatness of this city that he had built. Belshazzar had his army destroyed by the Medes, decimated, but they retreated back into Babylon with full confidence that behind this impregnable, unconquerable city they would be perfectly safe, untouchable by the armies of the Medes and Persians and that they would be able to wait out any siege against them. Nebuchadnezzar's palace was considered to be the most magnificent building ever erected on the earth at that point. And so in saying that the armies will enter the gates of the nobles, God is saying that these impregnable walls and massive gates which Babylon had so confidently and foolishly trusted would be breached. They wouldn't protect them.

These walls and their fortresses and defenses and their wealth and the palaces of these noble people wouldn't prevent the armies that God is summoning from the ends of the earth, from entering the city and entering these palatial homes of these nobles, their wealth, and their defenses won't protect them. This army will enter the gates of the nobles. These soldiers God is summoning are called God's sanctified ones. That literally means they are set apart by the Lord and designated for a specific service. They are designated for a specific purpose in His service.

The armies of the Medes and the Persians and the generals commanding them, they're doing it for their own reasons. They're not doing it because they're obeying the revealed will of God, like Jesus did where He did things so that it might be fulfilled what was prophesied. They're doing it for their own reasons, without regard to what God has commanded. And in so doing, they are stirring up wrath for themselves. But you see, despite their ignorance and their rebellion against the Lord, they are nonetheless the Lord's sanctified ones, the ones He set apart to do what He wants them to do.

They desired the enlargement of their empire. They desired to crush this rebellious city. But God designed it so that in carrying out that desire of enlarging their empire, God's people, the Israelites, were delivered from captivity and returned to their land just like God said that they would be, just like the Lord promised them. Cyrus was the king and the general who accomplished this defeat of Babylon. And he is called my sanctified one because he is God's anointed.

Isaiah 45 says, Thus says the Lord to his anointed, that's the word Messiah, the anointed one, the chosen one, to Cyrus whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings to open before him the double doors so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron That's what God said of Cyrus of course in one sense Speaking of what Christ would do spiritually So in that sense he's a figure of Christ who has to come. So all those who fight the Lord's battles are in the strictest sense the Lord's sanctified ones. And it's a solemn warning to any who would dare to be profane that They are doing what the Lord calls them to do and they are carrying their life in their own hands in in rebelling against the Lord.

So the Lord orders these Medes and the Persians to assemble as if they were his hired soldiers. Lord commands them. I have commanded my sanctified ones, he said. He's created them, he's equipped them, he's trained them, and they are under his command. God says of Cyrus, I held his right hand.

That's how a parent leads their little child and ensures that that child goes where they want them to go. They hold their hand. You do that right naturally when you want to guide a child across the street or anywhere you want to have close control of them and God says I'm holding Cyrus by his right hand. God is leading Cyrus like a little three-year-old being led by his parent holding their hand. God is pulling him and directing him in the direction that he is to go.

They are called God's Mighty ones because the Lord is the one who has given them their strength. It was by him that they ruled It's by him that they were equipped The Lord it's a Lord that gifted them and enabled them to do Everything that he desired for them to do Now unlike David who acknowledged that it was the Lord that taught his fingers to make war, these soldiers don't acknowledge God. But that failure, the fact that they don't acknowledge that the Lord is the one who has equipped them and trained them and given them the ability to do what they do. That in no way diminishes the fact that the Lord has given them the skills that they have. These armies rejoice in the Lord's exaltation.

They serve His glory and they fulfill His goals with great enthusiasm. They are eager to do His bidding. That's what the Lord is saying. Those whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. And those whom He makes holy, He makes strong in their spirits.

And so those Cyrus didn't know God and are actually planned to glorify God and what he did yet God used him as his servant as Psalm 76 as even the wrath of men will praise the Lord and with the remainder of wrath the Lord will clothe himself and so God said of Cyrus in Isaiah 45 for Jacob my servant's sake and Israel my elect I have called you even by your name. I have named you, though you have not known me." So God says of Cyrus, I've called you for my purposes, for the sake of my people. You're going to be a blessing to my people. You're going to do what I want you to do in order to be a blessing to them, even though you don't know me. That's what you're doing.

So Cyrus gloried in his successes, in his victory over Babylon. But those very Successes in which he prided himself Were those by which God glorified his own name and God? Did as he had promised his children and brought them back from from captivity. So the Lord of Hosts gathers this army. They are not a ragtag bunch but a trained and disciplined troop.

An army that's produced by a well-governed and highly organized kingdom. They're well-trained. They come from great distances, from a far country, from the end of heaven. So God is able to bring this destruction and desolations to his enemies from those who are far away and don't even appear to be a credible threat, just as easily as he can do it by those who are near, just like he did with the Philistines and the other People that live nearby Israel who would trouble Israel from time to time when they were unfaithful But God is also able to do it from people that are far away and don't appear to be any threat The Lord in verses 6 to 8 the Lord's justice brings great personal terror. The day of the Lord is at hand.

God was about to appear in wrath against them as a just avenger of his own people, of his own, of the injuries that were done to his people. He's bringing a little day of judgment, a tiny foretaste of the final judgment that would come at the end of time. And so those against whom his wrath is raised have a reason to tremble when that day is at hand. Like the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 10, for we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

It's a fearful thing. Whale, for the day of the Lord is at hand. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. That word for destruction and Almighty are again two words like burden that are based on the same root word. The same root Hebrew word.

Shaddad, which means to lay waste or to plunder. From that same verb also comes the word Shaddai, which you will recognize as one of the names of God. El Shaddai, that means God Almighty, which is usually rendered God Almighty. And so there is an alliteration here that's, of course, lost in translation. It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

As Calvin notes, the inhabitants of Babylon will learn by their own destruction how appropriately God is called Shaddai, that is strong and powerful to destroy. It will come as a destruction from the Almighty. That's the name of God. Mighty, powerful to destroy. The Babylonians were a very fierce people.

But their destruction of Nineveh was shocking to the ancient world under Nebo-Lasser. They were much more accustomed to, and this, The ancient world was much more accustomed to extreme cruelty than we are today. And yet, the Babylonians and their capture of Nineveh was shocking to the ancient world. And so God here is, in essence, mocking the fierce and terrifying soldiers, the elite special forces of their day, and saying that the power of God is going to melt their fierce hearts. It's going to weaken their hands.

It's going to cause all their courage and fierceness to vaporize and disappear. When the heart is so melted and afraid that all will to resist is gone and the hands are so weak and trembling that they can't even hold a weapon, then the best fortifications, the best weapons, the best defenses are useless. Isaiah says, the pangs of their fear shall be like a woman in hard labor. Whenever the scriptures want to mock the power of mighty men, it compares them to women who are giving birth. Because this is one of the most vulnerable times in the life of a mother.

It's a time when they most need protected and supported. And God is saying these mighty soldiers, these fierce people, will be as vulnerable and in need of support and protection themselves as a woman in labor. It's quite a figure. Comparing them to a woman in labor also speaks to the suddenness of this condition. It's going to happen to them in a moment when they are not really thinking or expecting it.

Maybe at the most inopportune time. We know from Daniel that their final destruction in 538 happened while they were trying to have a banquet and pretend that everything was fine and wonderful. But it was that very night that the Medes and Persians entered the city and Belshazzar was slain. They shall be amazed at one another. The fear and fright of one soldier is going to bring fear and fright to those around him.

You know, fear like that can be contagious. They will be amazed that those who used to be so bold and daring should become so frightened and helpless. And another figure is used that this calamity is so distressing and terrifying it's as if their face is on fire. Verses nine and ten describe in both literal language in verse 9 and then in figurative language in verse 10 this destruction. In verse 9, Behold the day the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he will destroy its sinners from it." And that's figuratively characterized in verse 10 as for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give light, the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine." Now that's figurative language.

For these heavenly luminaries, these heavenly bodies to be destroyed, means that the foundations of society, the civil government, their entire governmental structure and infrastructure that supports an ordered society is going to be destroyed and removed. This language is used several other places in the scripture to describe days of judgment where Where the entire social structure of a nation is destroyed and removed. Jesus uses this language in the Gospels, like Matthew 24, to speak about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans in the time of great wrath Joel speaks about in language like this as well you see these these heavenly bodies are also signs of God's goodness to us in teaching us to be kind to those two enemies and those that hurt us Jesus said in Matthew five but I say to you love your enemies bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Why? So that you may be like the sons of the Father in heaven for what does he do?

How does he show goodness to his enemies? Well, he makes his son rise on the evil and the good, and he sends a rain on the just and on the unjust. So the heavens, the sun shining and giving its light, is a sign of God's goodness to his creation. And so for God to remove the sun so that it no longer shines or give light is for God to remove His kindness and bring His wrath instead. Now men don't want to hear of judgment.

The sentiment is, don't terrify people with gruesome images. But Isaiah shows that true love of people is to warn them of the judgment to come. This is a warning to all sinners. He will destroy its sinners from it. To be silent about God's wrath and his judgment is not to be wise, but is to exhibit a lack of love Toward men and we see this several ways today for example in the abortion images the graphic abortion images of what abortion does to a baby in a womb, how it horrifically mangles them and cripples them and disfigures them.

With ultrasound, we can get these images. And people don't want to see them. But actually it's loving people to show them the terrible atrocities that are being committed in their land right under their noses. And even unsaved people can sense this as well, that the mercy in showing to somebody, and they explain to you then the wrath of God that they are under. Pen Jolette, who's a atheist, recognized this at one point, And he talked about a man who had come to his show.

And then the same man came back to him. And after the second night, and after this show the second night he waited around to everybody had gone and then he took the opportunity after complimenting him on his skill as a performer took the opportunity to give to him a Bible. And he did it in a respectful way. And Penn realized that this man actually loved him in this. That this was an act of love.

That he believed Penn was under the judgment of God and that he was brave enough because he out of love to come and give him the Scriptures. And it actually moved him almost to the point of tears. It didn't save him. He's still an atheist. But he recognized the fact that this man wanting to come and warn him to give him an uncomfortable truth was arising because this man had love and he actually wondered about all the other Christians they really loved him or not so God's justice One of its effects is to depopulate the land.

Populous countries are easily depopulated by war. And God can soon make a kingdom that has been courted and admired to be dreaded and shunned. It says, everyone that is found alive shall be run through. Everyone that is joined to them shall fall by the sword. Those of other nations that had come to their assistance will be cut off with them.

It's a dangerous thing to be in bad company and to help those whom God is about to destroy. Those who love the Lord count his enemies as their enemies and his friends as their friends. So they can go and visit the person in jail who is considered a threat, a horrible person, by wicked society because they are friends with those with whom God is friends and enemies with those with whom God is enemies so those the message here is that those who join themselves with Babylon must expect to share in her sorrow and in her destruction says everyone will flee to their own land when the Lord moves in judgment against the nation, all the visitors flee. The trading partners vanish and go back to their own country. No one wants to do business with them anymore, which only serves to worsen the plight of that nation.

And then in verse 17, God names who would be the agents of his justice. He says that he will use the Medes in overthrowing Babylon. The Medes are from an area southwest of the Caspian Sea, north of Persia. And they were conquered by Cyrus, but they are actually more joined together because Cyrus himself was a mead he was a mead from it by his mother and a Persian by his father. In other words, his mother was a Meade and his father was a Persian.

And after he conquered Babylon as the general, commanding general and king, he turned it over to Darius, the Meade, as Daniel calls him. Jeremiah 51 also foretells this fall of Babylon to the meads. And remember, this is 200 years before that it happened, before these countries were even organized or combined joined together in any way. But God is through Isaiah naming specifically who the agents of his wrath would be against against Babylon. And some nations can buy off aggressors through payment of money.

Hezekiah did this. Other kings of Israel were able to do this from time to time, pay a ransom as it were. But not in this case. God says there's no possibility of the Babylonians saving their lives through a payment of a ransom. There's no possibility that you can appease the wrath of God against you by any other means than the blood of Jesus Christ There's no amount of money you can do there's no amount of gifts that you can in service that You can render to the Lord no amount of good deeds that will be a ransom for your life.

Not only are the young men killed, but even the children are part of the massacre. And this is one more example of the guilt of all people, even little babies that have just been born. All people, without exception, are under the wrath and curse of God. Now Cyrus, history will tell us, did not utterly destroy that city initially actually it was Continued to be a city of some culture But that did happen later under Xerxes another Medo Persian king in 485 BC the city was destroyed And what's left at the end of the chapter gives us a final picture of the Lord's justice against this land. It will never be inhabited, never settled.

Nobody's going to pitch a tent there. The shepherds won't even graze their sheep there. The wild beasts are there. And he goes on to describe a completely desolate and barren place. See, after Xerxes conquered the Babylonian empire, most of the impressive buildings of Babylon were destroyed.

Alexander the Great started to restore the city in 323, but he actually died there very young, having conquered the world. He had planned to make that city the capital of his empire, but God said no, and he died. And it was never really rebuilt. It was continually suppressed under the Greek kings. And today, it's nothing more than a barren mound.

I didn't have a color printer. I could have put a picture in there. It's just mounds of barren dust. Nothing even grows there. It's a desert.

There's a little village nearby today, this site. I think it's called Hill. But the city itself is just a desert. Few mounds. Now there's a couple things that we I think can learn here.

And the first is the sovereignty of God. Some people consider that the Lord is like a villain playing with the lives of people. And as I mentioned earlier, others look at this book as something that had to have been written after the fact. Other people think that there is no God, that everything is directed by random chance. But this chapter says otherwise.

It says that God is directing everything. He even knows from before the foundation of the world and tells Israel 200 years before exactly who, by name, would destroy Babylon and be their deliverer. You know, sometimes I think we all pay lip service to the idea that the providence of God governs this world. And we acknowledge it with our words. But do we always act as if He does?

Are our actions always consistent with the fact that Everything that happens in our life is under the sovereign hand of God. Everything. The good things as well as the difficulties and the trials and the tribulations. The sicknesses. It's all under the providential hand of our loving Heavenly Father who does love us and who is working all things together for our good.

God controls the events of history, every single one. The Word of God is without error. It's true in every detail, and it's something that we can rest in. Even if we don't see how it is true, or why it's true, or understand it, we can rest in it. God is sovereign as He demonstrates here.

It also shows the truth of the Word of God. The Book of Mormon has many specific prophecies given by a false prophet. That's the standard of a prophet. If one thing that they say ever falls to the ground unfulfilled, They are a false prophet. And if you can look at many of these prophecies, for example, just to take one out of many, that Joseph Smith made, about, for example, a city, a temple being built on a particular plot of land in Missouri, in Jackson County, Missouri.

And he said it would happen in the lives of those people living there. So it's a very specific prophecy about a very specific plot of land that everybody that heard it understood. Many people heard it and understood what he was saying and repeated it. It's well documented, but it's never happened. It can't happen.

Because all the people that were alive at that time that he said would be living would see it, they're all dead, and it didn't happen. But see, with God's Word, it's just the opposite. Every little detail, everything that he says comes to pass. We've seen that. It demonstrates that.

This is also a comfort for us. That God is just. And that when we look around and We see the wicked seeming to prosper. We see them seeming to have the upper hand. God is just.

He's not forgetful. This was 200 years before it happened. Before it began to happen. This wasn't simply one day that all this happened there was a it was over a period of years but it happened God brought justice to Babylon God is a just God and we can be assured we can be comforted that every sin will receive its just punishment, every sin. It's a question, It's just a question of who will bear that wrath.

It either will be born by Christ for those that are in Christ or it will be born by those people themselves that are outside of Christ. But we can have every comfort and every assurance and every confidence that this is that God is a just God. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father. We thank you for the truth of your word for its clearness for its endurance clearness for its endurance.

Thank you for your messengers that have borne great difficulty to bring it to us. Many things that you asked, hard things that you asked Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel to do, and Paul to do. And that you have asked of your saints today as well. Father, we thank you that you are a just God. And that though you are slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness and tender mercy yet your wrath is not delayed forever But you are a God who takes vengeance on all those who do not know you and do not obey your gospel Father may we Remember that you are a God of vengeance and be grateful that you have turned aside the wrath of God against us.

We ask this through Jesus Christ and bless you through Him as well. Amen.