In 'The Unthwartable Counsel of Jehovah,' Peter Allison examines Isaiah 14, focusing on the prophetic judgment against Babylon as a representation of human pride and rebellion. The sermon explores Babylon's historical tyranny and its symbolic role as the city of man, contrasted with the city of God, where inhabitants seek divine glory. Allison emphasizes God's sovereignty and justice, highlighting how His plans are unthwartable. The sermon reflects on the generational consequences of sin, the importance of God's covenant, and the assurance that God's purpose will prevail. Believers are encouraged to take comfort in God's promises, His remembrance of His people, and His ultimate justice. The sermon also discusses the scriptural endorsement of oath-taking and the necessity of planning, aligning human actions with divine purposes.

Our scripture reading is from Isaiah, chapter 14. I will begin reading at verse 22. This concludes the oracle against Babylon. There's God's concluding statement about it. Hear God's word.

For I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and offspring and posterity says the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the porcupine and marshes of muddy water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts. The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, surely as I have thought so it shall come to pass, as I have purposed so it shall stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders." This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth.

And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations, for the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, who will turn it back? This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died. Do not rejoice, all of you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken. For out of the serpent's root will come forth a viper, and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.

The firstborn of the poor will feed, and the needy will lie down in safety. I will kill your roots with famine, and it will slay your remnant. Wail, O gate! Cry, O city! For all of you of Philistia are destroyed, are dissolved.

For smoke will come from the north and no one will be alone in his appointed times. What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall take refuge in it. May we rejoice in the way of his testimonies as much as enriches. Almighty Father in heaven, Your word is a light, it's a lamp, it is truth.

Sanctify us by Your word. Instruct us in the way that we should go. Give to us a willing spirit that we are not like the horses and mules that have to be led about with a bit and a bridle. Lord, may we be led by Your Word. Give us understanding, we ask, and please sanctify my sinful lips that they may proclaim this morning the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Well, we jumped into the middle of this passage, this burden that Isaiah brings, Oracle of the Lord, brings against Babylon. But we need to look at the setting in which this comes. I mean, Isaiah is writing to rebuke Israel and to call them to repentance. He's writing to call them to return to the Lord, he's writing to rebuke their sins and their departure from following the Lord and from his following his law, but he's also writing to proclaim the grace of God, the good news of God's forgiveness and redemption through His anointed, the Messiah, Emmanuel.

But between these sections of the book, this book of Immanuel that we recently finished, which covers chapters 7 through 12, and contains the seed of these great promises of future redemption and prosperity of Israel. Between that book and the later chapters where these promises of restoration and redemption through the merits of the suffering servant, in those later books where those promises are more fully developed, there sits this book of judgment of the nations. A book of judgments of eleven oracles or burdens against a series of nations and peoples and lands. And Babylon is the first nation that is addressed in this book of judgments, which consists of chapters 13 through about 24, which word 24 expands into a judgment, an oracle against the earth. See, Babylon was guilty of oppression and tyranny.

We throw that word tyranny around whenever we don't like something that somebody's telling us to do. But tyranny, biblically speaking, is to make it hard and painful to obey the Lord. In Isaiah 14 verse 6 describes how they struck down people in wrath with unceasing blows and they subdued nations in anger with persecution. Now, those people receive justice from the Lord, but the things that Babylon did were not just. And this evil that was perpetrated by the land of Babylon was not limited to one generation.

It was a generational evil. And so Isaiah says in the verse before we began that the children were to be prepared for the slaughter. Not because they were being punished for the sins of their parents of the previous generation, but they were guilty of the same sins as their fathers were. See, God shows a special kindness for His children, the children of believers. Remember when the disciples rebuked parents for bringing their little ones to Jesus, Jesus corrected them saying, let the little children come to me and don't forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus laid His hands on them. But Children are sinners in their own right and they're not exempt from the consequences of their sin just because they are children. Remember God killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt when that angel of death passed through the land. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne. So, God took the heir to the Egyptian throne, even to the firstborn, Exodus says, of the female servant who is behind the hand mill.

Or when the people were mourning along the route as Jesus was being led away to be crucified after he'd been horrifically scourged and was weak. And people are mourning for him. Jesus turns to them and says, daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Because you see children often bear the consequences of the sins of their parents' generation. So Babylon is guilty of generational oppression and tyranny, but Babylon is more than just an ancient city.

Babylon serves also as a quintessential example of the city of man. And for you younger people here this morning, quintessential means something that is typical or representative of something, of a kind of something. For example, we might say that Sherlock Holmes is an example of a quintessential detective. And so somebody who makes a brilliant deduction or who makes a keen observation that other people have missed. He might be compared to Sherlock Holmes.

He might even even be called a Sherlock. So that's what we mean by a quintessential example. And Babylon in the same way is a quintessential city of man. It's an example of a city of man. And it's used that way throughout the scriptures.

So the city of man is a name that Augustine used to describe the work of proud men who in their rebellion against their creator are seeking for their own glory, they're pursuing earthly wealth and they're lusting, desiring for earthly dominion. That's the city of man, as Augustine describes it. And so long after the nation of Babylon has ceased to exist, Babylon is used as this example of a city of man in the New Testament. In closing his first epistle, the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 5.13, She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you, and so does Mark my son. Now Babylon, Peter wasn't saying he was in the physical city of Babylon, in the land of Shinar.

He's saying he's in a city of man, a city of proud people who in their rebellion against their Creator are seeking their own glory and pursuing earthly wealth and and lusting after earthly dominion. The Apostle John also refers to Jerusalem as Babylon a number of times in the book of Revelation. Peter, of course, was in Jerusalem. He wrote to apostles that were scattered abroad. He visited other places, but he was based in Jerusalem.

And so he's writing from Jerusalem, but he calls it Babylon. It's the city of man. The city of God on the other hand is the habitation of those who are seeking God's glory. It's the habitation of those who are pursuing heavenly riches and everlasting pleasure in the presence of Almighty God. The inhabitants of the city of God are working to build his kingdom, not their own.

And so this plan to build the Tower of Babel, which is where the city of Babylon comes from, was an act of direct rebellion against the sovereign creator God. And that story is recorded all the way back in the first verses of Genesis 11. And in chapter four of that, in verse four of chapter nine, we read of their purpose for building this tower. The builders say, Come, let us build ourselves a city whose a tower whose top is in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." That's what the people who built Babylon or the Tower of Babel were trying to do. They were building a tower into the heavens so they wouldn't be scattered over the earth in direct defiance of the dominion mandate given to Adam and reaffirmed to Noah in Genesis 9 where Noah and all of his descendants were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.

They weren't commanded to try and ascend into the heavens. Building a tower so they wouldn't be scattered over the face of the earth is directly contrary to the mandate God had given them. See, they wanted to consolidate themselves in one location rather than fulfilling their calling to fill the earth. The phrase, let us make a name for ourselves is the epitome of human pride and self-glorification. It's an attempt to establish a monument to their own creative ability instead of praising God for his creative ability as the heavens do.

They were seeking to glorify themselves and not the Lord by doing what he commanded. They wanted to usurp for themselves the glory that belongs to God alone. These are the same people that the apostle Paul describes in Romans 1.25, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and Worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen And the desire of these first Babylonians To ascend into the heavens. That's what they wanted to build a tower that would whose top is in the heavens it's a direct challenge to the transcendence of God.

It's a desire to invade heaven and usurp the throne of God, and be like God. They are seeking to violate, to escape this creature creator distinction. So they had a desire for knowledge that God did not see fit to reveal to them. In fact, in the scriptures and in history, Babylon is the source of the occult arts. And so this desire for this knowledge, this desire to ascend into heaven is a height of pride.

And this is exactly how Isaiah described Babylon in verses 12 to 15 of this chapter that we looked at a couple weeks ago. Babylon as it was moved and controlled by Lucifer, Satan. Babylon says in there, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High." See, this Babylonian spirit of rebellion rejects the role of man as God's steward and attempts to become the owner. It rejects God's role for us as stewards of the earth and wants to become attempts to become the owner of the earth, stealing essentially what God has created. Even the cooperation of these people of Babylon was not a virtuous cooperation, but it's more like a joint conspiracy to act against God. And so in his mercy, God confused their tongues so they could no longer understand one another.

And that's what the word Babel means. Confusion, Babylon is a city of confusion, of chaos. God confounded the rebellion of these people simply by creating chaos and confusion where there had once been order and structure. And he did it through confounding their language so they couldn't understand one another. And so this by doing this, in doing this, God mercifully prevented the escalation of this human rebellion.

It curbed their corruption. But all these characteristics that were true of this people seeking to build the Tower of Babel, they're still true of Babylon, 1, 500 years later. And they are true of every city of man, of every nation that imitates them. And so Isaiah begins this closing section of his oracle against Babylon in verse 22 by assuring Israel that God will indeed rise up against this land. And to add emphasis to This statement, Isaiah records God's words in the first person.

It says, I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts. And this assurance is important, because the seeming prosperity of the wicked is a very common concern among God's people. Psalm 73, Psalm 94, both deal with this very same question. In Psalm 73, Asaph says in verse 2, my feet had almost stumbled over this question. My steps had nearly slipped over seeing the prosperity of the wicked and how they seemed to escape all consequences of their evil.

The prophets Habakkuk and Jeremiah also come to the Lord with this same question. Jeremiah says in chapter 12 the first verse, Lord I know you are righteous but why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they happy who deal so treacherously? Even the martyrs who are in heaven cry out in Revelation 6. 10.

How long, O Lord, holy and true until you adjudge and avenge your blood on those who dwell on the earth." They know God will do it, but it seems to take forever. And we often have the same question, don't we? Wicked people, evil in general, seem to prosper year after year, decade after decade. From our perspective, it's a long time, and it seems that there is no justice. There are lands, there are nations where evil has prevailed for generations.

And this is where the Apostle Peter reminds us to remember that God's perspective on time is not the same as ours. 2 Peter 3, 8, he reminds us, Beloved, don't forget this thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. As some count slackness, but the Lord is long suffering in His delay, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Any delay is out of His mercy to give another chance for repentance and to ensure that all those who are His have the opportunity to come to repentance.

And so we need to remember this when we are discouraged by the seeming prosperity of wicked people. We want immediate justice. We want it now. We want the ground to open up and remove them from the face of the earth. We want legislatures who impose evil by law to be defeated.

We want wicked judges who defy the living God with their godless evil rulings to be removed or at least overruled. And when it doesn't happen, or it doesn't happen very quickly, it's very easy to feel defeated or discouraged or even hopeless. But God says, I am against Babylon. I am against Babylon. I will rise up.

I will rise up against him. This This is a section of I wills. You notice all the times God says I will. I will. He says I will rise up against them.

I will also make it a possession for porcupines. I will sweep it with a broom. The Lord of hosts has sworn. I have thought. I have purpose.

God says, I will break the Assyrian. God secondly promises to cut off their posterity, their name, not even leave them a remnant. See, God promises to be God to believers and to their children. He has a special care for the children of believers that he doesn't have for the children of unbelievers. Those children who are in the covenant, who have received His covenant sign.

But when a people or nations set themselves against the law of God, the Lord removes the very pillars of their existence. He removes their future generations by removing their posterity. He removes their place in history even. So, Rod says, I will cut off from Babylon the name and the remnant and offspring and posterity, " says Jehovah. Proverbs 10 says, the memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

Psalm 34, verse 16, The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. We see this today, don't we, with abortion. The wicked will kill their own children. They destroy their own posterity. In fact, the wicked don't want any children.

They don't want to be bothered by the work and the sacrifice that is necessary to raise children. They don't believe the Word of God that says children are a blessing and debts are not. They look at it the other way. Children are not a blessing and debts are. If you can have a good credit score and get a debt, then you've succeeded.

They want the freedom of two incomes without any responsibility that would hinder the pursuit of their own pleasure. And when an unplanned baby threatens their plans and the pursuit of their pleasures, they killed the baby. Or they put off having children in the first place to establish their career. They believe that this is the path to fulfillment. This is success.

And instead, it's the path to cutting off their own posterity. They don't have children, they don't have grandchildren. They are cut off. We see this in nations that turn away from the Lord. It's called a demographic winter.

But it's really the Lord cutting off the posterity of the wicked. Remember China is one example among many. They tried to engineer their population through a one-child policy. You can only have one child at most. And it led to a demographic collapse.

Despite their abandoning that policy ten years ago and allowing even three children A few years ago, it hasn't done anything to reverse the spiritual problem that's driving the collapse. God is cutting off the posterity of the wicked. Their fertility rate is far below the replacement level that they need just to maintain their population. And the consensus among those studying the data is that China faces a period of rapid sustained population collapse. One CNN article reported that China's population could lose half of their current population by 2100, 70 years from now.

Deaths are already outpacing births and they're expected to lose 60 million people just in the next decade. 60 million people. That's like a fifth of the population of the United States gone. There are many, many troubles that they have brought on themselves. The whole population pyramid is upside down.

It should have a lot of youth and a few old people. Instead it's the other way around. Individuals over 60 are already more than 20% of the population and they're going to be half the population by the end of the century. And that places an unsustainable burden on the younger people, the younger age working people. Because there is now a whole generation of single children who lack the support structure necessary to carry to care for this aging elderly population.

And many other godless nations are facing the exact same situation in Europe. And the only reason America is not in the exact dire condition is the influx of immigrants, because Americans have by and large done the same thing. You know, this DNA record I referred to that Nathaniel Jeanson has been studying and writing about, it shows that there are many lines throughout history that just don't exist anymore. They're gone. Because God cuts off from Babylon the name and the remnant, the offspring and the posterity.

I mean, I can see it in my own family history example. I have aunts and uncles that have no grandchildren, zero, not just one, but none. They're cut off entirely. They don't even have daughters that have children. Because this is what God says, that he is against the Babylon, And he will cut off their very remembrance.

You cut off their prosperity. God is a God of justice and equity. Babylon had wanted to possess the earth. They wanted to rule over other nations. They wanted to usurp God's role as the owner.

Instead, God says Babylon itself will become a possession. Their posterity will be disinherited, and the land will be given to hedgehogs and porcupines that inhabit a desert. The Bible speaks about the people who long to be remembered. They try to establish monuments. They try to give their inheritance to their children after them.

But God says, no, Babylon's going to be disinherited. I'm going to give it to porcupines and people that inhabit the marsh. Even the land will be degraded. Instead of flowing waters, they're going to be stagnating marshy waters suitable only for a few animals that can tolerate those conditions. All traces of this past will be swept away.

The Lord says He's going to sweep the place with the broom of destruction. God will sweep it so thoroughly and so completely that it will be as though there had never been a city there. And indeed, the land is a desert today. In verse 24, the Lord is said to swear that this will come to pass. As surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass.

The Lord of hosts has sworn to swear is to affirm, as Webster defines it, to affirm or utter a solemn declaration with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. And because God can swear by none greater, He swears by His own name. An oath is also a solemn affirmation or a declaration made with an appeal to God for the truth of what you're affirming. This appeal to God in an oath implies that the person implicates God's vengeance and renounces God's favor if that declaration is false. So we think about imprecatory prayer, so imprecates himself to bring God's vengeance if what we're saying is false, or if we fail to do what we are promising to do.

And so a false oath is called perjury. Now God doesn't swear because he needs to be bound, but he swears because we need to be assured. God's taking of an oath is an act of condescension to our human weakness, because we're naturally slow to believe God, Our sinful nature naturally slow. And so God adds his oath on top of his word so that we might have a strong comfort and assurance. In the Scripture, God also takes an oath whenever He brings people into the covenant or removes them from the covenant.

God is said to swear. In Revelation, this angel of God is pictured with one foot upon earth and He raises his hand to heaven. That's the other aspect of taking an oath, is that the right hand is raised. And God does this when he takes an oath in the scriptures. By taking an oath, David Dixon says in his commentary on the Psalms, the Lord declares His will to the uttermost that we should believe in Him and rest upon His covenant and make an end of challenging Him anymore by our misbelief.

Quit, quit not believing God. That's why God is taking an oath. Now as a side comment here, many Christians today believe it's wrong to swear. But that's really not what the Bible says. It's really just the opposite.

There are nearly 200 passages in the scriptures that touch on the subject of swearing, and the vast majority of them speak of swearing in a positive sense, either of God Himself swearing or of righteous men taking oaths in official business. Those that speak of swearing in a negative way are usually, are always referring to false swearing, or deceitful swearing. I'll just give you three examples that stand out among all the passages in the Bible like this that speak of God's swearing or swearing in general. Deuteronomy 10, 20, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall, this is a command, an imperative, You shall serve him and to him you shall hold fast and take owes in his name. Or Deuteronomy 6, you 13, you shall fear the Lord your God and serve him and shall take owes in His name.

That's a command. God's commanding us, His people, to swear by His name and forbids us from swearing by anything else. That's why I personally don't take the Pledge of Allegiance as an oath. It's a swearing. They didn't call it an oath, but that's what it was.

They didn't want to call that because they didn't want to offend the Christians, who they recognized would be loathed to take such an oath. So they call it a pledge. There's a number of other reasons, which I won't get into right now. But in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul informs them that his reason for Not coming to them was to spare them and he says in second Corinthians 1 23 Moreover I call God as a witness against my soul that to spare you I came no more to Corinth See in making this statement Paul doesn't just let his yes be yes he appeals to God to corroborate what he is saying is true. To appeal to God for a record on his soul is essentially a verbatim match with Webster's definition of what swearing is.

Affirming or uttering a solemn declaration with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. See, this is a very clear example in the New Testament of an apostle taking an oath in a canonical letter. Paul is not simply saying someone took an oath. He's not recording a historical event. This is not transactional.

This is Paul taking an oath in the Scripture itself. And I think this is very persuasive proof that in matters of official significance on a human level, or where there is reasonable doubt on a human level, an oath is properly used to settle a question that can't otherwise be decided. There are certain requirements, it must be administered by those in proper authority and so forth, but there is a proper place for believers to take oaths, to swear, as God does here. We also see that God is a God who plans, He purposes to do things. Surely, He says, I have thought so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand." History is the unfolding of God's plan, which he has purposed in his infinite wisdom from before the foundation of the world.

Remember, God's decrees are His eternal purpose, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. He's foreordained from before the foundation of the world everything that comes to pass. And so we are made in God's image. God the Father purposes. God models detailed planning.

And if we're to imitate Him, we also must be those who purpose and plan. You see, purpose has to proceed planning. We plan to do the things that we have purposed to do. Where there is no purpose, you can't make any plan. You can only make plans for something that you are purposing.

And planning always has to proceed action. You can take action without a plan, but you can't plan to do something after it's already done. You can only plan for the next time. And so if we're to imitate God, as he commands us to do, God commands us to imitate him in the ways that we can, as those who are made in His image. If we're to imitate God, then we should purpose generally for the course of our life, and specifically with shorter term goals, which can serve to guide us in devising plans that are consistent with those long term purposes.

Stewardship makes foresight and planning a duty. It's not just an option, not just something that's good to do. If we're to exercise a godly dominion over the earth as stewards, And the mark of a good steward is that they are faithful in carrying out their duties. And so faithful exercise of dominion includes managing, includes planning, includes rationing, includes apportioning of our time and our abilities and our resources. It takes a plan.

Proverbs 22 says, A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. There's a forward-looking plan. But the simple pass on and are punished. The simple don't look ahead. They don't plan for the future.

The ant is rewarded as somebody who prepares, who plans and prepares for the future. And we see that many animals throughout creation do that. The bees do that as well in storing up honey for the cold. We see this kind of forward planning in the parables that Jesus told about stewards, talents, and so forth. God is the God of planning and if we are in purposing and if we are to imitate him then we also need to be those who purpose and who plan.

Of course always subject to God's sovereign purpose. But then, God is a God who remembers His people. God says that He would break the Assyrian, and his yoke would be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulders. God, when God chastens his people, he preserves a remnant. He doesn't remember their sins, but he does remember us.

He remembers his covenant promise and he restores children. This is God's mercy, His covenant mercy. The meek, God says, will inherit the earth. And Jesus quoted that in the Sermon on the Mount. The trajectory of history belongs to the faithful.

The meek are not those who abandon the world but those who steward it according to God's design. And they are the ones who ultimately possess this inheritance as heirs with Christ. Psalm 2 says of the Lord, Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. See, this is looking at Christ's victory, his global victory, which will be accomplished through the preaching of the gospel and the discipleship of the nations. God also remembers to deliver.

He remembers his people to deliver them. He gives them an inheritance of the earth, but he remembers them to deliver them. This yoke is removed from them. The burden is removed from their shoulders. Remember God in Exodus 2, we read that God heard the groaning of his people there and he remembered his covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

It's because of His covenant promises that God remembers His people and their children. In Genesis 8, God remembered Noah and the animals and all the cattle that were on the ark. And so God brought a wind to clear the earth and to deliver them. Here remembering initiates the transition from judgment to the restoration of the earth and the preservation of the righteous seed. In Psalm 105, verse eight, he remembers his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

He remembers his covenant promises forever. See this memory of God, his remembering of his people is a foundation of our stability, it's the foundation of our hope. Regardless of what's happening around us, we have this sure and certain hope that God remembers His people to deliver them. And of course in verse 26 and 27 is the peak of discomfort, that God is a God whose counsel is un-thwartable. This is the purpose that is purposed over the whole earth and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations for the Lord has purposed and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out, who will turn it back? Unportable, I like that word. It's something that cannot be stopped or prevented. It refers to a plan of action that is guaranteed to succeed. It's a plan that's impervious to interference or any obstruction.

You know, we all know that God's counsel is untowardable, that what he has promised he does bring to pass, and that nobody can stand against him. But so often, don't we forget that, or we doubt that he is doing it in our case. May the Lord give us grace to rest in his promise that His purpose and His counsel is un-for-table and that He has founded Zion. He's established it, and it will never be moved. And the poor of his people shall take refuge in it." That is God's promise.

He's sworn to bring it to pass and his purposes are untowardable. Father in heaven, we thank you for the certainty of your word, of your promises, for the certainty with which you keep your covenant promise. To a thousand generations even the history of this world to this date has not yet seen a thousand generations. Lord, you are a covenant-keeping God. And All that you have purposed, all that you have determined from before the foundation of the world, who can annul it?

As the King of Babylon found out, there is none like you. There is none that can even say to you what are you doing. There's no one who can even question you. And Lord we commit ourselves to You this morning as Your people. We rest this morning in Your untowardable counsel, in Your purpose to do justly, to bring justice, to deliver your people because Christ has born in His body your wrath for our sin so that it is by His stripes that we are healed.

We thank you and we bless you through Jesus Christ. Amen.