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Agape Bible Study
Isaiah 47 - 48
Chapter 47: Yahweh's Lament for Babylon
Isaiah described the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus by giving an account of the humiliation of Babylon's deities. If a nation's gods fail and are destroyed, it is symbolic of the failure and destruction of that nation. Isaiah announced Babylon's judgment and downfall in chapters 13-14, and now he speaks again of Babylon's judgment; but this time the judgment against Babylon is more personal because God speaks directly to the Babylonians and accuses them of standing in the way of His divine plan (verse 3). This judgment can be divided into three parts:
- God will expose the shame of Babylon (47:1-3).
- Babylon will face divine judgment because of her failure to show mercy to others and her opposition to God's divine plan (47:4-7).
- Babylon's overconfidence will result in disaster and despair (47:8-15).
In 47:3-6 Babylon is personified as a sinful woman. This is God's judgment on the "whore of Babylon":
- For her wantonness (verse 3)
- For her merciless cruelty (verse 6)
- For her arrogant pride (verses 7-8)
- For her sorcery (verse 9)
Isaiah 47:1-3 ~ The Shame of Babylon Exposed
To personify a town or country as a woman is common in the Bible. For some examples in the Old Testament see:
- Isaiah 23:12 for the Phoenician city of Sidon
- Isaiah 37:22; 2 Kings 19:21; and Jeremiah 14:17 for "my people" (God's chosen people)
- Isaiah 46:11 for Egypt
- Lamentations 1:15 and 2:13 for Zion and Judah.
To step down from the throne is to give up her royal power and authority. To sit in the dust is a demonstration of her humiliation and disgrace as well as her mourning. For the second command a similar expression describes Nineveh's king in the Book of Jonah (Jon 3:6) and Job during his affliction (Job 2:8).
In verses 1-2 Isaiah uses images of conquest and captivity to describe Babylon's coming fate at the hands of God's agent, Cyrus. Instead of living as a royal princess, Babylon would receive the same shameful treatment they inflicted on the citizens of Judah and others:
- Her women would be set to grinding flour on millstones, the work of slaves.
- She must prepare for a journey into captivity.
- She would no longer wear a veil, because slaves did not have the luxury of covering their beauty.
- Nakedness and shame would become her lot like all captive women (see Jer 13:26-27; Ez 23:10; Nah 3:5).
Isaiah 47:4-7 ~ Babylon will Face Divine Judgment because of the Failure to show Mercy
Sitting in silence and darkness was completely contrary to the normal habitation of Babylon, "queen of kingdoms" who considered her rightful place to be foremost among the empires of the earth. However, on the day that God threw her off her throne (47:1), this would be her lot.
Isaiah 47:8-15 ~ Babylon's Overconfidence will Result in Disaster and Despair
In verse 7 Isaiah expressed Babylon's foolish overconfidence with her thought: "I shall be a queen forever."
Question: This failure to see that one day she would be held accountable for her sins is followed by what other foolish thoughts in 47:8 and 10? List all three foolish thoughts.
Answer:
- "I shall be a queen forever."
- "I am the only one who matters. I shall never be widowed, never know bereavement."
- "No one can see me."
Isaiah 48:6-11 ~ The Promise of a New Revelation
God tells the people through His prophet that despite Israel's stubbornness God is determined to bless His people. In the promise of God's future acts on behalf of His people, in verses 6b-22 Isaiah stressed three aspects of God's grace:
- God's continued patience with a rebellious people (verses 6b-11).
- God's continued revelation of His divine plan (verses 12-16).
- God's continued promise of redemption (verses 17-22).
That Yahweh is "the first and the last" is repeated from Isaiah 41:4 and 44:6. It is the quality of God that identifies Him as the originator/creator of all things (verse 13) and which is transferred to Christ "the Alpha and Omega" "the first and last letter in the Greek alphabet signifying the "first and the last" in Revelation 1:8, and the same concept is repeated in Revelation 17; 2:8; 21:6 and in 22:13 at the end of the Book of Revelation.
Isaiah 48:16-19 ~ Israel's Destiny
The prophet reminds the people that he is anointed with the Spirit of Yahweh to speak the words of God to them. He asks them to consider what the destiny of Israel would have been had they had remained faithful by following Yahweh's teachings and the path He set for them by being obedient to the Law of the Sinai Covenant.
Question: If they had been obedient what does Isaiah say would have been different?
Answer:
- Their prosperity would have flowed continuously like a river and their righteousness would have been viewed like the never ending waves of the sea.
- Their descendants would have been too many to count instead of losing so many people in conflicts and hardships.
- They would never have suffered in the way that they have suffered but would have continued without interruption to live in grace and safety in God's divine presence.
Isaiah 48:20-22 ~ The Promised end of the Exile
Once again Yahweh promises to redeem His covenant people from the Babylonian exile in a hymn of liberation. He commands them to "come out" of Babylon in the same way He commanded them to come out of their Egyptian exile. And He will redeem them and care for them in the journey out of Babylon in the same way He led Israel on the journey out of Egypt and across the Sinai desert when He provided for them by giving them water from "the rock."
Agape Bible Study Ezekiel 8 - 9
Ezekiel 8:1-9 ~ Ezekiel's Vision of Abominations in the Jerusalem Temple
The material in Chapters 8-11 narrates a single visionary experience. The vision begins in 8:1-3 with the date, location, audience of exiled elders, and the weight of God's hand/glory falling upon Ezekiel to begin the vision in which a brilliant human figure seizes him, and the spirit transports him to Jerusalem. The visionary experience will end in 11:22-25 with Ezekiel carried eastward by the spirit as he is "lifted" up and taken back to Babylon where Ezekiel tells the elders everything he saw.
Ezekiel's vision of the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem is in two parts:
- Part I concerns the abominations and the consequences (8:5-10:7).
- Part II concerns secret political clique or faction within the Temple leadership (11:1-21).
Part I also divides into two parts:
- An account describing six abominations taking place within the Temple precincts (8:5-18).
- The death of the rebellious wicked and the command to burn the city (9:1-10:7).
The date is the fifth day of Elul, August/September 592 BC; it is a year and two months since Ezekiel's call. The elders in exile have recognized that the "hand of Yahweh" is upon Ezekiel, and they are keeping company with him to see what message Yahweh will reveal through him. In the presence of the elders, Ezekiel has a vision as suddenly the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell on me there.
Ezekiel 8:10-18 ~ The Sins of the Leaders and the People Within the Holy Temple
The six abominations Ezekiel witnesses taking place in the Temple (verses 10-17):
- Unclean animals offered in sacrifice.
- Representations of pagan idols carved on the Temple walls.
- The religious leadership worshipping pagan idols by offering incense to them.
- Women practicing rituals in honor of the pagan god Tammuz.
- Men worshipping the pagan sun god.
- Men burning and inhaling substances to cause hallucinations.
Tammuz was a Mesopotamian deity associated with vegetation. According to the legend, Tammuz died every fall and was resurrected every spring to restore fertility to the earth. Worship of Tammuz included rites of profuse weeping of the god's death in the fall of the year, as in the case when Ezekiel received his vision.
Chapter 9: Divine Judgment for Jerusalem
Ezekiel 9:1-11 ~ Punishment and the Salvation
The "scourges of the city" are God's agents who will take vengeance on the city and its citizens for their many sins. Ezekiel is not seeing what is taking place in his present; he sees what will take place in the future. The six "men" are angelic beings with the appearance of men. The "north gate" is also called the "upper gate," located in the exterior court and called "the upper gate of Benjamin in Jeremiah 20:2 because through it was the way to the Benjamin Gate in the city wall (Jer 37:13).
CHALLENGE: “Why can’t we explain the Resurrection appearances in purely spiritual terms? Paul says that at the general resurrection, people will have a 'spiritual body' (1 Cor. 15:44). What if the disciples simply saw visions and concluded from them that Jesus had been spiritually resurrected?”
DEFENSE: The term “spiritual body” (Greek, sōma pneumatikon) does not mean an immaterial body but rather a supernaturally transformed body.
That’s why Paul compares the body to a seed that is sown in the ground and then becomes an adult plant (1 Cor. 15:35–44). The plant is the direct continuation of the seed, and the “spiritual body” of the resurrection is the direct continuation of the body we have in this life. Consequently, resurrection does not leave a body in the tomb, and all four of the Gospels stress that Jesus’ tomb was empty (Matt. 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5; John 20:1–6).
Further, the disciples believed consciousness continued beyond death in a disembodied state. When they saw Jesus walking on the water at night, they initially thought it was a ghost (Matt. 14:26; Mark 6:49). Yet they did not regard disembodied existence as the resurrection—a re-embodiment they believed would occur on the last day (John 6:39–40, 11:24).
Jesus’ Resurrection was thus unexpected. When the tomb was discovered empty, the disciples’ initial interpretation was that someone had moved the body (John 20:2–13). Only with the Resurrection appearances did they realize something miraculous happened.
Even then, when Jesus appeared to them, they fell back on the next plausible hypothesis, given their worldview, that they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37). However, Jesus demonstrated that he was bodily alive, telling them: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39; cf. 24:41–43, John 20:24–27).
The disciples thus proclaimed Jesus was bodily resurrected. They did not believe in a “spiritual resurrection” that would leave his body in the tomb. The spiritual resurrection hypothesis thus does not explain how the apostles could have innocently thought they saw Jesus alive after the Crucifixion.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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