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Chapter 21 (ESV)

1 The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the wilderness,
from a terrible land.
² A stern vision is told to me;
the traitor betrays,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
I bring to an end.
³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
⁴ My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
⁵ They prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
oil the shield!
⁶ For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
very diligently.”
⁸ Then he who saw cried out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
whole nights.
⁹ And behold, here come riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
And he answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the carved images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
¹⁰ O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.

REFLECTION:

1. This is a message of the destruction of Babylon. Prophet Isaiah saw the devastation of Babylon in a vision and was gripped with grief and pang.  Meanwhile, the Babylonians wined and dined, the destruction came upon them unexpectedly.   “My people who are crushed on the threshing floor”, this was referred to the Judeans who though having been under oppression from many fronts, still tried to plot schemes in allying with Babylon against Assyrians.  In fact, Babylon was doomed as well.
2. What is your “Babylon” – the arrangement to shelter you from the uncertainties of life? If you know that all your planning, and arrangements are temporal security that will be swept away, how do you feel?  What can you do to fill the insecurity that only God can fulfill?

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

HYMN:

I will Trust My Saviour Jesus – youtu.be/E5S4OPzdM-g