Included In His Redeeming Activity Will Be His Judgment on The Pernicious Influence of the Rulers of Babylon When He Will ‘Bring Them Down' As Fugitives In Their Ships (Isaiah 43:14-21).
Having declared how Yahweh is going to use Egypt and Cush as a ransom in order to rescue Judah, and how He is going to bring all the worldwide exiles from every part of the world (Isaiah 43:5-7), Isaiah now briefly turns his attention for the first time since chapter 39 to Babylon. He saw them as standing there as a threat from which God's people need to be ‘redeemed', a threat arising from what it has always represented, but enhanced by the fact that it had become a centre of operations for the Assyrians. So Yahweh will redeem His people from under the influence of Babylon, and exact vengeance on them also, by scattering them. He will remove the threat of Babylon.
If we wish to understand what Isaiah is saying here we must first try to climb into his shoes. We must ask, how did he at this time view Babylon? There is in fact no hint here of an independent Babylonian empire or of exiles. We must not read the later Nebuchadnezzar in here. His concern here is with the trouble that Babylon are being in one way or another to His people at this point in time, and we see from elsewhere in Isaiah that it is their religious influence that is the continual problem (Isaiah 47:9-13) from which Judah is to flee (Isaiah 48:20-21). What then is the background?
In Chapter s 13-14 Babylon was revealed, not only as one of the conspirators against Assyria, but as the enemy of all peoples. It may have at times been in submission to Assyria, but it was still in some ways the great earthly rival to God (Isaiah 13:19). It spoke of all that was contrary to God in the world. With its blasphemous kings (Isaiah 14:12-14) its pernicious influence reached out to the world. And as chapter Isaiah 47:8-15 reveals they were to be seen as the source of much of the false religion that was besetting God's people. This in fact ties in with what Isaiah knew from the traditions of his people of how Babylon had from the first been the enemy of all men. It had established the first empire in connection with Assyria (Genesis 10:10). It had caused the scattering of peoples throughout the world and been the builder of a tower into heaven (Genesis 11:1-9). It had sought to threaten Abraham's land (Genesis 14:1). It had always been a rebel. And then God had made him aware of the ultimate threat of Babylon, partly incited by the visit of ambassadors to Hezekiah (Isaiah 39:1-4), a visit that had filled him with dread. As he informed them, Judah could be sure that Babylon would only seek to swallow up His people and take possession of their wealth (Isaiah 39:6-7). So he would see anything that came from the direction of Babylon as a major threat, and it is probable that in his later days Assyria were actually exercising their influence over Judah through Babylon, for Esarhaddon has rebuilt it and when Manasseh was arraigned he was taken there.
Note On The Influence of Babylon at This Time.
While we do not have any knowledge of any depredations against Judah by Babylon in the days of Hezekiah, especially in the times when it was free from the Assyrian yoke (in for example 721-710 BC, and around 705 BC and after), there may have been some, for Isaiah clearly saw their influence as undesirable, and was afraid of it, and we do know that later, under Assyrian rule, Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, was taken as hostage to Babylon. This could surely only be because at this time Babylon was in some way acting as Judah's overseer on behalf of Assyria. And this hostage taking could only have resulted from reprisals for an unsatisfactory response to Assyria's approaches. It is quite possible that at the time when Manasseh was seized there would have been much looting and possibly grave damage done to the Temple by the Babylonian troops with a view to obtaining what silver and gold was left in it (2 Chronicles 33:11), for we can hardly doubt that Jerusalem would have put up some resistance, especially when they remembered what had happened the last time it was surrounded by the forces of the king of Assyria.
Nor need we doubt that Babylon, as a branch of the Assyrian empire, posed a continual threat and menace to Manasseh throughout his reign. For Esarhaddon, Sennacherib's son, had been made crown prince of Babylon, and when he became King of Assyria, his son Samas-sum-ukin in turn became the prince of Babylon, and in time even sought to establish himself there independently as king. It would seem therefore, in view of what happened to Manasseh, that, under Assyria, Babylon under the crown princes had at this time some kind of jurisdiction over Judah, and was very much affecting its welfare.
Thus we can be sure that at times through this period the belligerency and influence of Babylon was exerted against Judah. It may have happened in the periods when Babylon was independent, but it would probably be more so when they were under Assyrian rule. And with that belligerency would go the attempt to make them conform to the superstitious practises connected with Babylon (Isaiah 47:12-13).
This is why as His people's Redeemer Yahweh purposes swift judgment on Babylon. They are not to be allowed to continue to menace or influence His people. But note that there is here no mention of exiles in Babylon. Babylon is not seen by Isaiah as a major recipient of exiles. The importance of Babylon to Isaiah was not the much later captivity of Nebuchadnezzar, of which he gives no hint, it was in what Babylon represented, and the influence it exerted during the reigns of Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh. As chapter 47 will make clear, Babylon was the stronghold of idolatry and widespread occult activity. It was they who had formed the world's first empire (Genesis 10:8-11), and built a tower to heaven and caused the world to be divided (Genesis 11:1-9). And even now the tentacles of their influence reached everywhere, assisted by their Assyrian masters. They were the bastion of the gods (once Babylon was dealt with in chapter 47 the almost continual reference to the false gods ceases until the wholly new situation of chapter 57). And, at least while under Assyria, they were clearly seen as a centre of belligerence against Judah, as what happened to Manasseh demonstrates.
End of note.
Two past incidents are probably in his mind as Isaiah thinks of Israel's redemption. The act of Yahweh as Kinsman Redeemer (‘your Redeemer') would be a reminder of how Abraham acted as Lot's kinsman-redeemer in Genesis 14 when bringing about the deliverance of captives and booty from a Babylonian king with his allies, an incident that we have been specifically reminded of in Isaiah 41:2. Here then we may again see the ravagers and thieves from Babylon, who would this time come and rob Jerusalem and take captives (2 Chronicles 22:11). And now they were to be hunted down by Israel's Kinsman Redeemer (Isaiah 43:14) and made to restore their captives. And it would be a reminder of the deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt by the exercise of miraculous power (Exodus 14-15).
‘Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
“For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives,
Even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.”
I am Yahweh your Holy One
The Creator of Israel, your King.”
Note how this sounds like a quick punitive strike against Babylon as a result of regarding it as a rather distant and bad influence, and a thorn in Judah's side, and not like the description of the destruction of a mighty empire in which they have been exiled. And this even though we know that some exiles from Israel were in Babylon (Isaiah 11:11). The opening words are important. The redemption was for Judah's sake. But a Redeemer is only needed when people are in trouble, so clearly Babylon are seen here as somehow oppressing and influencing Judah, so that Judah need to be ‘redeemed' from their control and influence.
Note also that Yahweh has ‘sent to Babylon'. He is speaking as though located in Judah, but acting in Babylon for the sake of a people resident in Judah. Having prophesied what the king of Babylon would do in robbing Jerusalem of all its possessions (Isaiah 39:6-7), which itself would result in the looting the temple in order to get at its gold and silver, (the king's house was connected with the Temple), and no doubt already aware of Babylonian menaces, Isaiah is now looking ahead to God's vengeance on them for it. He wanted His people to know that while Babylon, with its continual threat as their regional controller, might harass them and influence them to their harm, it would not get away with its behaviour. It would be harassed in turn.
So as their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, Yahweh would send (the verb is intensive (piel) denoting His authority over Babylon) to Babylon and ‘bring all of them down as fugitives'. For ‘bring down' compare Amos 3:11; Obadiah 1:4. The thought is not of being brought to Canaan but of being brought down to defeat and humiliation. They had behaved badly towards Israel/Judah with their pernicious influences and made some of them fugitives, thus will the leaders in Babylon themselves become fugitives. ‘The Chaldeans' were originally from south Babylonia but the word gradually came to signify the whole land. The ships of rejoicing may have been pleasure vessels on the Euphrates, now used as a means of flight because of their dire straits. Or it could simply be ships that they were proud of. But the point is that what should have been ships which gave them pleasure had become the means of their desperate escape.
This is possibly prophesying the end of Samas-sum-ukin and his followers when they rose against his brother (see above). Or, depending on when Isaiah wrote this, it could be describing the earlier flight of Merodach Baladan from Sennacherib, for he fled across the Persian Gulf by ship, and the ships that were to be sent in pursuit of him were only called off when it was learned that he had died. Isaiah may well have seen that as symbolic of Yahweh's control over Babylon.
Thus by His treatment of Babylon which has misused His people, Israel/Judah will know that He is Yahweh, the Unique One, the Set Apart One (set apart from all others), the One especially set apart by His moral purity, and Israel's Creator (Isaiah 43:1), Who brought Israel as it were out of nothing. And that He is their King, Who adopted them as His covenant people at Sinai and watches over them, and reveals Himself as King over all.
It should be noted that there is no idea here of the collapse of a mighty empire, but of a punitive stroke against Babylon which would cause its chief men to flee. It is very possible that Isaiah at this stage would have in mind how Abraham as kinsman redeemer had successfully gone against the king of Babylon, put him and his allies to rout, and delivered God's people (Isaiah 41:2; Genesis 14). Now Yahweh was to be Israel's Kinsman-redeemer, delivering them from the invader. However, the following description concentrates not on Abraham but on the miracle of the Reed Sea which more obviously revealed His saving power.
‘Thus says Yahweh,
Who makes a way in the sea,
And a path in the mighty waters,
Who brings forth the chariot and horse,
The army and the power,
They lie down together,
They shall not rise,
They are extinct,
Quenched as flax.'
The idea here is that this smiting of Babylon will be done by the Deliverer of Israel Who by His mighty power had delivered His people from Egypt and from Pharaoh's army at the Reed Sea. And we may see as indicated within these verses that just as Yahweh delivered Israel at the Exodus from the mighty power of Egypt, by the exercise of His Own mighty power, so will now He destroy the power being exercised from Babylon.
The way in the sea and the path in the mighty waters was a poetic description of the crossing of the Reed Sea by which His people finally obtained their freedom from oppression and the concentration is not on the journey but on the ‘way' in which they were delivered from the pursuing forces. He provided them a safe way to walk in. The chariot and horse being brought forth was a reminder of the way that Pharaoh's chariot force and cavalry were drawn into God's snare, together with his army and all his power. The result was that they all ‘lay down' not to rise. They became extinct like a quenched flame. They were drowned. All oppression ceased.
Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old,
Behold I will do a new thing,
Now will it spring forth, shall you not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert,
The beasts of the field will honour me,
The jackals and the ostriches,
Because I give waters in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert,
To give drink to my people, my chosen,
The people whom I formed for myself,
That they might set forth my praise.
God promises that once He has acted they will be able to forget the ancient wonders, because He will now do a new thing for them which they will be able to point at. He will make for His people ‘a way in the wilderness'. In Egypt he had provided a way in the sea which kept them safe. Here He will provide them with a way in the wilderness which will keep them safe. This may signify a water-endowed way set up by Yahweh in the ‘wilderness' of Judah in which they now live, made a wilderness partly by Assyrio-Babylonian depredations, so that they can walk in it freely (compare 35. 1-2, 8) or it may be reminding them of the ‘way of the wilderness' in which Yahweh had once enabled them to survive (Deuteronomy 8:15). In Isaiah ‘the way' refers not to a journey but to the way of God's paths (Isaiah 3:12), in contrast with the ‘way of the people' (Isaiah 8:11), it is the way of the just which is uprightness (Isaiah 26:7), it is the way of His judgments (Isaiah 26:8). His own do not leave it through drunkenness (Isaiah 28:7), but rather when they begin to go astray to the right hand or to the left they hear a word behind them saying, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). In chapter 35 we were told it is ‘the way of holiness' which He would make for His people to walk in. So the idea of ‘the way' is not of a way on which to journey home, but of a way in which they can walk in the land
Here there is a special emphasis on the fact that it will be like a well-watered way in a dry wilderness area, envied and exulted in by the wild beasts. It would have every provision for their need. Provision of water is constantly Isaiah's picture of blessing (Isaiah 30:25; Isaiah 32:2; Isaiah 33:21; Isaiah 41:18; Isaiah 66:12). Unlike us they did not have water on tap. Having water by the way was thus their idea of a good and pleasant land. So the inference is that their devastated and ruined land would once again be made a satisfying land for them to walk in. Rivers will be found in arid places, the wild animals, ostriches and jackals will honour Yahweh because the land has become so well watered, enabling His chosen people to drink their fill and be satisfied. And this will be because they are the ones whom He has chosen and formed for Himself so that they might show forth His praise. Note how this is then more emphatically spiritualised in Isaiah 44:1-5, where the water in dry places is like the Spirit at work in men's hearts, and the specific connection is made back to this passage in the references to their being His chosen (Isaiah 43:20; Isaiah 44:1) and to being formed by Him (Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 44:2). The picture then is of blessing in the land.
It is also possible that the ‘way in the wilderness' was intended to remind them how, when they were wandering in the wilderness over their thirty eight year period of chastisement (when they were going nowhere), God had watched over them and cared for them even when there was no water (Deuteronomy 8:15). This would therefore be much better for them than that period. Now there would be water in the way that they had to tread. Note also that the ‘way of the wilderness' is often spoken of as being the wilder areas in Israel/Judah (Joshua 8:15; Jdg 20:42; 2 Samuel 2:24; 2 Samuel 15:23), not a way outside it. The Assyrian and Babylonian depredations just produced more of it. Here those wildernesses, which had multiplied after the Assyrian invasion, would now become watered.
Some seek to make this indicate a journey but there is no suggestion of them travelling either here or in any of the similar descriptions and comparison with parallel passages demonstrates that that is not the significance of the words (e.g. Isaiah 29:17; Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 35:1-10; Isaiah 41:17-20; Isaiah 44:3-5). The idea of a journey is never emphasised. (Although if we did see it as a journey it is the one described in Isaiah 43:6-7, the return from world-wide exile of all the people of Israel). It is more their walk in their own land that is in mind. They were used to walking in the heat along dusty trails in their own land, which had now partly become a wilderness, and longing for water from a spring was a common experience in the heat, so that a well-watered way in the wilderness would be a joy and delight (compare Isaiah 35:8-10). Here that longing would be satisfied in ‘the way' that Yahweh provided. Note the interesting contrast between ‘the way in the sea and the path in the mighty waters' (Isaiah 43:16), which is described elsewhere as ‘the way for the redeemed to pass over' (to safety - Isaiah 51:10), emphasising the old way of escape provided from surrounding dangers, and ‘the way in the wilderness' now become well-watered, provided for them to walk in, and so escape the wilderness, emphasising God's provision for His own so that they might walk in the way of holiness. In devastated Judah at the time there would be many more ‘ways in the wilderness' which were unsuitable to walk in than there had been, but for His own Yahweh would make one that was very suitable and abounding in water, so that they could walk in the way continually.
But its real fulfilment would be when His true people came home to Him through the ministry of Jesus and the church, to walk in ‘the way'. The early Christians saw themselves as the people of ‘The Way' (Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23; Acts 22:4; Acts 24:14; Acts 24:22), and the designation may well have had verses like this in Isaiah in mind, as also may Jesus have had when He called Himself the Way (John 14:6). It is the Way of God. Here they would find abundantly poured out the ‘rain' of the Holy Spirit of which they could drink and be satisfied (Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:1-5; John 3:5; John 4:10; John 4:13-14; John 7:37). And it again will find its complete fulfilment in the heavenly Jerusalem, when those who have entered it, the nations who walk amidst its light, will find themselves beside the great and fruitful river of Paradise (Revelation 21:24; Revelation 22:1-5).
‘Do not remember the former things.' The past is not to be the measure of the future. They will not need to dwell on the past. Deliverance in the past was partial, delivery in the future will be gloriously complete. They will speak of ‘God now' and not ‘God then'. See especially Deuteronomy 32:7 onwards.