There is None to Save You

The Word of the LORD turned to Babylon next, foretelling of its demise when it was not even a powerful nation. God shows His mighty power by telling Isaiah, and through him to Judah and Jerusalem, what would happen to them and to the nations He will raise up to bring calamity on them for their sins. The destruction Babylon would bring would be brought down on them also.

’Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, uncover the leg, cross the rivers. Your nakedness will be uncovered,  your shame will be exposed; I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.’

Babylon would do many evil things to the nations they conquered. And those actions would be brought down on them in the future. The LORD, the Holy One of Israel, would redeem Israel from the hand of Babylon. In this we know that Babylon would come and remove those in Judah and Jerusalem. They would destroy the city and Temple. They would cause great harm to the people as they forcefully brought them into exile. But that would be the beginning of their own downfall, and those actions would be brought down of them by others God would raise up.

Babylon viewed themselves as the Queen of the kingdoms. The Queen of Heaven, the false goddess Ishtar, whose worship began with Inanna/Semiramis many generations ago before, would be brought low. God would bring destruction on her because she claimed to be the only god and that none could conquer her. Even Nebuchadnezzar would later call himself the King of the Universe, boasting as kings do of their power. But God would bring them low.

God had been angry with His people, so He brought Assyria and then Babylon to bring calamity on them so they would repent. They did not repent, so they were exiled and the land destroyed. God gave them into the hand of their enemies, but they did not show them mercy. Their enemies furthered the harm and caused great pain and suffering. So God slayed their enemies for destruction.

In this, God recognizes the supposed powers claimed by Babylon and invites them to stop Him from doing what He said He would. Babylon claimed that she was not a widow and not childless. These claims were personally made by Semiramis, wife of Shamshi-Adad, king of Assyria, when he died and she took the throne after him, not 100 years before Isaiah’s time. She claimed to not be a widow and that the child she bore after his death was miraculously conceived. She claimed the title Queen of Heaven, much like several women before her did. 

God knew the history of mankind. He knew that Nimrod’s wife Inanna also claimed the same thing. Nimrod built his tower, causing division in the earth. His wife Inanna was first to claim the title Queen of Heaven during his life, but after his death she became the worst of women. She used her seductions to gain political power and take down many men on her way to the top. She became the highest goddess of the ancient world, claiming that she was god and there was no other. This ancient whore of Babel was later worshipped in many cultures as Venus, Diana, Astarte, Ishtar, Isis, Aphrodite, and many other names. Even the children of Israel in exile worshiped the Queen of Heaven, fasting for Tammuz/Dumuzid/Adonis/Nimrod, her husband who died and was claimed to have risen to life again in the form of her son. This twisted history of false gods/goddess is a corruption mankind turned to as they rejected the One True God.

God knew the history. He also was going after that system of false gods/goddesses.  ‘Evil will come on you which you will not know how to charm away; and disaster will fall on you for which you cannot atone, and destruction about which you do not know will come on you suddenly.’ YHWH invites them to gather their sorcerers and astrologists who prophesy by the stars to stand up and save them. He encourages them to take all of their wicked spells and use them to defend themselves from what God will do. 

‘Behold, they have become like stubble, fire burns them. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coal to warm by, now a fire to sit before! So have those become to you with whom you have labored, who have trafficked with you from your youth. Each has wandered in his own way. There is none to save you.’ And so with those words, God declared that Babylon and all the nations who consorted with them would be destroyed. This prophecy was for days to come, but surely those days did come as Babylon was destroyed.