Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Isaiah

[Black Like Me]

"Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword."

[jimwalton]

God is saying that when Babylon falls, many people will be killed. The Medes and Persians, who conquered Babylon, were brutal when they entered the city. John Oswalt writes, "This is not to say that God is happy about such a turn of event, or that he wished it to be so (Gn. 6.5, 6, 11, 12). It is to say that the building of human pride must eventually pit individual against individual, nation against nation, in such a way that the most terrible savagery is the ultimate result."

You may think it’s odd that his strategy for stopping sin is to raise up a barbarian army to kill people, but God almost always works through normal people to accomplish his goals, and through normal events. The other point is: it’s not like he could raise up and army of godly people to do it. Unfortunately, there weren't enough of them. So the plan becomes to raise up the pagans to kill each other off, in the midst of that preserve a godly remnant who hold to the truth and multiply it, and eventually he will return to find a growing group of godly people to work with.