Will Not the Judge of All the Earth Do Right? - Isaiah 13 and others

A long time ago in a land far, far away, I discovered in my early studies of the English language that some words have things called prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are little parts of words that come at the beginning of short words to make them longer.  Suffixes are little parts of words that you tack on to the end of short words to make them longer.  Then there are some words that have both prefixes and suffixes so you can make short words into even longer, more un-pronouncible, multi-syllabled words.  

One pronouncible, multi-syllabled word that has both a prefix and a suffix is mono-the-ism.  “Mono” is the prefix, “ism” is the suffix, and the little word that is being made considerably longer is “theo”.  You put the three sections together and you get a word that means “belief in one God.”  Christians, contrary to the arguments of some, are monotheists.  We believe there is one God who exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  This is what the Bible teaches.  I don’t fully understand it, so I can’t fully explain it.  It’s just there and I believe it.  That is what the suffix “ism” means.  It indicates belief in something.  Monotheism means belief in one God.

Not everyone is monotheistic.  Mostly the people of southeast Asia, and in the more remote areas of the world (remote from here, anyway) are polytheists.  They believe in many gods.  In fact, during the times in which the Bible was written, it appears the entire biblical world was polytheistic, with the singular exception of the people of Israel.  But even they were chronically polytheistic.  For much of their history they worshipped gods other than, or in addition to Jehovah.

Various cultures throughout history have created or acquired their own peculiar gods or collections of gods, the most famous being the Greek gods and their Roman counterparts from which we get the names of our planets and space ships.  But the Aztecs had their gods, the Canaanites had theirs, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Celts, the Japanese, and many more.  Battles fought between rival nations were generally considered to be battles between the gods of those nations.

When we reach the 13th chapter of Isaiah, we read of the God of Israel pronouncing the future destruction of ALL the nations surrounding Judah.  In chapter 13, Babylon is the target nation, and the Medes will be their conquerors, sent by Jehovah to destroy them and to discredit their gods which are not gods at all.  Just like He did in Egypt when He humiliated every false god of the Egyptians by showing His absolute power over them all with the ten plagues.

The God of Israel has a pretty good track record thus far.  He has outlasted the gods of Egypt, the Mayans, the Incas, the Greeks and Romans, the Sumerians, the Celts, the Norse gods, and on and on it goes.  There was Chronos, and Ashur, and Bacchus, and Diana, and Ishtar, and Zeus, and Dagon, and Nimrod, and my personal favorite, the anonymous gods.  How would you like to be an anonymous GOD?  Don’t you think if you were a god you could do something about your own anonymity?

When we look at the historical and the archeological records, we see that what Isaiah predicted in regard to God’s destruction of the nations during the centuries following his prophecies is right on the mark.  World War I was way back then.  Nation after nation conquered nation after nation.  The proof of that is the fact that we dig those ancient cities out of the dirt today.  

Once God is finished with His judgments against all those middle eastern neighbors, only He is left standing.  All the gods of the nations are down for the count.  Babylon and the Chaldeans suffer a particularly harsh body slam in Isaiah chapter 14:

11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps;

maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.

The nations of Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus (& Israel), Egypt and Cush, Tyre and Sidon, and even Judah are included in Isaiah’s divine hit list in chapters 14 through 23.  The one true God is going to bring judgment and destruction upon them and their gods.  Then, if you look at chapter 24, you’ll probably see a heading there that says something like “Judgment on the Whole Earth”.  

3 The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word.

In chapter 13, which is where we are today, in verse 11, God said through Isaiah:

I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

“The world” that Isaiah speaks of there is the known world at that time.  He is not talking about the entire planet, but the so-called civilized world of that day.  However, turn with me please to Genesis 18.  I want to show you how God thinks about the world.  Genesis 18 is the account of Abraham’s encounter with three men, one of which was the Lord Jesus Himself.  The other two “men” are making their way to the city of Sodom.  Look with me at verse 16.

16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”

22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

There is much to be learned about God and His purposes in these few verses.  As we keep reading, not only is God willing to spare an evil city from destruction for the sake of 50 righteous people, Abraham “persuades” the Lord to drop that number all the way to 10!  The just Judge of all the earth is willing to spare an entire city of thousands for the sake of ten righteous people!  According to this, it seems obvious to me that God is both a just AND a merciful God.  Clearly, He is not looking for any and every excuse to annihilate a perfectly good city filled with perfectly good people.  On the contrary, He is willing to spare the lives of the very immoral majority if there are 10 righteous people in the entire city.  

But as you know, there is only one righteous man in that city who is described in the New Testament as “righteous Lot”, Abraham’s nephew who was vexed by the immorality of Sodom.  The two men (angels) sent from the Lord to Sodom take him by the hand and practically drag him and his family out of the city so they will escape destruction.  Now, with Lot outside the city limits, there are NO righteous people in Sodom or Gomorrah.  So, in keeping with Abraham’s correct assessment of the justice AND mercy of God, the righteous (all one of them) do not suffer the same fate as the wicked.  All the righteous are delivered, all the wicked are destroyed.

In these few brief verses we see that God is going to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham (v18) by means of Jesus Christ, and He is also going to judge all the nations of the earth in justice and righteousness (v25) by means of Jesus Christ.  God is not merely the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants.  Jehovah is not simply the preferred Deity of the Jews among the many deities to choose from.  He is not the God who inhabits the land of Israel, but He doesn’t get around to any of the other places around the Middle East or trespass on the property of other gods.  He is, contrary to popular belief, THE God of ALL the earth.

Consistently throughout the whole Bible, beginning in Genesis 1:1 all the way to Revelation 22, God always presents Himself as the one and only, universal, omnipotent King of Heaven and Earth.  He is the Creator of all men everywhere.  Paul reminds us in Colossians 1 that the Creator is Jesus Christ.

16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 

The Lord Jesus has created everything, He created it all for Himself, and as the Creator of all, He is either the Savior or the Judge of all.  All the earth, every nation, every individual person, will have to give an account to the God of Israel, Jesus Christ, because He (as the second member of the Trinity) is the only God there is.  He requires all men everywhere to eventually stand before His final judgment seat.  And the Judge of all the earth, He WILL do right.  The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah , as well as the deliverance of Lot from destruction, are an example of that.

This is the same scenario with the Jews and the people of Jerusalem that Isaiah speaks to for 66 chapters.  Isaiah preaches and prophecies to the kings and the people of Judah for decades, and his constant cry is repent in order to escape the coming destruction.  God is bringing His anger to bear, by means of the armies of evil nations, in order to cleanse and purge His people and His land of the great sinfulness that exists there, not the least of which is idolatry.  Then, He will use other evil nations to punish the evil nations that punished the evil nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem.  There is no partiality with God.

That is what Isaiah, chapters 13 through 24 are pretty much all about.  But in the destruction is mercy.  Let’s read chapter 13 together to get the gist of the next 11 chapters.

1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

At this point, you could insert the name of any of Judah’s neighbors for Babylon.  While the particulars would be different, they all face the same fate: Desolation.  Destruction.  Death.  Judgment.  Because of sin.

2 On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. 

3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones.

4 The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude!  The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together!  The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. 

5 They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! 

7 Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt. 

8 They will be dismayed: pangs and agony will seize them; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.  They will look aghast at one another; their faces will be aflame.

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. 

11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. 

12 I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. 

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. 

14 And like a hunted gazelle, or like sheep with none to gather them, each will turn to his own people, and each will flee to his own land. 

15 Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. 

16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.

17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. 

18 Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. 

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. 

20 It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there; no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there. 

21 But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance. 

22 Hyenas will cry in its towers, and jackals in the pleasant palaces; its time is close at hand and its days will not be prolonged.

God’s judgment is coming upon Babylon by means of the Medes and the Persians for being so willing and happy to annihilate and massacre the Jews and the people of Judah.  Babylon is accomplishing the purposes of God against Judah in much the same way fire falling out of the sky did to Sodom.  But because of Babylon’s wickedness in doing so, God will also punish them by an invasion of the Medes who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold.  

The Medes are intractable.  They can’t be bought off.  They can’t be bribed.  They don’t care about silver or gold.  They are merciless.  They only want to kill.  They cannot be persuaded to turn from their intention to bring about the total destruction of Babylon.  There are no peace talks, there are no sanctions, there are no summits, there are no negotiations.  Babylon is going down, and she is going down hard, permanently.  The only things that will live there once God and the Medes are done with them, are ostriches, wild goats, jackals, and other howling creatures.  It will be uninhabitable.  And for 11 chapters in Isaiah, this basic story repeats again and again.  Only the victims change.

Sometimes, especially in election years, we see signs that say “War Is Not The Answer” and other similar expressions of opinions about the evil of war.  It is true.  War really isn’t the answer.  God does use wars and armies and nations to bring His righteous judgment upon proud and evil nations, typically without them knowing they are being used by God for that purpose.  But war and death and destruction do not solve the main problem.  It just brings evil to a temporary halt.  War IS a short-term answer to a lot of evil perpetrated by evil men.  But it is not the final solution.

There is a final solution: The Judge of all the earth will do right.  Thankfully, the righteous Judge of all the earth is also the merciful Savior of the world who is willing to forgive all who repent and trust in Him to deliver them from evil, especially their own evil.  It is our own sinfulness, both individually and as a nation, that brings about God’s righteous indignation against us.  And He is particularly justified in being indignant against people, like the Jews and like many Americans, who claim to belong to Him, but who persist in sin against Him!

If the Judge of all the earth does what is right, we need to repent regularly and make it clear that we really and truly are God’s people.  If we do not, we might as well be living in Babylon or Sodom.  The same fate awaits us that awaited them.  The righteous Judge will eventually bring His judgment to bear against us, either nationally or individually!  But it is still true what Abraham said to, and of the Lord:

25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! (Genesis 18:25 ESV)

We live in evil days, in a predominately evil culture, marked by rampant sinfulness on every side.  It amazes me that anyone would seriously argue that America is a Christian nation, and get upset when someone refutes that.  When the lifestyles of the majority of self-proclaimed Christians are only microscopically different from the unbelieving world around us, why should we expect to be included among the righteous and excluded from the wicked when the Lord brings His wrath and judgment to bear?  

If “believers” look like the world, and act like the world, and think like the world, and live like the world, and enjoy all the things of the world, and love the world, and sin like the world, . . .

If “believers” don’t love God, don’t love His Word, don’t emulate Jesus Christ, don’t regularly worship with other believers, don’t love the brethren, don’t pray, don’t give, and don’t act any differently than anybody else, . . .

Why do they call themselves “believers”?  That was the problem in Judah in Isaiah’s day.  The Jews were no different than the pagans all around them.  What makes them any different?  What is it that they believe?  What reason do we have to believe them when they say are Jews?  What reason do we have to believe people today when they are just like the world but say they are Christians?  And why would such “believers” expect God to treat them any differently from how He is going to treat unbelievers?  

The Jews and the people of Judah received judgment from God at the hands of the wicked Babylonians because, as “God’s people”, they ran after and became like the idolatrous Gentile nations that surrounded them.  They became like the rest of the world.  Consequently, God judged them just like He judged the rest of the world: He destroyed them.  There is no partiality with God in His judgment of sinful men.  

But as we see with Lot, those who are genuinely righteous, who are true believers and followers of God in fact, and not just in name, by means of their relationship to Him through Christ, they are delivered from judgment.  God is just.  He will do right.  The righteous will not suffer God’s judgment like the wicked.  

Here’s what we read in the New Testament written to real Christians:

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.  (1 John 2:15-17 ESV)

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not associate with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.  (Eph 5:1-8 ESV)

What is your status?  Are you among those Paul refers to as the sons of disobedience?  Or are you among the children of light?  Are you one of God’s people in name only?  Do you love the world?  Or do you actually live according to the will of God?  Those who do abide forever.