40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 13:17-14:15 (Episode 457)

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

God is stirring up the Medes against Babylon to reduce it to the shame of Sodom. A promise of compassion on the house of Jacob is given. And the remnant taunts the oppressor. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education  What's New from 1517: The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. you can go to 1517.org slash podcast and check out all the other podcasts that are living over there while you're over there make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing you can sign up for an academy or 12 academies

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all this stuff is free How are you going to sign up for free academies? How are you going to do it? Well, it's only possible because people like you are contributing to the cause, and thank you very much to those of you who already do that. Chad, we are in Isaiah chapter 13. We ended up on a real bummer, and I don't know that it's going to get better soon because we ended in the middle of a bummer, not the end of a bummer.

And so we have Isaiah getting a little poetic, I don't know if he's singing a song, reciting, this writing is not simply prophetic, but also he's using more colorful and flowery language than that. And we're talking about here about the judgment of Babylon, and so what this is going to look like, and ended with faces being set aflame, and I mean, it's rough. He is going to have infants dashed to pieces, and houses plundered, and wives ravished, so not real positive stuff. No, pretty brutal ending for sure, and like you said, it's not going to get much better. Although, you know, don't stop listening. We do have a little bit of a break from the doom and gloom when we get to the beginning of chapter 14. At least two verses of light in the midst of the doom and gloom. So we do have that going for us anyway.

But we've got to finish off this oracle against Babylon. Yeah, we're about 16 verses into. We'll pick it up with verse 17 and see where Isaiah goes from there. So I think I'm going to just go ahead and read 17 through 22. That'll end the chapter for us. Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. Their bows will slaughter the young men. They will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb.

Their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like, and we know what's coming after this, it's like the standard comparison, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. it will that is babylon 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 but wild animals will lie down there and their houses will be full of howling creatures their ostriches their ostriches will dwell or some kind of animal all these animals were half the time we're when you get down to like more exotic animals in the hebrew half the time it could be this it could be that you're sort of guessing so anyway a lot of ostriches running

around that part of the world yeah you know ghost towns there's a lot of ostriches judean ghost towns a lot of ostriches so ostriches uh or owls or at least some kind of birds will dwell and their wild goats will dance. So there's a pretty good chance that we have kind of a mixture here of real animals and mythological creatures. So the Hebrew here is sa'ir, which is also be translated as a satyr, like a male goat demon dancing around. So maybe have a mixture here of of animals and mythological mythological creatures but however you want to translate that esv has the wild goats will will dance hyenas that's one possible translation could also be foxes or even jackals even though you have jackals in the very next half verse

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. So before we get into the details, I mean, the overall message is pretty clear. Babylon's days are numbered, even though there's a lot of speculation when you read the literature as to exactly when this is going to happen. I think it's best when we're dealing with oracles like this not to treat it as if it's kind of a weather forecast. You know, what's going to happen in eight days?

Well, exactly this. the prophets, when they're talking about the future, are not most of the time concerned with pinpointing an exact day or month or even year when something's going to happen. They're looking into the future and God is giving them a vision of the future. But oftentimes the fulfillment of this isn't necessarily a pinpoint on the calendar. Rather, it's a process. You know, this is going to happen, which leads to this, which leads to this. I mean, we know, for instance, that the Assyrians wiped out Babylon, but then later on, you also, or early on, I mean, like right around this time, and then later on, you had, of course, the Persians, and Babylon was,

rather than like having a decisive fall, it was more of a gradual crumbling to where it, you know, it is what it what it is today it just ruins but anyway that's that's the overall message of course that it's going to have this decline and then it's eventually going to become nothing more than a ghost town which is exactly how we have it described here at the end where you're looking around and there's not even like uh some bedouin tribe or some shepherds that have their animals there like they might in some deserted city. They're not even going to be there. The only things there are these wild creatures or mythological creatures who are roaming through the ruins. You've got these hyenas up in the city towers that are howling at night, jackals running

around all over the place. So it's the reverse, more or less. This place, which was the height of pomp and circumstance and power and arrogance and everybody looked up to babylon well now everyone's going to look down to babylon because it's going to be nothing more than the ruined city so that's i mean that's the clearly the overall message of of the chapters there's some details that we can get to but at least that that much is clear yeah one of the things that i mean it's obviously painting a picture of like a place that is left in desolation i mean it paints that picture pretty good oh you like yeah it doesn't you don't have to imagine much it's all right there uh one of the things that i have to always remember i don't know if i'm the only one that

has to do this because whenever i'm like reading it's probably because of movies and stuff man uh so if you watch like movies about not this time usually but uh but maybe you've like watched some movies about like you've watched like troy or something like that and you get this idea in your head of like massive cities and all this kind of stuff and um and you you got to kind of dispel a little bit of that where like these these places are not um cities the way that like maybe like a medieval uh you know uh battle movie uh might portray that like like these if you were to go visit some of these places you're like oh that is not as big as i thought it was uh in and you have to understand that like just people groups are smaller and like in

cities were smaller. I mean, they didn't have the ability to build a lot of the things that we would think of, of now. And so, um, there is that, that this desolation, um, that's why some of this stuff can happen. It can happen very quickly. Uh, like your city walls get busted down and like, it's all over. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And, uh, once the walls are down, everything's over. yeah yeah yeah so once the walls are down of course that's your the gates and your walls

that's your only defense you bring those down uh and the the army's army's going in the very reason you're hiding behind the city walls is because that is instead of like marching out to attack is because you know that if you march onto the field with these guys you're going to lose so yeah if the walls come down then everything else is going to be be coming down with it so uh just a couple details here that we can point out uh first of all it's it is kind of strange the way he begins so back in verse 17 he says i'm stirring up the medes against them who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold i mean you would expect this to be uh the persians because it's ultimately the persians uh who take down the babylonian empire but uh the medes were

part of the coalition so maybe they were more uh fierce maybe that's the reason that that they come up here but in back in uh 5 539 when you have the overthrow of babylon under the persians uh the the larger coalition of those forces of those persian forces were uh inclusive of of the medes and uh that kind of fits with the way they're described they have no regard for silver do not delight in gold that's not saying they don't care about silver and gold it's saying they can't be bought off which is i mean one of the things that would have happened back in the ancient world not just ancient world i mean up into uh through medieval times too i mean you if a city had the option of basically paying tribute silver and gold and their city would be preserved well that's

that's what they they would have done so these guys are like nope we're not getting we're not to be bought off no regard for silver no regard no delight in gold we're out for for blood and then uh the freakiest army is the army that you're like hey what are they here for are they here to take all our stuff maybe we could just give it to them right oh no they don't care about your stuff they're here to kill you like that's that's all that they're gonna take your stuff to be sure but it's not the uh the motivation so like once the motivation is not those things you're like oh, well, we're in big, big, big trouble here. Oh, yeah, then it's over.

I mean, even Genghis Khan, who was like one of the more unmerciful conquerors of the world, even he could be bought off. I mean, if a city willingly surrendered, they were going to pay dearly monetarily, but they weren't going to be destroyed. Well, these guys are not in it for the money. and then a couple of the details uh it is kind of we'd have a odd odd uh use of the hebrew here but i think it makes sense in the context so verse 18 says their bows will slaughter the young men the esv and probably other translations to have a footnote here that says the hebrew means to dash

in pieces i mean that is the the meaning of that verb everywhere so you know bows don't dash people in pieces. They pierce them through, they kill them, they slaughter them, which is what ESV has here. But I think the reason that this odd expression is used is because of what we hinted at as we started this episode. If you go back to verse 16, it says their infants will be dashed in pieces. And that's the same verb that's used here. So I think it's simply repeated for the sake of the context. So there's going to be a widespread destruction of everyone and everything. Let's see I don't know if there's anything else I need to point out there

Anything else that catches your eye we need to discuss? No, I think it paints a pretty explicit picture Pretty clear Alright, well, that takes us through This oracle against Babylon And keep in mind, as I think we talked about last episode That Babylon is front and center in all of these oracles against the nations,

which we're going to be covering in these next few chapters of Isaiah, because of its rising prominence. At this time, when Isaiah is writing this, it's on the rise, it wants to be on the rise, but it's not there yet. It's not the top dog. It's not the international power of Isaiah's day. That's going to be the Assyrians.

But it will become that. And then also because it harkens all the way back to Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel. So Babylon becomes, in a big picture of the Bible, from Genesis and then of course to the horror of Babylon and Revelation, Babylon is the icon of the ungodly worldly power that represents kind of the human element or the human tool, we might even say, that the dark forces of evil are using in this world. And so when you have the downfall of Babylon, it's not just a downfall of a city or a nation or a king, it's a downfall of evil. So anytime the destruction of Babylon is being talked about, you're also hearing about the destruction. It's also kind of a precursor of that final day of the Lord, which is to come. All right, so chapter 14, got a couple of good verses here.

some hope. For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and will set them in their own land and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place. And the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors and rule over those who oppress them. And those two verses are the light that we've been talking about that we're going to see. So this is a kind of a brief respite from the oracles against the nations that we're going to see. And this is, of course, something we've already heard from Isaiah, and it's going to be something that we hear from him over and over in

the chapters that follow these oracles against the nations. And basically, the message is that there's going to be a reversal. So Judah, Israel, they're going to be exiled. They're going to go into captivity. They're going to suffer because of their rebellion against God. But what's God going to do well he's going to have compassion i every time i see this word in the old testament i just kind of pause because it it does have such a i don't even know what the words to describe it's like this deep emotional almost a uh kind of a a maternal feel to it because the word that's used here the root of this word for compassion is the same root for a woman's womb so kind of You know, you think of a woman and the love that she showers upon her child, this womb-like love and concern.

Well, that's always at the base of God's compassion. So the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and, again, choose Israel. In other words, the exile is not going to be forever. He's going to bring them back because he's a good, gracious, ready-to-forgive, long-suffering God. He's going to bring them back. He's going to get them back to their own land, he says. But he's not just going to bring them back and settle them in their land. He's not just going to restore them, but he's also going to expand them.

Because we hear about three different groups, three different non-Israelite groups. First of all, you have the sojourners. And Israel always had sojourners who were living among them. People who were not Israelites, but who came to live, and in many cases to become part of the people of Israel. So Gentiles are going to join with them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. So Jews and Gentiles are going to be living together and worshiping together. And not only that, but verse 2 says that God is going to use the peoples,

so more Gentiles, to bring the Israelites back home, back to their place. and those who had taken them captive are going to become their captors, going to become their servants, going to become their slaves, and they're going to rule over those who oppress them. Now, this kind of language we're going to hear multiple times, beginning with Isaiah 45, you hear this in Isaiah 49, where, for instance, this is Isaiah 45, talking about the enemies of Israel. They shall come over in chains and bow down to you,

and they will plead with you, saying, Surely God is with you. is in you and there is no other no god besides and you have that language repeated elsewhere and we actually heard this back in uh chapter two where the the word of the lord is going to go forth from mount zion and the gentiles are going to hear and they're going to say come let us go up to the house of the lord to to the dwelling place of the god of jacob this is isaiah's way of basically talking about the expansion of the church i mean to kind of put it in explicitly Christian terms. So this is, this never happened, by the way. So if you think maybe this was fulfilled, you know, like when the Jews came back from Babylon or something like that, no,

this never happened. This is, if anything, you had a very tiny sort of miniature fulfillment of it, but nothing like this ever happened after the Babylonian exile, because it was waiting to be fulfilled when finally Christ established his kingdom, his church, and you have the expansion of that church to include not only Jews, but also multitudes of Gentiles, and thus Isaiah 14, 1 and 2, that's looking forward to what's eventually going to come when the servant comes, establishes the kingdom, and destroys the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. Yeah, I mean, as you talk about this remnant thing, one of the things that's interesting about this is that 14 starts with the word for, and so you're like, oh, that's weird,

Because you just got done, so if you didn't have a chapter break here, you have like, oh, let me describe all this destruction. And then you have four, the Lord will have compassion on Jacob, and you're like, okay, so here's all this destruction, talking about Babylon, and why is all that happening? Well, it's because the Lord will have compassion on Jacob. That's what it is. And again, we'll choose Israel, right?

So the whole reason that this is being allowed to happen is because of his compassion and choosing. Yeah, there's always a double side to this. I mean, we see this going back to the book of Exodus. You have the Egyptians destroyed and the Israelites saved. So the moment of judgment becomes also the moment of salvation over and over in the Old Testament. I mean, ultimately that leads to the cross itself. Yeah, the moment of judgment becomes the moment of salvation for all of us. Yeah, and if you're talking about like a remnant here, the whole point of a remnant is to keep the promise alive, right?

To keep the promise going. and and so since that's what a remnant is and that's and that's what god is doing here uh he's ultimately you know preserving a remnant not because there's like this little small group of people that were righteous or whatever but because he made a promise that's going to come through this people and he's going he's going to get to christ one way or another like through all this judgment and destruction and then in christ uh now you'll have the expansion of of israel uh which will be gentiles and the church and and everything yeah everything that we see happening in the book of acts and then all of course through the letters of paul and of course uh still still today yeah

in a lot of ways like one like a part of the fulfillment of this is is you know what happens of pentecost like where like you got the remnant remnant remnant going down like with these 12 guys you know well 11 guys uh and there's there's other people obviously but it's a small it's small i mean the remnant has gotten really little uh and then just one day it's like well i'm gonna add 3 000 whoever's like people that speak all and the reason you know this is because you're talking about what is speaking in tongues when they go out and preach well they're speaking in all these different languages and so you know that they're preaching to like people from all over the place uh and 3 000 people are added to the church right and those people are not all jews

because otherwise this tongues thing would not have been necessary you could just use one language and so if you yeah if you're looking for like hey when did this happen though like when when did it happen well certainly part of it or the initial thing you know part of it happened uh at pentecost you get you get this exact thing happening yeah and and keep in mind uh that at pentecost people there were a lot of people in jerusalem because it was pentecost you know people came there to celebrate the feast they would travel from a lot of other places to go there and there would have been people of course just living there so a lot of the people who became believers that day they didn't stay in jerusalem they went back home so as they went back home what they what they

take with them but they take them pretty cool stories you know this this is what happened and this is the gospel so you have an immediate expansion because of those people going back to where their homelands were in order to to spread the good news i mean keep in mind even the book of acts you got people believing all the way down in ethiopia you got the eunuch who's heading back home uh and he not being a jew and he's reading the prophet isaiah so he and he took that good news back and that same thing would happen these other people too and so the the the news begins to spread slowly to be sure but broadly and uh then you see uh of course the eventual expansion of the church all over the the greco-roman world yeah yeah all right

So, are you ready to do some taunting of Babylon? That's what's coming up next. God's not above being a little petty sometimes, is he? Yeah, you got a taunt coming up here. So, verse 3 introduces this with this word, this verse. When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve. You will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon.

So we have earlier in the Old Testament, like in the times of David and Solomon, the idea that God had given his people rest. But bear in mind, this was not only a limited rest, but it also was a pretty small area of rest. You know, this was not something which was worldwide. This was not something which lasted for a long time. But sure, God gave them rest in the sense of during David and Solomon's reign, they didn't have nearly as many enemies to contend with

because God had given them victory against those enemies. But that was just a foretaste of what was to come. So he's going to give you a great and abiding rest from your pain, from your turmoil, from your hard service with which you were made to serve. I checked the Hebrew there, and those two words for hard service, exact same phrase that's used all the way back in Exodus 1, verse 14, talking about the hard service that the Israelites endured when they were in Egypt, the bitterness of life that they experienced there. So we're going to have this taunt against the king of Babylon. The word used for taunt there is, it's kind of a, I guess you could say it's a translation.

It's kind of one of these combination translation interpretations. The word is mashal in Hebrew, which can, that can describe a proverb or a parable or a wisdom saying or a poem. Now, if you look at how, if you look at what follows, then it's sort of a, sort of a lament that, but it's turned on its head. So it's not a lament where you're grieving something, but it's a lament in which you're—it's almost schadenfreude. It's like almost rejoicing over this bad stuff that's going to happen. So it's an upside-down lament in that you're rejoicing with God over the downfall of those who perpetrated evil against the people of God, and primarily against those who engage in a sort of a mission of self-deification, lifting up themselves to be equal with God. So taunt's a good translation of that when you look at it in context. So, how does the taunt go?

Well, here's how we begin. How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, that struck the people in wrath with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution. The whole earth is at rest and quiet. They break forth into singing. The cypress, even the trees are singing.

The cypresses rejoice at you. The cedars of Lebanon saying, since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us. Let's kind of pause there for a minute. So this is, keep this in mind. So this is my reading of this whole taunt. I think you got to hear it

on a couple of different levels. So number one, This isn't necessarily against, like, any specific king of Babylon. This is against the kingdom of Babylon and kind of a composite of all of the arrogant rulers who were over the kingdom of Babylon. So part of what's going on here is definitely a taunt against the earthly kingdom of Babylon and her rulers. No doubt about it. At the same time, you've got to think about the demonic forces, the dark forces of evil that are behind these kinds of kingdoms, these kinds of rulers, because I think at the same time you've got that going on. It's sort of a double sermon that's happening with this taunt against the king of Babylon because what is going to be described with reference to the arrogance of Babylon applies just as much to the arrogance of evil forces, which also are going to be, as we'll hear in a second, driven down to Sheol.

So you've got kind of twin messages happening here at the same time. Yeah, kind of the big part of this taunt is – yeah, you can – of course, yes, as you said, you're talking about a kingdom, a way that one country might taunt another country, and it's not specific to whoever happens to be the prime minister or president or dictator of that country. It does include him, but it's much more than that, right? It's the whole idea of that place. And then, of course, yeah, whenever God's taunting the wicked, he's certainly taunting the devil, which is part of what he's doing. And this taunt kind of goes like, man, it got quiet around here. What happened?

Why does all this stuff cease? What's going on? Man, it got really – you can hear a pin dropping over here. That is the taunt. Yes. Yeah, that's it No more axes No more chainsaws going on

Where are you guys at? Yeah, even the cypresses And our favorites The cedars of Lebanon They're happy Since you were taken down, man There's no more chopping down of our trees Got really quiet here

Here in the woods Everybody's Everybody's happy, there's rest It's just quiet. It's breaking forth in the singing. And even the grave is excited, though. I mean, the grave's excited about it. Yeah.

Yeah, we're getting to some great stuff coming up here. So if you're eating right now, you might want to set that bowl of cereal aside just for a minute, especially when I get to verse 11. So let me read 9 through 11. So Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come. it rouses the shades to greet you all who were leaders of the earth literally in hebrew that's all those who were uh the rams of the earth this is a metaphorical use of animals here to describe those who are the leaders so the ram-like leaders of the earth and the shades that greet you are That occurs quite a few times

Raphaim in the Hebrew is just a Description of the spirits Or the souls or however you want to The shadowy ones who are Down there in Sheol So all who were leaders Of the earth it raises from their Thrones all who were kings of the nations

And so you have this great Crowd in Sheol and what are they going to do All of them will answer And say to you You too have become as weak As we you have become like us your pump is brought down to sheol the sound of your harps maggots are laid as a bed beneath you and worms are your covers

i was talking to my wife stacy about this this morning to tell her what was what was coming up we were describing yeah i got that that yuck look from her when i quoted that the end of verse 11 yeah you know what your bed's gonna be maggots and your bed spread worms that's that's where you're that's where you're heading don't you get the impression that this is that there's this sort of um what happens with you know all of these kingdoms is they they overthrow each other and like one rises up and like i'm the power now and so like i beat up you guys and take over your stuff and then somebody else rises up and they go and return the favor and all this kind of thing and of course they all end up in the same place which is you know the grave and you almost have

like uh it feels like the the rulers of the the people that babylon had overthrown to become what it was or like oh looks like you would looks like you became like us like come on down here been waiting for you yeah you know so like these are all it maybe that's not exactly it but that's that That's how I hear it is just the people that you previously sent to Sheol are waiting for your arrival. And they're like, yes, you too. Oh, yeah, definitely. The greeting party is those that you have overthrown or belittled or killed or whatever it might be. And their basic message is, ah, now you see that Sheol has democratized us all.

you who were so powerful where are those hearts and all of the stuff that you used to have all that pomp and circumstance has gone gone away and now here you are as weak

and as powerless and as lowly and as dead as we are there's your bed where those worms are and pull some maggots are and pull some worms over you if you get a little bit chilly down here in Sheol. So yeah, pretty unforgettable poetry.

But he's not done. I mean, we're barely going to get rolling into this taunt. But it's going to get even better here. So verse, let me read 12 and, I don't know, maybe 12 through 15. How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, sun of dawn. How you are cut down to the ground. You who laid the nations low You said in your heart

I will ascend to heaven Above the stars of God I will set my throne on high I will sit on the mount of assembly In the far reaches of the north There's a lot of details We've got to get back to in a second I'm just going to read through 15

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will make myself like the most high But you are brought down to Sheol To the far reaches of the pit So we start out here with A lot of people are going to be familiar with this language Of how you are fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn So this is where we get our title for the devil is Lucifer

So it's kind of a long and complicated history But basically what it is, is you have In Hebrew it's Helel ben Shachar which uh is translated here oh day star son of dawn now that came into into greek in the septuagint as uh the translation of as dawn bringer and then that got brought into the latin vulgate by jerome as luciferos lucifer because lucifer just means one who who brings light. And it's connected also with Venus, which is the morning star. So that's at least the way we got the name itself. Now, there's probably some Canaanite mythology that's behind some of this

that Isaiah is utilizing and echoing without embracing, because you have this idea in some of the uh surviving literature from from canaanite sources where you you have uh this exaltation of certain gods who are then brought low so that's possibly being echoed here by by isaiah but the main message is he is uh he's talking about the king of babylon and he's also talking about of course at the same time the devil well the the the god of the babylonians is who knows what uh except for the fact that we do know it's the devil. So whatever it is, it's the devil. Whatever it is, yeah.

Yeah, very, very true. Yeah. So he's cut down, laid low. You who laid the nations low. And here we have the speech within his heart in which he says, I'm going to ascend to heaven. I'm going to go above the stars of God. I'm going to set my throne on high.

I'm going to sit on the Mount of Assembly. and I would translate this next phrase instead of in the far reaches of the north, quite literally on the heights of Zaphon. Zaphon was the mountain, it was kind of the Canaanite equivalent of Mount Olympus because that's where they believed that their gods dwelt so he says I'm going to sit up there on the heights of this divine abode of the gods now this matches of course human arrogance but it also matches

demonic arrogance, we might say. It's got both these going on at the same time. So you said, this is what you're going to do. And now what's really going to happen to you? Well, you're going to be brought down to show to the far reaches of the pit. So in Hebrew, it's the same. He says, I'm going to sit in the far reaches of the north

or the far reaches of Mount Zaphon. And you're going to be brought down to the far reaches of the pit. And so in just these, whatever, four or five verses, Isaiah has perfectly captured the human and the demonic arrogance of those who refuse to accept with gratitude and humility the created gift of being who they are, whether that's an angel or whether that's a person. And the reason God made us who we are is because that's what is best for us. But then you have this arrogant uplifting of this desire to be like God or like the gods. And so what happens to you? Well, the same thing that always happens. God brings low, in this case, brings them all the way down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Yeah. I need to do a study on this and see if this is the case, but I feel like this is the case. it seems like every time when God says you said in your heart it's never ever something good is there

a time in scripture where it says the phrase he or they or you said in your heart it is followed by something like righteous or virtuous it seems like again I'd have to do a study on this but I can't think of any

time that it's that it's not that that isn't that you are whatever like follows that is about to be something terrible yeah well if if there are exceptions that's exactly what they are they're exceptions because the rule is when someone says something in their heart then it's not good i know i know that that's jeroboam said in his heart you know if i don't build these golden calves and i'm to lose my people so yeah the speaking in the heart is is the is the entry point to wicked speech or evil plans or whatever it might be almost always like idolatry right like it's always like i said in my heart i will be god that seems like it's that it's uh even if it's not that explicit it's like some version of that uh which you know goes to uh the biblical idea of that the

heart is deceitfully wicked so when you're saying things in your heart they're probably wicked things yeah yeah so uh this is we're i don't know are we halfway through uh yeah a little over halfway through through the taunt uh we're at our our 40 minute mark but yeah let's see you're you're you're kind of getting into isaiah style uh his his message here this taunt against the king of Babylon and the devil, and I mean, it's bad news on the one hand, it's certainly bad news for them, but at the same time, keep in mind, this is all good news for us, because the overthrow of dark forces and evil is at the same time the uplifting of the people of God. So this is the good news of our victory in Christ's resurrection victory over all the forces of evil.

That's right Alright well we will come back next episode And finish up the taunt And then see what Isaiah has for us next Chad I'll see you then See you then