Isaiah 12 is a song of praise for the time when the LORD restores His people. It reads as if it were a psalm of praise, and in reality that is what it is.
Isaiah 13 predicts the LORD’s destruction of Babylon. As we read the chapter it seems as if the LORD Himself is going to destroy the people who carried His people off into exile. But we know the LORD used Babylon to carry the people of Judah into exile, because they had turned from the LORD. As we get to the end of Isaiah 13, we see it would not be the LORD who destroyed the Babylonians, but the Medes, which is precisely what happened in history. The LORD often used history itself as His judgment. When we read of how one nation slaughtered another, or displaced another, we can know in the old covenant times, the LORD’s hand was on the process, because He was still shaping the people of Israel. They brought about their destruction and exile, and their numbers were radically reduced, but the LORD always retained a remnant through which the royal line of David would be retained, until Jesus was born.
Isaiah 14:1-22 tells us of the restoration of Judah, and how they would taunt Babylon for what she had done to Judah. As we move to verses 12 and following we find a description that many biblical scholars believe is not merely a description of Babylon’s destruction, but a description of Satan’s destruction. In the remainder of the chapter, Isaiah will pronounce oracles against Assyria and the land of the Philistines. As we will see tomorrow the oracles continue against other lands as well. As we stated above, the LORD used history itself to judge the nations for their sins. While we might have our sensibilities challenged through all this destruction, remember: Jesus came to bring peace on earth, and since His coming the LORD has not used nations to judge other nations in the same way as happened when He was forging and protecting the nation of Israel. While Christians have developed just war theory, and there are times when wars have been fought to protect the weak and imperiled, we cannot justify the atrocities that have been carried out through Christian history on “pagans.” When we mix old covenant thinking with the new covenant we can justify many things, but that does not make them just. Only the LORD has the right to use nations against each other to carry out His will and purpose on the earth.
As we return to Mark 10, Jesus has a brief encounter with the Pharisees. They come to ask Jesus whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Jesus gave them an opportunity to answer what the Law of Moses said about it. They responded, “Moses permitted it.” Jesus said that was because of human hardness of heart, but it wasn’t that way from the beginning. This is such a vital statement. Jesus wanted the Pharisees to go back before the Law of Moses to get their model for marriage. Jesus went all the way back to the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world, and reaffirmed God’s model of a man and woman coming together before Him, for life. Jesus made it clear marriage was to be between a man and a woman and was to be for life. Jesus even added, “What God has joined let no one separate.”
The remainder of the chapter has Jesus blessing children, and offering a rich young man a place on His team, which the man rejected because of His wealth. This was followed by Jesus telling the disciples it was hard for the wealthy to enter heaven. This turned the old covenant thinking on its head. The disciples would have found Jesus’ words ridiculous. What did He mean it was hard for the rich to enter heaven? Wealth was a sign of God’s favor. Emphasis on the word “was.” In the new covenant era, the sign of God’s favor was lots of brothers and sisters, and suffering. Jesus offered another announcement of His impending crucifixion, death, and resurrection. This time, James and John saw it as an opportunity to sit as His left and right (think Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense!), when He came into His Kingdom. This time Jesus had to remind the guys that the new covenant model has the greatest serving the most. The chapter ends with Jesus healing a blind man named Bartimaeus. As always, Jesus follows up words with actions!