INTRODUCTION

History is meaningful, but its lessons sometimes take the form of riddles and allegories. Israel is supposed to have the eyes and ears to take the lesson to heart, and see in Babel’s story a parable (v. 4; Heb. mashal ) about rising and falling.

THE TEXT

“It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: ‘How the oppressor has ceased, the golden city ceased!’ . . . ” (Isaiah 14:3-28).

TREES REJOICING

The word for “parable” is sometimes translated as “taunt-song,” and that is part of the connotation here. When Yahweh grants His people relief from their oppressors, they will rejoice over Babel’s defeat. Yahweh breaks the staff of wicked kings (v. 5) and strikes the peoples in His anger (v. 6). The result is peace and rest, Sabbath (v. 7). The great trees of the land sing and clap their hands, because the king of Babel who used to saw their branches is defeated (v. 8). Human power often brings destruction and chaos; but when God exerts His power, the wicked are defeated and the world is pacified and put in order. When God crushes the oppressed, all creation sings for joy.

WELCOME TO SHEOL

Though traditionally taken as a description of Satan’s fall, Isaiah 14 is all about the hubris of Babylon. Satan is certainly proud, but he is not the focus of attention here. From the beginning, Babel strove to reach to the heavens. The king of Babel is described as a morning star (v. 12), who aspired to ascend to heaven to sit in God’s seat (vv. 13-14). The higher he climbs, the longer his fall. He tries to set his throne above the firmament, above the angelic stars of God (v. 13), but instead he tumbles all the way down to Sheol and into the pit (v. 15). There all his old friends and rivals are waiting for him. Sheol is abuzz with excitement at the arrival of its latest dignitary (vv. 9-10). The king of Babel is even worse off than most kings. They have tombs where the lie in splendor, but the king of Babel is “cast out of your tomb” (v. 19). He made the earth tremble (v. 16), but everyone will wonder how the conqueror of the earth ended as a pathetic man wrapped in a blanket watching himself on TV.

YAHWEH RISES

At the end of the passage, we learn that Yahweh’s rise is the cause of Babel’s fall (v. 22). When He rises, He cuts in four directions – name, survivors, seed, posterity (v. 22), and leaves the once golden city to beasts of the wilderness (v. 23). Yahweh swears by His own name, and since He cannot lie He brings to pass precisely what He planned (vv. 24, 26-27).

POWER AND PRIDE

Power is always surrounded by enticement to pride. In the past, kings had their fawning courtiers, and today Presidents and Prime Ministers have their admirers in government, entertainment, and the press. Besides, exercising power always involves some claim to superiority. Pride seems inherent in exercising power; yet pride ends with a loss of power. Power is one of the great riddles of the world, and the only solution to the riddle is to recognize Yahweh as the exalted King of kings.