Key themes in this chapter are sovereign grace for undeserving sinners and the blessings of divine peace and provision that flow to God’s people in Jesus Christ. The Lord addresses the nation of Israel calling them, ‘house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel’. These were men and women with a blessed pedigree, yet they were obstinate, rebellious and proud. God calls them treacherous sinners and ‘transgressors from the womb’. Hypocrites in Zion The nations of Israel and Judah were outwardly blessed by God with inheritances and promises granted to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yet, despite enjoying these blessings, asserting a right to them; even adopting the language of Zion and claiming a place in the holy city, the heart…

Babylon is called the ‘virgin daughter’ because to the remnant Jews the city and its empire appeared impregnable and invincible. Yet, Isaiah foretells Babylon’s destruction. For all her vaunted glory the Lord will bring her to her knees and humiliate her in the dust. Darius and Cyrus will be instruments in God’s hand but Babylon’s destruction is retribution directly from the Lord for the hurt inflicted on His people. ‘I will take vengeance’, says the Lord, ‘I will not meet thee as a man’. I will meet you as the sovereign, holy God to judge evil and punish sin without leniency or mercy. A lesson from the past The fall of Babylon did indeed occur as Isaiah had prophesied but beyond the mere history it…