I am exceedingly jealous for Zion
This past weekend I had to take my mid-term for my Isaiah class. I thought I would share one of the questions and how I answered it. Let me know what you think. My teacher sure will!
What is the theological importance of Isaiah 13-23?
The short answer is:
and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse… (Gen 12:3)
It is Gods announcement to the gentiles of this world that the Jews are important to Him and that how we treat this nation and individual Jews is how he will deal with us. We need only to look at the past to see how God deals with people and nations that live in disobedience to His will.
In Genesis we see that there are two main situations where God directly intervened because of the rebellion of the people. There were more than these two instances, but I will only look at the following two as an example.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “ I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:5-8)
In the First instance the corruption and rebellion on the earth had grown so great that God was grieved and decided to blot out the entire population of the earth. Only one man found favor in the eyes of the Lord and thus the human race was spared total annihilation
They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The LORD said,
“Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them (Gen 11:4-6)
Because of this pride in the people, God came down and confused the language of the people so that they could no longer work together as one group.
In both of these instances we can see the rebellion of the people and how God will deal with that rebellion; He will not let rebellion go unanswered. This is never truer than when the gentile nations of the world interact with the nation of Israel.
In Isaiah we can see how God deals with the nations who in their pride and arrogance came against Israel in her history. From Assyria, Babylon, Moab and other nations, God brought harsh judgment against those nations for its viciousness in its dealings with Israel.
…‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. 15 “But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.” (Zach 1:13-15)
“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am going to punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria. (Jer 50:18)
to break Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder. “This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. “For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
(Isaiah 14: 24-27)
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab will be trodden down in his place as straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile
(Isaiah 25:10)
To put it simply, God is going to curse those who curse Israel. We as gentile individuals and nations need to understand that God is zealous for this nation and the way we deal with this nation is how God will deal with us. This was the main focus of Isaiah 13-23, God Judgments against those nations that dealt treacherously with Israel. We need to understand how God dealt with these nations in the past, so that hopefully we in the present and in the future will treat with Honor that which God so loves.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.’ (Zach 8:2)
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