Isaiah 13:3
I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
God has set apart and summoned consecrated warriors as the agents of His anger against Babylon, and they carry out His exalted and sovereign purpose with rejoicing. The burden was spoken against the literal foreign nation of Babylon before it reached the height of its glory, and its overthrow by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus began a decline that ended in utter desolation like Sodom and Gomorrah. Much of what belongs to the literal city and its punishment stands as a fitting figure and type of greater judgments, reaching to the close of time and the final overthrow of mystical and modern Babylon with the wicked world. That day of the Lord is the great day of His wrath and tumult at the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus from heaven to earth, when heaven and earth are shaken by the voice of God and men seek shelter in the rocks before His majesty, and because God always warns through prophets before bringing great evil its approach must be heralded by His people. Its warning therefore rests upon cities and places that forget and defy God, for as judgment on Babylon was punishment invited by open defiance, so the same awaits modern cities in their wickedness unless the warning is heeded.
Context and Literal Fulfillment
Isaiah 13:3 belongs to the burden of Babylon in Isaiah 13, which foretells the destruction of Babylon. It stands in the third division of the first part of Isaiah, the series of burdens on Babylon, Philistia, Moab and other foreign nations in chapters 13-23, presented as a prediction concerning Babylon and a prophecy directed against a foreign nation. Isaiah gave this prophecy between 760 and 698 B.C., beginning in the reign of Uzziah and continuing through Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. It was spoken before the city reached the height of its glory.
The verse means that God has commanded and summoned His sanctified, consecrated warriors, His mighty ones, as instruments and agents of His anger against the city to bring about its downfall. They are mighty and rejoice in His highness, exalted purpose and sovereign purpose in carrying it out.
The destruction foretold was not completed when the Persians under Cyrus overthrew Babylon. Despite its formidable walls and provisions, its decline continued after Cyrus conquered it, and Alexander's attempt to restore it failed. It ultimately fell into decay and became desolate like Sodom and Gomorrah, fulfilling the prophecy literally.
The prophecy in the thirteenth of Isaiah against Babylon has been fulfilled to the letter in the complete desolation of the city. Its ruins are called Mudjelibe, "the Overturned," and no living soul abides on the site of ancient Babylon. The laying bare of its ancient foundations corroborates the great work done by King Nebuchadnezzar in his pride. Neither does the Arabian pitch tent there, but avoids the place even for temporary pitching of tents as under a curse, and Arabs working at the site built their mud huts half a mile farther west in the bed of the ancient river now shifted.
End-Time Prophetic Reach
The burden of Babylon reaches beyond the old Babylonish kingdom to the close of time, to the final overthrow of mystical or modern Babylon and the wicked world. Much of the prophecy applies to the literal city, yet the literal city and its punishment serve as a fitting figure and type of the greater judgments on mystical Babylon and of the end of the world. Its fervid language looks from the destruction of literal Babylon over to the greater and more fearful destruction of mystical Babylon at the last day. This is the common prophetic pattern of making a local judgment a figure of the future judgments that usher in the great day of the Lord.
The prophecy first describes ancient Babylon's fate, with the Medes and Persians as instruments of its humbling, and then transitions to the day of the Lord, when modern Babylon and all sinners will be punished. Old Babylon with its sun-worship and idolatrous practices was the great mother of evils, and is continually used as a symbol of the evils of succeeding ages, with the apostasies of the church to the end of time presented under the term Babylon in Revelation. The complete and everlasting overthrow set forth in the chapter is a type of the everlasting overthrow of the whole world because of its evils, caused by incorrigible wickedness and arrogance at the time immediately preceding the day of the Lord when the world will again be going almost wholly to evil, applying to the final overthrow of all nations at the end of the world. The prophecy against Babylon extends from its earthly king to Lucifer, the day-star and son of the morning and highest king, who inspired Babylon's wickedness, and concerns God's refuge from Babylon's doom.
The chapter presents the shaking and terror of the earth's inhabitants in the day of the Lord, when heaven and earth are shaken by the voice of God from heaven and men are dismayed and seek shelter and a hiding place in the rocks for fear of the majesty of the Lord. The great day of the Lord is emphatically the great day of His wrath, the day of tumult, wrath and fierce anger, which is the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus from heaven to earth that heaven and earth expect. In that day God will bring evils upon men greater than any evils He has ever brought before. Because God always warns men before bringing great evil upon them and has promised to reveal what He will do through His prophets, the approach of that terrible day must be heralded by a warning sounded by the people of God living when it is near at hand. Not all beasts and birds are destroyed at the second coming of Christ but live on as at present and propagate their kind amid the ruins of the earth, and during the thousand years between the second coming and the resurrection of the wicked their numbers are increased enormously to provide sustenance for the wicked hosts called forth at that day.
Warning for Modern Cities
Isaiah 13 gives warning through Babylon's doom, showing that warnings may go unheeded until judgment comes. Its lesson applies to New York, Chicago, and other places that forget and defy God. The summons of consecrated warriors for anger belongs to that warning about judgment on Babylon, and its lesson is that cities that forget and defy God face the consequences of their wickedness. That judgment on Babylon was punishment invited by its open defiance of God, comparable to the catastrophe facing modern cities that forget and defy Him.