Persian Soldiers Burst into Belshazzar's FeastBible World
21:5Isaiah 21:5
Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield.
The chapter stands among prophecies directed to Assyria, to the wilderness of the South, to Idumea, and to Israel. Within that setting the verse depicts Babylon given over to preparing tables and to eating and drinking in festival revelry, even while a watch is kept and the city lies under siege. In the midst of that feasting a sudden alarm breaks in, summoning the princes to rise and make the shield ready for battle.
That picture was fulfilled when Cyrus turned the Euphrates aside and marched into the city by night while its inhabitants were absorbed in reveling. It was the Persian capture of Babylon in the time of Belshazzar's feast, when rulers drinking in security were abruptly called to arm themselves against approaching danger. Ancient Babylon here is a type of mystical Babylon in the last days, whose revelry is likewise interrupted by sudden alarm and by the announcement that Babylon is fallen. As ancient Babylon was overtaken after its celebration, so mystical Babylon receives two warnings before its destruction.
In the last-day application the continued feasting and drinking portrays worldly entertainment and indulgence carried on without interruption, even inside the churches. That revelry goes forward until a voice of doom strikes fear into sinners and hypocrites. The scene of merriment therefore stands in direct contrast to the judgment that is coming, though God would still heal Babylon if healing were accepted.
The chapter stands among prophecies directed to Assyria, to the wilderness of the South, to Idumea, and to Israel. Within that setting the verse depicts Babylon given over to preparing tables and to eating and drinking in festival revelry, even while a watch is kept and the city lies under siege. In the midst of that feasting a sudden alarm breaks in, summoning the princes to rise and make the shield ready for battle.
That picture was fulfilled when Cyrus turned the Euphrates aside and marched into the city by night while its inhabitants were absorbed in reveling. It was the Persian capture of Babylon in the time of Belshazzar's feast, when rulers drinking in security were abruptly called to arm themselves against approaching danger. Ancient Babylon here is a type of mystical Babylon in the last days, whose revelry is likewise interrupted by sudden alarm and by the announcement that Babylon is fallen. As ancient Babylon was overtaken after its celebration, so mystical Babylon receives two warnings before its destruction.
In the last-day application the continued feasting and drinking portrays worldly entertainment and indulgence carried on without interruption, even inside the churches. That revelry goes forward until a voice of doom strikes fear into sinners and hypocrites. The scene of merriment therefore stands in direct contrast to the judgment that is coming, though God would still heal Babylon if healing were accepted.