Isaiah 13-14: Fear the Lord

Chapter 13 begins an intimidatingly long list of judgments proclaimed against many nations. If you had any notion left in your head of a God that is fluffy, weak, timid, or tolerant of all value systems, read chapters 13 through 23. Here we see a God that absolutely hates evil, and promises to destroy it in ruthless fashion. His first pronouncement is against Babylon:

9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.

 The coming of the Lord that Isaiah predicts here does not come with a truce or a peace offering - it is an extermination.

11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

Hearing this pronouncement as an evil person would make one tremble - if I knew I was on the receiving end of this I would probably need a change of pants. But for the captives, the enslaved, the righteous, and the godly, this is justice. The captive wants evil to be punished. The hurt want sin to be wiped away. As terrifying as it sounds, the coming of judgment and the destruction of evil are actually a message of hope for the oppressed and the righteous.

Isaiah speaks also of the coming Restoration of the house of Jacob:

1 For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land...

Not only will the oppressors be overthrown, but one day the slave will become the master:

They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

 Reading a passage like this reminds me of what it means to "fear the Lord"; sometimes it seems that people think that phrase simply means a form of deep respect or admiration. I think that as a sinful rebel the almighty and just God is the most fearsome thing imaginable. It is only after we have been redeemed and made righteous in Him that we are able to take joy and comfort in knowing that He will expunge evil from the face of the earth.