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Sunday 26 May 2019

Isaiah 13:12-16 - I will make people scarcer than gold

13:12,13
The command in Genesis 1 was to be fruitful and multiply. When men disobey God, abandon Him, then the purposes of Genesis are reversed. So people will become as scarce as gold. Solomon imported much gold from Orphir (1 Kings 9:28; 10:11), though the precise location of Orphir is  not known. There will be geological symptoms of the wrath of God.

13:14-16

Many conquered peoples, Israel included, were transported to Babylon, but the reverse process would take place once Babylon herself had been conquered. The Babylonians themselves would suffer a cruel fate, with much bloodshed, death of children, and raping of women. This makes us draw up short. How can God allow this? It is the consequence of man’s sin. In wars these sorts of things happen. The Russian army infamously raped many,many women as they defeated Hitler’s Germany, so much so that some women committed suicide rather than suffer at the hands of the invading army. And the Germans themselves had committed numerous atrocities against Russia a few years earlier. But what about the children? We would be better asking how a supposedly  civilised society can sanction the killing of numerous babies in the womb, and even considers it a human right to allow this to happen? The events we read of here are the consequence of man’s sin.

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