2024-10-09 “For thou hast made of a city an heap”

Isaiah 25:2  “For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.  3  Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

In his list of “wonderful things” that the “LORD” “hast done” (Isaiah 25:1), Isaiah first comforts us with an illustration of how the “LORD” reveals His Sovereign Power over His and our enemies.  He prophetically declares that as He, in times past, “hast made of a city an heap”; He will do so again and again as His enemies rise up against Him and His Church and people.  Typically, as with “Moab”, the “LORD of hosts” declares, “Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.  10  This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.” (Zephaniah 2:9-10).  Even, when the rulers in Jerusalem became His enemies, He told them, “Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2).  We can take great comfort in knowing that the “LORD of hosts” works wondrously in the affairs of men; He does so, “Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:11); that is, He often accomplishes His will by “Calling” and empowering one nation to exact His will against another.  Therefore, in the face of our adversaries, let us “Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight.” (I Chronicles 19:13)!