June 30, 2024 - Isaiah 13-16

“The oracle concerning Babylon” (13:1).  The people of God, as is so in every generation, faced so many enemies, among them Babylon.  The Lord declared, “I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger” (Isa. 13:13).  Specifically of Babylon, God said, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them” (13:19).  But of Judah and Jerusalem, God declared, “For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land . . . When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve” (14:1-3).  The Bible has much to say about rest.  For Israel there was the Sabbath day, when the people rested and worshipped, and for the land, there was the sabbatical year of rest (every 7th year).  Jesus invites us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  The writer of Hebrews looks ahead:   “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9).

There is a place of quiet rest,

 Near to the heart of God,

A place where sin cannot molest,

Near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer,

Sent from the heart of God,

Hold us, who wait before Thee,

Near to the heart of God.   --Cleland Boyd McAfee (1901)