Isaiah 21

Isaiah 21
Babylon was first in the series of “burdens” whose beginning was in chapter 13, and it now reappears as we draw near to the close of them. The “desert of the sea” seems a strange name for the great world capital of its day, but “desert” it became under the judgment of God, overwhelmed by an irresistible force for which the figure of the sea is used (see Jeremiah 50:41-42; 51:4241Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 42They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon. (Jeremiah 50:41‑42)
42The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. (Jeremiah 51:42)).
Verses 3 and 4 express the feelings of the Babylonians when the invaders rushed in upon them. Verse 5 shows that while the feasting was going on, there was a watch provided against attack, but it did not save the city from capture.
The intent of verses 7-9 is to show the approaching armies of the Medes and Persians; the pleasure-loving citizens were otherwise occupied, and before they knew of danger, the invaders had entered the gates of Babylon and the first empire was at an end. The second empire (Medo-Persia) now began.
Dumah (verse 11) represents the children of Esau who had no love for Israel or Israel’s God. Scornful is the inquiry,
“Watchman, what of the night?” but solemn in its warning note is the watchman’s answer,
“The morning cometh, and also the night.” Yet there is hope, —still time for repentance, for turning to God while His mercy waits:
“If ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come!”
If this reply of the watchman is considered in connection with the Lord’s appearing on earth with which it is really concerned, so much the subject of prophecy in Old Testament and New, we know that the dawn of the day of the Lord will bring blessing to those who will be waiting for Him, and judgment upon those who have refused the offer of grace.
But we may apply the watchman’s answer to the skeptic, to our own time, and to the prospect of the coming of the Lord in the air to call His saints away; when that moment comes, the great eternal day will have begun for them, and just as certainly the “night” of judgment will have closed in on the rejectors of the gospel.
Arabia (verses 13-17) is evidently the section of that large country which adjoins the land of Edom. A warning is given, that though for a time the people shall see judgment descending on others, and they be able to succor them, in a set time not far away, judgment would reach their own people; there is no escaping out of the hand of God.