NOTES for Isa 8:2-13

Isaiah utters a prophecy about Babylon when nothing yet foreshadows either the future greatness or, still less, the defeat of this kingdom. More than a hundred years will pass before Babylon takes control of the Near East, and almost two hundred before it falls under the blows of the Persians—the Medes. But what matters to us is not that the prophet announces future events; there is, in fact, nothing surprising in this. What matters is that Isaiah sees history as the fulfillment of the will of the Almighty. The Babylonians become an instrument of the Lord’s wrath not because they want to—they never even imagine it. The upheavals experienced by the world are made up of human evil and self-will, yet their result is the fulfillment of God’s will. Thus God participates in history and determines the destinies of nations, but not in the way earthly rulers participate in it. The aims people set in their actions prove illusory, and they achieve not what they seek, but what God wills. This is why, for the prophet, the whole of human life unfolds before the face of God, and God alone is the source of salvation.