Preparing for Deliverance

Who is Moab?

In Genesis 19:30-38 we read that when Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was spared from the destruction of Sodom, and the LORD commanded him to settle in Zoar, Lot disobeyed the LORD and settled in a cave with his two daughters because he was afraid to live in Zoar.

Since Lot’s wife had become a pillar of salt (melach netsib meaning completely dissolved) for looking back at Sodom (Gen.19:26), his daughter’s worried that now their father had no one to have any male children with to carry on his name. So Lot’s daughter’s both got their own father drunk so that they could have sex with him and become pregnat by him, and they were successful each on their own occassion. The first born son was named Moab, the ancestor of the Moabites, and the second son was named Ben-ammi, the ancestor of the Amorites.

Even though Lot was seen as righteous and showed favor from God when he was spared from the destruction of Sodom, his disregard from the Lord’s command to settle in Zoar may have been what cost him his family's good name.

Rather than descendants born in the fear of the LORD, Lot’s descendants (The Amorites and Moabites) were born in deceit and involuntary incess, which would have multiplied in them, as the Moabites and the Amorites had both greatly increased in military power and population by the time Isiaiah was called to prophecy concerning them.

Isaiah 15-16 are together one prophecy concerning the judgement of Moab in which destruction and devastation will come upon them, but afterward their survivors will take refuge among God’s own people, the nation of Israel.

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Read Isaiah 15

Although Isaiah writes about these events in the present tense, they have not accrued as yet by the time of his writing. He is foretelling or prophesying about a coming destruction that would come upon the entire nation of Moab.

Isaiah speaks in the future tense as he tells of the hearts of the Moabites melting in fear when they begin to see their judgement coming.

The largest Moabite cities are named first, and their destruction is said to be so swift that it will take just one night.

I imagine living on one of the Family Islands in the Bahamas and hearing word that Nassaua or even Freeport had fallen in just one night, surely I would have already considered my own smaller settlement destroyed as well. And this is the picture Isaiah paints by listing the destruction of Ar and Kir first (v.1). Smaller Moabite cities like Horonaim and Nimrim are named later, yet Isaiah reveals a coming sense constant of panic among the entire Moabite population; as each hears the cries in the distance of his neighbors' destruction and is made more aware of that their own will soon follow.

Dibon, another primary nation of Moab, is said by Isaiah to go up to their temple in high places to weep and wail for their fallen relatives in Nebo and Medeba (v.2). They also engaged in ceremonial practices of grief and mourning by wearing sackcloth and shaving all the hair off of their heads and necks. But all this will not spare them as Isaiah says at the end of this chapter that Dibon’s water will be filled with blood, and lions will be sent from God to any survivors (v.9). 

Hashbon and Eleah (cities of Moab), cry out to Jahaz (another city in Moab), and so the Moabites quiver (v.4). It is normal for Isaiah to prophesy about a coming judgement, but for Moab the judgement is in detail, and even the fear that the knowledge of it produces a judgement that burns first in the hearts of one Moabite city after another, until the actual burning of the walls of those cities soon follow.

As one nation screams another cries, and although the gloom and destruction that Isaiah describes is overwhelming, it shows us that the LORD had a strategic plan to overthrow one half of Lot’s descendants, the Edomites (as with the Philistines, Assarians, and Babylonians).  We are again reminded of the power that fear has to cripple a nation who has already lost its most powerful resources and people (v.8).

How have you seen the power of fear (though warranted) spread from larger communities to smaller ones from COVID-19, how does the surrounding danger affect your sense of being?

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Read Isaiah 16

The LORD tells Israel that they are to be a refuge for the remnant of Moab who have survived (v.4). This will be a foreshadowing of the coming reestablishment of the reign of faithfulness and truth from the throne of David by a ruler who will be swift to do what is right, but it will not be fulfilled until the Oppressor is completely destroyed (v.5).

Isaiah then lists God’s issue with Moab’s pride, arrogance, insolence, and false boasting, as the reasons they will soon wail in humility.

God’s tears:

Isaiah prophesied that God cried because of the drunkenness that Moab exported to nations far cross over the sea, and it was the Lord’s tears that would drench the Moabites in judgement (vv.8-9). This provides insight into God’s jealousy, in that it is from a broken heart that God condemns sin. Therefore God is not pleased to execute judgement, in fact it all comes from the pain that God feels at the sight of humanity’s rebellion. 

Isaiah explains that God’s tears will cause the clusters of vineyards that produced the wine that the Moabites exported to all stop producing grapes, neither will there be anyone operating a wine press in the whole nation (vv.8-12). And all this illustrates an economic crash as part of Moab’s judgement, which Isaiah proclaims will take gladness and joy away from the Moabites so that no more songs are sung nor shouts of joy raised by them (v.10).

The judgement, flowing from God’s tears, also seems to cause the LORD even more pain when it finally reaches humanity. God says that because of the judgement that he sends on Moab, “Therefore my hearts throbs like a harp for Moab, and my very soul for Kir-heres.” (v.11)

The LORD’s tears are really seen at the end of the prophecy concerning Moab in that even when the Moabites pray God will still not withdraw his hand of judgement from them. This is unusual for God’s treatment of a nation that waeries themselves upon the high place and come to their sanctuary to pray (v.12).

God’s denial of mercy may have been because Moab waited too late to humble themselves, that their prayers were not truly senceir, or that the places that they went to pray were in fact in the name of a false god. The scripture does not specifically say why Moab did not prevail in their prayers, but it is a lesson to us not to test the LORD and wait until our dying day to turn to him. The point could also be made that Moab was shown mercy because their survivors will be invited to take refuge in Israel, but not without extreme loss.

Isaiah concludes his prophecy concerning the fall of the entire nation of Moab by stating that their judgement will begin in three years from the moment he first proclaimed them, and that though Moab are presently a great and powerful nation, when the LORD’s judgement is poured out, they will be made few and feeble (v.13).

And let us not forget that God commanded Israel to take in these few surviving Moabites as refuges, here even before the judgement upon Moab would’ve even begun (v.4).

What kind of preparations would you and your community have made to take in the remnant of Moab after the LORD commanded you to shelter them? 

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You are welcomed to join me in this prayer:

Gracious Heavenly Father,

I praise you for your righteous judgements. Even when I experienced great loss and my heart melts within me, a part of me always knows that in the time of trouble you are the One who holds everything perfectly together. You are the One who knows how to comfort every single part of my heart and even every part of the world, so even in hard times–I still hold on to the hope of one day being completely delivered from all my hardships by you. And because I am so confident in that love you have for me, I want you to use me to share that love to join you in your comforting work. Lead me now, LORD, and do not let me be like Moab who waited until it was too late to humble themselves and pray. Yet even as you humble me today on my life’s journey, lead me into the refuge you prepared for me in your presence in community with your people. In Jesus name. Amen!