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8 and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.

9 Behold, the day of Jehovah cometh, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

In this prophesy from God through the prophet Isaiah, he warns the Babylonians decades in advance of their coming destruction because of their wickedness.

In this day and age in which war-fare technology has coined terms such as “shock and awe”, and contrary to what our youth of the day may think, the term “throw down” was coined long before now by God Himself (Malachi 1:4) to signify He will always have the final word.

Babylonia, at the time this prophesy was given, was the greatest of the super powers. They had been previously used by God to punished Judah for its sins; however, rather than punish Judah as God had directed, they attempted to destroy it. The Babylonians became proud, boastful, and arrogant. And worst of all attributed this conquest of God’s chosen people to their own military might and smarts, rather than God.

In His own way and in a way in which there would be no doubt as to the source, God “threw down” on this super power using an obscure nation called Medes. In fact when Isaiah gave this prophesy because of this relative “David and Goliath” match-up none of the Babylonian leaders took Isaiah’s prophesy seriously.

In this rendition of the “The Coming Day of The Lord” the prophet indicated God will bring His divine vengeance and judgment upon the unfaithful. This awesome of display of God’s power and wrath will truly be a “shock and awe” experience that will render the Babylonians defenseless. Isaiah draws upon the symmetry of nature itself to illustrate the reaction of the conquered people: he compares them to the scatter that comes from when a herd of gazelles or deer flee from an attack, and to sheep (the easiest of all animals to herd) that would be unable to be herded. In a human experience analogy, Isaiah references the pain that would come upon the Babylonians at the hands of the Median power as similar to that of a woman in labor.

This invasion would be as severe and devastating as the invasion of Judah by these same Babylonians. Children would be slaughtered before their parents’ eyes, women would be raped then taken as slaves, and all their worldly possessions of the Babylonians would be taken from them and their homes destroyed

God makes sure they understand the reason for His wrath and their destruction. He indicated through the prophet, He is punishing them for their iniquity and arrogance. We are reminded; the same punishment awaits any other nation which acts in a similar manner (Isaiah 10:7-9; 16:6). In fact we should never forget, all people and nations should avoid getting carry away with themselves and their importance (James 4:6, 16)

However, God has indicated the faithful should fear not. God has promised deliverance not only at this time in Biblical history (Isaiah 14:1-4), but also at the final coming (Revelations 7:13-14).

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