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Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone… Moab wails…. on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears…. the armed men of Moab cry aloud… I [the LORD] will bring upon Dibon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape…. We have heard of the pride of Moab … of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right. Therefore let Moab wail for Moab, let everyone wail… For… the lords of the nations have struck down its [Moab’s] branches… Therefore I [the LORD] weep… I drench you with my tears… Therefore my [the LORD’s] inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir… This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab… Isaiah 15: 1 – 16: 13 |
“History teaches us that mankind learns nothing from history.” That was the distilled thinking of Georg Hegel in 1832.
The history behind the above extracts (in bold) from the book of Isaiah, the prophet of the LORD God, has several lessons for mankind. Isaiah lived in Jerusalem between 740 BC and 687 BC and was a confidante and advisor to several kings of Judah. He was deeply aware of the machinations going on amongst the nations surrounding tiny Judah with its capital Jerusalem.
The background was one of conflicting interests and therefore typical of today’s world. Judah was a tiny self-governing state. Her closest family affinity was with the people who occupied and ruled the territory immediately to the north of Judah. Both territories were populated by folk who were descendants of a man named Jacob (aka Israel). The northern one took the name Israel but was sometimes called Samaria after its capital city.
Who then was Moab – the subject of the sentences in bold above? These people had no real connection with either Judah or Israel. Their tiny realm was to the east of Judah. Kir was the capital city. Insignificant Moab was caught up with the geopolitics of the day. In particular, all three kingdoms (and several others at that time) greatly feared the Assyrians whose capital city was Nineveh (present day Mosul in Iraq) and whose second city, famous for trade and finance, was Babylon (near present day Baghdad).
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‘O war! Thou son of hell!’ (William Shakespeare, Playwright and Poet, 1564-1616)
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In the years following BC 740, Assyria was targeting Samaria and neighbouring Syria. Samaria and Syria sought an alliance with Judah. Judah refused – brotherly love failed to triumph over brotherly jealousy. Judah sought an alliance with Assyria instead – the protection of an agreement with a world-class power.
Then, around 715 BC the Assyrians were targeting nations further south and Moab was brought to its knees along the way. The people of Moab – terribly afflicted – sought refuge in Jerusalem. Everyone was weeping. “Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone… Moab wails…. on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears…. the armed men of Moab cry aloud…"
But there’s problem with that. If they are to enter Jerusalem they must submit to its government, to its king. For Moab, this is a bridge too far. “We have heard of the pride of Moab … of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.” Jerusalem’s offer of salvation remained open – but Moab did not accept it. Pride excluded them from salvation in Jerusalem.
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‘In war there is no such thing as victor and vanquished. There is only a loser – and that loser is mankind.’ (U Thant, United Nations Secretary General, 1909-1974).
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This war and its outcome were described by Isaiah in three ways: First: “I [the LORD] will bring upon Dibon even more, a lion for those of Moab who escape….” From this one realizes that Moab’s pride – and the way it despised the authority of Jerusalem – incurred the wrath of God. Second: “the lords of the nations have struck down its [Moab’s] branches…” From this one understands that the Assyrian leaders were the ones who decided to strike Moab. Third: “Therefore I [the LORD] weep… I drench you with my tears… Therefore my [the LORD’s] inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir…”
How can these three things occur together? Is it possible that the LORD God brings punishment upon Moab and that the globally-powerful nations strike down Moab and that the LORD God weeps over Moab? Simultaneously? It makes sense, actually. Moab is proudly against the LORD, is therefore under God’s wrath, is left unprotected against the cruel human powers that be, whilst the LORD continuously weeps over them.
The shortest sentence in the whole of the Christian Bible is: “Jesus wept.” It occurred when Jesus was face to face with the sickness and death of a friend. “Jesus wept.” Then he raised that friend – Lazarus - to life.
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