Isaiah 23

And now, to the laundry list of nations that will fall at the command of God, Isaiah adds Canaan—specifically the port cities of Tyre and Sidon: “Who was it that planned to bring all this on Tyre, that imperial city, whose merchant princes were the most honored men on earth? The Lord Almighty planned it. He planned it in order to put an end to their pride in what they had done and to humiliate their honored ones.” (vs 8-9)

Doesn’t it seem, thus far in Isaiah, like God’s in a really bad mood? It seems that any nation who doesn’t serve Him and Him alone is put on the waiting list for destruction. And that seems to be an altogether different picture of God than the one Jesus presented when He walked the Earth.

What gives?

As I thought about this today, I realized that, first, it might be helpful to understand the mindset of the ancient world. Each nation had a god (and usually, it was more like hundreds of gods) that they worshiped. There were no a-theistic nations; rather, most were poly-theistic. (God attempted to make Israel into a mono-theistic nation, with limited success.)

Since all these different nations served all these different gods, the prevailing wisdom of the time was that a nation prospered or suffered in direct proportion to the power of their particular gods. Thus, if a nation was financially prosperous and successful on the battlefield, the conclusion was that their gods were powerful. If a nation suffered from poverty and losses on the battlefield, it could only be because their gods were weak and useless.

So, once a nation was convinced of the power of any given god, they would begin to worship that god. This doesn’t mean that they would abandon their previous gods, but that they would simply add the worship of this new god. I guess they figured they would cover all their bases—sort of like deity insurance.

Strength, might, power—this was the prevailing language of the day. Every nation understood it, and every nation spoke it. The heathen nations (and even the Israelites) would not have understood a message from heaven that said, Hey guys, it’s Me, God. The only true God. Baal doesn’t exist. Dagon doesn’t exist. None of those gods are real, and I don’t really like all this fighting. Just listen to Me, and we can all learn how to get along.

Not only would the heathen nations have not understood that message, they would never have even heard it! Remember Pharaoh and the plagues? At the time, the only thing those nations could “hear” was physical might and strength, and if the God of the Israelites couldn’t defeat other armies on the battlefield or “take down” the nations who put their trust in other gods, then He wasn’t worth getting too worked up about.

I know, this sort of battle talk offends our 21st-century sensibilities. Through the ministry of Jesus, God has been able to bring us to a better understanding of His character and the principles of His kingdom, and we now know that God prefers peace to war. He would much rather speak gently than to have to raise His voice.

But it should encourage us to know that God is willing to communicate with us by whatever means is available to Him. If power is the only thing you understand, God will use power to get your attention. If you can only “hear” someone when they’re shouting at you, God is willing to employ His best Mount Sinai voice in His conversations with you.

God knows you through and through, and He is fluent in your language. Whatever particular dialect you require, He is more than able and willing to speak it to you. You never need to worry that God isn’t able to get through to you. Communication is His specialty. Every one of His children speaks a slightly different language, and He is fluent in every single one.