Isaiah 47:13
You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you--your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.
Sermons
Many CounsellorsW.M. Statham Isaiah 47:13
The Weariness of Self-ServiceR. Tuck Isaiah 47:13
The Fall of BabylonE. Johnson Isaiah 47:1-15
False Securities: an Exposure and a ChallengeJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 47:11-15
Monthly PrognosticatorsProf. J. Skinner, D. D.Isaiah 47:11-15
Sudden DestructionR. MaccullochIsaiah 47:11-15














Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. The mind of man will seek counsel. For men everywhere, in the old Athenian groves and gardens, and in the fellowship of modern clubs and associations, will seek for "opinion" to guide and help them. They are so slow to trust alone to conscience and to God.

I. THE UNSATISFYING ORACLES. "Thou art wearied." You have tried them so often without results of guidance and good. All is vain. Men go here and there, but, alas! too often to those who are the most likely to fall in with their desires and whims. Like Absalom, men consult counsellors like Ahithophel, who pander to their folly. Then, when times of real emergency and anxiety come, when the poor tired heart needs rest and peace, it is led to new pleasures, new excitements and interests, until weariness ensues. How contrasted is the Christian's lot! "Commit thy way unto him."

II. THE MANIFOLD FAILURE. It is a failure all round. Think of the multitude of counsellors. Men go to a minister instead of to the Bible; or to a priest instead of to a Saviour; or to their passions instead of their conscience; or to man instead of to God. Humbly let us seek the heavenly guidance. "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way." - W.M.S.

Therefore shall evil come upon thee.
: — The predicted calamity is represented as a great storm, which suddenly arises in eastern countries, and blows with such violence as to Spread devastation and ruin wherever its fury extends.

(R. Macculloch)

Can you find a solitary instance in which God approved iniquity? Was ever His sword sheathed in presence of evil? This constancy of judgment upon corrupt ways is itself an argument. One act of moral hesitation would have destroyed God! Time cannot modify Divine judgments. What was wrong in Babylon is wrong here: what was right in the most ancient time will be right on the world's last day. We should remind ourselves of these elementary principles; for their very simplicity may cause us to neglect their claims. We shall regard the solemn denunciations as if spoken to our own city.

I. LOOK AT THIS PICTURE OF UTTER AND MOST PAINFUL BEWILDERMENT. "Evil shall come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know." There are times when the wind seems to be blowing from all quarters at once. There are times when all things seem to have a controversy with us. We set down our feet, and, lo, they are fastened to the ground: we put forth our hand, and an invisible weapon smites it: we look round, and behold the path is ploughed up, so that there is no way of retreat. We lose our own sagacity. Our wit fails us. Once our mind was quick, now it is dead or helpless. We lose confidence in ourselves; substances become shadows; the strongest of our fortresses melt away; and in our friend's face there are discovered lines of suspicion or of mortal hate. This is the necessary and inevitable result of sin.

1. We have been warned of it.

2. A way of escape has been made.

II. HEAR THE DIVINE CHALLENGE ADDRESSED TO THE FALSE POWERS IN WHICH WE HAVE TRUSTED. "Stand now with thine enchantments," &c. (ver. 12). Think that we are now called upon to set out in order the false securities in which we have trusted! There is one, — Money; there is two, — Chance; there is three, — Self-confidence; there is four — Atheistic speculation. Now let them do for us all they can. God has challenged them!

1. They ought to be most useful when most needed.

2. They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness. It is a challenge. I hear the whirlwind coming, — get out your money. You thought something would happen — something is happening, — God's judgment is descending; where is your God Chance? You have confidence in yourself; be it so; make bare your arm, — see, it is but lightning, — it is but flood upon flood, — it is but world dashing against world, &c. "Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee." There is to be a great collision. In that collision only the true can stand.

III. SEE THE DOOM OF FALSE SECURITIES. "Behold, they shall be as stubble," &c. (ver. 14).

1. Let no man complain of want of opportunity of observing the value of his moral securities.

2. Let no man complain of having been allowed to live unwarned.

3. Think of so living that at last a man shall be left without a coal at which to warm himself! This is the end of sin, — this is the worthlessness of false gods! So far as we have had experience of life, we have seen the terrible failure of all false things. We have seen the judgment of God in parts. It is not all left to be revealed. We are entitled to reason from the past to the future; and when our own experience has, as a matter of fact, confirmed the revelation of God, we may know that future to be a terrible one to the servants of unrighteousness. What is the duty of man as dictated by mere common sense? It is to seek and trust that which is true.

(1)We cannot escape the trial of our securities.

(2)If we set ourselves against God, we challenge all the forces of His creation, fire, wind, flood, pestilence, &c. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

(J. Parker, D. D.)

(ver. 13): — The special reference is to the preparation of monthly almanacs (based on astrological calculations) in which coming (disasters were foretold, lucky and unlucky days pointed out, &c. A specimen of these almanacs is translated by Sayce in Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology.

(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)

People
Babylonians, Isaiah
Places
Babylon
Topics
Able, Astrologers, Befall, Charmers, Counsels, Divide, Forth, Forward, Gaze, Guides, Hast, Heavens, Interpreters, Measurers, Mind, Month, Monthly, Months, Moons, Multitude, Observers, Predict, Predictions, Prognosticators, Prophesy, Received, Salvation, Save, Stand, Stargazers, Star-gazers, Stars, Teaching, Troubled, Watchers, Wearied, Worn
Outline
1. God's judgment upon Babylon and Chaldea
6. For their unmercifulness
7. Pride
10. And over-boldness
11. Shall be irresistible

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 47:13

     4281   stars
     5582   tiredness
     8709   astrology

Isaiah 47:1-15

     4215   Babylon

Isaiah 47:9-13

     4185   sorcery and magic

Isaiah 47:12-13

     5779   advice

Isaiah 47:12-15

     4132   demons, malevolence

Isaiah 47:13-15

     1424   predictions
     5780   advisers

Library
Humility is the Root of Charity, and Meekness the Fruit of Both. ...
Humility is the root of charity, and meekness the fruit of both. There is no solid and pure ground of love to others, except the rubbish of self-love be first cast out of the soul; and when that superfluity of naughtiness is cast out, then charity hath a solid and deep foundation: "The end of the command is charity out of a pure heart," 1 Tim. i. 5. It is only such a purified heart, cleansed from that poison and contagion of pride and self-estimation, that can send out such a sweet and wholesome
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Iranian Conquest
Drawn by Boudier, from the engraving in Coste and Flandin. The vignette, drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a statuette in terra-cotta, found in Southern Russia, represents a young Scythian. The Iranian religions--Cyrus in Lydia and at Babylon: Cambyses in Egypt --Darius and the organisation of the empire. The Median empire is the least known of all those which held sway for a time over the destinies of a portion of Western Asia. The reason of this is not to be ascribed to the shortness of its duration:
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 9

How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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