Isaiah’s Tragic Tears of Triumph

Uranium could be mined from coal.  But it’s not.  To extract its minuscule concentration out of coal is too expensive to be profitable.  Gold is present in seawater, but at one fiftieth of an ounce per ton of seawater, it’s not cost-effective.  More often than not, getting spiritual “nuggets” out of the Old Testament feels like extracting gold out of seawater.  So we stick to New Testament books where “gold” comes in high concentrations.  What I’ve come to see more and more, though, is that rarity in the Old Testament yields revelations of the glory of Jesus far more precious than gold!

Until recently Isaiah chapters 13 through 24, God’s judgment on the nations, has been seawater for me.  These repetitive punishments were just informational.  Yet, as God hid the wondrous beauty of the tabernacle underneath dull, unattractive animal skins, so He disguises precious treasures underneath Scripture that’s unappealing to our natural hearts.  Like genealogies and judgments.  When I paused to meditate on Isaiah’s pronouncements against Moab, many things puzzled me.  Isaiah’s tears for pompous Moab was a mystery.  I mean, who weeps for Pharisees?  As I’ve depended wholly on the Spirit to unveil the Lord Jesus in Isaiah 13-24, though, I’ve been in awe discovering just how raw God is in revealing His heart here.  It’s unlike any other place in the Bible I know!  So amazing!

One of these nations in God’s cross-hairs is Moab.  Moab’s denunciations abound in chapters 15 and 16.  Moab was a perpetual harasser of Israel, beginning with her bungled attempt to curse them by hiring the prophet Balaam.  Eglon, Moab’s extremely obese king, ruled over them for 18 long years.  King David finally conquered them, forcing them to pay heavy tribute.  Then Moab happily (or unhappily) joined forces with two armies against King Jehoshaphat, only to be soundly defeated by the Lord. 

What stands out uniquely in Isaiah’s prophecy of Moab is the intense emotional trauma and distress.  Moab’s extreme sorrow is variously expressed as weeping (15:2, 5), wailing (15:2, 8; 16:7), baldness (15:2), sackcloth (15:3), and crying out (15:4, 8).  In the following passage these odd sounding names—Heshbon, Sibmah, Jazer and Elealeh—were well-known localities in Moab.  Isaiah mourns over Assyria’s devastation of their farms and vineyards:   

For the fields of Heshbon languish,

    and the vine of Sibmah;

the lords of the nations

    have struck down its branches,

which reached to Jazer

    and strayed to the desert;

its shoots spread abroad

    and passed over the sea.

Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

    for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

    O Heshbon and Elealeh;

for over your summer fruit and your harvest

    the shout has ceased. 

Isaiah 16:8-9 ESV

Check out Isaiah’s sympathies: “I weep with the weeping of Jazer” and “I drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh.”  Wow!  How raw and intense!  Previously Isaiah had blurted out, “My heart cries out for Moab” (15:5).  Later on the “Here I am, send me” prophet weeps for his own people.  That I get.  But Moab?  Perhaps having a Moabite, Ruth, in King David’s royal genealogy elicited sympathy.  Isaiah doesn’t say why.  The larger question, though, is this: were Isaiah’s tears the Lord’s tears?  Maybe the prophet had a soft spot for Moab but God didn’t.  After all, God was the one bringing judgment upon their sins. 

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, followed Isaiah roughly a century later.  He, too, prophesied against Moab, incorporating language like Isaiah’s.  History is repeating itself, not Assyria as in Isaiah’s day but Babylon. 

I know his insolence, declares the Lord;

    his boasts are false,

    his deeds are false.

Therefore I wail for Moab;

    I cry out for all Moab;

    for the men of Kir-hareseth I mourn.

More than for Jazer I weep for you,

    O vine of Sibmah! 

Jeremiah 48:30-32 ESV

Here it’s crystal clear that the speaker is the Lord.  Think about this for a moment.  The Lord is not just a little sad; He wails—the intense brokenness of heart that overflows in passionate sobs.  My heart sympathies compared to the Lord’s is like a candle to the sun.  Although my heart goes out to fleeing refugees or devastated families of horrific shooting victims, I’ve been nowhere close to wailing.  There’s no one like the Lord!

The Lord Jesus weeps with those who weep, even when He is the one inflicting the calamity that causes the weeping.  In the book of Judges when Israel cried out because of the bondage of the nations that He Himself brought, the Lord was moved with compassion.  Jesus wept over prideful Jerusalem that would be devastated by Roman armies (Luke 19:41-44).  Although God does resist the proud, it’s done with a broken heart. 

What triggered these stinging judgments against Moab?  Each nation in this judgment section of Isaiah usually highlights one specific sin.  Moab’s offensive trait is pride.  Now, while every nation has pride, Moab is its poster child:

We have heard of the pride of Moab—how proud he is!—of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence; in his idle boasting he is not right.

Isaiah 16:6 ESV

In biblical passages referencing Moab, one big truth emerges: it’s a land of death.  Moses was buried there.  Naomi came to Moab to find fullness but left empty-handed, her husband and two sons all dying there.  The land of Moab is death.  Leaving Moab behind is life.  When Ruth left there, she became an heiress in the lineage of the Messiah.  So it is with pride.  Living in pride is death, leaving pride is life.  What’s true in miniature with Moab is true for everyone.  Moab, then, becomes God’s illustration how He deals with pride in humanity.  Amidst Moab’s trail of tears are footsteps of redeeming mercy for everyone!

How is this relevant to our 21st century modern technological age?  Jesus is the timeless One, the same today, yesterday and forever.  With man there’s nothing new under the sun.  Technology has changed, but pride then and pride now are the same.  So Moab pictures pride very much alive and well today.  How does God deal with pride now?  Watch how He dealt with Moab. 

Isaiah’s burden repeatedly alludes to Moab’s history to tell a story of His unrelenting love for them, starting here: 

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. 

Isaiah 15:1 ESV

Ar was one of her most influential cities.  The Lord blessed Moab with Ar as her very own possession, Deuteronomy 2:9 says, a land rich in pastureland and vineyards.  Those superb harvests bore testimony to His kindness (Acts 14:17), which were intended to lead to repentance (Rom 2:4).  He arranged the boundaries of her habitation that she might grope for Him (Acts 17:26-27).  When Israel entered the Promised Land, God didn’t treat Moab like other Canaanite nations slated for total destruction.  Instead, He prohibited Israel from attacking, despite Moab’s attempts to hire Balaam to curse them. 

Moab was blessed because of her association to a godly man.  Lot, the father of the Moabite nation, obtained a righteousness (2Pe 2:7) that he learned from his uncle, Abraham.  So despite their pride and numerous antagonisms, the Lord continued to bless the Moabites because of this godly association.  But Moab spurned all God’s goodness, returning His kindness with pride and idolatry.  So God had to deal with them like He did with the haughty daughters of Jerusalem back in Isaiah chapters 3 and 4—with the spirit of judgment and burning. 

The next allusion to Moab’s history clues us in to the Lord’s pathway out of pride.   

My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to Zoar,

Isaiah 15:5 ESV

Mention of Zoar is a reminder of her national origin.  Zoar was the little city that Lot, the founding patriarch of the Moabite nation, sought out for refuge after Sodom and Gomorrah’s fiery overthrow (Gen 19:22).  So Moab’s refugees fleeing to Zoar retraces Lot’s exodus from Sodom.  On the surface Sodom’s prevailing homosexuality appeared to be the reason for its judgment, but Ezekiel had this to say: “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease” (Eze 16:49).  Pride was the common denominator between Sodom and Moab.  Moab’s fugitives fleeing to Zoar hinted at the need once again to flee from pride, for its end is death—utter destruction.

The prophecy continues retracing Moab’s steps:

Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela, by way of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

Isaiah 16:1 ESV

The “ruler of the land” here refers to the king of Judah, now King Hezekiah.  The Hebrew word for “lamb” is literally “fat,” as in a fattened lamb or ram.  It’s a flashback to David’s subjugation of Moab that forced them to pay tribute of 100,000 lambs (2Ki 3:4).  The Lord’s counsel is basically this: come out of Moab and submit yourself again to Judah’s king.

Like fleeing birds, like a scattered nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon. 

Isaiah 16:2 ESV

The daughters of Moab fleeing the country after the Assyrian devastation is another clever finger pointing, this time to Ruth’s exodus.  Unlike Balaam’s day when the daughters of Moab incited the men of Israel to commit idolatry with Baal Peor, these daughters are no longer a threat.  The difference?  Assyria as God’s tool shook up Moab’s complacency to rest in her nest of pride.  Because Assyria scattered her, Moab sought refuge in God.

God then turns to address Judah, commanding them to welcome these Moabite refugees until the invading army of Assyria has passed. 

Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

Isaiah 16:3-4 ESV

The throne of David’s offspring “will be established in steadfast love” amidst an arrogant and proud people!  God’s wounding judgments against Moab humbled her pride, which opened the way to His throne.  The severity of God is a door to His goodness!  The Lord’s way with the proud is to bring sudden calamity or unexpected hardship, which brings them low.  Pride is the most aggressive form of cancer that necessitates severe methods to save the patient.  It’s the Lord’s last resort to establish His throne.  This throne refers first to King Hezekiah but ultimately to the everlasting monarch of the tent of David, the One who “shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse…and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him” (11:1-2)—King Jesus! 

Pride is a recurring theme in Isaiah.  The Lord must bring the loftiness of man low.  “For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low” (Isa 2:12).  God being no respecter of persons, neither Jew nor Gentile are exempt from His exertions to subdue pride.  The haughty daughters of Zion experience the same devastating effects from foreign invasion as haughty Moab: baldness, sackcloth, lamentation and mourning (3:16-26).  The tools in the Lord’s hand to deliver divine discipline are not themselves exempt.  “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes” (10:12).  At long last Satan, the devil, the serpent in the ancient garden of Eden who injected venomous pride into the human race, will likewise be brought low for his loftiness (see 14:12-15).

Many envision God in the Old Testament as wrath and judgment but Jesus in the New Testament as love and grace.  Isaiah’s tears dispel this myth.  Isaiah’s tragic tears over Moab are a window into the heart of God: He weeps.  Not only does He weep, He wails.  Isaiah’s profuse tears reveal a God who is moved with compassion even amidst His judgments.  He is not a stoic, dispassionate hermit in heaven.  Instead we see Jesus weeping right along with these weeping Moabites, not unlike the time to come when His tears would flow alongside Mary because her brother, Lazarus, had died.  Jesus wept.  These tears have an expected end of triumph!  He humbles as a means to an end: “a throne will be established in steadfast love.” 

We live in a complicated, confusing sin-broken world that seems to be spinning out of control.  Isaiah sees this dark world differently.  The Lord is on His throne, worshiped by cherubim incessantly chanting, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory!”  I’ve often thought “the whole earth is full of His glory” exclusively as His glorious beauty showcased in all creation—”I see the stars / I hear the rolling thunder / Thy power throughout the universe displayed.”  Isaiah, though, invites us to peek behind the curtains of mysterious Providence and understand that the whole earth includes this fallen world, too.  No less striking of His glory in creation is His absolute mastery of this fallen world to achieve His glory in redemption.  He uses empires of devastation like Assyria as effortlessly we might pick up a hammer from a toolbox to reduce prideful Moabites to tears to ultimately achieve His happy ends—restored relationship.

Moab’s blessing came about because of her close association with a godly nation, Israel.  Kids raised in a Christian home are like Moab in that sense.  They receive blessing because of their association with a godly father and mother.  But if God’s goodness doesn’t lead our children to repentance from pride, He must resort to the tough love that Moab illustrates.  God still has His “kings of Assyria” today, those forces in the world whom He can deploy at will to bring about His desired ends.  When our children won’t listen to our words, the “waters of Shiloh that flow gently,” He, in His time, will dispatch a strong and mighty river, the king of Assyria (Isa 8:6-7).  He whistles to Assyria and they come (7:18-19).  The parable of the prodigal son is a fitting illustration of this.  The son who squandered his father’s inheritance was living it up until a famine out of the blue stripped him down to nothing—poverty, hunger and feeding pigs.  That famine was the Lord’s “king of Assyria” that humbled him to turn him back to his father’s house. 

This isn’t just theory for me.  18 years ago the Lord blessed me with a beautiful daughter, whom I dedicated to the Lord.  In her early teenage years she abandoned faith in Jesus and has been pursuing an increasingly dark path of atheism and the ideological confusion permeating today’s American youth culture.  While I don’t wish for my daughter to experience the painful hardship of the world, I know His shakings to come in her life are for a hope and a future.  If my kids go the way of Moabite pride, tears are how He establishes His throne in steadfast love.  So my heart has found a resting place in the Lord’s relentless love that includes both the gentle waters of Shiloh and the strong and mighty flooding river.  For the joy set before Him of restored relationship He endures the tears inflicted by His stripping judgments.  This revelation of the Lord Jesus is shaping my faith to rest.  Truly He has the whole world in His hands, as the children’s song affirms.  The harmful chaos of the world is a safe place for my daughter because the Lord commands a “king of Assyria” perfectly suited to humble her pride so that she might find refuge under His wings.

Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, popularized this adage: “When you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.”  The beauty of the revelation of Christ through Isaiah’s tears bolsters a trust in His smiling heart even as we’re confused by His frowning providence.  This one revelation of the Lord’s sympathetic heart through Isaiah’s tears won’t answer every question and resolve every mystery.  The Bible has much more to say about the Lord’s multilayered heart on this matter.  But it does open our eyes a little wider to see that the whole earth, including broken humanity, is full of His glory.  And when we see the world as the angels do, we’ll bow in adoration and worship along with them, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!”