Isaiah 13:17
Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
Sermons
The MedeaProf. G. A. Smith, D. D.Isaiah 13:17
The MedesSir E. Strachey, Bart.Isaiah 13:17
The Medes and GoldXenophon, Cyrop. V.Isaiah 13:17
Oracle Concerning BabylonE. Johnson Isaiah 13:1-22














The aim of the prophet is to show the extent of the disaster which, in the indignation of God (ver. 5), should overtake the guilty city. One feature of the ruin should be wholesale slaughter (ver. 15). And the result of this would be a terrible reduction of the male population. Men, usually so prevalent, so "cheap" in Babylon, should become scarce and precious; so precious should they be that it might be said, speaking figuratively, that a man would be more precious than gold, even than "the golden wedge of Ophir." What might thus be affirmed of man, in figurative language, in the day of God's wrath, shall become true of man, in simple fact and truth, in the day of Divine grace. Under Christ the day will come when the worth of a man shall be felt to be wholly irreducible to terms of gold and silver; that "no mention shall be made of pearls" when it is attempted to form an estimate of the value of a human spirit.

I. UNDER THE INFLUENCE AND DOMINION OF SIN WE HAVE SADLY LOWERED OUR ESTIMATE OF OURSELVES.

1. Men have treated their fellows as nothing worth. They have either treated their sufferings with callous indifference, or they have looked on their neighbors as related in no other way than through the wages market; or they have actually bought and sold them - their sinews, their intelligence, their honor - for so much gold.

2. Men have pitifully undervalued themselves. They have acted as if they were nothing better than intelligent machines for making money, or than creatures capable of so much enjoyment, or than office-holders who might attain to certain dignities for a few passing years.

II. UNDER CHRIST THE VALVE OF A HUMAN BEING HAS BEEN IMMEASURABLY RAISED. Jesus Christ by his teaching (see especially Mark 8:36, 37), by the illustration in his own person of what a Son of man can be, by the great purpose of his life and death, has liked up to an altogether different level our conception of mankind. Now, we know:

1. That God made every man for himself - for his layout, his friendship, his likeness, his service.

2. That God is earnestly desirous that every child o! his, however far he may have wandered from his side, should return to the Father's home (Luke 15.).

3. That for every child of man a Divine Savior suffered and died (Hebrews 2:9).

4. That before every man who will accept Jesus Christ as his Redeemer there is a holy life on earth and a blissful, glorious immortality. Instructed, inspired by these high truths, we have come, or are coming, to look on every human spirit as possessed of a value which money does not in any degree represent, which cannot be told in "golden wedges." It behooves us all

(1) to recognize our own individual worth, and to act on that true Christian estimate;

(2) to recognize in everyone around us, into whatsoever depths of evil he or she may reclaimed and restored, and who may become inexpressibly dear to the Father and Savior of men. - C.

Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them.
care not for gold, but for blood, though it be the blood of boys and infants.

(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

"Ye Medes and others who now hear me, I well know that you have not accompanied me in this expedition with a view of acquiring wealth." — Speech of Cyrus to his army.

(Xenophon, Cyrop. V.)

The worst terror that can assail us is the terror of forces, whose character we cannot fathom, who will not stop to parley, who do not understand our language nor our bribes. It was such a power with which the resourceful and luxurious Babylon was threatened. With money the Babylonians did all they wished to do, and believed everything else to be possible. They had subsidised kings, bought over enemies, seduced the peoples of the earth, The foe whom God now sent them was impervious to this influence. From their pure highlands came down upon corrupt civilisation a simple people, whose banner was a leathern apron, whose goal was not booty nor ease but power and mastery, who came not to rob but to displace.

(Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

People
Amoz, Babylonians, Isaiah, Ophir
Places
Babylon, Gomorrah, Ophir, Sodom
Topics
Behold, Care, Delight, Driving, Esteem, Gold, Medes, Pleasure, Regard, Silver, Stir, Stirring, Value
Outline
1. God musters the armies of his wrath
6. He threatens to destroy Babylon by the Medes
19. The desolation of Babylon

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 13:1-22

     5305   empires

Isaiah 13:15-18

     5584   torture

Isaiah 13:17-18

     5206   archers

Library
The Blind Man's Guide
'I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.'--ISAIAH xiii. 16. The grand stormy verses before these words, with all their dread array of natural convulsions, have one object--the tender guidance promised in the text. So we have the combination of terror and love, the blending in the divine government of terrible
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Scriptures Showing the Sin and Danger of Joining with Wicked and Ungodly Men.
Scriptures Showing The Sin And Danger Of Joining With Wicked And Ungodly Men. When the Lord is punishing such a people against whom he hath a controversy, and a notable controversy, every one that is found shall be thrust through: and every one joined with them shall fall, Isa. xiii. 15. They partake in their judgment, not only because in a common calamity all shares, (as in Ezek. xxi. 3.) but chiefly because joined with and partakers with these whom God is pursuing; even as the strangers that join
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

A Clearing-Up Storm in the Realm
(Revelation, Chapters vi.-viii.) "God Almighty! King of nations! earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne! Thine the greatness, power, and glory, Thine the kingdom, Lord, alone! Life and death are in Thy keeping, and Thy will ordaineth all: From the armies of Thy heavens to an unseen insect's fall. "Reigning, guiding, all-commanding, ruling myriad worlds of light; Now exalting, now abasing, none can stay Thy hand of might! Working all things by Thy power, by the counsel of Thy will. Thou art God!
by S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

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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