This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says:
“I, myself, have risen against Babylon!
I will destroy its children and its children’s children,”
says the LORD.
“I will make Babylon a desolate place of owls,
filled with swamps and marshes.
I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction.
I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”
The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath:
“It will all happen as I have planned.
It will be as I have decided.
I will break the Assyrians when they are in Israel;
I will trample them on my mountains.
My people will no longer be their slaves
nor bow down under their heavy loads.
I have a plan for the whole earth,
a hand of judgment upon all the nations.
The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has spoken—
who can change his plans?
When his hand is raised,
who can stop him?” (Isaiah 14:22-27)

You can’t spoil God’s plans. Whatever God has decided to do is what will happen. Babylon and Assyria imagined themselves invincible. They thought that they were in the driver’s seat, the captains of their souls, the architects of their fates. Reality was something else all together and God’s plans for them were a bit different from their plans for themselves. From God’s perspective, the Assyrians and Babylonians were merely tools in his hands that he used for his purposes. When God was done with them, he set them aside.

For the Babylonians and Assyrians, the end of their power was a disappointment and a surprise. From the standpoint of the Jewish people, however, it was a moment of great pleasure, a time of intense thanksgiving. No more would the Jewish people be enslaved, no longer would they be barred from their homes. At long last their great suffering that they had endured as punishment for their sins would be lifted. Hundreds of years before it came to pass, God let his people know everything would turn out well. He granted them his divine perspective.

We know how the story of the universe ends: God wins. Since we belong to God we will win too. We have an eternity to spend with him. So things couldn’t be better for us.

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