Zion Lutheran Church Sunday Morning Bible Study Lesson 12 Chapters 13-23 are a collection of 11 oracles/prophecies/burdens that, with the exception of chapter 22, are directed at heathen nations. To understand the divine impact of these oracles we need to look no further than an historical timeline. Since chapter 7 was written about 735 B.C. and chapters 36-38 were written in 701 B.C. we can pretty safely deduce that Isaiah wrote these oracles between 735-701 B.C. An outline of Isaiah’s Oracles Chapter(s) Nation/Empire 13-14:27 Babylon & Assyria 14:28-32 Philistia 15-16 Moab 17 Damascus (Syria) 18 Ethiopia 19-20 Egypt 21:1-10 Babylon 21:11-12 Edom 21:13-17 Arabia 22 Jerusalem (Judah) 23 Tyre (Lebanon) Isaiah 21 Introduction-Though very short, Chapter 20 of Isaiah is a very important book of the Bible for reasons of validity. Isaiah begins with a very precise time stamp, “In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it.” Now, lets dig into that one verse and see how it relates to the validity of the Bible. 1. Who or what is “the wilderness of the sea”? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 1 2. What is the significance of the reference to whirlwinds in the Nejeb? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Isaiah has had a series of vison. Why would he call this one “stern?” ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 4. Why would Isaiah say, “A traitor betrays, and a destroyer destroys”? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 5. Who or what is Elam? Media? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 6. Who is sighing? Who caused it? What will happen? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 7. Verses three and four certainly sound dreadful! What is the twilight that Isaiah longed for? What did he see instead? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 8. Who was preparing a table, spreading the rugs, eating and drinking? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 2 9. Who or what was a watchman? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 10. What was this watchman supposed to do? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 11. Who is the one who cried out in verse 8? What did he say or cry out? Why? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 12. What did this watchman see? What did he do? What came of this? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 13. “Fallen, fallen.” Why would the LORD say this twice? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 14. What else was revealed about fallen Babylon? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 15. Who is the threshed and winnowed one? What do we learn about Isaiah from this? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 16. What did Isaiah do for the threshed and winnowed one? ______________________________________________________________________ 3 17. Who or what was Dumah? (Genesis 25:14) ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 18. What is the question that comes to Isaiah the watchman from Seir? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 19. What was the Watchman’s/Isaiah’s response? Why? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 20. Who or what was Arabia? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 21. How do thickest relate to caravans? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 22. Where was the land of Tema? What were they to do? Why? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 23. Where were the swords, the bows, the battle that caused the people to leave for Tema and the Caravans to hide in thickets? How severe was this strife? ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 4 .