Today let’s look at chapter 15. From chapter 13 Isaiah starts on a new theme. From there on is a prophecy against the neighboring countries. The first to appear was Babylon. Babylon is more than one country, but symbolizes all powers that are enemies to God. Next Isaiah spoke against Assyria and next against Persia. Today is a continuation. It is a prophecy against Moab. From today’s prophecy against Moab let’s learn three things.

I. Judgment in a night (vs. 1-4)
The first point is that God’s judgment occurs suddenly. Please look at verse 1.
“Ar” (1) and “Kir” (1) are towns in Moab. The country of Moab is on the East side of the Dead Sea. If you look at a map you will see them located there. They will be “ruined, destroyed.” (1) The prophecies are not ambiguous or abstract. Specific names of towns are given, and it is clearly said what will become of these towns. Ar and Kir will be “ruined, destroyed in a night!” (1) These words will become a reality just as this passage says. Moab was “ruined, destroyed” (1) by Assyria.
This will happen “in a night”. (1) This is repeated two times. “In a night” (1) Ar will be “ruined, destroyed” (1) and “in a night” (1) Kir will be “ruined, destroyed.” (1) In the middle of the night they will be surprised by the enemy. “In a night” (1) they will be “ruined, destroyed.” (1) This is unthinkable. It is outside of what we would think of possibly happening. However, in our lives things occur that we never thought of happening. In our lives things that we never dreamed of happen.
Please open your Bibles in Luke 12:20
Luke 12:20
This is a tragedy that happened to a rich man. He had “plenty of good things laid up for many years.” (Luke 12:19) Therefore, he thought he would “take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.” (Luke 12:19) All at once God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:20)
That day will suddenly come. Even though yesterday you were so healthy; even though you thought you would live a long life, even though you are still young, you are told that you only have 3 months left to live or suddenly your life is taken away by a car accident. Or like last year’s disaster in a moment life is lost. There are times when “in a night” (1) death occurs. You don’t know when it will happen to you. This isn’t a special event that happens just to the Moabites, but could happen to anyone. It could happen to you tonight. Or it could happen to your loved one. You can’t forecast what could happen to your healthy father or mother, grandfather or grandmother. In our lives things happen that we never thought about nor ever dreamed of happening.
Let’s look at one more Bible passage. Please open your Bibles to I Thess. 5:2.3.
I Thess. 5:2, 3
“The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (I Thess. 5:2,3) When Jesus appears again, when He comes to get us, suddenly he “will come like a thief in the night.” (I Thess. 5:2, 3) “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly.” (I Thess 5:3) This is just like how labor pains come upon a pregnant woman. Once they come, there is no way that the woman can escape from them. Let’s always be prepared so that no matter when Jesus comes we are prepared. The next time that Jesus comes he will come not to save the world, but to judge the world. Of course, those who believe in Jesus and who are saved are not in darkness, so they will not be judged. I Thess. 5:4 says, “But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” Those who believe in Jesus and walk in the light “will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24) However, those who do not believe will be judged. I don’t really like to talk about this, but this the truth. Salvation is in Jesus. If we don’t believe in Jesus, the Son of God, judgment will come upon us. It will come unexpectedly. Therefore, before that, so that the judgment will not come upon us, let’s be prepared. Are you prepared for Christ to come suddenly? It will occur “in a night.” (1) Please be prepared.
Verses 2 to 4 describe the condition the people were in when God’s judgment came upon them suddenly.
Verses 2-4
“Temple” is the temple where the Moab god, Chemosh, was worshipped. It was on a hill in Dibron. Shrines were usually built in “high places” (2), on the hilltops. Chemosh was also on a hilltop. Suddenly when the Assyrians came upon them, the Moabites climbed up the hill and asked their own god, Chemosh, for help, but the idol didn’t save them. The god didn’t help them at all. Up until then the thing that they depended upon didn’t help them at all. The people who realized that the god was of no help were astonished and “wailed”. (2)
Dibon and Nebo are names of towns in Moab. Before Moses looked down from this mountain in Dibon to see the Promised Land and then ended his life. 6 kilometers southeast of this Dibon mountain is the town of Nebo. The Moabites, who heard that Nebo and Dibon had been attacked, climbed up to the “high places to weep.” (2) “Every head is shaved and every beard cut off.” (2)This was done to show lament and sadness. At that time men were proud of growing a beard. It was the proper thing to do. To shave off your hair and beard was very humiliating and painful. It was that sad and bitter of an event. “In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail.” (3)This is done to show mourning. When by Assyria the town was attacked and fell by brutal means the people put on mourning clothes and wailed and were sad.
Heshbon and Elealeh and Jahaz in verse 4 are towns that before in the age of Joshua Israel had captured, but in Isaiah’s age the Moabites controlled these towns. In other words, they were captured by the Moabites. The Moabites were really a threat to Israel. Those towns were next attacked by Assyria. The news that Assyria came and attacked Heshbon and Elealeh was “heard all the way to Jahaz” which is separated by more than 30 kilometers. “Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out, and their hearts are faint.” (4)
God’s judgment comes suddenly. When we are not expecting it, it comes suddenly. It comes like a thief in the night. Therefore, we need to be prepared for it so no matter when it comes we are ready. If not, we will be like the Moabites wailing, lamenting and in pain.

II. My heart cries out (vs. 5,6)
The second point is that God doesn’t want even a single person to perish, but desires all men to be saved. Please look at verse 5.
Here a strange thing is written. “My heart cries out over Moab.” (5) “I” (5) is of course God. This means that God is crying out over Moab. After that it says, “her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the way to Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim, they lament their destruction.” God sees the Moabites fleeing from the attack of Assyria and is crying. Even though it is only natural that the Moabites that worshipped the idol Chemosh be destroyed, God looks at the Moabites and cries. He is crying out.
That means even though they are not the promised people, God made them. They are people that God loves very much. Please don’t misunderstand. Certainly God is a righteous God that punishes sin. However, God isn’t a cold god that looks at those who are destroyed and doesn’t think anything about it. God because of his nature of righteousness has to judge sin, but it is really hard and painful. While crying he judges. That is because He wants all people to be saved and to know the truth. Please open your Bibles to II Peter 3:9
II Peter 3:9
God does “not want anyone to perish.” (II Peter 3:9) God wants all people to be saved. This is the same with the Moabites. God does “not want anyone to perish.” (II Peter 3:9) Therefore, He is crying for the people that have to be destroyed for not repenting.
In the Bible there is a book called Jonah. The prophet Jonah is sent out to the Assyrian town of Nineveh. There Jonah preaches a message of repentance. Then the people of Nineveh altogether repent. However, Jonah did not really want to do that. That was because Jonah knew that Assyria and done a terrible thing towards Israel. Therefore, Jonah really wanted the opposite, revenge. He wanted God to destroy them. Therefore, he complained that he didn’t want to go and ran away to Tarsus, the country the furthest away. The rest of the story I think you already know. A storm came upon the ship. The cause was Jonah. Jonah hadn’t obeyed God. So God was angry. Therefore, he was thrown into the sea. A big fish swallowed him. He was in his belly for three days and three nights. There he repented. Then he went to Nineveh and preached the Word of God. He preached, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” (Jonah 3:4) The people of Nineveh believed in God and repented “from the greatest to the least.” (Jonah 3:5)
“But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.” (Jonah 4:1) He complained to God, “O LORD, is this not what I said …I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, A God who relents from sending calamity.” (Jonah 4:2) He thought it was natural that Israel’s enemy Nineveh, Assyria be destroyed. Even so they were saved.
“Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint.” (Jonah 4:6-8) He said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:8)
Then God said to Jonah, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. Bit Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:10, 11)
Even if people are antagonistic towards God, God still loves them. Also God doesn’t want them to be destroyed, but desires that all people be saved. That is the heart of God.
That is not all. “My heart cries out over Moab.” (5) The Moabites were not just people that God made, but they had a deep relationship with God’s people, the Jews. If you research into the Moabites you will see that their ancestor was Abraham’s nephew, Lot. In Genesis 19;37,38 it says, “The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.” Moab was the child born to Lot and Lot’s daughter. Also King David of Israel was one eighth Moabite. David’s great grandmother was Ruth, a Moabite. Therefore, the Moabites were enemies of Israel, but in reality they had a deep relationship with the Jews. They were a people that were very close to the Jews. The Lord had a merciful heart towards such Moabites.
This means that around us there are such many “Moabites” like this. They still don’t believe in Jesus yet, but they are extremely near Christians who already believe in Jesus. For example, they are family members that still don’t believe. For such people just because in their family there is a Christian, they are in a special place where at any time they can seek God. It can be said that they are especially loved by God. If they seek it they can be saved. Not everyone is in such an environment. Some people are far away from God. They are in a place completely unrelated to salvation. Of course, even such people by the grace of God are sometimes chosen, but compared to people who are extremely close to Christians, it is not as easy. Therefore, to have a Christian nearby, to know Christians is a huge grace. Such people are the same as the Moabites. God is crying out over such people that they will believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved.

III. A lion upon the fugitives and upon those who remain (Vs. 7-9)
The third point is if they don’t repent what will happen. That is if they don’t repent, God’s relentless judgment will come upon them. Please look at verses 7 to 9.
“Dimon’s waters are full of blood” shows how many people were killed. However, the judgment of God on Moab is still not finished. God will send “a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon those who remain in the land.” (9) The “lion” (9) is Assyria, but it is God who sends them. God uses Assyria as his tool for judgment. The point here is that God towards those who are forever antagonistic towards God and those who do not repent, God will send a lion and thoroughly judge them.
This is not a contradiction to the mercy of God that we looked at earlier. This is not God’s holy wrath. God does not want a single person to perish, but wants all people to be saved. For this God is “gracious and compassionate…slow to anger and abounding in love.” (Jonah 4:2) He is waiting for us to repent. However, we must remember that there is a limit. A time will come. If they have not repented before that time, like God judged Moab, they will be judged. Because of God’s nature of being merciful, the judgment is very saddening to God. However, because of God’s nature of holiness he has to destroy those who are judged. However, God is not rejoicing over the judgment, but rather is saddened. That is God’s heart. We must know the heart of God. Knowing that heart, we must return to God.
Remember the ark of Noah. “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5) Therefore, God told Noah to make and ark and for him and his family to enter it. In the midst of the laughing of the people around them Noah and his family entered the ark just as God commanded them. “Then the LORD shut him in.” (Genesis 7:16) The door where there wasn’t a second chance to enter was closed. This is the most serious time of our life. At that time, we will for the first time realize the importance of repentance. However, at that time it is too late. We must enter before the door is shut. Please enter the ark, you and your family. Enter and be saved. That is God’s heart. God is crying out over you.

Applying it to our lives
 Are you prepared so that you are ready if the Lord comes suddenly?

 Do you have family, friends, or people you know around you that still don’t believe in Jesus? The Lord has compassion on them. Are you praying for their salvation?

 Have you received God’s salvation? If you haven’t received Jesus as your Savior, please pray to accept Christ as your Savior.