In Isaiah, chapter fifteen, verse one, “The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence.” Located immediately east of the Dead Sea, Moab had always been an adversary of God’s chosen nation, as in Isaiah twenty-five, verse ten, Second Kings three, verses four to five, Second Kings thirteen, verse twenty, and Ezekiel twenty-five, verses eight through eleven. Like the other hostile nations, they too would be destroyed.
Ungodly men, when in trouble, have no comforter. But they are seldom brought by their terrors to approach our forgiving God with true sorrow and believing prayer. There should be the cries of grief through the land. It is poor relief to have many fellow-sufferers, fellow-mourners. The courage of their soldiers will eventually fail.
God can easily deprive a nation of that on which it most depended for strength and defence. These calamities should cause grief in the neighbouring parts. Though enemies to the chosen nation, yet as our fellow-creatures, it should be grievous to see them in such distress. In verses six through nine, the prophet describes the woeful lamentations heard through the country of Moab when it became a prey to the Assyrian army. The country should be plundered.
And famine is usually the sad effect of war. Those who are eager to get abundance of this world, and to lay up what they have gotten, little consider how soon it may be all taken from them. While we warn our enemies to escape from ruin, let us pray for them, that they may seek and find forgiveness of their sins. The theme title describes how it can be without the Almighty One not there.