In Isaiah, chapter twenty-one, verses one through ten, God gives Isaiah a second vision of the downfall and destruction of Babylon, which is just north of the Persian Gulf. The burden of the desert of the sea: That is, of Babylon, as is evident from verse nine. Some think it is prophetic, because, although it was presently a populous city, it was shortly to be made desolate, and turned into a marsh, and pools of water. Babylon stood on a plain, and the country about it, and especially below it, toward the sea.
Babylon was a flat country, abundantly watered. The destruction of Babylon, so often prophesied of by Isaiah, was typical of the destruction of the great foe of the New Testament church, foretold in the Revelation. To the poor, oppressed captives, it would be welcome news. To the proud oppressors, it would be grievous. Let this check vain mirth and sensual pleasures, that we know not in what heaviness the mirth may end. Here is the alarm given to Babylon when forced by Cyrus. An ass and a camel seem to be the symbols of the Medes and Persians. Babylon’s idols shall be so far from protecting her that they shall be broken down. True believers are the corn of God’s floor, hypocrites are but as chaff and straw, with which the wheat is now mixed, but from which it shall be separated. The corn of God’s floor must expect to be threshed by afflictions and persecutions. God’s Israel of old was afflicted. Even then, God owns it is his still. In all events concerning the church, past, present, and to come, we must look forward to God, who has power to do anything for His church, and grace to do everything that is for her good.