Just as there exist two major opposing political powers and their alliances in Isaiah’s end-time scenario, so there exist two opposing spiritual powers—Zion and Babylon. These define all of humanity. If a person or people are not identified with Zion, then they are Babylon.
Isaiah’s literary devices define both Zion and Babylon as a people and place. Zion is those who repent of sins and the place to which they return in God’s Day of Judgment. Babylon is those who don’t repent and the world at large. One is a refuge, the other all that God destroys.
A separation of righteous and wicked people associated with Zion and Babylon begins among believers in God. God weeds out the wicked from the righteous. He arranges their circumstances in such a way that they must choose deliverance or destruction as all middle ground vanishes.
Isaiah 33:14The sinners in Zion are struck with fear; the godless are in the grip of trembling: Who among us can live through the devouring fire? Who among us can abide eternal burning?
Isaiah 1:27–28Zion shall be ransomed by justice, those of her who repent by righteousness. But criminals and sinners shall be altogether shattered when those who forsake Jehovah are annihilated.
As God’s worldwide judgments commence and people’s support systems collapse around them, many turn to God to save them. God bares his “arm”—his end-time servant—and sends his servants throughout the earth to release them from oppression and restore them to his covenant.
Isaiah 52:8–10Hark! Your watchmen lift up their voice; as one they cry out for joy: for they shall see eye to eye when Jehovah reestablishes Zion. Break out all together into song, you ruined places of Jerusalem: Jehovah has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. Jehovah has bared his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, that all ends of the earth may see our God’s salvation.
Isaiah 52:1–3Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power, O Zion! Put on your robes of glory, O Jerusalem, holy city. No more shall the uncircumcised and defiled enter you. Shake yourself free, rise from the dust; sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the bands around your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. Thus says Jehovah: You were sold without price, and you shall be redeemed without money.
At the same time that people who aren’t identified with Zion suffer war and destruction, God’s repentant people find safety and solace in Zion. As they prove loyal to him through trials and afflictions, God spares them while humanity at large perishes amidst a fiery desolation.
Isaiah 4:5–6Over the whole site of Mount Zion, and over its solemn assembly, Jehovah will form a cloud by day and a mist glowing with fire by night: above all that is glorious shall be a canopy. It shall be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, a secret refuge from the downpour and from rain.
Isaiah 34:8–10For it is Jehovah’s day of vengeance, the year of retribution on behalf of Zion. [Edom’s] streams shall turn into lava and her earth into brimstone; her land shall become as burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall ascend forever. It shall remain a wasteland from generation to generation; through endless ages none shall traverse it.
As a codename of people who sell their spiritual birthright in the pattern of Esau, “Edom” signifies those of God’s end-time people who rebel against him. Even as they perish in his Day of Judgment, God protects the Zion category by shielding them with his cloud of glory.
God transforms Zion’s wilderness into a new Paradise as he reverses his people’s circumstances from oppression and sorrow to peace and rejoicing. After being cleansed of sin and sanctified by his grace, they are ready to receive their God at his coming to institute his reign in Zion.
Isaiah 51:3Jehovah is comforting Zion, bringing solace to all her ruins; he is making her wilderness like Eden, her desert as the garden of Jehovah. Joyful rejoicing takes place there, thanksgiving with the voice of song.
Isaiah 59:19–20From the west men will fear Jehovah Omnipotent, and from the rising of the sun his glory. For he will come [upon them] like a hostile torrent impelled by the Spirit of Jehovah. But he will come as Redeemer to Zion, to those of Jacob who repent of transgression.
Babylon’s materialistic socio-economic system that has dominated much of human civilization ends when God judges the world. Wizardous technologies, worshiped by Babylon’s denizens, give way to a divine socio-economic system the world’s idolaters never get to participate in.
Isaiah 47:5Sit speechless; retire into obscurity, O Daughter of the Chaldeans. No longer shall you be called, Mistress of Kingdoms.
Isaiah 47:10–11Secure in your wickedness, you thought, No one discerns me. By your skill and science you were led astray, thinking to yourself, I exist, and there is none besides me! Catastrophe shall overtake you, which you shall not know how to avert by bribes; disaster shall befall you from which you cannot ransom yourself: there shall come upon you sudden ruin such as you have not imagined.
Even as Zion inherits a paradisiacal glory, Babylon burns. As when God rained a hail of fire and brimstone from heaven that obliterated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, only the earth’s righteous inhabitants survive its destruction. In the end, Babylon’s very memory is erased.
Isaiah 13:19Babylon, the most splendid of kingdoms, the glory and pride of Chaldeans, shall be [thrown down] as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isaiah 14:22–23I will rise up against them, says Jehovah of Hosts. I will cut off Babylon’s name and remnant, its offspring and descendants, says Jehovah. I will turn it into swamplands, a haunt for ravens; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction.
