Isaiah 16:6 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the sins charged against Moab in Isaiah 16:6. The prophet almost seems to stop himself from trying to advise them, because he knows they will not listen. He has already told them their duty, whether they hear or refuse, but he sees little hope of doing them any good. He would have healed them, but they would not be healed. People who will not be guided cannot be helped.

Their first sin is pride, and that is stressed most. Pride ruins more souls than many other sins, because it keeps people from taking correction. Moab was known for this. Their neighbors had heard of their pride, their haughtiness, and their self-importance. They had forgotten their lowly origin, and they ignored the shame attached to them by God’s law, which said a Moabite could not enter the Lord’s assembly forever (Deuteronomy 23:3).

Their pride made them refuse good counsel. They thought they were too wise to be advised, so they would not follow Hezekiah’s example in doing what is right and loving mercy. They scorned to copy him, because they thought themselves able to teach him. Their pride also kept them from submitting to God or listening to his warnings. The proud sinner will not seek God (Psalm 10:4). Their pride also made them refuse to welcome and protect God’s people in distress.

But pride was not their only sin. The prophet also says he had heard of Moab’s wrath, because proud people are often quick-tempered too. Their anger was aimed especially at God’s people, whom they would rather persecute than protect. They used lies to serve their pride and anger, but those lies would not succeed. One way to understand the line is that their haughtiness, pride, and rage were more than their strength could carry. They could not match their wicked plans with enough power to carry them out. Their pride was leading them toward ruin, because pride always comes before destruction.

Then comes the sorrow Moab would face in Isaiah 16:7. “Moab shall howl for Moab.” Every part of the nation would mourn its own ruin. They would cry out to one another in despair, and none of them would have heart enough to comfort a friend. The first cause of their grief would be the fall of their cities. They would mourn for the foundations of Kir-Hareseth, a strong city that had once held out against a powerful army (2 Kings 3:25). Now it would be leveled, burned, or broken down. When their fine cities became ruins, they would howl in anguish.

The second cause would be the destruction of their land. Moab was known for its fields and vineyards, but the invading army would lay them waste (Isaiah 16:8, Isaiah 16:10). It had been a fertile and pleasant country, like the garden of the Lord (Genesis 13:10). It was planted with choice vines that reached as far as Jazer, and their branches spread over the countryside and even toward the Dead Sea. The people had once shouted over their summer fruit and their harvest. They had joy and gladness in their fields, singing as they trod the grapes.

Yet nothing is said of their thanking God for their abundance. If they had given him the glory, they might have kept enjoying his gifts. Instead, they were stripped of everything. The fields would languish because the fruit would be carried off or trampled down. The soldiers, called here the lords of the nations, would break down even the best vines. Their harvest songs would turn into cries of loss. The joy of gathering grapes would end. They would have nothing left to celebrate, and no heart for rejoicing, because their country was ruined.

This shows that God can quickly change the song of those who love pleasure and laughter. He can turn their joy into mourning and their laughter into grief. It also shows that joy in God is far better than harvest joy, because no one can steal it from us (Psalm 4:6-7). If the vines and fig trees are destroyed, a carnal heart loses its delight (Hosea 2:11-12). But a faithful soul can still rejoice in the Lord, the God of its salvation, even when there is no blossom on the fig tree and no fruit on the vine (Habakkuk 3:17-18). So let us always rejoice in God with holy confidence, and in other things with holy caution, as people who rejoice, yet do not forget how fragile earthly joy is.

The prophet himself joins in their grief. He says he will weep over Jazer and the vine of Sibmah, and look with deep sympathy on the ruin of such a lovely country. He will water Heshbon with his tears and share in its sorrow. In fact, the grief is so deep that he says his inward feelings will sound like a harp for Moab. The image is of a heart trembling inside, like harp strings moving under a player’s hand. It is fitting for God’s prophets to know sorrow. The great Prophet, Christ, did so as well. The troubles of the world, as well as the troubles of the church, should move us too (Isaiah 15:5).

At the end of the chapter, we also see the weakness of Moab’s false gods. Moab would soon be tired of the high place, meaning its pagan worship sites. They would waste their strength praying to idols that could not help them, and they would finally see that those gods were powerless. It is useless to look for help from earthly high places. Help must come from above the hills.

People are often so foolish that they will not believe until they see the worthlessness of idols and all trust in created things. Even then, they do not let go until they are worn out by them. But when the man who is weary of his high places turns away, he does not go, as he should, to God’s sanctuary. Instead, he goes to his own sanctuary, the temple of Chemosh, the main idol of Moab, as this is usually understood. There he will pray, but it will help him no more than his prayers at the high places. No matter what honor idolaters give their idols, they do not make them any more able to help.

Whether these are the so-called gods of the higher ranks or the lower ranks, they are all alike the products of human imagination and human hands. Some think this may mean that when Moab could get no help from its own high places, some would come to the temple of God in Jerusalem to pray there. But that would also be useless. God would justly send them back to the gods they had served (Judges 10:14).

The next point is the sufficiency of the God of Israel, the only true God, to carry out what he had already spoken against Moab. First, the matter itself had long been settled, as Isaiah 16:13 says, "This is the word, this is the thing" the Lord had spoken about Moab, ever since the time Moab began to be proud, rude, and abusive toward God’s people. Moab had already been doomed to ruin. That alone was enough to assure it would happen, because it was the word the Lord had spoken. Since he will never take back what he has said, all the power of hell and earth cannot change it or stop it.

Second, God now made known when this would happen. The time had already been fixed in God’s plan, but now he revealed it: the Lord said it would be within three years (Isaiah 16:14). We are not meant to know, or even try to know, the times and seasons any further than God chooses to reveal them. But when he does reveal them, we should take note. Here we see how God makes his will known little by little. The light of divine revelation grew brighter over time, and so does the light of divine grace in the heart.

Notice the sentence passed on Moab: the glory of Moab would be despised, meaning it would become something people looked down on when all its proud things came to nothing. That is the glory of this world, fading and uncertain. It is admired for a while, then soon treated with contempt. So what will soon be contemptible in other people’s eyes should always be contemptible in ours compared with the far greater glory that will last. Moab’s glory was its large population and brave armies. But where is that glory when the great crowd is mostly swept away, some by one judgment and some by another, and the small remnant left is very weak, unable to bear its own sorrows, much less stand up to enemy mockery? So let the strong not boast in their strength, or the many in their numbers.

The time set for carrying out this sentence was within three years, exactly like the years of a hired worker, who keeps count to the day when his term is fixed. Moab was to know that its ruin was very near and prepare itself for it. Fair warning was given, and with it time to repent. If they had used that time well, as Nineveh did, we have good reason to think the threatened judgment would have been averted.