Isaiah 47 · Grade 5

No One to Save You

Name Date

Read and Think

Isaiah 47 is a taunt (mashal) celebrating Babylon's coming fall, the counterpart to chapter 46's fall of her gods. Babylon is pictured as a pampered queen forced into slave labor: "Take the millstones and grind flour." Her titles "tender and delicate" and "the mistress of kingdoms" are stripped. Verse 4 interrupts the taunt with Israel's response: "Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, is the Holy One of Israel."

God explains his judgment. He had used Babylon to discipline his people, but "You showed them no mercy." Babylon's sin was arrogance: proud Babylon, who sits securely and claims that there is no one else besides her. This claim echoes God's own claim in chapters 45-46, "I am Yahweh, and there is no one else." Babylon claimed divine status. In the New Testament, Revelation 18:7 uses similar language for the city called Babylon.

Babylon's wisdom and occult practices would fail. "Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you." God mockingly invites "the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators" to save her, but "they are like stubble." Babylon fell to Cyrus in 539 BC. The chapter ends bleakly: "There will be no one to save you." Only Israel's Redeemer saves.

Show What You Know

What is a mashal?
Whose words does Babylon echo when she says, I am, and there is no one else?
Which New Testament verse uses similar language for Babylon?
When did Babylon fall to Cyrus?

Crossword

Across

Your ____ and your knowledge has perverted you.
Virgin daughter of ____.

Down

You showed them no ____.
So that you didn’t lay these things to your ____.
Is the ____ One of Israel.

Think About It

Babylon claimed for herself what belongs only to God. How can nations or people today make that same mistake?
Babylon showed no mercy even though God had given Israel into her hand. Why does God care how the powerful treat the weak?

Memory Verse

“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I won’t sit as a widow, neither will I know the loss of children.’

Isaiah 47:8 (WEB)

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Prayer

Dear God, thank You for humbling the proud. Help me . Amen.

Take It Home

For families: talk about these together.

Babylon trusted her own wisdom and knowledge. How can knowledge lead you astray without humility before God?
Who needs your kindness this week?
What is one way you could live out this chapter this week?