God Cuts Off Moab (Isaiah 16:12-14)

God’s grief over the demise of Moab brings a final kindness so heartbreaking that it is entirely misunderstood.

For the introduction to this section (Isaiah 15-16), see Isaiah’s Kill List – Part 2.

The oracle against Moab works through the general themes of the Heptateuch. The final step is missing as a sign that the nation would be cut off like Adam: Moab would be denied a memorial, given no rest among the tombs of his fathers. Within this structure, the key to this passage is its Joshua theme.

CYCLE 2D6
Conquest/Vindication – Joshua
God Cuts Off Moab

(Isaiah 16:12-14)

The Joshua Cycle is brief but profound. God’s words concerning the Conquest of Moab will be vindicated, but His personal grief over the end of the great-nephew of Abraham is expressed once again—in a final kindness that is so heartbreaking it is entirely misunderstood.

The keys to the passage are steps that correspond to Conquest: Day 6 and Atonement. Moab is likened to Adam in the Garden and Aaron in the Sanctuary. In desperation, he will seek leniency from his vengeful god in the midst of the destruction. Yet here, centuries earlier, it is granted to him in advance by the true God, the god of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—and the true star of Judah. The Lord of Hosts is the captain of all armies (Joshua 5:13-15), which includes the troops of Babylon, and He brings mercy along with the justice.

Moab’s oracle is denied a 2D7 Succession Cycle because he will not be honored with a memorial. He will not rest among the tombs of his fathers. However, what is omitted in 2D6 is Kingdom. This is another reference to Balaam’s prophecy in Numbers. The dynasty of Moab will fall, but more importantly, the star of Chemosh “the subduer” will be forever discredited as powerless to save.

Nebuzaradan provided for the poorest commoners of Judah after the Babylonian invasion by giving them the vineyards and fields in which they had worked as slaves to their own brothers (Jeremiah 39:10). God would likewise provide for the survivors of Moab, despite the fact that bands of Moabites would attack Judah before Babylon’s conquest of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:2; Zephaniah 2:8-11).

In another poignant allusion to the Messianic honor bestowed upon faithful Ruth, the widow from a people banned from the Lord’s assembly, the Moabite remnant is described as gleanings for the new spiritual world order after the captivity. Despite Moab’s obstinate refusal to bow to Yahweh, his disinherited people would find spiritual food and shelter under the wings of a son of Boaz.

This allusion to the command to leave gleanings for the poor and the sojourner explains the references to a hireling and a three year period of service. All these things are found in the chapter of miscellaneous holy laws at the very center of the Book of Leviticus. The message is that the void left by the abolition of the abominable Chemosh is now to be filled with the merciful practices of the God whose heart grieved even over the people of Chemosh. The sons of Moab (“Who is your father?) were still the kin of Father Abram.

• (16:12a) Genesis: Moab’s king represents his nation on the high place in the way that Adam represented all future humanity on the mountain of Eden. The pagans believed repetitious prayers would be heard (Matthew 6:7), having wearied their gods into granting their requests (1 Kings 18:26). In contrast, God does not grow tired (Isaiah 40:28) and is only “wearied” by His own people’s hypocrisy (Isaiah 1:14). He answers persistent prayers as soon as is possible because He is just and merciful (Luke 18:1-8).
• (16:12b) Exodus: Moab in his temple is the equivalent of Aaron in the Most Holy Place. Instead of relying upon Judah’s mediation for atonement and deliverance, Moab resorted to his own gods. Unlike Israel in Egypt, but like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, he will receive no reply. The heavens will be as bronze.
• (16:13) Leviticus: Moab’s desperate invocations were described in 15:2, with warnings of utter destruction going back to Amos 2:1-3.
• Numbers: The absence of any word from Chemosh is highlighted by the absence of “fire from heaven” in a Pentecost Stanza. Even Balaam is now silenced in literary terms by the God of Judah. The fact that Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf occurred at the first Pentecost is the key to what precedes and follows this gap.
• (16:14a) Deuteronomy: God decided to hear those who cried day and night (Luke 18:7), even though they were not crying to Him. The “Mosaic” decree at Ascension is replaced at Maturity, like the new tablets at Sinai (Exodus 34:1) and the “second law” in Moab (Deuteronomy 1:5). A fresh extension of the “Davidic” decree included Moab in the new covenant that reunited the remnants of Israel and Judah after the exile (Jeremiah 31:31-34), which was ratified in Joshua and Zerubbabel (Zechariah 3-4).
• (16:14b) Joshua: Moab was still “at ease” in Jeremiah 48:11, so the “three years” is not the time between prophecy and fulfilment. Rather, God announces here that He will limit Moab’s suffering to three years that he might not be completely cut off. He would not strike Moab seven times (as in Leviticus 26:14-46) but only three. His promise is as secure as the agreement with a hired laborer who works not a day more or less than his contract.
  Hearing Moab’s cry, God would execute the sentence speedily in order to save a remnant, just as He promised to Israel (Romans 9:27-28). Jesus limited the tribulation of the saints to three years (AD64-66) for the same reason (Matthew 24:13, 22).
  The Lord likewise turned his face from Cain’s supplication due to his kingly pride (Genesis 4:5); but He later showed mercy, warning of sevenfold vengeance upon any who dared to attack the firstborn of mankind (Genesis 4:15).
  “Three years” signifies God taking only a firstfruits. Abram’s sacrifices were to be three years old (Genesis 15:9), representing his time so far in Canaan. But the referent here is the new fruit trees planted in the Land (Leviticus 19:23-25). For three years the fruit was forbidden, literally “circumcised,” a reference to the call for patient faith in Eden. In the fourth year it was the Lord’s. Only in the fifth year was the fruit given to the children of Israel.
  Isaiah combines this image with the laws for the wages of the journeyman. The laborer is worthy of his hire (Deuteronomy 24:15; Matthew 10:10; Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18) and he was to be paid on the day of his labor (Leviticus 19:13). Like Adam, Moab would be disinherited and condemned to live as a servant. As a poor steward of the land, he would not “surely die.” He would receive his living but not the wages of sin, which is death. The Moab oracle thus begins with Genesis 2 and ends with Genesis 3.
  The Ishmaelites, as sons of Abraham, receive a similar mercy in Isaiah 21:16, and their time of trial is limited to only one year.
  In Ezekiel 25:9, the Lord says he would expose “the glory of Moab,” his fertile belly of pastures and cities, to the invaders.
• (16:14c) Judges: At Booths/Ingathering, the survivors are to be gathered as gleanings (Leviticus 19:9-10). In Judges, it was the oppression of Israel by invaders like Eglon, the king of Moab, due to Israel’s moral failures that led to the need for a man like Boaz.

The symmetry of the Cycle is now apparent. Once all the bitter, immature fruit was cut off, and Moab was purified, the remnant would be engrafted into a new covenant, just like sons of Adam.

Details of Book 1 of The Shape of Isaiah are here.