This is my first time considering this chapter. (In Spanish, the word “burden” is replaced with “prophecy”.) This is a prophecy against the people of Moab, herein referred to simply as Moab. There is not much here except for a detailed analysis of their destruction.
The people of Moab are descendants of Lot. When the Children of Israel were brought back into the land of promise, they are told to leave the land of Moab alone (Deuteronomy 2:9). These chapters seem to again corroborate this loving and merciful reality, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
Trying to make sense as to why this appears in the book of Isaiah. And why do we see warnings of destruction as negative. If I am heading towards a cliff unawares, do I not want someone to warn me of the direction I am headed?
The warnings against Moab are different than the warnings against Babylon and Assyria. Moab doesn’t appear to be a superpower state. Rather the Moabites (and the Ammonites of the Old Testament) are the descendants of Lot, a righteous man. They don’t have the promises of covenants made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet it seems to me here that the Lord is acting in mercy to reveal to Isaiah the eventual demise of Moab. Gardeners prune gardens.
I am impressed just one more time before concluding a study of these chapters, of how merciful the Lord is in warning. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. That Moab was warned suggests to my mind that it held a place of interest or regard before the Lord.