They set the tables, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink! Get up, you officers, oil the shields! – Isaiah 21:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 24, 2013): Isaiah 21

When I was young, before the advent of computer games, I used to like to play bookcase games. A lot of the ones that I like to play were sports games, but there were other kinds of games. A bookcase game often sought to recreate real life, and it did so by combining complex statistical probabilities with a role of the dice or the draw of a random card. One of the non-sports games that I purchased was called NATO: The Last War in Europe. This was long before the Berlin War came tumbling down and the cold war drew to a close. But because this game was built around probabilities, if you wanted win the game, you had to play the part of the Soviet Bloc Nations. The idea of the creators of the game was the Soviet Union stood in perpetual readiness for war, where Nato would not really get ready (which meant a massive troop movement from overseas countries) until several moves into the game. In the end, the Soviet commitment to readiness would be the overwhelming reason why the Soviet Union would win the war.

There has been a contest among some people trying to add specifics to this prophecy. There are many elements of this prophecy that have led some to believe that Isaiah is speaking of the drunken feast held be Belshazzar on the night that the Medo-Persian Empire captured Babylon. And there are some similarities. But one of the differences is that there seems to be at least a measure of preparation for the battle in this passage that was totally absent at the feast of Belshazzar. As Isaiah implores the officers to oil their shields, he is calling them to get ready for battle.

On the night that Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian Empire, there was no readiness for battle. Belshazzar was totally unprepared for the events that were about to take place in his city. And what complicates matters is that the only reason Belshazzar was in the Babylon in the first place was that he was there to protect the city. The movement of the Medes and the Persians was not a surprise, Belshazzar knew they were coming, and part of the mystery of that night is the unanswered question of why Belshazzar was so unprepared for the fight (or why Belshazzar and his officers had not at least fled the city.)

We may never really know if Isaiah was prophesying about the night of Belshazzar’s feast. But it is not out of the question. But whatever event that Isaiah was prophesying about, it is not a stretch to believe that in these words Isaiah was amazed, not at the preparation for battle, but for the lack of it. His words about “oiling the shields” was a shout into the future to a king who seemed to be refusing to prepare himself for the inevitable.

It is also a cry to generations of people who do not seem to understand that the future needs to be prepared for. Life always goes better with preparation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 22