I will also make it a possession of the hedgehog and porcupine, and of marshes and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the Lord of hosts. – Isaiah 14:23, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Confession: no one in my household likes to clean. But, when things get so bad that we can’t stand it any more, we clench our teeth and tidy up.

The most satisfying cleaning task for me is tidying up the floor. After a good vacuum or a good broom sweeping, the floor not only looks better, it feels better under my tender, bare feet. It’s also a pleasing thought that all of the filth that used to house germs of all sorts is gone – at least for a while.

Sadly, there are times when The Lord reaches a point of exasperation with His creation, and He pulls out his divine broom to clean things up. Soiled with sin of all sorts, God predicted in Isaiah 14 that He would soon clean up Babylon with the “broom of destruction.”  Just like Sodom and Gomorrah, God did wipe Babylon off of the planet, and it’s not hard to understand why, with all of the sin Babylon committed. However, we should not take the high and mighty road, thinking that God would never apply the broom of destruction to His children. Should we err with great disregard for His holiness, then we, too, can suffer some impact from the broom.

As a result of his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, David saw the destruction of peace for his family and for his people through Absalom’s rebellion. As a result of his backslidden condition, Lot saw his wife turned into a pillar of salt, and he became the incestual father of two of Israel’s greatest enemies: the Moabites and the Ammonites. King Uzziah, a man who served God most of his life, was stricken with leprosy by God for allowing pride to take over his heart. When we sin, we create a stench that God must get rid of, and the only way to get rid of the stench is to clean up the sin. We can choose to clean up the sin on our own by repenting. Or, God can do it for us with His broom of destruction.

Which method do you prefer?