Isaiah 24:1- 13

This speaks of a comprehensive judgment (1-3) affecting all kinds of people in all strata of society. God will have no respect for people’s social and economic status. In the preceding eleven chapters Isaiah has talked about the judgment to fall on particular nations; but here he looks ahead to a judgment that is going to come to the whole earth at the end of history.

”The Lord made the earth and is King over all the earth (Ps.47:2), so he has a right to do what He pleases. He will punish sinners because they have not respected His covenant…or cared for the earth as faithful stewards of His gifts. They have disobeyed His will, claimed the earth for themselves, and abused it selfishly.” Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.466

These are sobering words (4-13) and there can be no doubt as to the cause of the judgment (5, 6). We have sinned against God, and the earth is cursed. When the first man and woman disobeyed God, the sin principle came into the world, and we have lived and worked in a world under the curse ever since. Not everyone will be destroyed in this prophesied calamity, but very few will be left (6b, 13). In (10) we read about a ”ruined city” lying ”desolate”. It’s been said that this city represents all cities: human society in general. In the book of ‘Revelation’ John calls this representative city ‘Babylon’, the symbol of all worldly power that sets itself up against God.

I don’t know exactly all that this judgment will entail, but who can deny that we deserve it. Undoubtedly, coming before the big Day of Judgment, there are’mini’ days of judgment. Much of this comes in the form of reaping what we have sown. Having given God up, He has given us up to experience the consequences of giving Him up. We have told Him to get off our backs and said we don’t need Him. He then says, ‘Okay, see what it’s like to live in a world that you are trying to shut me out of.’ To some extent we make a kind of Hell here and now. God allows us to head for the far country and the pig food, if that’s what we want. Some parts of the world look and feel more Hellish than others, but the whiff of the evil one is everywhere. Not only have we broken God’s laws, but in doing so we have also broken creation’s laws. We have not looked after the world as God told us to, with due care and consideration. So nature is getting her own back, and the scary thought is that there is probably much more to come. It is not just that we break God’s laws, but we break ourselves on them.

”The landscape will be a moonscape, totally wasted…The earth turns gaunt and grey, the world silent and sad, sky and land lifeless, colourless. Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, Disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant. Therefore a curse, like a cancer, ravages the earth…the good times are gone forever – no more joy for this old world. The city is dead and deserted, bulldozed into piles of rubble. But that’s the way it will be on this earth. This is the fate of all nations: An olive tree shaken clean of its olives, a grapevine picked clean of its grapes.” From The Message.

This chapter is to be taken seriously. The judgments have fallen on the other nations mentioned in preceding chapters, and this should drive us to our knees to plead with God for mercy.

But as we shall see, there will be survivors, and all those who trust in Christ have a wonderful hope to cling to. Even in the face of such a gloomy outlook there are those who can sing because they see beyond it.

Prayer: Lord have mercy on this world; Christ have mercy on our nation; God have mercy on me, a sinner.