“As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain,
    so will you always be my people,
with a name that will never disappear,”
    says the Lord.
23 “All humanity will come to worship me
    from week to week
    and from month to month.
24 And as they go out, they will see
    the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me.
For the worms that devour them will never die,
    and the fire that burns them will never go out.
All who pass by
    will view them with utter horror.” (New Living Translation).

So this great book of Isaiah concludes on the note of division. We might say it ends in a minor key, with the final key change occurring in the last verse. We move from the exuberant, joyful picture of an enduring ”new heavens” and ”new earth”, with an enduring people of God, and the worship of God by ”all mankind”, to a devastating scene of judgment and loss. We are faced with the question, ‘On which side of this dividing line am I?’ Will I be with the company of God’s worshippers, or among the rebellious, with their bitter end? (Verse 24 does not speak of gloating, but sober reflection).

‘…the final verse contains a chilling reminder that those same promises to Abraham implied judgment. They confronted men and women with the unavoidable responsibility to respond: to bless or curse, and be blessed or cursed themselves. The last verse does not detract in any way from the victory of the previous verse, but rather testifies to the completeness of it. God will not stoop to conversion by force. He will give us what we choose, and be glorified as much by his righteous judgment as by his saving grace.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.251.