Isaiah 24:1-12
Isa 24:1
Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants
thereof.
The word “earth” may also be understood as “land.”
When the Assyrians invade Judah, they
will raze the cities and make it a wilderness just like when the Babylonians
would come in and remove them to Babylon as they destroy the temple and
Jerusalem. The desolation will be
complete when the Babylonians come in and bring the judgment of God upon Judah
for their idolatry. Turning it
upside down means there will be a deformity in the land which points to the fact
the temple would be destroyed, homes would be destroyed and many things would be
burned thus creating a distortion of the land.
The inhabitants will be scattered throughout the three major empires,
Assyria, Babylon, and then in 70 A.D. Rome.
For thus hath the LORD said, The
whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. (Jeremiah 4:27)
After the Babylonian captivity, Judah will return to the land because the
Messiah must come through her. The
same word for “earth” in Isaiah 24:1 is the same word used in Jeremiah 4:27 for
“land.” It is the Hebrew word
“erets.”
On the last day of earth’s history there is going to come
the final judgment when the LORD is going to remove all the inhabitants of
earth. All the believers will go to
Heaven and all the unbelievers will go to a final judgment.
At that time right before the LORD remakes the earth in righteousness it
will be a wasteland with no one inhabiting it.
After the final judgment, there will come a new Earth made in
righteousness. This is why the LORD
is not making a “full end” of the earth because he plans to cleanse it and make
it anew.
Isa 24:2
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;
as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower;
as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Here is the full indictment against all the inhabitants
of Judah. It does not matter what
rank or condition a person is in because they all have sinned against the LORD
and each one will stand for their sin and be judged for it.
God is not concerned with a person’s rank or a person’s poverty.
If you sin against the LORD, you will be judged.
Just like Judah, every person in the world who is unsaved
whether they be in poverty or whether they be billionaires will stand before the
Lord on the last day.
And I saw the dead, small and great,
stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which
is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according
to their works. (Revelation 20:12)
All of them will be judged according to their works, even those who
thought they were being altruistic by donating to charities.
No good works on behalf of the unsaved man will ever buy him salvation.
The sacrifice of the wicked
is abomination: how much more,
when he bringeth it with a
wicked mind? (Proverbs 21:27)
The wicked mind is the unsaved mind in contrast to the believer who has the mind
of Christ.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord,
that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Isa 24:3
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled:
for the LORD hath spoken this word.
The Assyrians and Babylonians will come into the land of
Judah and will remove the inhabitants, as Assyria removed 208,000 people about
701 B.C. and Babylon removed the rest about 100 years later.
They will not only take the people but will also take all the goods and
wealth of the land as spoils of war.
This will happen because the LORD had decreed it to happen.
Therefore shall
her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be
utterly burned with fire: for strong
is the Lord God who judgeth her. (Revelation 18:8)
The judgment of God upon the entire earth is going to come in one day
which is judgment day when God removes all the people from the earth, both saved
and unsaved and will burn the earth and all its sinful wealth and will replace
the earth with a righteous place for the saved to live.
But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)
Isa 24:4
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world
languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The land of Judah will fade away because all of the
people and its wealth has been stripped from the land and therefore the land is
like an orphan that mourns for its parents and yet they are not.
The world languisheth is like a man who is sick and frail and his
strength is gone and can do nothing to regain his strength.
The haughty people of the earth are in the same way and is probably
speaking of the Assyrians but also those who are in positions of prominence such
as political and business leaders.
Because of sin the land suffers from a blight which can go back to the land
being turned upside down in verse 1.
Isa 24:5
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof;
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting covenant.
The land of Judah which was once the place where God
chose to place his name has become defiled because of the sinful ways of the
inhabitants. Even the land has
become defiled because of their sinful ways and them departing from the LORD.
They have transgressed the law of God by adopting the false religions of
surrounding nations. They have also
changed the laws and statutes of the law of God to adapt to their false
religions and have left off from keeping the law of God and its ceremonies.
The covenant in view is not the eternal covenant of grace because no one
has the power to do that plus it is a permanent covenant between God and His
Elect. The word “broken” in this
verse can also be understood as “annul” which means they tried to annul the
covenant God made with Abraham and then renewed at Sinai.
Now how is this covenant classified as eternal?
Even though Christ came and fulfilled the law on behalf of his elect,
those who are unsaved are still subject to the law mainly the moral aspects of
the law such as do not steal or commit adultery, etc.
Those who will be judged on Judgment Day as unbelievers will receive the
penalty of everlasting damnation which means the penalty phase of the law will
never end thus extending the law into eternity.
Isa 24:6
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they
that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are
burned, and few men left.
Since Judah had broken the Covenant of Sinai they swore
to uphold, they have now become a cursed people.
They have also become a desolate people because in turning away from the
LORD and going after false religions, they have become desolate or barren
lacking no spiritual guidance and since they have forsaken the LORD, they also
lost his divine protection. This
results in the fact that the Babylonians will come in and destroy their temple
and burn their city and will leave only a very few behind as they take the
majority of people to Babylon.
The curse of sin had devoured the entire earth and those
who are unsaved are desolate in that they have no God.
Those who will face the judgment seat of Christ on the last day will be
sentenced to eternal damnation and will be burned in hell but not consumed.
8 And
the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him
to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and
blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they
repented not to give him glory. (Revelation 16:8-9)
After the blast of the fourth trumpet in Rev. 8:12, the sun was darkened by one
third and it was temporary but here we are seeing that when the fourth vial is
poured out on the sun, this angel had the power to scorch men with fire. The
word “scorch” in the Greek also carries the meaning of “burn.” With the sun
involved and the mentioning of fire, we see that God has begun to judge the
unbelieving people on earth. The judgments are now very intense because the vial
being poured on the sun gives the effect of increased power to severely affect
the lives of the unbelievers on earth.
As usual with the unsaved, instead of seeking the reason for the judgments that
come upon them, they, instead blame God but never look to the fact that the
judgments coming upon them have been justly earned. Unsaved man would rather
blaspheme the name of God than repent of their evil ways. We saw this same
situation back in Revelation 9 when God sent plagues upon the idolaters and
those who were not affected by the plagues refused to repent of their sins.
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed
by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should
not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of
wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither repented
they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of
their thefts. (Revelation 9:20-21)
Rev 16:9 is teaching us that it is God that has the authority over these plagues
and we can see a similar situation here as we saw in Exodus. When Moses had
confronted Pharaoh to let Israel go, Pharaoh refused and in the process of his
confrontation, he hardened his heart against Moses and God. These people in
Revelation who refused to repent have done the same thing, they have hardened
their hearts against God. Today we see much of this same attitude as people ride
around with bumper stickers reading “No Fear.” No fear? This is just a hardening
of their heart.
Isa 24:7
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the
merryhearted do sigh.
With the coming of the invaders both Assyria and Babylon,
the vineyards which produced the grapes that produced new wine is absent as the
vines have all been broken down.
Those who were once happy at the time of feasting have now gone to sighing.
Sighing was a sign of sorrow and sadness.
Then in our day the new wine will mourn.
The new wine represents those who
have become saved. But new wine
must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. (Luke 5:38) As the
saved see the condition that the unbelievers are in, they mourn knowing what is
ahead for them beyond their feasts and festivals which only bring temporary joy
which is masked. At the judgment
seat of Christ, there will be much sighing or sorrow because the unsaved will
realize that the true Christian was their best friend on earth even though hated
by the world.
Isa 24:8
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that
rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
The tabret were tambourines which normally accompanied
the feasts along with all the music that went with the eating and drinking.
No more would the joy of music be heard in Judah plus the joy of all the
noise the people would be making as they attend the feasts.
All of these things have come to an end.
On the last day when the Lord returns to judge the world,
all the revelry will cease and it will be time for judgment.
And the voice of harpers, and
musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee;
and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft
he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone
shall be heard no more at all in thee; (Revelation 18:22)
The music will cease which kept the people happy so they thought they
could avoid a day of accountability.
All the joys of earth shall now be turned into mourning.
Isa 24:9
They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall
be bitter to them that drink it.
In the past at their feasts, Judah had drunk wine at all
the feasts including those which had music playing to keep up the spirit of joy.
Now those days are at an end as the wine shall be no more as well as the
songs they sang.
3 For there they that carried
us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us
required of us mirth,
saying, Sing us
one of the songs of Zion.
4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? (Psalm 137:3-4)
Those who enjoyed the strong drink will no longer favor it because it has
become as bitter to them making it an acrid drink repulsed by the taste buds.
Then on the last day, those who drank alcohol to escape
the realities of this world or just became drunks will loathe their own actions
at the Judgment Seat of Christ as they must now give an answer for their lives.
How much she hath glorified
herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she
saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
(Revelation 18:7) The
unbelievers did not think about a day of accountability instead just concerned
themselves with the day they were living in.
People in this world think that that there is no God that they have to be
accountable to but what a surprise on Judgment Day.
Isa 24:10
The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut
up, that no man may come in.
The city of confusion would be Jerusalem as the
inhabitants of it will be in consternation as the enemy begins to tear it down
and burn the temple. They believed
that nothing would happen to them because they were God’s special people and had
his protection even when they were apostate.
The houses are shut up in that no man may go in, that is speaking of the
fact that no one is left in the city as they were taken to Babylon or they fled
before the invaders came into the city.
Isa 24:11
There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy
is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Instead of the people of Judah crying out for their sins
and what brought them to this distressing time, they instead are concerned about
the wine and the vines which produced the grapes for both profit and usage.
They were more concerned about their material goods than the fact they
are being judged for sin. All joy
and mirth has been removed from the city which has now come under the judgment
of God.
On the last day when the time of judgment has come, the
unbelievers will be wailing about all the goods they left behind on the earth.
The merchants of these things,
which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment,
weeping and wailing, (Revelation 18:15)
They cried not for the fact they were now facing judgment but they cried
because of loss of profits and the Beast system on earth where they operated
freely without conscience.
Isa 24:12
In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten
with destruction.