Isaiah 24: 1-6

Judgment on the Earth

¹ Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface 

and scatters its inhabitants.

² And the people will be like the priest, 

the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, 

the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.

³ The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word.

⁴ The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, 

the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.

⁵ The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.

⁶ Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. 

Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

Isaiah takes a very different turn with the beginning of Chapter 24. We have spent several chapters looking at several judgments brought across different nations--prophecies indicating future destruction. What we have with Chapter 24 is the beginning of a four-chapter judgment upon the whole earth. (Yes, think Revelation.) But, it is not wholly about judgment--not for those who believe in a holy and righteous God. As my study Bible says, "These 4 chapters give praise to God for His future victory over all enemies and the final deliverance of Israel in the Day of the Lord." Let's try to keep that fact in our minds as we work through these tough chapters.

With verse 1, we immediately receive the strong images of the Lord's plans for the earth--to completely lay it waste. Now, the Lord has brought destruction upon the whole earth before. (Remember Noah?) This would be a destruction more severe than even that, if you can imagine [which we really don't like to!].

"Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of hosts
In the day of His burning anger."

--Isaiah 13:13

We have seen pictures of what it looks like when the landscape of the earth has changed, due to things like flooding, mudslides, wildfires, earthquakes and the like. What does a "surface distortion" look like? What does a "despoiled" (vs. 3) earth look like? By dictionary definition, the earth will be "stripped of possessions, robbed and pillaged" (Dictionary.com) by God's hand. On top of physical changes, God will also "scatter its inhabitants," which is something He did in the time of the Tower of Babel--distorting communications of the people, so to speak. This is a scene that will be nothing like anything witnessed before, in reality or fantasy.

In his poetic way, in verse 2, Isaiah is saying that where there were huge differences between people, such as servants and masters, there will be no differences. In this destruction of the world, all are treated equally: God's judgment will not be stopped in the wake of anyone's wealth, or stature, or occupation, or supposed closeness to God.

"The priests had been as corrupt and wicked as the people; and, if their character served not to restrain them from sin, how can they expect it should serve to secure them from judgments?"

--Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.
The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.
They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one."

--Psalm 14: 1-3

Putting these verses together, we can say that even before Isaiah's pronouncement, by their turning aside and not seeking after God, all of the people, "together they have become corrupt." "...The exalted of the people of the earth fade away." (vs. 4) How many times in 23 chapters has Isaiah brought people's pride to mention in his prophecies? Pride meaning not only boasting of self, but not relying much less acknowledging the existence of God, yet claiming to retain all of the benefits of that purported relationship. Again, we are reminded that God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13) and that God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5) who will not stand for taking second place. The prideful will "fade away."

"For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased."

--Isaiah 2:12

The earth itself will also fade away--mourn and wither and fade away. (vs. 4) If you stop with that thought--the earth will fade away--you might think it is part of God's doing, as in, "I'm taking the people away; I'm going to take their home away, too." But, when you read verse 5, it becomes clear. What did the earth ever do? The earth is part of God's creation--a creation that worships Him, that groans in anticipation for the day in which the Lord will take back the earth for His own!

No, we read in verse 5, "...The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants." The King James Version uses 'defiled'. The Hebrew word means "soiled, profaned." (Strong's) Did the earth become tainted on its own? 

"Such is the filthy nature of sin that it defiles the earth itself under the sinful inhabitants thereof, and it is rendered unpleasant in the eyes of God and good men."

--Matthew Henry

No! Earth is polluted by every unclean thought and impure action taken by those who walk upon it! The "everlasting covenant" had been broken. Recall what God had established between Himself and Abraham, and the generations to follow under His chosen servant:

"I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you."

--Genesis 17:7

"It is God’s wonderful condescension that he is pleased to deal with men in a covenant-way, to do them good, and thereby oblige them to do him service."

--Matthew Henry

The obliged service was not fulfilled by men! God, out of immeasurable grace and mercy, withstood the lack of returned service, but even He has His limits.

"Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life."

--Genesis 3:17

Also, so here, in verse 6, "Therefore a curse devours the earth...," and those who live in it are held guilty. The ground yielding the tree did nothing. The sin of Adam and Eve left the ground of that idyllic Garden cursed. Likewise, it is the sin of mankind that defiles the earth to the point in which God brings upon it a curse, which will consume the earth and man alike.

"Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble
And dry grass collapses into the flame,
So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;
For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts
And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."

--Isaiah 5:24

That is, except for "few," (vs. 6) which translates from Hebrew to mean "a remnant." (Strong's) Even as a curse had been placed upon Eden's ground and the earth's ground, God had plan to undo the curse, for some:

"No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found."

--Verse 3 of "Joy to the World," lyrics by Isaac Watts

"The coming heavenly Adam, who bears the curse of toil, sweat, thorns, conflict, death on a tree, and descent into dust, will regain the garden, tearing apart the veil of the temple."

--Reformation Study Bible

Then, there will be joy to the world!

But, we'll have to wait for that. "All joy turns to gloom...." ...'Til next time!

Photo: memolition.com

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Next time:  Isaiah 24: 7-12
 
Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 10: 1-4

Assyria Is God’s Instrument

¹ Woe to those who enact evil statutes
And to those who constantly record unjust decisions,
² So as to deprive the needy of justice
And rob the poor of My people of their rights,
So that widows may be their spoil
And that they may plunder the orphans.
³ Now what will you do in the day of punishment,
And in the devastation which will come from afar?

To whom will you flee for help?
And where will you leave your wealth?
⁴ Nothing remains but to crouch among the captives
Or fall among the slain.

In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out.

Happy New Year, friends! Thank you for accepting a break in our schedule of study. I hope that you enjoyed time with family and friends, a time of peace and refreshing. Had I kept to schedule, we would have completed our poem in Isaiah at the close of the calendar year. While that would have been more apropos, I'm not sure that post would have been very well thought through given the Christmas day and post-day happenings! Aye, well....

So, we finish the poem today, which, if you'll remember when we began, starts Chapter 10 of Isaiah. God has been reminding Israel of its troubles and a pending time of punishment upon the nation. Today's passage concludes those thoughts and closes out the repeating refrain of the last several stanzas: "...His anger does not turn away and His hand is still stretched out." (vs 4)

With verse 1, the prophet revisits the problem with Israel, which was also a problem with Judah. [In fact, Matthew Henry, in his commentary, suggests that this last part of the poem may relate to Judah rather than Israel. It is not clear.] Unjust leaders and judges throughout the administration of the nation. There is woe pronounced to both those who created and wrote the laws, and those who enacted and enforced them.  

"Can a throne of destruction be allied with You,
One which devises mischief by decree?"

--Psalm 94: 20

Of course, the answer to the question in Psalm 94 is "No," which is why God's wrath is at hand. In verse 2, again, revisiting problems we read about earlier in Isaiah, the sinfulness within the administration resulted in harming those most in need: the poor, widows and orphans.
 

"Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves a bribe
And chases after rewards.
They do not defend the orphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them."

--Isaiah 1:23

It is necessary to study the verbs in verse 2 a bit, to fully appreciate the depravity of this situation. "Deprive the needy," is used in the NASB, and is translated as "to turn aside the needy" in the King James Version. In Hebrew, the phrase "to turn aside" used here means, by implication, "to bend away (including moral deflection)." [Strong's] The laws were not only written to make things more difficult for the poor to receive help, the administration bent itself away so as to not help, much less see, the poor at all. "Rob the poor...their rights," the verse continues. Again, looking at the Hebrew, there is much more implied in 'rob' than just stealing: "To pluck off; specifically to flay, strip or rob." [Strong's] I can't help but think of Jesus after Pilate's non-sentencing of Him.

"They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, 'and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him."

--Matthew 27: 28-31

There is an intentionality--a greedy, mocking, entitled intentionality--exhibited here. Note how verse 2 finishes: widows are the spoil and the orphans are plundered. Perhaps it is no wonder such oppression led these to fall under the same woes and eventual punishment (Isaiah 9: 17), all in trying to just merely live.
 

"Principal and accessaries shall fall under the same woe. Note, It is bad to do hurt, but it is worse to do it with design and deliberation, to do wrong to many, and to involve many in the guilt of doing wrong."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

So, God's punishment is upon them, and it will "come from afar" (vs 3), meaning from Assyria, as we know now. As He did to Job, God questions Israel: "What now? Who will save you now? You, yourself? Again, Israel? To whom will you flee...? (vs 3) From whence cometh your help?" I like the translation of the end of verse 3 from the Amplified Bible: "And where will you deposit [for safekeeping] your wealth and with whom leave your glory?" 

In the time of punishment that is coming, there will be no help. The decisions and judgments, choices and actions of the people will all come under God. The ill treatment of His people had not gone unnoticed, nor would it go unpunished. Whatever fame and fortune had accumulated would vanish without recognition or vault to crack. Those who were crouched below the captives or under the slain (vs 4) would be found and taken into Assyrian captivity to ponder the wisdom of Ecclesiastes:

"Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun."

--Ecclesiastes 4: 1-3

As I read through the prophets, one of the thoughts that echoes in my brain is how did the people get it all so wrong? I'm careful in that thinking to follow up with how much we, today, still get it all so wrong sometimes--and we have the entirety of Scripture at our disposal! God was with the people. He sent messengers to speak to the people. Past history spoke and present circumstances speak. How have we not heard? Why do we not believe and follow?

Take in afresh what might have been words that Israel could have reflected upon, from one of the greats--David. There is newness in God's Word every day, and we can flee to Him in our times of trouble and difficulty.

"How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered! 
How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long

For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.

I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord';
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.

You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance."

--Psalm 32: 1-7

  

The call to Assyria.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: adayinourshoes.com

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Next week: Isaiah 10: 5-11

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 1: 21-26

Zion Corrupted, to Be Redeemed

 ²¹ How the faithful city has become a harlot,
She who was full of justice!
Righteousness once lodged in her,
But now murderers.
²² Your silver has become dross,
Your drink diluted with water.
²³ Your rulers are rebels
And companions of thieves;
Everyone loves a bribe
And chases after rewards.
They do not defend the orphan,
Nor does the widow’s plea come before them.   
²⁴ Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts,
The Mighty One of Israel, declares,
“Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries
And avenge Myself on My foes.
²⁵ “I will also turn My hand against you,
And will smelt away your dross as with lye
And will remove all your alloy.
²⁶ “Then I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning;
After that you will be called the city of righteousness,
A faithful city.”

I mentioned last week to remember the words of grace spoken by God in our passage. Sure enough, I find myself struggling to read and write about the words facing Jerusalem in our passage this week. "How the faithful city has become a harlot...," says verse 21. This transports me back to the beginnings of Hosea, when Israel receives the same designation. Isaiah paints Jerusalem as a has-been city--one that had everything going for it, but now stands self-corrupted.


Isaiah compares Jerusalem to both silver and drink, as in wine, although neither are respectable. "Your silver has become dross. Your drink diluted with water." (vs. 22) That latter one might cause you to spit! The first reference may require some explaining.

As is the case with other metals, minerals or gems, one must take the raw material through a process to make it valuable. Smelting is the process used to refine metals, like silver. The unwanted substances and impurities in the silver are called dross. Where Jerusalem had once shone bright like silver--both literally, in its successful business enterprises, and figuratively, as in its honorable obedience to God--it now appeared as dross, or, as the Hebrew word is defined, "refuse." [Strong's]

"Dross may shine like silver, and the wine that is mixed with water may retain the colour of wine, but neither is worth any thing. Thus they retained a show and pretence of virtue and justice, but had no true sense of either."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

"Like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross are burning lips and a wicked heart."

--Proverbs 26:23

That might as well be a description of Jerusalem.

The Apostle Paul's words in the New Testament come to us in Greek, not Hebrew, but he also used a word meaning refuse in regard to the purity of the relationship He was constantly seeking with God. It was as if he were saying, "Smelt away the dross from me!"

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ...."

--Philippians 3: 7 and 8 (emphasis mine)

Verse 23 of Isaiah takes the cleansing, instructional words of verse 17 and flips them on their ears, to represent the "evil" that Jerusalem demonstrates in its actions. Rather than "reprove the ruthless" (vs 17), we read "Your rulers are rebels," and "Everyone loves a bribe" (vs. 23); "Defend the orphan" (vs 17) vs. "They do not defend...." (vs 23); and "Plead for the widow" (vs 17) vs. "Nor does the widow's plea come...." (vs 23). It's flat-out disobedience, and God has a plan to deal with this problem, one He laid ground for back in Israel's wilderness days:

"If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God...It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it."

--Deuteronomy 28: 58a and 63

The same Judge is still in His courtroom with Jerusalem, and He's like no other judge anywhere. Isaiah's titles, "the Lord God of hosts" and "the Mighty One of Israel," both point to God being the ultimate authority. Not just the Law, but the One who issues and carries out the punishments. But, in verse 24, God's judgments do not refer to the present time of Jerusalem's corruption. The sentence of Babylonian captivity is not what we read about in the next couple of verses. The time frame for this period of judgment refers to the end times--a final judgment and restoration period for Jerusalem.

As I read the quote from God in verse 24, I can't help but see Him on His throne, ruminating that future day on His calendar when He will once and for all rid Himself of His enemies. The saints in Heaven say, how much longer? The day is coming when God will have His Day.

"He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years." 

--Malachi 3: 3 and 4

Isaiah returns to the use of 'smelt' in verse 25 as we understand further the process that God must bring forth in order to reestablish, once and for all, a permanent, perfect relationship with His chosen people. A Holy God cannot be in the presence of dross! So all that is unholy will be purged away. The "sons of Levi" refers to those who kept the Temple. Yes, there are "wolves in sheep's clothing" [Matthew 7:15] in the religious establishments of our world who will be held accountable for their allegiances.

"Then," begins verse 26, "I will restore...." Jerusalem will return to Glory days--the Shekinah will be in the sights of those on Earth again--as the Son of Man returns to reign in His "city of righteousness, a faithful city."

Redemption, but not for all. Chapter 1 concludes.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: maratek.com

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Next week: Isaiah 1: 27-31

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).