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 17: 7-9

⁷ In that day man will have regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,
Even the Asherim and incense stands.
⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And the land will be a desolation.

In the day when God's people will be carried off into captivity, then they will turn back to Him. Whether a captive or a member of the escaped remnant, Isaiah says that eyes "will look to the Holy One of Israel" and "have regard for his Maker." (vs. 7)

 

Isaiah has already described the time of judgment to come (and he has more to say on that in the next couple of weeks). There is "desolation" (vs. 9) coming to the land. Few--two or three olives on the top bough of an olive tree, if you remember last week's metaphor--will escape from the hand of the Assyrians; most will be taken away. Whatever blinders covered the eyes of the people will be removed, and they shall see clearly that their need for God is great.

 

"These few that are preserved are such as, in the prospect of the judgment approaching, had repented of their sins and reformed their lives, and therefore were snatched thus as brands out of the burning, or such as having escaped, and becoming refugees in strange countries, were awakened, partly by a sense of the distinguishing mercy of their deliverance, and partly by the distresses they were still in, to return to God."

--Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible

 

In returning to God, one sees not only His greatness, but his or her own weakness and falling away. It shall also be with Israel. Part of the process of returning was repentance, which meant addressing the sin which caused the distancing from the Holy One in the first place. For Israel, idolatry led to a multitude of sins.

"Their land has also been filled with idols;
They worship the work of their hands,
That which their fingers have made."

--Isaiah 2:8

 

But, no longer. Isaiah uses this same phrasing in verse 8--with a big 'not', now--to show the change that will come in His time. It is, perhaps, a good place to remind ourselves that God was truly unhappy with the behavior of His people, but His discipline came out of love and to effect a change for the better. A change back to the original ways of the Covenant, when God first called His people 'My people'.

 

"Come, let us return to the Lord.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us."

--Hosea 3:5, the response to God's rebuke (Hosea and Isaiah served a parallel time in ministry, the first to Israel and the second to Judah--the coinciding of their message themes is most definitely not an accident.)

 

 

Back to verse 8, Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess, symbolized by sacred groves and poles. (Reformation Study Bible) Even though the Canaanites were no longer in the Promised Land, their idols still maintained a presence. [The power and allure of sin in a nutshell!] But now Isaiah speaks of a time in which the Asherim poles, incense stands, or other items of idol worship would not draw the people's affections, focus, or time in craftsmanship. Indeed, when facing a similar idol-worship conflict, Judah experienced a fulfillment of this prophecy during the time of King Josiah:

"...he also tore down the altars and beat the Asherim and the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem."

--II Chronicles 34:7

 

Verse 9, also "in that day," "...man's strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Amorites and the Hivites which they abandoned." This is from the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The cities of Syria and Israel would face total destruction by Assyria. The pictures Isaiah has painted for us show a vacant landscape. Why did the Septuagint mention the Amorites and the Hivites? The NASB text says, "...which they abandoned before the sons of Israel." The Amorites and the Hivites were before the sons of Israel arrived.

 

I alluded to this part of Scripture just a bit ago when talking about God's naming of His people. In Exodus 34, we read of God's grace in His preparation of second tablets of the Ten Commandments, after the first broke in Moses' response to the golden calf incident. Not only does God make new tablets, but He renews His Covenant with His people--they get another chance, the first of "seventy times seven." (Matthew 18:22) Look what God says to them:

 

"'Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim—for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God...."

--Exodus 34: 11-14 (italics mine)

 

The Amorites and Hivites were among those who lived in the land of Canaan prior to its providential takeover by God's people, Israel. Take note, too, of the warnings of God about the influence of these nations. Don't worship other gods. "...Cut down their Asherim...." Make no covenants with other nations. Isaiah says to Syria and to Israel, you have not listened to the Lord and His Word. As those who had occupied the land before them had to flee from invasion, so shall they, at the hand of the "Jealous" One.

"They shall be as the cities (so it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old inhabitants of the land, because of the children of Israel, when God brought them in with a high hand, to take possession of that good land, cities which they built not. As the Canaanites then fled before Israel, so Israel should now flee before the Assyrians. And herein the word of God was fulfilled, that, if they committed the same abominations, the land should spue them out, as it spued out the nations that were before them (Lev. 18:28)...."

--Matthew Henry 

 

  

 

 When one plants "delightful plants...." ...'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: www.ancientdigger.com

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Next week:  Isaiah 17: 10 and 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 11: 14-16

¹⁴ But [with united forces Ephraim and Judah] will swoop down 

upon the shoulders of the Philistines’ [land sloping] toward the west; 

together they will strip the people on the east [the Arabs]. 

They will lay their hands upon Edom and Moab, 

and the Ammonites will obey them.

¹⁵ And the Lord will utterly destroy (doom and dry up) 

the tongue of the Egyptian sea [the west fork of the Red Sea]; 

and with His [mighty] scorching wind He will wave His hand 

over the river [Nile] and will smite it into seven channels 

and will cause men to cross over dry-shod.

¹⁶ And there shall be a highway from Assyria 

for the remnant left of His people, 

as there was for Israel when they came up out of the land of Egypt.

I pulled our text from this last passage of Isaiah 11 from the Amplified Bible because I appreciated the clarity, at least initially. In the NASB, verse 14 begins, "They will swoop down...." We need a flashback to last week's post regardless, but at least the Amplified tells you who the "They" is.

Recall that Isaiah is writing of the time of perfect peace, when Christ returns for His people and restores once and for all the broken relationship between Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Now, the combined nation is fortified and standing tall, ready to deal with its enemies. 

"...and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms."

--Ezekiel 37: 22

 

A mere two chapters ago (Isaiah 9:12), Isaiah spoke of Israel's fall with "...the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west; and they devour Israel with gaping jaws." There's a 180 in progress with this new prophecy, as God's people "swoop down" and "strip" their old foes, as well as the nations of Edom, Moab and Ammon. The more literal translation of the second part of verse 14 is that "Edom and Moab will be the outstretching of their hand." (from my study Bible)

Edom--Edom was the nation named for and lived in by Esau. After Jacob secured his brother's birthright in the red ('edom' means red) stew incident as well as his father Isaac's blessing, Jacob "wrestled with God" and received the new name, Israel. Esau gained a happy reunion with his brother and some possessions, but not the blessing of God. He left his brother and retreated to this land which then took the name Edom and whose people became the Edomites. It was not a land or a people blessed by God either, as the book of the prophet Obadiah speaks.

"'Then the house of Jacob will be a fire
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau will be as stubble.
And they will set them on fire and consume them,
So that there will be no survivor of the house of Esau,'
For the Lord has spoken."

--Obadiah 1: 18

Moab--Commonly remembered as the country of origin for Orpah and Ruth, from the Book of Ruth. Ruth would leave Moab with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to start a new life in Judah (where she would meet and marry Boaz, father of Obed, father of Jesse--yes, that Jesse, as in "the stem of Jesse"--father of David). Moab bordered Edom.

Ammon--The Ammonites were the descendants of Lot (husband to a pillar of salt) who settled in territory north of Moab and directly east of Gad (Northern Kingdom). There are quite a few battle stories involving the Ammonites in the Old Testament, and they were particularly hostile to both Israel and Judah, often attacking through alliances with the kingdoms' enemies. (Biblos.com) For Isaiah to prophesy that the Ammonites would obey the kingdoms is truly a change of events.

God's actions in verse 15 are clear--"utterly destroy" and "smite" two areas with the intent to change them over completely. What's confusing is to what areas are being referred. There is no Egyptian Sea. But, Egypt has seas on two sides, the Mediterranean to the North and the Red to the East. The Hebrew for 'sea' can translate into either of these places or the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea, or even the Nile or Euphrates rivers! As you can see above, the Amplified Bible chose the "west fork of the Red Sea" for its descriptor. It's not completely clear to me, but both the Mediterranean and the Red are in the same general vicinity, which is good enough for now. Even more curious is the river in question. It's "the Nile" in the Amplified while the NASB suggests it is the Euphrates. The cross-referenced verse is in Revelation:  

"The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east....."

--Revelation 16:12

Although knowing the specifics would fill in some gaps, the overall concept of the message remains key--God is turning these mighty waters into a "highway" of land on which people will travel by foot ("dry-shod," meaning in sandals). A turnpike will be created, from Egypt to Assyria, for the purpose of allowing the safe return of the remnant of God's people. (vs. 16) Isaiah evokes images of the past as he compares the road home with the one created from the parting of--perhaps--the same Red Sea, by Moses, as a means of escape from Pharaoh and Egyptian slavery. (Exodus 14: 26-29) That should have been a timeless image of provision, peace, hope and grace for both Judah and Israel.

"Note, When God’s time has come for the bringing of nations, or particular persons, home to himself, divine grace will be victorious over all opposition. At the presence of the Lord the sea shall flee and Jordan be driven back; and those who set their faces heavenward will find there are not such difficulties in the way as they thought there were, for there is a highway thither...."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

And with that welcome comes a cry of Thanksgiving. Chapter 12 begins.... 'Til next Wednesday!



Photo: parmionova.blogspot.com

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Next week: Isaiah 12: 1-3

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 11: 11-13

 The Restored Remnant

¹¹ Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the islands of the sea.
¹² And He will lift up a standard for the nations
And assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
¹³ Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart,
And those who harass Judah will be cut off;
Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,
And Judah will not harass Ephraim.

After prophesying the time of eternal peace, Isaiah then says that this is the time when the remnant of God's people will be restored. In reading the beginning of verse 11, you see "...the Lord will again recover the second time...." This would imply that there was a first time, which there was with the exodus from Egypt under Moses' guidance. This second restoration will not fully come with Judah's freedom from exile in Babylon. Isaiah is speaking of a time still to come.

We know that God has plans to preserve His people. We have read in Isaiah how He will prepare "the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped...." (Isaiah 10: 20) Here, in the second part of verse 11, we learn some of the places from where the remnant shall come: "...from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." Let's look at where these places are. (Facts are drawn from The Encyclopedia of the Bible.)

Assyria--In our short study of Isaiah so far, you probably guessed that God's people would be coming from Assyria. We know that the 10 tribes of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) were brought into exile here. It makes sense that some would make their return from where these families had been planted.

Egypt--It might not make sense that the place of original exile would become a place of new refuge for the Israelites, but.... I don't usually preview verses before we get to study them, but, it helps to look at Isaiah 19: "In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria." (Isaiah 19: 23-24a) The scattering and blending of God's people among the nations would clearly be seen in the relationships between these countries. Egypt may also be translated "Lower Egypt."


Pathros--Because Pathros is considered "Upper Egypt," "roughly the Nile Valley between Cairo and Aswan."

Cush--Also known as Ethiopia, which is located south and east of the Egypts, right along the Red Sea.

Elam--"Elam is the Biblical designation of a people and a country in the southern area of the Iranian plateau in the Zagros mountains east and northeast of the valley of the Tigris. It is approximately equivalent to the present Iranian province of Khuzistan." This would be quite a bit east and then south, into the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

Shinar--Shinar is another word for Babylonia, so, again, no surprises here. This is the land to which the exiles from Judah would go, as Daniel tells us in his book (Daniel 1:2).

Hamath--This was a city in Syria, north of Damascus. Assyria's Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon II would invade Hamath as part of their conquests. After Israel was destroyed, some exiles were relocated to Hamath. 

Islands of the sea--An alternate translation might be 'coastlands.' The Amplified Bible uses, "from the countries bordering on the [Mediterranean] Sea." The scattering of God's people was quite wide. Verse 12 will label the wideness as "the four corners of the earth."

Continuing now with Isaiah, verse 12, "He will lift up a standard...." We spoke of this last week, that standard or "ensign"--the root of Jesse--being Jesus Christ. God will bring His "banished" and "dispersed" people together in assembly under the reign of His chosen One, the Prince of Peace.

“I will strengthen the house of Judah,
And I will save the house of Joseph,
And I will bring them back,
Because I have had compassion on them;
And they will be as though I had not rejected them,
For I am the Lord their God and I will answer them."

--Zechariah 10:6

And in this time of peace, under the Prince's reign, a miracle:  "Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim." (vs. 13) The long-time divided Northern (Ephraim) and Southern (Judah) Kingdoms would be reunited. It was only two chapters ago, Isaiah 9, that we read of these Kingdoms devouring one another. God did not intervene:

"Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,
And together they are against Judah.
In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away
And His hand is still stretched out."

--Isaiah 9: 21

But, "it will happen on that day" (vs. 11) that God will have compassion on His people and restore them to Himself. He had always planned on having His people return to Him. The Word of God in its entirety is the story of God's love for His people, and His plan to keep His people with Him always. Circumstances and time remain in His hand.

Ending on a personal note today.... I can't help but read this passage and think about the recent schism that divided my former church into two "kingdoms." Both are moving forward, re-forming and re-establishing themselves. It's hard not to look back over the time of struggle and see bits of "jealousy" and "harassment" even as both sides claim Christ as their "standard." I still grieve the loss of the outcome of this split, even as I have been moving forward. God is grieved when His people "divorce," if you will. Yet, there is certainly a history of God scattering His people with intent and purpose.

Prayerful that His Church will know restoration, now and in the days to come.... 
    

How the Lord will move "on that day".... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: brendapace.com

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Next week: Isaiah 11: 14-16

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).