Isaiah 24
THIS chapter gives the result of all the judgments upon the nations and the Jews which have engaged our attention in recent weeks. Nothing short of unsparing judgment will answer in the day of the Lord.
Matthew 3 in giving the testimony of John the Baptist speaks of “the wrath to come,” and concerning Him for whom he was the herald,
“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The baptism with the Holy Ghost only has taken place. The references to fire refer unmistakably to sharp, unsparing dealing in judgment with the wicked, which in the long suffering of God has not yet begun.
In Acts 17:30, 31, the apostle Paul, speaking to Greeks at Athens, told his hearers that God, now commanding all men everywhere to repent, has “appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained.”
Enoch’s testimony, given to us in Jude 14, but uttered by Noah’s great-grandfather about 700 years after Adam and Eve were formed, is the earliest warning of judgment on the living, of which the Scriptures tell.
Psalms 2, 46 and 110, several passages in Isaiah which have been before us, and others, some of which have been already referred to in other portions of the Word of God, tell of the beginning of the day of the Lord in its effect upon man, and the world he has used as his own.
What a picture of ruin, of desolation, this chapter presents in the first 12 verses! All of mankind is made to feel the out pouring of God’s judgment, though we know that the believers of that day will be spared from that fury which shall consume the wicked.
Notice in verse 3, “the land,” referring to the land of Israel, and in verse 4 the wider, or universal terms “the earth” and “the world,” referring to the whole world. The cause of the judgments is stated in verse 5:
“The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance (or statute), broken the everlasting covenant.” It is because God has been disowned and dishonored, His mercy despised, the gospel rejected.
Verses 13-15 bring in the saved remnant, —as the few olives left on the tree after it has been shaken, and the handfuls of grapes left by the gleaners. These shall rejoice in that day; yet withal the godly shall groan because of their low condition, and because of the apostacy of the great majority of their kinsmen according to the flesh (verse 16).
Verse 21 brings in the judgment of the “high ones” (the angels who sinned) “on high” (not, “that are on high”). These, with whom Satan is united, are judged and will no longer be allowed to mislead man, and to oppose the work of God in grace.
All that we have had before us, it will be noted, has to do with the judgment of the living, at the beginning of the Millennium. The judgment of the dead at the great white throne (Revelation 20:7-15) is not expressed in the Old Testament.
ML 08/20/1933