Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Isaiah 24 | Date: August 4, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

A couple of contextual notes I think may be of help. Remember I have mentioned that chapters 1 through 39 of Isaiah are referred to as the Book of Woe, or the Book of Woes, or the Book of Judgment, or the Book of Warnings. Throughout the first chapters to this point, Isaiah has been giving one prophecy after another, and overall, although there are plenty of high points with promise of the coming Messiah who’s coming as we’ve seen, overall, the bent is one of woe and judgment.

In chapters 1 to 12, these oracles were primarily against Judah and Jerusalem, although, of course, the Northern Kingdom was in view as well—the Syro-Ephraim alliance, the Northern Kingdom with Syria, also Assyria comes into view in chapters 1 to 12. When we get to chapter 13, we have another series of oracles, and again, the bent of it all is judgment. Here, it is not Judah and Jerusalem that are in view, but in chapters 13 to 23, it is the nations, the various nations that are in view, and he lists them for us.

If you’d like to glance back in your Bibles, you probably have headings in your Bibles. Chapter 13, you’ll see the judgment against Babylon, an issue that he takes up there. When you come to chapter 14, verse 24, an oracle concerning Assyria. So now we have the judgment of Assyria who’s coming. Verse 28 of chapter 14, an oracle concerning Philistia—announcement of their judgment to come. Chapter 15, verse 1, an oracle concerning Moab. It is now Moab’s judgment that is in view. Chapter 17, an oracle concerning Damascus. Chapter 18, an oracle concerning Cush. 19, an oracle concerning Egypt. And then chapter 21, fallen is Babylon. And then chapter 22, an oracle concerning Jerusalem. But then chapter 23, an oracle concerning Tyre and Sidon.

So all through these chapters, we have one nation after another that is brought under the announcement of God’s judgment that’s coming on them. And all of these took place historically. We come to chapter 24 now, and all of that announcing of judgment to one nation after another blossoms—comes to full blossom in the announcement of the judgment of the whole world. So now the prophecies are not concerned specifically with the judgment of this nation or that nation or that nation, but with all the nations collectively. God is going to come and in his day, he’ll bring judgment against all of his enemies worldwide. And so that brings us then to chapter 24, which introduces then this Isaiah’s apocalypse.

I think I’ll take the time to read through the entire chapter. “Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the slave, 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 creditor, so with the debtor. The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered, for the Lord has spoken his word. The earth mourns and withers. The world languishes and withers. The highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are scorched and few men are left.

Wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of the tambourines is stilled. The noise of the jubilant has ceased. The mirth of the lyre is stilled. No more do they drink wine with singing. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The wasted city is broken down. Every house is shut up so that none can enter. There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine. All joy has grown dark. The gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city. The gates are battered into ruins. For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done. They lift their voices, they sing for joy over the majesty of the Lord. They shout from the west. Therefore, in the east, give glory to the Lord. In the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth, we hear songs of praise, of glory to the righteous one.

But I say, I waste away. I waste away. Woe is me. The traitors have betrayed. With betrayal, the traitors have betrayed. Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare, where the windows of heaven are opened and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken. The earth is split apart. The earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man. It sways like a hut. Its transgression lies heavy upon it. And it falls and will not rise again. On that day, the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit. They will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed. For the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.”

Not exactly the happiest portion of Scripture. You’ll see then that the prophet’s message has progressed. Chapters 13 to 23, he announces the judgment of the various nations surrounding Israel. And now in chapter 24 and all the way through chapter 27, we have prophecies concerning the entire world. In chapters 13 to 23, God frustrates the purposes of all of these nations historically and brings judgment upon them, demonstrating his sovereign rule over all of the nations—nations as nations. And now we come to chapters 24 to 27, and he does the same for the entire earth. God rules over all, and he will bring all of his creatures into account. One of the major lessons of the prophets over and again is that national entities, as strong as they may seem, are accountable to God, and he will bring them into judgment. And this passage now speaks not just of this nation or that, but of the whole world now coming to give account before the Lord God, and he comes in judgment upon them.

Now we call this Isaiah’s Apocalypse. We hear that even in the secular media often about apocalyptic times or things like that. The apocalypse is—well, it’s a Greek word actually, it means an unveiling, a revelation. The title of the last book of our Bible is The Apocalypse, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It’s an unveiling; something is being revealed. Apocalyptic literature is a Jewish genre of literature that usually is credited for beginning sometime in the intertestamental period, but it actually has its beginnings in some sections of the Old Testament. Daniel most prominently has these apocalyptic visions.

Usually apocalyptic literature is marked by, first of all, end-of-the-world scenes where God now invades history. He’s no longer looking on. But he comes in in a big way and demonstrates his rulership over all things, and God enters into history and brings judgment. Often it’s a spectacular imagery that’s being employed to depict it. We have some of that here in Isaiah 24. We have that, of course, in the book of Revelation and in Daniel—extravagant imagery of God coming in judgment against the world. We have some of it in the book of Matthew as well in the Olivet Discourse and so on.

So Isaiah’s prophecy has progressed. God has announced his judgment upon his disobedient people. He’s announced his judgment around the surrounding nations. They all will be brought into account historically—that has come to pass. And now all of that becomes prospective of the end of the world when God comes to act in judgment, just as he has against Damascus, just as he did against Babylon, just as he did against Moab, just as he did against Assyria, just as he came in judgment against all of these nations. That will come to fruition now, finally, in that day—the day of the Lord. It is his day now, and he comes and brings the whole world into account. I love the expression: the day of the Lord. In that day—God’s day—this has been your day, and now this is his day, and he will come, and no one will mistake that it’s him.

By way of overview, chapters 24 to 27 here—and I had originally thought we might be able to survey this whole section, but I think that’s a little ambitious. Well, I’ll be happy if I can get through chapter 24 tonight. We have a combination of poems and songs, chapters 24 to 27. One Old Testament scholar said it’s rather like a cantata, where you have various poems and songs being sung and depicting what will happen in that day.

Verses One To Three: The Announcement Of Judgment

Chapter 24, we have judgments announced that will usher in the kingdom of God. We’ll look through that this evening. Chapters 25 to 27 then pick up on that with some note of the restoration of God. We have hymns of praise to God for his wonderful works and songs of salvation, the restoration of Israel, and themes like that.

All right, chapter 24 then. Verses one to three, we have the announcement of judgment. Again, let’s look at those verses. “Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest, as with the slave, 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 creditor, so with the debtor. The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered, for the Lord has spoken his word.”

So verse 1, we have the bold and broad announcement that God will come in judgment. And then verse 2 stresses the universality of that judgment. No one will escape. Every level of society alike will be judged. And then verse three, the resulting characterization of it: the earth shall be utterly empty, utterly plundered. There’ll be no one anywhere who misses the point that God now has spoken in judgment, and this has come—his day.

Verses Four To Six: Arraignment Of The Nations

Verses four to six, then, we have not just an announcement of judgment, but here the nations, or the world, is arraigned before God, and their charges are summarized. This is the reason for judgment, verses four to six. “The earth mourns and withers. The world languishes and withers. The highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its habitants.”

Now watch the “for’s” and the “therefore’s” here. “The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are scorched and few men are left.”

You see the “fors” and the “therefores” there explaining why now this is an arraignment of the nations. This is why God is coming in judgment: because they’ve been lawless, they’ve been rebellious against God, the judgment has become unavoidable, there are holy moral consequences to their behavior, and this day had to come. And God now comes in judgment. Verses 1 to 3, it’ll be devastating to the entire earth. Verses 4 to 6, then the earth, as a consequence of it all, will just be withering in the aftermath of the judgment. And the point, the result of it all in verse six, is widespread judgment. Only few people survive. There’ll be a remnant of the people.

Verses Seven To 13: The Aftermath Of The Judgment

Verses seven to 13, then we have the aftermath of the judgment, the resulting consequences. There are conditions in the earth. Verse 7: “The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled. No more do they drink wine with singing. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The wasted city is broken down. Every house is shut up so that none can enter. There’s an outcry in the streets for lack of wine. All joy has grown dark. The gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city. The gates are battered into ruins, for thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.”

Now notice verses 9 and 11. Verse 9: “No more do they drink wine with singing. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.” And then verse 11: “There’s an outcry in the streets for lack of wine. All joy has grown dark.” So the drink that would normally stimulate and make glad fails to do its job and the people are left to cry for other kinds of remedies. So it just pictures the earth reeling from this judgment. The judgment in specific terms is not given, but God comes in such a way that the world is left reeling from it, and as we have there, the gladness of the earth is banished.

Verse 10: “The wasted city is broken down.” Each of these four chapters, by the way—chapter 24, 25, 26, and 27—make reference to the city, the city under judgment. If you want to look ahead, chapter 25, verse 10: “You have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin.” Chapter 26 and verse 5: “He has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.” And then chapter 27 and verse 10: “The fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken like the wilderness.”

This probably has reference to the major cities of the day, like Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, Jerusalem—the major cities of the day. But they are also probably a microcosm of the world, or the world city, or the world system, that we find often in the prophets, like in Daniel. And that’s picked up in the New Testament. We come to the book of Revelation: “Babylon is fallen,” Revelation chapter 18. It’s the world city, the world system organized together in their rebellion against God. Babylon has fallen. We find the same thing, well, back in Revelation chapter 11. “The kingdom of this world”—the line that’s been made famous by Handel’s Messiah—”The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever.”

So the kingdom, the city has fallen. God has come in his day and this great world city that runs the place with such authority and seeming invincibility has fallen under the judgment of God. Revelation chapter 19, again we have the ashes of the city of Babylon portraying the judgment of God that has come to the earth and then the people of God rejoice over the ashes of the city. Well, that’s probably John’s point of reference here, back in Isaiah 24, and then also some in the following chapters as well. Chapter 24, verse 10: “The wasted city is broken down.” That word “wasteless” is “formless.” It’s the same word we find in Genesis 1:2: “The earth was without form.” So it’s something of a de-creation kind of a theme. God has come and just devastated the place. Completely undone. Verse 13: “As when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.” So there are few olives or grapes left. God has just devastated everything.

Verses 14 And Following: Judgment Accompanied By Praise

And that brings us then to verses 14 and following. And we find here that this judgment is accompanied by praise. Verse 14: “They lift up their voices, they sing for joy over the majesty of the Lord. They shout from the west, therefore in the east give glory to the Lord. In the coastlands of the sea give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the righteous one.”

So they, in verse 14, they who sing are probably those who are left. In verse 6, God has devastated the earth. Few people are left. His people are left, and these are the ones now singing and rejoicing over the success of God’s judgment over this rebellious world city. That again sounds a lot like Revelation chapter 19, verses 1 and following. I think it’s John’s point of reference. There, God has come in judgment over Babylon. Babylon has fallen, and the people of God shout hallelujah over it, rejoicing.

Now, the end of verse 16 through verse 20, we have a description of the judged nations. “But I say, I waste away, I waste away, woe is me.” So Isaiah himself now is reeling from the announcement that he’s been told to give. He’s staggered by it, by the enormity of God’s judgment that has come upon the earth. “For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed. Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit. He who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. The windows of heaven are opened. The foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken. The earth is split apart. The earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man. It sways like a hut. Its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls and will not rise again.”

We have some graphic imagery here, and he chooses his words in verse 17. He chooses his words carefully, because in the original, in the Hebrew here, there’s an alliteration and some assonance as well, some repeating of the first letter and repeating of sounds as well. It’s pachad, pachath, pach. That’s the Hebrew, just kind of building in the sense of anticipation of what’s coming. There’s no escape, he tells us. The terror, the pit, the snare—those words. God’s coming with this kind of judgment, that kind of judgment, another kind of judgment, and it’s terrible.

And there’ll be no escape, he tells us that. Verse 18: “He who flees at the sound of the terror, you run away from what’s happening, you shall fall into the pit. He who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in a snare.” There’s no way to go. Whatever you do, you’ll find that this judgment is inescapable. Judgment is unavoidable. It’s kind of like that passage in Amos chapter 5. If you run from the lion, you’ll meet up with a bear. And if you run into the house to hide, you’ll get bitten by a snake. There’s just nowhere to go. God is coming in judgment and there’s no escape.

And then verse 18: “The windows of heaven are open,” not with blessings, not with showers of blessings. The windows of heaven are open with just floodgates of judgment that are falling. And this is Genesis language, Genesis chapter 7, when God came in judgment to destroy the earth in the flood. Devastation of the entire earth is what he’s depicting for us.

Verses 21 And Following: The Announcement Of The Kingdom Of God

And then we come to verses 21 and following, and here we have the announcement of the kingdom of God. “On that day, the Lord will punish the host of heaven in heaven, the kings of the earth on the earth. They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit. They will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished. And then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. His glory will be before his elders.”

Verse 23: “The Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.” I should mention again here, the Lord of Hosts, that expression, that’s Yahweh Sabaoth. Talked about this recently, and someone asked afterwards what Sabaoth means. So I obviously was not clear enough, so let’s try that again. Sabaoth is just the Hebrew word. Saba is the Hebrew for “host.” And often the term “Lord of Hosts” is a reference to God as King of the armies, the leader of the armies. It’s a military type of term. When you read the expression “Lord of Hosts,” it might refer to God who is Lord of the hosts of heaven, meaning the heavenly bodies, but it most likely refers to God in the military term. He’s Lord of the hosts of heaven, the armies of heaven, the angelic hosts. He’s Lord of the armies of the earth. He’s Lord of Israel’s army. He’s Lord of the Assyrian armies. He’s Lord of the hosts. And so when you see that in some of our hymns, “Lord Sabaoth, his name,” that’s Lord of hosts or the Lord of the armies. Think of it in terms of God going to war against his enemies. That’s the connotation of it.

So the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Unmistakably, this is a reference to the Messiah. God has been telling us for centuries, one prophet after another, and we’ve seen so many of these prophecies, that he will reestablish his rule in this earth. God is still king over everything, but his rule has not been exerted in a way that’s recognized by the people of the earth. That day will come. It will be his day. He will exert his rule over earth, and he will be king. And that kingship will be administered through his appointed king, the anointed Messiah. And so this is unmistakably a reference to the Messiah. We have echoes of that already. We’ve seen in Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah chapter 4, where the Lord comes and he reigns in Jerusalem. The people of the earth come to learn from him and they study war no more because he’s the one teaching them how to live with one another in peace.

Chapter 24, verse 21: “On that day, the Lord will punish the hosts of heaven in heaven and the kings of the earth on the earth.” That is, all the wicked authorities and all the wicked rulers in heaven. Enemies in heaven. So this must be the demonic hosts. They will be judged. All of the wicked rulers and authorities on earth—kings, presidents, judges—they will be judged. So Satan himself, his angels, and all of his imps, and all of his followers on earth will be brought into judgment.

Verse one of chapter 27, look at that: “In that day, the Lord with his hand and great strong sword will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” Obviously, it’s figurative language or symbolic language; it seems clear to be John’s point of reference in Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 to 3. I’ll read that for you. Revelation 20: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven.” Remember the context there, Revelation 19: Christ has come on a white horse, he’s coming in judgment, a sword is coming out of his mouth, Babylon has fallen, and the king is now here to administer God’s kingdom. And then Revelation 20: “I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.”

So in Isaiah, his Leviathan and dragon is in the book of Revelation now, the devil, the dragon, that ancient serpent, John says, who is the devil and Satan. Verse 21 tells us then, on that day—this is the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord’s judgment, the arrival of the king, the arrival of the kingdom of God—all of that rebellion will finally be contained. The king will come, he’ll exert his rule, and they won’t be exercising their rebellion.

Verse 22: “They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit. They will be shut up in a prison.” And yet, the verse continues, it is not until “after many days they will be punished.” This seems to me, again, to be John’s point of reference in Revelation chapter 20, where the devil is cast into this pit, and then a thousand years later brought up for judgment again, confined for punishment, and then later brought into punishment in its final form. Well, Revelation chapter 20, it says after a thousand years; here in Isaiah 24 verse 22, it’s after many days. Verse 22: “After many days they will be punished.” Satan bound, captured, finally released in the day of the Lord and brought to judgment.

Well, the point of it all then is that the Lord Jesus finally brings the kingdom of God to its consummation. All powers come to be judged and brought to account, including Satan himself and the king. Administering the kingdom of God over all the earth, he brings all of his enemies into account. Isaiah 24 here, verses 14 through 16, people from the east and the west, people from all over, the people of God sing praise to the king for his success in judgment.

Well, that’s a wide-sweeping prophecy of judgment. If you have been listening along as we’ve read through many, many of these messianic prophecies, you’ll find many echoes here. This reaches back to Genesis 3:15 when God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. This is Isaiah 49, when Judah’s son will keep the scepter and rule over his enemies. This is Balaam’s prophecy in Numbers 24. This is Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2. This is what we’ve seen all along. And here now, Isaiah portrays it as finally coming to pass.

Now remember, there are two aspects of the kingdom of God, two major aspects of the kingdom of God. There’s God coming in judgment against his enemies, and there’s God coming to the rescue and the vindication of his people. The two aspects of the kingdom of God. And these are portrayed here in one way or another. The people of God singing praise for God’s judgment. And as we saw in the book of Revelation, as I’ve mentioned, we find that echoed in the coming of Christ. The people of God cheer as Babylon collapses in judgment.

That’s an astounding prophecy. And you have to keep in mind, when we come to the New Testament, we often—notice we often speak a little belittlingly of the Jews of Jesus’ day, who were anticipating a conquering Messiah. These are the passages that informed that anticipation. They were expecting what the prophets had said would come. And their mistake was not in expecting that. Their mistake was in missing what needed to be done first.

And this brings us into the whole sweep of this kingdom theory, this kingdom theme that runs all through Scripture, where God promises that he will re-exert his rule over the world. He’ll do it through his appointed king, a man, where Adam failed. The other Adam, this next Adam, will come and he will exercise that rule successfully. But in order to exercise that kingdom, he must deal first of all with what causes the rebellion. He can’t just rescue people out of their dominion without rescuing them from sin. And so he comes in to establish his kingdom, he dies. Dies in the place of his people, bears their sin, and there’s the language particularly in the Gospel of John where Jesus’ death is spoken of, his lifting up, his exaltation, his glorification. This is the moment of his glory. This is the moment of his success when he establishes his kingdom, securing the redemption of his people through his death. Raised in resurrection glory, ascended to the throne, and his people are brought with him finally for that kingdom to be brought to its culmination in his return.

And that large sweep of things and the broad sweep of the biblical prophecy, that’s how it unfolds. But this aspect of the prophecy, the judgment, is still to be fulfilled. And we still have this to anticipate. When you see the awful, awful kind of rebellion that our world is in with its fits of rebellion against God, determined more and more to despise God and his law, we need to remember passages. This is your day. God’s day is coming. His king will rule and he will establish his rule over all the earth and there’ll be no mistaking it. And so the announcement of the whole Bible then is this king is coming. He has come and he will come. He offers terms of peace right now. You may come into his kingdom and you may surrender now and he will have you. You will wait. You will find him only in judgment.

All right, let’s bow for prayer. Our Father.