WWUTT 1954 Yahweh Empties the Earth (Isaiah 24:1-23)

In the book of Isaiah chapter 24, Isaiah witnesses the judgment of God come upon the land and may it serve as a warning to us.

There is no kingdom on earth that will escape the judgment of God when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an

Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's

Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky We're back to our study in the book of Isaiah today. Being Thursday, we're doing our

Old Testament study. Let me begin by reading the first six verses of chapter 24, and I'm reading from the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Behold, Yahweh empties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.

And the people will be like the priest, the male slave like his master, the female slave like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.

The earth will be completely emptied to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word.

The earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth languish.

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

Therefore a curse devours the earth, and those who inhabited are held guilty.

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

Now some scholars divide the book of Isaiah up into various books, and chapter 24 begins what many would consider to be either the third book, or you could call it the third movement of Isaiah's prophecies.

This will go from chapter 24 all the way to chapter 36. We have concluded the oracles that were made about the various cities and peoples who will face destruction when

God brings his hand against them, and so here at the start of chapter 24, it's like we get dumped right in the middle of this judgment that is afflicting the earth.

And the judgment that we're seeing observed, now Isaiah's contemporaries are those who were probably reading this at the time that these prophecies were given, they're probably thinking of these prophecies as just being something that's happening in their time and place.

But really what we're seeing described from Isaiah, the voice of God through Isaiah talking about this judgment that's going to come, we're really seeing something that is indicative of the way that God judges.

How the earth can be wiped out by his judgments, and no one will be able to stand.

When God decides to bring such affliction on a people, then there's nothing that they can do to escape.

And so it's like we get dumped right in the middle of this judgment as it's taking place, and here's what we read at the start of chapter 24.

Behold, Yahweh empties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.

And the people will be like the priest. And really what's being said here is that God's judgment, his destruction will be upon so many people that even the priest will face this judgment.

The male slave, like his master, both slave and master will fall in this judgment.

The female slave, like her mistress. It's not saying that the slaves are ascending to power, but it's just showing how the judgment of God equalizes everybody.

There's no one above another. They will all perish when this judgment comes.

The buyer, like the seller, the lender, like the borrower, the creditor, like the debtor.

The earth will be completely emptied to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word.

And then it talks about who this judgment comes upon. The earth is polluted by its inhabitants.

They trespass laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.

So even creation is affected by this judgment, and it's those who had sinned against God became the pollution of the land.

So even that which has been created will feel the effects of the wrath that God pours out, and this is happening even to all the matter around us because of the men who were made in the image of God that rebelled against God.

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

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

So continuing on with the rest of chapter 24, we enter into kind of a new movement here in this chapter where things begin to get a little bit more poetic.

Verse 7, the new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the glad of heart sigh, the joy of tambourines ceases, the rumbling of those exulting stops, the joy of the harp ceases.

They do not drink wine with song. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

Now, let me stop there. So I've just read verses 7 through 9, and we have something of a chiasm happening or we have bookends.

So we read at the start of 7, the new wine mourns, the vine languishes.

We read at the end, they do not drink wine with song. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

So we have that statement at the beginning and at the end of this particular section, verses 7 through 9, kind of a small chiasm.

So it begins with one thing, it builds to a peak, then it comes back down and kind of ends the same way that it started.

The vine languishes, remember that the references to wine and a fruitful vine in the

Old Testament are references to God's abundant provision. They had a good harvest so that even the grapes on the vine were abundant and brought forth wonderful wine.

And so the people will drink and their hearts will be merry because God has given such provision through a good harvest.

But in this particular case, with the judgment of God coming upon the land, the new wine mourns.

In other words, there's not going to be any new wine. There won't be anything good to speak of the land as producing fruit.

The vine will languish. It'll wither up. There won't be anything to harvest.

All the glad of hearts sigh. So there won't be singing of songs, the joy of tambourines, the joy of the harp.

The people will, instead of singing songs, they just sigh. They just groan because there's nothing to be joyful about.

The judgment of God has even snatched any desire of man to be happy about anything.

So we continue on. Verse 10, the city of chaos is broken down. Every house is shut up so that no one may enter.

There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine. All gladness turns to gloom.

The joy of the earth is taken away into exile. Desolation remains in the city, and the gate is struck down to ruins.

Here we have another small chiasm. Because we start out in verse 10, the city of chaos is broken down, and how do we conclude in verse 12?

Desolation remains in the city, and the gate is struck down to ruins. So again, beginning and ending with the same thing, kind of building to a point.

All gladness turns to gloom. The joy of the earth is taken away into exile.

But there was a reference to a remnant. Now, this goes back up to verse 6, where it says, therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who inhabit it are held guilty.

Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men remain. So what we're reading about this judgment is not that it's total.

There's a remnant that remains. And so verse 12 kind of ends the description of the destruction, and verse 13 picks up with the description of the remnant.

For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

So this is talking about how after a harvest is done, there might still be a few olives up there in the tree.

How do we get those olives out? Can't reach up to them, can't find them. They may be so few, you can't just look at them with your eyes.

So how do we get those olives out? They'll shake the olive tree, and then they'll have baskets underneath, and whatever's coming out of that tree and falls into those baskets, there's the few olives that we missed.

Or the other statement here, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over. So they pulled everything off the vine, but what about some of the grapes that have fallen to the ground?

And so that's the reference here, the shaking of the olive tree, the gleanings when the grape harvest is over.

So God's judgment on the land has been so consuming that it looks like the land after a harvest is done.

There's nothing left in the trees, there's nothing left on the vine. So where are we going to find these leftover olives or grapes?

Finding them scattered on the ground or by shaking the tree. So that's the metaphor, that's the picture.

So verse 14, They, the remnant, lift up their voices, they shout for joy.

They cry out from the west concerning the majesty of Yahweh.

Therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the coastlands of the sea.

From the ends of the earth we hear songs. Now remember, previously we said there were no songs among those that were going through this judgment, nothing joyful to express from their hearts at all.

But from the remnant, we hear joy. They glorify

Yahweh in the east, the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the coastlands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear songs, glory to the righteous one.

But I say, waste away. I waste away. Woe is me.

The treacherous deal treacherously, and the treacherous deal very treacherously. Now Isaiah's reaction here is pretty unusual.

What are we talking about? So we had the remnant that sang with joy unto the

Lord. That was verses 13 to 16a. From the ends of the earth we hear songs, glory to the righteous one.

And their joy will be so uplifting that they will even encourage those who are downtrodden to sing the songs of praise unto

Yahweh. So Isaiah responds with grief because of all that he's observed.

He's seen this total destruction take place by the hand of God. It's hard to have any kind of joy in his heart because of what he has witnessed.

And so he says, panic and pit and pitfall are upon you,

O inhabitant of the earth. So he's talking to the remnant. He's addressing the remnant, the remnant that's rejoicing in song.

All these other people have been wiped out by the judgment. The Lord knows those who are his, and he's going to preserve them.

But Isaiah is concerned that the sin that remains in the earth will even find its way with the remnant.

So panic and pit and pitfall are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

Verse 18, then it will be that he who flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the pitfall.

For the windows above are opened and the foundations of the earth quake. The earth is broken asunder.

The earth is split through. The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard.

There's a very sing -songiness to this statement that we have that goes from verses 19 to 20.

All of those statements that begin with the earth. The earth is broken asunder. The earth is split through. It began with the statement that the foundations of the earth quake.

So as this is kind of a poetic verse, the way that it's written, it would have been recited in a way that kind of feels like the earth is tottering back and forth.

The earth is broken. The earth is split. The earth is shaken. The earth reels. And that's what it feels like as you're quoting those lines, like the earth is just rocking back and forth.

But the promise here being that God is going to preserve his remnant. Those who will fall in this judgment are going to be those who are not among the remnant.

For its transgression is heavy upon it, and it will fall never to rise again.

So talking about judgment that still comes upon the earth, even though a remnant is preserved, there's still wickedness, there's still sinners.

God will still preserve his remnant and will bring judgment only upon those whose transgression is heavy.

Verse 21, so it will be in that day that Yahweh will punish the host of heights on high, and the kings of the earth on earth.

They will be gathered together like prisoners in the pit, and will be confined in prison, and after many days they will be punished.

Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed. For Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

We read in the book of Revelation about the elders around the throne, right? Glorifying in God.

We read in the book of Revelation about the kings of the earth trying to flee and calling for the mountains to fall on them so that they will be hidden from the judgment of God.

We read even in the book of Revelation about how the moon will turn to blood and the sun will not give its light, and so we have this statement here in verse 23, the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed.

Now this could be a reference to those who have ascended to the highest places in the earth, like those kings and rulers, those who would even consider themselves to be gods.

That could be the reference to the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed. They won't escape the judgment of God either.

They're going to be humiliated when God comes on that day of wrath. This could also be a reference to false gods.

In fact, that's where I would lean, actually, in that understanding, because what did the pagans generally worship?

They worshiped all kinds of things, of course. They could make a god out of anything, but the two most prominent gods, speaking of false gods, little g, the most prominent gods in many of these pagan cultures were connected with the sun and the moon.

So you had a moon god, a sun god. Why? Because they're the the two biggest and brightest objects in the sky, the moon at night, the sun by day.

So they'll make gods out of those things. The sun gives us heat, provides us with the most light who can escape from its light.

It must be the most powerful god, which is why a lot of our a lot of pagan cultures would attribute the sun as being the most powerful god in the

Egyptian culture. It was the sun god raw. He was the chief of the gods. And then the moon god or the moon goddess would be another entity or another power.

So if these would be the two most prominent gods in a pagan culture, thus we understand in verse 23, the moon will be humiliated in the sun ashamed, just like God had done before Egypt with the plagues that he brought upon the land.

What was the last plague before the death of the firstborn?

And that was the 10th plague. That was the final plague with the Passover. But what was the ninth plague?

What was the one right before that? It was the darkening of the sun. It was kind of like God saved of the nine plagues.

He saved that one for last, because that was going to be a judgment against what

Egypt considered to be their highest God. But when God blacks out the sun, then he demonstrates to the

Egyptians that he's the one who holds all authority and sovereignty in his hand, that he even has control over whether the sun gives light or not.

So in the judgment that comes at the end, there will not be anything higher on earth.

God will even humiliate the moon and shame the sun. For Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

And the way that's talked about in the book of Revelation is that we'll have no need for light, for his light just fills everything.

Or we won't have need for sun is what it will be. There won't be a need for any of those things, because God's light just fills everything.

And his glory will be before his elders. We will marvel before him on that day.

Now, as I said earlier, there is something to the context of this prophecy that pertains specifically to the

Jewish people who are hearing it. But we can also read from this, again, some language that gets adopted and shows up in the book of Revelation.

So this is not just a judgment that the Jewish people will see. This is a judgment that the whole earth will see.

The judgment that the Jews will see that will send them into exile. We had a judgment is even but a type or a shadow of a greater judgment that will come.

When God judges all the earth, as it said in 2 Peter 3, the earth that now remains, the heavens are being stored up with fire for the day of judgment upon the ungodly.

There is a judgment that is happening in the world right now. We can see that judgment in just how depraved our culture is becoming.

You might have seen earlier this week that President Joe Biden hung a pride flag from between the pillars in the

White House with American flags on either side. So which of those flags is most prominent?

It's the pride flag has even more prominence than the American flag.

President Biden proclaiming loyalty to sodomy, celebrating it.

The most perverse sexual sins that we've seen among civilizations in world history being celebrated by the

White House, the capital city of one of the most powerful nations in the world, if not the most powerful.

Now that is a demonstration of God's judgment on this land, because this land has rejected

God and gone after the passions of the flesh. And so God's judgment is turning them over to a depraved mind.

There is a judgment that is happening now, but there is an ultimate judgment that is still to come. The judgment that will come by fire upon this world, the judgment that will be at the great white throne when

God will separate the sheep from the goats, the sheep enter into eternal life, the goats into eternal punishment.

While you have breath in your lungs, you can repent now. Turn from your sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ and live. And my friends, those who have already done this, who believe the gospel, who worship the

Lord Christ, we need to have the boldness and the courage to go out with the gospel to the law so that they will be saved from the judgment that is coming.

You know, the very first preacher in the New Testament is who? Do you know? It's John the

Baptist. And what are the first words of his ministry? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for the judgment is coming and his winnowing fork is in his hand,

John said. This is the first sermon that we read about at the start of the New Testament.

So our sermons, our preaching, our sharing of the gospel with others need to come with that same warning.

There is a judgment that is coming. His winnowing fork is in his hand.

Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ before it's too late. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here and may it cause us to tremble.

May we recognize the power and the authority of God that even the sun and the moon will not be able to give its light if that be your will.

We submit to your will, desire to have it done on earth as it is in heaven and help us to do the will of God in this world while we have opportunity to do so.

Loving others, loving our family, living righteously, being living sacrifices unto the

Lord, and this is our spiritual act of worship, but also holding out the word of life, preaching the gospel to the lost that they may repent and come to Christ and live.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.