Isaiah 24
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Isaiah 24
Before beginning our study of where we are in Isaiah, it may be helpful for us to wrap our minds around were we’ve been.
Isaiah opens with a preface in chaps. 1-5.
Diagnosis and prognosis
Then in chaps. 6-12 he delivers a message of judgment and hope.
Triumph of divine grace for Judah and Israel through a Messianic King and His Kingdom
Beginning with chapter 13, Isaiah
chaps. 1-5 - Isaiah’s diagnosis of Judah’s situation and his prognosis of their future
chaps. 6-12 - Isaiah’s message of judgment and hope
chaps. 13-23 - God’s judgment on specific nations
chaps. 24-27 - God’s judgment on the whole earth/ God is praised for His future victory over all His enemies and for His final deliverance of Israel on the Day of the Lord (MacArthur).
Lexham Context Commentary: Old Testament Messages About Jerusalem, Tyre, and the Whole World (22:1–27:13)
Isaiah 24–27 contains eschatological material describing events in the distant future—both judgment on the world and restoration of his people.
The Prophecy of Isaiah (The Third Cycle. Two Cities in Contrast: Endurance through to Glory)
A1 The Lord’s harvest from a destroyed world (24:1–13)
Destruction (1–12)
Gleanings (13)
B1 The song of the world remnant (24:14–16a)
C1 The sinful world overthrown (24:16b–20)
D1 The waiting world (24:21–23)
E1 The song of the ruined city (25:1–5)
F MOUNT ZION (25:6–12)
E2 The song of the strong city (26:1–6)
D2 The waiting people of God (26:7–21)
C2 Spiritual forces of evil overthrown (27:1)
B2 The song of the remnant of the people (27:2–6)
A2 The Lord’s harvest from a destroyed people (27:7–13)
Destruction (7–11)
Gleanings (12–13)
ESV Outline of Isaiah 24
vv. 1-20 - The Wasted City
vv. 21-23 - The Lord Will Punish
Motyer Outline
THE CITY OF MEANINGLESSNESS: WORLD HISTORY PLANNED AROUND THE PEOPLE OF GOD (vv. 1-20)
vv. 1-3 - The Earth Devastated: Divine Action
vv. 4-6 - The Withering of the World: Sin and Curse
vv. 7-12 - The Song Stilled: The Fall of the City
vv. 13-16b - The Song Heard: World-Wide Gleanings
vv. 16c-18d - Personal Wasting Away: Grief Over Treachery and Its Outcome
vv. 18e-20 - The Earth Broken Up: Moral and Spiritual Causation
THE END OF WAITING: THE KING SHALL REIGN (vv. 21-23)
v. 21 - Divine Visitation
in the heavens
on earth
dungeon darkness
the undated future
unparalleled brightness
v. 23b-d - Divine Reign
in Jerusalem
gloriously
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Isaiah 24:1-3 - The Lord not only brought His judgment on specific nations (chaps. 13-23), He will one day bring His judgment on the whole earth.
Isaiah piles up descriptive terms in Isaiah 24:1, “the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.”
The earth will be stripped, emptied, twisted, and its people scattered.
As v. 2 says, when the Lord’s judgment comes, it will come for everyone—for the priests just as for the people, for the masters and mistresses just as for their servants, for the sellers, lenders, and creditors just as for the buyers, borrowers, and debtors.
Exalted status in religion, society, or economy will be of no advantage when God’s judgment comes.
It comes for everyone, for the great and for the small (Rev. 11:18; 20:12).
Verse 3 uses words like completely, utterly, or totally to describe the extent of God’s judgment— “The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled...”
Verse 3 then repeats what we were already told in v. 1—that the Lord has spoken this word—as a way of describing the certainty of this judgment.
There is no need to doubt it.
The Lord will certainly bring His judgment upon the earth and its inhabitants.
And what will the response of the earth and its inhabitants be but to mourn, wither, and fade as v. 4 says.
But notice that v. 4 singles out the exalted of the people of the earth.
These are the high and haughty people who could never have imagined themselves wasting away.
But Isaiah already said in Isaiah 2:12…
12 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.
This sinful pride led them to pollute the earth with sin as they “transgressed laws, violated statutes, and broke the everlasting covenant,” (Isa. 24:5).
The laws are God’s laws.
The statutes are God’s statutes.
And the everlasting covenant is God’s covenant with all humanity.
The Noahic Covenant is described as an everlasting covenant (cf., Gen. 9:16).
The Abrahamic Covenant is described as an everlasting covenant (cf., Gen. 17:7).
But I don’t think that either of these can be the covenant that Isaiah 24:5 refers to as the everlasting covenant, because Isaiah says that the inhabitants of the earth have broken that everlasting covenant.
The Noahic Covenant was impossible for the people to break because it held no laws or statutes for the people.
Likewise, the Abrahamic Covenant was impossible for the people to break because it held no laws or statutes for the people.
I think the everlasting covenant referred to here is the Mosaic Covenant, also known as the covenant of law.
The transgression of laws and violation of statutes makes us think of the covenant of law, but we might ask how all the inhabitants of earth could’ve broken the covenant of law when they did not receive the covenant of law like Israel did?
God gives us the answer in Romans 2:12-15…
12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; 13 for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
When the Israelites violated what was written on the tablets, they broke God’s law.
When the Gentiles violated what was written on their hearts, they too broke God’s law.
But we might ask, “In what sense was the covenant of law everlasting?”
It is everlasting in the sense that, for as long as we obey God’s law, we will be His people and He will be our God.
This is the everlasting covenant that was made with Israel on Mt. Sinai...
…and this is the everlasting covenant that was made with all humanity in the Garden of Eden.
The result is that all have failed to live up to the stipulations of the covenant of law, and so what would’ve been everlasting intimacy with God has become everlasting enmity with God.
As v. 6 says, this leads to a curse—the curse of sin and death—that devours the earth and the guilty who live in it.
People will be burned, and few will be left.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
But what about the few who are left? Why will they be left? And what will their lot be?