Remnant and Reign - Isaiah 24

Introduction

Isaiah 24 serves as a capstone to chapters 13-23, 10 chapters of God’s judgment poured out on the nations that surround Israel. This judgment took a particular historical form in Isaiah’s day, but Isaiah intended it to speak far beyond his own day and his own circumstances into the cosmic battle of seeds, the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman.

Isaiah has spoken in broad strokes of judgment, with narrow beams of salvation piercing through at regular intervals. Isaiah has demonstrated that God’s plan for salvation through judgment is not only for Israel, but for the nations. He has demonstrated that the pattern he set in chapters 1-12 of judgment for Israel poured out by means of Assyria has now been recapitulated as eschatological escalation; in other words, the pattern of Israel’s judgment at the hands of Assyria in the past is now repeated in the pattern of the world’s judgment at the hands of Yahweh himself in the future.

Thus, as chapter 24 rounds out this section of judgment on the world, Isaiah the prophet speaks of that day where God’s judgment, even now being stored up, will be poured out fully and finally from his holy throne of judgment. But as is Isaiah’s pattern, he maintains a silver strand of salvation in the midst of the turmoil of judgment.

I will seek to demonstrate today from this text that at the end of all things, when God pours out his wrath for a final time on evil, that he will yet preserve a reigning remnant of faithful believers for his glory.

This chapter can be divided into 5 major movements:

Wasted Earth

Withered Vine

Woeful Vision

Weighty Transgression

Glorious Reign

Each movement builds upon patterns that have been established for Isaiah or by Isaiah, patterns of judgment that help us understand exactly what is being laid forth by Yahweh upon the earth. With that in mind, let’s look at verses 1-6 and examine Isaiah’s vision of a wasted earth.

Wasted Earth

Isaiah’s call to behold ushers us into what scholars call an Isaianic vision. Isaiah is calling his readers to look upon and see that which he sees.

Isaiah begins the description with powerful and colorful language in these first 6 verses. Verse 1 contains a rapid fire sequence of powerful descriptors of God’s judgment against the earth and it’s inhabitants. Lay waste, devastate, distort, and scatter. This is an apocalyptic scene. It appears that nothing has survived the devastation of Yahweh.

Further, in verse 2 the destruction is indiscriminate. No matter your social class, no matter your status, no matter your cultural identity, all are lumped together before the devastating judgment of God.

Verse 3 circles back to verse 1 with emphasis: the earth will be completely laid waste, and he expands the idea, declaring the earth to be despoiled or plundered. These are complete actions. In other words, the wasting of the earth is absolute. It is not partial, it is not withheld. Yahweh is not pulling any punches as He pours out destruction in Isaiah’s vision.

In verse 4, we see the response of the earth, the world, and the exalted people: mourning, withering, fading. Yahweh’s judgment cannot be withstood.

Verse 5 describes the reason for the wasting of the earth: it has been polluted by it’s inhabitants. Poisoned by those who live there. And how did the pollution occur? This doesn’t have anything to do with greenhouse gasses or renewable energy: the transgressing, violating, and breaking of the everlasting covenant is what has brought this about.

The fourfold result is described in verse 6: a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty, and the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. In other words, the wasting of the earth described in these verses is brought about by it’s own inhabitants.

In order to understand Isaiah here we need to understand that he is not speaking in a vacuum. He is speaking in a larger literary context that demands our attention this morning.

Isaiah’s description of judgment follows prior Old Testament patterns in 3 ways:

The scattering of the inhabitants in verse 1 mirrors the scattering of the peoples after their confusion at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11

The wasting and despoiling, mourning and withering and fading of verses 3-4 reflect the language of God in Genesis 6 before Noah’s flood when He vows to blot mankind off the face of the earth.

The devouring curse of verse 6 mirrors the devouring curse of Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve ate the fruit.

Isaiah intent here is to frame his prophecy of God’s judgment upon the earth in the terms of three of the earliest descriptions of God’s judgment in the Old Testament.

But not only does the description of judgment parallel prior patterns, the cause of the judgment as described in verse 5 follows prior Old Testament patterns as well.

The cause is described as pollution, some translations might say defiled. This is the same word translated elsewhere godless. The sense is that all awareness of the divine has been lost. Earth’s inhabitants have essentially removed God from the picture. How have they done it? This is where Isaiah calls upon his Scripture-writing forebears to call to mind a very specific shape for this pollution.

They transgressed laws. I would translate this phrase “they passed through the Torah.” The Torah, of course, being Moses’ five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy, or simply the Law. This word passing through is an ironic pun on Isaiah’s part. It is used in two ways in the Old Testament.

The word here transgressed, which I have translated pass through is the same word used in Exodus 12 to describe God passing through the land of Egypt to strike down and smite the firstborn of the land of Egypt. Isaiah evokes the imagery of the destruction of Egypt and applies it to the inhabitants of the whole earth. As God passed through Egypt, to pour out judgment on them, so also the inhabitants of the earth pass through the Torah, to pour out judgment on it. The terrifying irony is that the people have first put themselves in the place of God, and secondly, put themselves in the place of judgment over God’s law. Isaiah thus subtly accuses the world specifically of committing both treason and blasphemy against Yahweh. And we certainly see this in our world today, as people place their feelings and opinions in a place of judgment over God and His word.

But there is a second irony for Isaiah, and one that is truly devastating. The word transgress there, which we have translated pass through, is also a pun on the Hebrew word for… Hebrew. He is effectively saying that the whole earth has “Hebrewed” the Law of God - in other words, they have violated God’s statutes and broken his covenant. Those of you who have been with us for Isaiah and Deuteronomy know that if the Hebrew people in the Old Testament are marked by anything, they are marked by rampant disobedience and intentional ignorance of Yahweh’s Torah. Isaiah thus positions Israel as a type of the world, the Hebrews as a prototype of the inhabitants of the whole earth. What Israel is guilty of, the world is guilty of. What Israel is guilty of, each inhabitant of earth is guilty of. “Hebrewing” the Law of God by standing in judgment over it, just as God stood in judgment over Egypt.

Thus we can see here that the inhabitants of the earth have attempted to stand in the place of God, violating His statutes and breaking His covenant, just as Israel did.

They have violated statutes. This word here in the Hebrew is more accurately translated change or exchange. English vernacular might render it “swap.” The statutes are simply the commands, prescriptions, and decrees of God. The sense then is that the inhabitants of the earth have exchanged or swapped the good, true, and beautiful statutes of Yahweh with something else. Isaiah doesn’t provide any further explanation, but Paul takes up the theme in Romans 1 and provides some explanation. Paul uses the word exchange three times in that chapter: Verse 21, they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, verse 25 they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and in verse 27 they exchanged the created, natural function of their bodies for that which is unnatural and foreign to the created order. Paul thus expounds Isaiah in this way: the inhabitants of the earth have exchanged the true, glorious, and natural statutes of Yahweh’s law for false, debased, and unnatural principles of their own making.

They broke the everlasting covenant. This word here in Hebrew translated broke is a unique word. It is only ever used in the covenantal context, first with Abraham and later with the nation of Israel. Moses uses it in Genesis 17 but provides no explanation other than that those who are not circumcised are guilty of breaking the covenant. Moses provides more context the next time he uses the word in Leviticus 26, wherein he describes in graphic detail the judgment that will come upon Israel if they break the covenant, described there as not obeying, not carrying out the commandments, rejecting the statutes, and abhorring the ordinances. It’s important to note that contextually for Isaiah, a breach of covenant is something that’s only ever been spoken of in Scripture with reference to the nation of Israel, yet here Isaiah uses it in reference to all the inhabitants of the earth.

We have seen Isaiah draw upon the prior patterns of Scripture in the description and cause of the judgment, and we now see the same in the outcome.

We observed a fourfold outcome of the pollution, four ends of the judgment that comes upon the polluted earth and those who polluted it.

A curse devours the earth. This is another ironic pun for Isaiah. The word curse is the same type of curse meted out against Adam in Genesis 3, and there Adam is cursed for eating of the fruit. This eating is the same word translated devour here in verse 6. For Adam then, the curse is a result of the devouring. For the earth, the curse is the devouring. By this connection then, Isaiah means to demonstrate that the devouring curse on the earth is the same curse that resulted from Adam’s devouring, and as Adam devoured the fruit, the curse devours the earth, specifically for Moses with thorns and thistles, for Isaiah it is escalated to complete waste and despoilment.

Those who live in it are held guilty. Returning to Genesis 3, as Adam was put on trial by God, and held guilty of devouring the fruit, so also the earth and it’s inhabitants are held guilty of transgressing laws, violating statutes, and breaking the covenant.

The inhabitants of the earth are burned. This word burn only occurs here in the entire Bible, and it is therefore difficult to translate. Most translations render it burn, but in keeping with the parallelism of the second part, it would seem to mean something like decrease. I prefer that to burn because burn connotes violence and and destruction but Isaiah intentionally avoids destruction language in these verses in favor of the language of wasting, despoiling, even devastation. The idea here is a reaping, a culling, a trimming, if you will.

Few men are left. This is a very compelling phrase. First, it’s important to note that the devastation and the waste described here is not absolute. There are still some left. Second, this word translated here men is actually a proper name: Enosh. Who is Enosh? He is the son of Seth who was born to Adam and Eve to replace Abel after his death. Cain and Seth represent the two lines that descend from Adam and Eve, Cain, the line of curse, and Seth, the line of blessing, from whom comes Noah. By using this word, Isaiah is setting the stage for a very important theme that runs throughout this chapter: the theme of the remnant. Enosh’s line is the line of the remnant, the line of Noah, the one who would become the sole remaining survivor of God’s most widespread judgment on earth. In the midst of devastation, the complete laying waste of the earth and it’s inhabitants for their disobedience, Isaiah invokes the name, lineage, and blessing of Enosh to remind his readers and to remind us that just as the blessed seed of the woman was preserved through Seth and Enosh and Noah, so also will that seed be preserved through a remnant in that day, when the future judgment of Yahweh is poured out on the earth.

Isaiah calls us to see, to behold, a wasted earth. Isaiah’s wasted earth invokes imagery of the most awful and terrifying judgments in human history, whether the Garden, or the Flood, or Babel, or the plagues of Egypt, and brings them all together, applying them not only to one person or to one nation, but to the whole earth and all it’s inhabitants. Isaiah uses this imagery on purpose, to demonstrate to us this point: the judgment that is coming in that day will be as all the other judgments of earth’s history, combined.

Furthermore, the wickedness that brought about this wasted earth is of like kind and quality to the sin of Adam that plunged all of humanity into darkness. Yet he once again, he does not ascribe the wickedness to one man or to one nation, but to all the earth and all it’s inhabitants.

Finally, the outcome of these things hearkens back to the outcome of Adam’s sin: a devouring curse.

Yet in the midst of this, hope remains, in the form of the remaining few, the remnant, who bear the name and blessing of Enosh.

Isaiah wants the entire world from Babylon to Tyre and everyone in between to know this: you have experienced God’s judgment as poured out through foreign powers and mighty kings. But you have not yet experienced God’s judgment as poured out directly from His hand. In that day, the devastation will be absolute. There will be no discrimination in that day. All will be laid waste, and the likes of this judgment no one has yet seen, for it encompasses the magnitude and majesty of all other judgments, from Adam to Egypt to Babel.

As Isaiah calls us to see, to behold the judgment of Yahweh, we must ask: do we see? Do we behold? Isaiah’s vision is a gift of grace. A vision of the end before it happens, so it might serve as a warning to the nations and a warning to us: pray to God that he might have mercy on you and count you among the few men who are left! Pray that God would pour out on you the blessing of Enosh, the remnant, even as he pours out judgment all around you.

The grace of the gospel is that the line of Enosh has been preserved. Luke 3 traces Enosh’s legacy 4000 years down the line to Jesus Christ. Enosh bore the seed of the woman, promised to crush the seed of the serpent. As the firstborn of many brethren, Christ now freely offers you the blessing of Enosh and a place among the remnant, spared from the wrath that is even now being stored up, to be poured out in that day.

But Isaiah continues his vision, turning from the oracle of verses 1-6 to the poetry of verses 7-12, in a section I have titled “The Withered Vine.”

The Withered Vine

Isaiah paints a vivid and poetic picture here. He invokes imagery that is both Scripturally and culturally familiar.

Wine and vineyards, known as viticulture, were a critical part of the ancient near eastern economy and diet. A vineyard was a source of revenue for it’s owner and a source of food and drink for it’s community. A vineyard was associated with the blessing of the gods, and the Israelites especially understood vineyards as a blessing from Yahweh.

But vineyards also have figural significance in the development of Biblical patterns of promise.

Moses establishes the viticultural pattern in Genesis 9, as he records God recapitulating Adam’s covenant with Noah. He gives Noah dominion over the earth, and commands him to be fruitful and multiply, just as Adam was commanded. Then, just as Adam was placed in a garden, so Noah is placed in a vineyard in Genesis 9:20. Thus, at it’s very first appearance, vineyards were intended to remind us of Eden. And if you continue the story, the fruit of Adam’s garden proved to be his downfall, and so also the fruit of Noah’s vineyard proved to be his downfall.

Isaiah now calls upon that pattern as he invokes the imagery of the vineyard in verse 7.

He speaks specifically of the new wine. Moses establishes “new wine” as a sign of blessing when he blesses his trickster son Jacob in Genesis 27 with “an abundance of grain and new wine.” Moving forward through the Mosaic Torah, Moses continually speaks of new wine as intimately connected with the blessing of abundance. Culturally speaking, new wine is typically drunk with rejoicing in celebrations of an abundant harvest.

But Isaiah paints a different picture here. Whereas new wine normally brings rejoicing, here the new wine mourns, because the vine has withered or decayed. Those who would normally be merry-hearted because of the new wine now sigh or groan because of the withered vine.

Verse 8 continues as Isaiah describes the end of the party. Normally, the harvest of new wine is a time for reveling, noise, and gaiety, but all that ceases and stops.

In verse 9, what was once sweet is now bitter, where there was once a song, there is now silence.

In verse 10, the city of chaos, more literally it might mean the wasted or empty city is broken down. No new wine, no parties, no music, the houses are boarded up, it’s now a ghost town.

In verse 11, the noise of celebration turns to the noise of lament, where rejoicing once was, gloom now presides, and the gaiety of the earth been banished, sent away, exiled.

Verse 12 summarizes: the beginning is desolation, the end is ruins.

What is Isaiah’s point here? Again we must look to the prior patterns upon which Isaiah builds his argument.

Adam’s garden and Noah’s vineyard were places of blessing, the physical environment in which God blessed His people with economic and agricultural abundance, and more importantly, with His own presence. This pattern is escalated in the form of the land of Israel, the physical environment in which God blessed His people with economic and agricultural abundance. This is why first Asaph in Psalm 80 and then Isaiah in Isaiah 5 call Israel the vineyard of God. Israel’s intended design was as a blessed refuge of abundant physical and spiritual provision. But just like Adam and Noah before them, Israel broke the everlasting covenant. Adam was given a garden, and bore worthless fruit, pun intended. Noah was given a vineyard, and bore worthless fruit, pun intended again. Now listen to the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 5:1-7

Isaiah 5:1–7 NASB95

Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones? “So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. “I will lay it waste; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it.” For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

Do you hear the similarity of language between Isaiah 5 and Isaiah 24? Isaiah thus invokes the imagery of Adam, Noah, and Israel to proclaim another warning to the nations.

Behold, Babylon and Tyre! Behold Moab and Damascus! As Adam, and Noah, and Israel were given vineyards, you also have been given a vineyard. But just as they broke the everlasting covenant and were banished from the vineyard, so also you have broken the everlasting covenant and will be banished from the vineyard.

But here is where the terror becomes truly immense: Adam, Noah, and Israel all had other, less blessed places to go. Adam went east of Eden. Noah went to his tent. Israel went to Babylon and Assyria. But for the nations, whose vineyard is the entire earth, there is only one place to be banished: the outer darkness. The place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Isaiah likens the earth to a withered vineyard, laid waste by judgment of God poured out on it’s covenant breaking inhabitants. As Adam, Noah, and Israel were banished from their vineyards, a day is coming when the law-transgressors, statute-violators, and covenant-breakers will be banished, exiled, thrown out forever. Like the wicked and lazy servant in the parable of the talents in Matthew 24 and like the goats at the Great White Throne in Matthew 25, and like the fruitless branches of John 15, the merry-hearted revelers will revel no more. The vineyard will be laid waste, and the inhabitants will be banished, thrown out, and burned.

Isaiah presents a solemn picture of judgment, a judgment like that which was meted out against Adam, Noah, and Israel. But this is an escalated and eschatological judgment. This judgment will have no survivors, for it is a universal and eternal judgment.

Nevertheless, as a remnant was preserved for Adam in the line of Enosh, and a remnant was preserved for Noah in the line of Shem, and a remnant was preserved for Israel in the lines of Judah and Benjamin, so also there will be a remnant preserved for the world. It is to that remnant that we turn now, as we encounter Isaiah’s woeful vision.

Woeful Vision

Isaiah immediately offers an interpretation of his 6 verses of poetry in verses 7-12.

This wasting judgment that withers the vine is likened to the shaking of an olive tree, and the gleanings at the end of the grape harvest.

Now it’s important to know that even today, grapes and olives are harvested by spreading a sheet beneath the tree and shaking it so that the olives or grapes fall onto the sheet, which is then bundled up and taken to be packaged or processed.

This idea of shaking and gleaning is directly connected to the command of Leviticus 19:10 in which Yahweh commands the nation of Israel to leave behind the grapes and olives that fall from the trees during harvest but miss the sheet and are left on the ground. Israel was instructed to leave these behind for the poor and the needy and the stranger. The command is repeated in Deuteronomy 24, and in that text the gleanings are to be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

So once again Isaiah calls up on patterns established by Moses to escalate the argument of his vision. Effectively here Isaiah likens the judgment described in verse 1-12 to the shaking of olive tree and the grapevine for the harvest. The tree of the earth and the vine of it’s inhabitants are laid waste, left desolate and fruitless, as retribution for the law-transgressing, statute-violating, covenant-breaking pollution perpetrated by the inhabitants of the earth. There is no joy in the new wine, there is revelry in the abundance of the harvest, for they have been shaken like a tree in harvest.

But in the midst of the judgment, Isaiah proclaims hope in the third line of verse 13: There will be gleanings at the end of this retributive harvest. The vineyard will not be utterly decimated. As Moses says in Deuteronomy 24, God’s reaping, harvesting judgment will not go over the vineyard again. Gleanings will be left to bless the alien, the orphan, and the widow, just as Boaz did not reap his vineyard twice, but left the gleanings to bless the alien, the orphan, the widow Ruth.

In Isaiah’s direct context, these gleanings are the same few he mentioned in verse 6. The blessing for the remnant in the line of Enosh is the blessing of gleaning. God’s judgment will not go over twice, but will leave the blessing of gleaning behind.

And Isaiah now declares that these gleanings are not grapes, but are in fact a remaining, surviving multitude, who now raise their voices and shout for joy in verses 14-15.

From east to west, the blessed remnant sings out the praises of Yahweh the Merciful. As God left a remnant for Adam in his grandson Enosh, and as Boaz left a remnant for Ruth in the gleanings of His field, so God leaves a remnant for His own glory in this joyful, singing group.

This was the hope of Israel in Isaiah’s day.

They were created as a beloved, choice, and fertile vine. They were cared for by their Father, the vinedresser. But they produced law-transgressing, statute-violating, covenant-breaking grapes. Worthless grapes. So Yahweh removes the hedge. Breaks down the wall. And Israel is consumed. Trampled. Wasted. Consumed by briars and thorns. And then they are carried off by a distant nation. Banished. Exiled.

But then Yahweh pauses his revelation to Isaiah in chapter 5, and in chapter 6 shows him a vision of the throne room. This changed Isaiah’s life. He beholds the glory of Yahweh Sabaoth, repents, and is forgiven by the burning coal from the altar. Then he is commissioned. Called by Yahweh as his mouthpiece to Israel. And what will be his message? The message of chapter 5: that the Lord lays waste the vineyard. He desolates the land. But then, at the end of chapter 6, Isaiah finds hope: in the midst of desolation, a tenth portion will remain. A stump containing the holy seed, which will be the means of God’s mercy and the object of Israel’s hope.

The hope shown to Isaiah in chapter 6 after his commission is the same hope he declares here. There is a holy seed. There is a remnant. There is a line of Enosh. There is a gleaning. In Isaiah 6, hope yet remained for Israel. Now in chapter 24, hope yet remains for the world.

Israel’s hope was fulfilled at the decree of Cyrus, who sent the believing remnant back to Israel, a few men of the blessed line of Enosh, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, who produced the good grapes of covenant obedience.

The world’s hope is that a remnant is still being gathered even today. That the blessed line of Enosh remains, rejoicing from east to west at the preserving and persevering mercy of Yahweh.

Isaiah should leave us on this high note, or at least so we might think.

But as he cried out in anguish at the sight of a holy, majestic, and glorious king, so now he cries out at the treachery that still remains. For though Isaiah holds fast the hope of the remnant, he still understands that the wasting and withering judgment must come against the law-transgressing, statute-violating, covenant-breaking inhabitants of the earth before the remnant can emerge, and therefore he is woeful. Woeful at the sight of the weighty transgression of the inhabitants of earth and at the judgment which awaits them, and it is to that weight transgression that we now turn.

Weighty Transgression

Isaiah declares now that which confronts the inhabitants of the earth. A three-fold retributive punishment that mirrors the three-fold sin: terror for covenant-breakers, pit for statute-violators, snare for law-transgressors.

Look at the progression in verse 18: terror comes, the inhabitant flees. While fleeing, he falls into a pit. He climbs out of the pit and gets caught in the snare. To put it simply, there will be no escape for the inhabitant of the earth, for just as in the days of Noah, the floodgates of the sky will be opened, and the foundations of the earth will shake,. and according to verse 19, the earth’s shaking will be complete and absolute, as Isaiah repeats himself three times here: it will break, split, and shake.

Again the three-fold sin of the inhabitants of earth is matched by God’s three-fold retributive judgment: breaking for break, splitting for violating, shaking for transgressing.

Then in verse 20, just as Noah’s drunken revelry was his downfall, and the drunken revelry of the inhabitants of earth was their downfall in verses 7-12, Yahweh pours out a punishment that fits the crime.

The reason? The transgression weighs heavy upon the whole earth, so heavily that the earth will not rise.

This judgment is final. There will be no recovery for the inhabitants of earth. Their transgression is their final act.

This is the endgame for the law-transgressing, statute-violating, covenant-breaking inhabitants of earth: terror, pit, and snare. Once they fall into this, they will never rise again.

Let’s pause for a moment. Take this in. Isaiah sees a vision of the future in which the whole earth and all it’s inhabitants are punished for transgressing the law, violating the statues, and breaking the covenant of God. It is a future of waste, of withering, of woe, and of weighty transgression. There are no survivors.

Now it’s easy to look at this text and make observations. But there is a glaring implication here that we need to draw out.

Now I know we’re not a charismatic church here, but I’m going to ask you to raise your hand. Raise your hand if you’re an inhabitant of earth. Now every hand in the building better be up. We are inhabitants of earth. You and me.

And if so, then Isaiah is clear. We are part of the pollution. We are the law-transgressors. We are the statute-violators. We are the covenant-breakers. Isaiah doesn’t allow us to point our finger at Israel here. This passage is not for Israel. This passage is for the whole world. All of us have “Hebrewed” the law. None of us are one iota better than Israel. Just as Adam transgressed, just as Israel transgressed, we transgressed. We are the treacherous people who cause Isaiah to cry out in anguish. You and me.

Therefore, the terror and pit and snare is our fate. The endgame for us is the outpouring of God’s wrath. The skies above and the earth beneath will be the agents of God’s judgment upon us. Upon you and upon me.

Do you feel the terror? I hope you do. But I also hope you ask this: aren’t there a few left? Isn’t there a gleaning of grapes after the reaping. Isaiah answers your question this morning with a resounding yes, and joins the chorus of Biblical writers in pointing to the hope of Israel and the hope of the world in that there will be a remnant who will be saved from the wrath to come.

But before there can be mercy there must be justice. Before a remnant can be saved, the wrath that was reserved for them must be poured out on another.

And so the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, descended from his throne on high, took on flesh, and became an inhabitant of earth. He did not pass through the Torah, but meditated on it day and night. He did not exchange the truth of God for a lie, but embodied the truth of God in His very being. He did not break the covenant, but fulfilled it, down to the very smallest letter. Yet, for the sake of the line of Enosh, so that the remnant might receive mercy, it pleased Yahweh to crush him. So he went obediently, willingly, humbly, to the point of death, even death on a cross. And as the Son of Man was lifted up like a snake in the wilderness, Yahweh unleashed his fury. He laid His Son waste. He devastated Him. He distorted His body. The true and better vine withered before the burning wrath of the vinedresser. The gaiety ceased. The noise stopped. The Son of God was confronted by terror and by pit and by snare, and the earth responded in kind, quaking and swaying in darkness. With your transgressions and my transgressions heavy upon him, His head falls. It is finished. The wasting, withering, woeful wrath of Yahweh is complete. There is yet hope for the remnant. There is yet hope that there will be a gleaning for the alien and the orphan and the widow. But the final line of Isaiah’s pronouncement of judgment weighs heavy. The earth and her inhabitants will fall, never to rise again. Will then their substitute remain fallen? No, I say, no! For God raised Jesus from the dead! On the third day, in the glorious power of the Spirit, Christ was raised from the dead! The hope of the remnant is secure, for there will indeed be a few men left. In Christ, the descendant of Enosh, there will be a few men left! In Christ, the descendant of Boaz, there will be a gleaning! Because of Christ’s completed work, the remnant with sing praises from east to west, into eternity.

But as Isaiah says, judgment awaits all those who are not part of the remnant, not part of the gleaning, not part of the blessed line of Enosh, and this judgment is part of the glorious reign of Christ on the throne of his father, and it is to that reign that Isaiah finally turns his attention in the last three verses of the chapter.

Glorious Reign

In that day, that future day, the day of Lord, after many days, upon the return of the Son of Man, this punishment, absorbed by Christ for His elect remnant, will be poured out again, this time on all those who refuse to call upon His name. Beginning with the antichrists and the false prophets and Satan himself, and ending with those dead before the Great White Throne whose names are not written in the book of life, the inhabitants of the earth are thrown into the lake of fire, and then the earth itself passes away in fire.

Revelation 21:1–7 NASB95

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

Revelation 21:22–24 NASB95

I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

Isaiah’s vision is John’s vision. The one who is the light of the world will give light to the world. The moon and the sun can retire, for the glory of God now finally illumines and fills the earth, and His servants, the remnant, will serve him, and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and they will reign with him forever and ever.

The hope of Isaiah that a remnant will be preserved, even in the midst of destruction, and that the remnant will reign with their Savior Jesus Christ forever and ever.

Are you part of the remnant? Is your name written in the book of life? You have seen what awaits the law-transgressing, statute-violating, covenant-breaking inhabitants of earth. You have seen what awaits the remnant. Waste no more time. Let today be the day of salvation. Let today be the day that your name is found to be written in the book of life. Let today be the day that you join the few men who are left. You need only repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust His life. Trust His death. Trust His resurrection. Trust his mediating work. He alone saves. He alone brings mercy to the remnant.

If you are part of the remnant, if your name is written in the book of life, I urge you: hold fast to our hope. Though the earth is laid waste around us, lay hold of the promise that we will be delivered in the last day. Though trials and tribulations befall us on every side, lay hold of the promise that we will reign victoriously with Christ in the last day. Though our outer man is decaying day by day, lay hold of the promise that our inner man is being renewed and made ready for the glory that awaits us in the last day.

Father, we thank you for your sovereign purpose in saving a remnant for your glory. Son, we thank you for your humility and your exaltation that satisfied the justice of God and open the doors of heaven to us. Spirit, we thank you for opening the Scriptures to our hearts this morning. Great God who is one in three, we ask for your help now. Give us grace to walk as a worthy remnant on this earth. Give us boldness to proclaim Isaiah’s hope of salvation. Give us peace as we walk through a withered wasteland, eyes fixed on your glory to be revealed fully to us in that day.

We come now to the Lord’s table. No surer reminder has been given to us of the sufficient and saving work of Christ than this sacrament, and therefore no surer reminder of the hope that we have in him. Listen to these words which remind us of the importance and significance of this act of obedient memorial:

Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church The Nature of the Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper is an ongoing rite, one of two ordinances instituted by Jesus Christ, which the church is to observe between his first and second comings and in anticipation of his return. This celebration involves symbolic elements—bread that is broken, a cup of wine (or grape juice), and the distribution of both elements to the church. These actions vividly portray the broken body and the poured-out blood of Christ—his vicarious sacrifice on behalf of sinners through which they experience the forgiveness of sins—and the church’s appropriation of Christ’s salvific work. Indeed, it is a visual proclamation of the gospel’s message of his atoning sacrifice. The church observes the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary, and of Jesus’ blood that ratified the church’s new covenant relationship with God. More than mere remembrance, however, this ordinance is a participation in the body and blood of Jesus Christ; that is, as the church celebrates the Lord’s Supper, Christ and all of the salvific benefits associated with his sacrificial death are present. The church is further benefited as the ordinance both portrays and nurtures the unity of the body of Christ. Consequently, the observance of the Lord’s Supper is to be preceded by self-examination to ensure that those who intend to participate do so in a worthy manner; that is, with love and out of deference to others and without hint of divisiveness.

Let us take a few moments to come before the Lord and prepare ourselves to receive the bread and the cup.

“Let this sacrament of the Lord’s supper be to us a sealing confirmation of the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life. In view of all your blessings, let us lift high this symbolic cup of salvation, and praise your name as our Covenant Lord.”

The Apostle Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 NASB95

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Let us eat together, in remembrance of our Savior.

1 Corinthians 11:25 NASB95

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Let us drink together, in remembrance of our Savior.

We look back on that day with thanksgiving, and we now wait with hopeful anticipation for the day of the Lord. Enemies surround. Our hearts grow faint. But let us hold fast our hope, and wait upon the Lord.

Let’s sing those words now.