The Day of the Lord and The Kingdom
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
AG:
TS: By now the pattern of judgment followed by prophesies of the Kingdom should be familiar to us. As we go through this cycle in Isaiah, I’m noticing it is getting more intense. Every time we loop around the judgment is described more intensely and the Kingdom more gloriously.
RS:
1. God’s Grievous Punishment(34:1–17)
1. God’s Grievous Punishment(34:1–17)
A. Judgment upon all nations (34:1–4):
These verses refer to the coming Great Tribulation.
Isaiah invites the nations to draw near and hear God’s sentence of judgment upon them.
1. The world’s armies will be destroyed (Isa 34:1–2):
The Lord’s anger will be brought down upon them.
Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it.
For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter.
2. The mountains will flow with the blood of unburied corpses (Isa 34:3):
The bodies of the dead will be left unburied.
Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood.
3. The heavens will dissolve, and the stars will fall (Isa 34:4):
They will be like withered leaves and fruit falling from a tree.
All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.
The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
This whole scene is distressing!
THAT is the point!
Judgment shouldn’t be pretty!
B. Judgment upon one nation (Isa 34:5–17):
God choose to focus on one doomed nation, Edom.
1. The severity of God’s judgment (Isa 34:5–15)
a. Edom’s people will be cut down like animals (Isa 34:5–8):
The Lord’s sword will be covered in blood and fat as if used for sacrifices.
For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction.
The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat.
For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
They had failed to follow God and make sacrifices in worship to Him
Now they were the sacrifice
sin = death
they were paying the penalty
b. The ground will be covered with fire (Isa 34:9):
And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch.
Even the streams will be filled with burning pitch.
Sounds a lot like a volcano doesn’t it?
rivers of fire
c. The land will become desolate and uninhabited (Isa 34:10–15).
Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.
But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.
Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be nothing.
Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches.
And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird settles and finds for herself a resting place.
There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate.
2. The surety of God’s judgment(Isa 34:16–17):
Seek and read from the book of the Lord: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the Lord has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.
He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.
He guarantees all this by putting it in writing!
God’s ultimate plan is settled
He alone knows the date, but is one day closer today than it was yesterday
Unlike the movies in which some hero comes along and saves the day, there is no saving the nations from God’s coming wrath!
II. God’s Glorious Provision(35:1–10):
II. God’s Glorious Provision(35:1–10):
This chapter refers to the Millennium.
A. Life in the perfect age—the characteristics (35:1–2, 5–10)
1. The deserts will bloom (Isa 35:1–2, 6–7):
The lame will walk, and the mute will shout and sing.
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
God is going to make the promised land a place of beauty and productivity
Nature will be restored to a calm and productive garden
2. The blind will see, and the deaf will hear (Isa 35:5).
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
All will understand it is God who has renewed the land
Humanity will be restored as well.
God has promised to end disease, pain, and suffering
3. A Highway of Holiness will be built (ISA 35:8–10).
And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The redeemed who had to flee during the Tribulation, will return with rejoicing and worship as they enter Christ’s Kingdom
B. Life in the present age—the challenge (ISA 35:3–4):
The glorious fact of the coming Millennium should serve as strength and comfort to all believers living in difficult times.[1]
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
We should be encouraged as we consider the Kingdom
Knowing that is our home should strengthen us to continue serving now
We are in the time leading up to the wrath of God being poured out on Earth. Even now, we look at conditions and wonder if it is about to begin.
Only God knows the time and the suffering now, is nothing compared to
a. the judgment to come
b. the glory of the Kingdom.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
As Isaiah has pointed out clearly:
Judgment is coming on Earth
God will Judge all the nations
Sin will be punished
Real justice will be done
There is no reason to think it is reserved for the final 7 years of Great Tribulation
We may encounter judgment today
This reminds us to STOP SINNING!
We need to hate our sin and repent of them
Don’t play with it, disguise it, dress it up, etc
Turn from it and confess it to God
God’s Reward is Approaching
On the other side of the Tribulation, is the Kingdom!
It is all the good things we are hoping for
Peace on Earth
No more suffering and Pain
Only the righteous will enter there
Righteous because Christ paid our debt and we have been declared righteous by the grace of God
saved by God’s grace through our faith
[1] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Is 34–35:4.