24. Isaiah Chapter Twenty-Four

Part Ic Divine Judgments and Deliverances

Chapters 24-33 Isaiah Chapter 24 This chapter, following the account of the dealings of God with the individual nations one after another, takes into view the whole scene, all the nations, including Israel, as destined to come under the judgments of the Lord at the end of this age. The separate nations, reviewed in chapters 13 to 23, display differing conditions of the world’s alienation from God, influenced and directed by the hosts of spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. All must meet the divine retribution in the coming Day of the Lord. Babylon represents systematized corruption and oppression in all the earth; Assyria, antagonism against God’s people; Philistia, constant and closer hostility; Moab, human pride; Damascus, the ally of apostasy; Dumah, self-reliance; Jerusalem, mere profession; Tyre, worldly glory.

All that is represented in the world by these characteristics must hereafter experience the judgments foretold in the opening verses. Everything is to be overturned (Isaiah 24:1). In Isaiah 24:4 the earth and the world are broadly synonymous; speaking generally the distinction may lie in this, that the earth is that especially in which God’s governmental dealings have been manifested, the world is the same scene presenting man’s condition in its alienation from God. The rendering "earth" sometimes should be "land," with reference to the land of Israel. This is apparently the case in Isaiah 24:5. The inhabitants of the world have not broken the covenant of Genesis 9:16. That covenant was virtually a Divine promise, God alone undertaking the fulfillment. Israel it was who broke the Covenant of God’s Law (see Deuteronomy 31:16-20; Jeremiah 11:10). And as to the future, the agreement which the apostate nation (the godly remnant excluded) will make with the Man of Sin, will absolutely fulfill all that is stated in Isaiah 24:5. The judgments which follow will depopulate the earth, so that "few men will be left" (Isaiah 24:6) fulfilling the Lord’s word that "except the Lord shortened the days no flesh would be saved." For the elect’s sake He will do so. This depopulation is figuratively described in Isaiah 24:13.

Isaiah 24:14-15 and the first part of Isaiah 24:16 describe the exultation and praise after the judgments upon the Antichrist and his worshipers have been executed. Israel is delivered and peace brought to the diminished nations. The words for "sing" and "cry aloud" in Isaiah 24:14 are the same as those used of Zion in Isaiah 12:6. In the latter part of Isaiah 24:16 Isaiah mourns over all that is to happen to his people, especially in "the great tribulation," resulting from two cases of treachery, first the treachery of Israel in turning from God to make a covenant with the Antichrist, and secondly the treachery of the Antichrist in breaking that covenant and endeavoring to exterminate the Jews. The final judgments upon the nations under the Satanic rule of the Beast and the False Prophet (Revelation 13:1-18) are foretold in the rest of the chapter, the consummation being the Personal intervention of Christ at the Second Advent (Isaiah 24:13).