Isaiah 34

CHAPTER 34THEME: The final world clashthe Battle of ArmageddonThis chapter brings to an end the section which in my outline I call the “Kingdom, Process, and Program by which the Throne is Established on Earth.” Judgment has been the theme all the way through this section. We have looked at six woes and followed a progression in this matter of prophecy. We saw a local situation into which Isaiah spoke and then watched him move into that broader area, as he looked down through the centuries to the time of judgment that was coming in the future, which the Lord Jesus called the Great Tribulation. Beyond that we saw the coming of the King. However, in our day we are not looking for the King, we are looking for our Savior. We are “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit_2:13). After He takes the church out of the world, those who remain will go through the frightful Tribulation period, which will end with the War or the Campaign of Armageddon. This chapter is in contradiction to the philosophy of the world. You see, man expects to so improve the world by his own efforts that he will build a Utopia. He plans to bring in a millennium, although he may call it something else. Man thinks he is capable of lifting himself by his own bootstraps. The basic philosophy of evolution (and evolution is a philosophy rather than a science) is that there is improvement as we go along. It is onward and upward forever! Or, as the slogan has it, “Every day in every way I am getting better and better.” Man has woven this philosophy into the fabric of life; he thinks we are moving into something which is great and good. The Word of God also looks forward to a wonderful future for this earth, but it is not the consummation of man’s efforts. Everything that man has built apart from God is coming under a frightful judgment. All of man’s work is contrary to God and must come into a final conflict. That conflict is set before us here as the Battle of Armageddon. The sin of man will finally be headed up in the Man of Sin who will attempt to bring in a kingdom for himself, and that kingdom is the Great Tribulation period. It can only be ended with the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His Kingdom. This chapter looks entirely to the future. The Assyrians have disappeared. F. Delitzsch has made this statement, which I think is quite accurate: “We feel that we are carried away from the stage of history, and are transported into the midst of the last things,” and these chapters are the “last steps whereby our prophet rises to the height at which he soars in chapters 40 to the end. After the fall of Assyria, and when darkness began to gather on the horizon again, Isaiah broke away from his own time’the end of all things’ became more and more his home…. It was the revelation of the mystery of the incarnation of God, for which all this was to prepare the way.”

Isaiah 34:1

In Isa_1:2 God called heaven and earth to witness His judgment upon His people Israel. In this chapter God calls only the nations of the earth to witness His final judgment upon the nations.

Isaiah 34:2

Observe carefully the words chosen to depict this judgment: indignation, fury, utterly destroyed, and delivered to the slaughter. They are the strongest possible expressions that could be used. The judgment is universal, and it is severe. It is not only the “… time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer_30:7), but it is the time of the earth’s travail. Our Lord spoke of this as a time of suffering that will be unparalleled in the history of the world. The seals, trumpets, and vials in the Book of Revelation all intensify and confirm this.

Whether you believe it or not, the earth is moving toward the judgment of God. Instead of a wonderful day coming for sinful man, a time of judgment is coming. As we look around us at our contemporary civilization, everything we see is going to come under the judgment of our almighty God.

Isaiah 34:3

This description is to me the most terrible and repulsive in the Bible. I can’t think of anything worse than this. It confirms what the Lord Jesus said when He was here and what the Book of Revelation teaches about a coming judgment upon this earth. I realize that a great many people doubt this, which reminds me of an incident when a tropical hurricane broke on the Gulf Coast several years ago. I traveled along that area several years later, drove for miles and saw entire sections of cities that the storm had taken out. Even after several years, nothing is there. I also saw places where jungle in the area was absolutely removed. I was told about an apartment house in the area where a group of people were living fast and loose. When they heard the warnings about the storm, they decided that they would not leave.

They didn’t believe the storm was going to be severe; so they had a big beer bust. Instead of evacuating, they all got drunk. They ridiculed the storm forecast, and they were all killed. You can do the same thing concerning the judgment that is coming on this earth. God says that judgment is coming, and it is coming.

Isaiah 34:4

When you see a little leaf fall from a tree, you can attempt to glue it back on the branch, but it won’t stay and it won’t live. Just as surely, judgment is coming, and you can’t keep it from coming. There is only one thing you can do: make sure that you have a shelter. Listen to God and remember that the Lord Jesus is the shelter in the time of storm which is coming upon the earth.

Isaiah 34:5

IDUMEA, REPRESENTING ALL GOD’S ENEMIESGod bathes that sword in heaventhat is important to see. When you and I take the sword down here, it is for vengeance or some ulterior motive. When God takes the sword, it is for justice and righteousness upon the earth. His sword is bathed in heaven, and it is going to fall in judgment. Idumea is Edom, and Edom is Esau, and Esau represents the flesh. Esau represents all in Adam who are rebellious against God and His people. God said, “… Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom_9:13). God will judge Edom because they are against God, against His people, against His Word, against everything that is right and good.

Isaiah 34:8

INTENTION OF THE LORDThis is the day of the Lord’s vengeance. We will see this again in Isa_63:1-6. You can’t do anything to stop it, just like there is nothing you can do to stop Niagara Falls from flowing. God says that things have to be made right upon this earth. To make them right He has to put down the evil and rebellious man upon this earth. Many people will not bow to God; but, since this is God’s universe, where will they go?

He has only one place for them, which is called hell. You may have your own concept of it, but it undoubtedly is lots worse than a place of literal fire. God’s Word is inviolable and the Lord Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mat_5:18). My friend, it is wise to read the weather report and, when a storm is forecast, to make arrangements to escape it.