Wednesday, December 4 – Isaiah 24, 25

1. What is something in this chapter that brings you joy, peace, and thankfulness to God?

2. If we have free will, what will prevent sin from arising again?

Commentary and Reflection:

The impending judgments on Earth described in Isaiah 24 are hard words and bitter to the taste. The earth will be entirely emptied and reduced to a plundered wasteland, its surface distorted. Our planet mourns and fades away, languishing along with its people. They are scattered and burned; all joy is darkened. The wicked are overtaken by treacherous dealers, and the earth is defiled by its inhabitants. They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant, and now the earth is consumed by a curse. Fear grips the land, and the entire planet is violently shaken, reeling like a drunkard. The exalted ones will be imprisoned here, as our former home becomes a prison for them. Even the moon will be disgraced, and the sun will hang its head in shame.

The initial application of this chapter appears to be to literal Israel, illustrating how God would have destroyed their enemies and laid the earth desolate if Israel had remained faithful. However, because they failed, this prophecy now finds fulfillment in God’s people at the end of time. Revelation 20 tells us that the earth will be emptied, violently shaken, and transformed into a wasteland and a prison camp for 1,000 years for the one-third of heaven’s angels who forsook Christ and followed Lucifer to perdition. The cry will be, “I am ruined, I am ruined. Woe to me.” All joy will be darkened, completely gone, and only desolation will remain.

What in this chapter brings us joy, peace, and thankfulness to God? Sin is finally over, and Christ reigns gloriously! God gave us the gift of free will, but when it crosses into the realm of sin, it brings destruction and death, becoming everything the prophet poetically describes here. Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit have gone to infinite lengths through these judgments. Their purpose is to show the entire universe that God has been fair, loving, and a good Father to all. He genuinely wants to save everyone, but only if they are truly free—free from sin. Sin will have no place ever again in God’s universe. It is a terrible, terrible thing. “Affliction will not rise up a second time” (Nahum 1:9).

Isaiah 25 brings a powerful conclusion: “O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things. You have made a city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be no more. You have been a strength to the poor, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, and silenced the noise of the terrible ones and the aliens. Their song is diminished. And You will prepare a feast for Your people.” Christ will reign from a New Earth and a New Jerusalem. The veil of sin that once covered the earth will be gone. Trickery, lying, and deceit will be banished forever. God will wipe away every tear, and it will be declared on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”

God has secured both our free will and our salvation. A tested universe will have seen sin reach its furthest limits, but even more, it will have witnessed love reaching its fullest depths. We are free, and we are secure for eternity. The bitterness is gone, and the sweetness is forever!