Isaiah 34 Notes/Thoughts -Nations undone- So yesterday in Isaiah 33 we covered how Isaiah was a compacted version of our Bible. Everything is coming to an end and the will be judged. Today we look at the nations who fight against God. Isaiah 34 1 Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! 2 The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is on all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. 3 Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will stink; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. 4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. 5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. 6 The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat— the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat. 8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause. 9 Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! 10 It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again. 11 The desert owl[b] and screech owl[c] will possess it; the great owl[d] and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. 12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away. 13 Thorns will overrun her citadels, nettles and brambles her strongholds. She will become a haunt for jackals, a home for owls. 14 Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also lie down and find for themselves places of rest. 15 The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate. 16 Look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together. 17 He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. They will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation. If you have been reading along with me in Isaiah I have covered the near/far prophecy of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah would write about the nations in his day but later we would see that what he mentioned is found later in another prophecy that was hundreds of years later. In Isaiah 34 Isaiah is talking about the people of Edom (Edom means red - from the story of Esau and Jacob, they were the decedents of Esau) who gave the people of Judah and Israel problems until God eliminated them. Yes this prophecy is for Edom but it is also for any nation that fights and rejects God. We see this very same use of wording in the book of Revelation : 2 The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is on all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. 3 Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will stink; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. 4 All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. 5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. 6 The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat— Revelation 6 12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us[f] from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their[g] wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” Revelation 19 11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. Who is doing the striking and who is being struck? Who is the son of God, Jesus, and the people who are being struck are the people who are rebelling against God. Lets look at a few verses before Rev 6:12 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been. The people who are being slaughtered are the people in the nations that have rejected God and are persecuting the people of God. Just like Edom, just like Assyria and just like Babylon in Isaiahs day. There is one more group of people that should be mentioned, the people who are close to the people of God, but still rejected Jesus. The Pharisees, the religious who think that just doing good is enough, but dont want Jesus. Jesus called them out when he was on earth as people who killed the prophets and then wanted to kill him as well. The tables turn on the people and nations who give Gods people trouble. Seeing how it ends gives us hope, because we can know that one day there wont be this injustice we see all around us, people rejecting everything God call good and embracing everything God calls us to stay away from. God will hold the nations accountable too! Questions of the day: How is Jesus viewed today? Do people respect and fear his anger or do people think Jesus is alright with our sinful behavior? Does it surprise you that Jesus will strike the rebelling nations with a sword? What did the worlds people do to deserved that?
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 11:59:03 +0000
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