“Only God is Eternal”
Isaiah 24
Isaiah turns from giving oracles to the nations, to a focus on Yahweh’s control of time and space which teaches us fo His ultimate trustworthiness. Our reading, in chapters 13-23, has been focused on the nations and they have been the key actors with the LORD reacting to them. This could make one believe that the nations were the ones originating history. Isaiah corrects that misperception in chapters 24-27, where we will read that God is the sovereign actor in history. Everything came from Him and everything will eventually return to Him. He is the one who created time, and He will be the one to end time.
That statement seems simple but extremely profound.
God is the one who created time, and He will be the one to end it.
For those of us who have lost a loved one, unexpectedly, we know exactly what that sentence means. And yet, it is so much bigger than that. Nothing would be in existence were it not for God’s decision, not even time itself. And because the next four chapters deal with the end of time, they are often referred to as “Isaiah’s Apocalypse.” And although these chapters focus on the last things that will occur, they do not contain the fantastic imagery, color and numerology that is often contained in apocalyptic writing. At best we could label these chapters pre apocalyptic.
There are two sets of contrasts within these four chapters.
First – the contrast between silenced songs of the ruthless and jubilant songs of the redeemed
Second – the contrast between the city of the ruthless, which is destroyed and the city of God, also referred to as “His Mountain,” which is redeemed and secured.
The chapters describe a line where the destruction of the “earth” exists at one end, in chapter 24 and the promise of restoration for God’s people which is located at the other end, in chapter 27. Along this continuum is the concept that God will deliver, not only His people, but all nations that will turn to Him, found in chapter 25. In chapter 26, we will read an assertion of trust in God along with a prayer for Him to deliver those who are unable to deliver themselves.
Chapter 24 begins with the stark realization that the earth will be destroyed. It is also clear who will be doing the destruction, it will be the LORD. In verses 1-3, we read right off the bat, that this destruction will be universal in nature, no one is immune.
It will not matter your gender, or cross gender, your rank, or lack thereof, nor any function that distinguishes you here on earth. No one will escape.
Let’s pause for just a moment. Now I understand why preachers don’t often preach through the book of Isaiah. Chapter 24 seems so far away from the God of the New Testament. The God who loves everyone, and died for them, not a God who wipes everyone out!  Why is Isaiah writing this? Why does destruction have to come to the earth? Is this what the Old Testament God is like, a God who is irritated and who has to show off His divine power?
No.
This destruction is the result of the choices the earth’s inhabitants have made. In verses 4-13 Isaiah uses a common imagery to support this statement. He writes about the “vine.” The earth dries up and withers like a vine. The tradition of merry-making with the harvest and the making of the new wine is silenced.
Why?
The answer is in verse 5,
“The earth is defiled by its people;
   they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
   and broken the everlasting covenant.”
On first glance this may sound like it is meant for the Israelites. Why they are the ones who made a covenant and have the laws, aren’t they? But the word “earth” in this verse stands for all those who inhabit the earth.
I can hear someone asking, “Why that doesn’t seem really fair now does it? Everyone outside of Israel shouldn’t be made accountable for actions they never participated in or were never made aware of, now should they?
 
Isaiah argues, as so did Paul in Romans 1, that there are laws that God the creator bestowed on His creation through one’s conscience. Therefore, there is no such thing as being justified to sin because of ignorance of the law. Humans know enough to behave better than we do. There are common standards of behavior and if these standards are violated, they are done so at the cost of our own destruction. This understanding between Creator and creature is not due to a special revelation, but rather it is knowledge that has been passed down through the ages from generation to generation.
Verse 6 goes on to tell us that the earth’s inhabitants find themselves under a “curse” and bear “guilt” for what they have done. The whole earth comes under judgement and destruction.
Then Isaiah creates a dramatic contrast in verses 14-18a where there are shouts of joy, glory to the LORD and singing.
But,  Isaiah cries, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me!
Which is it? Singing or Dismay?
I think it is both. Those who have been oppressed by the evil ones are so relieved to be free, they shout with joy. Yet, Isaiah, the prophet, sees the big picture, he sees the horrors that will eventually take place before the final resolution, and he mourns and is in despair.
For in verses 18b to 23 we are reminded of the Flood found in Genesis 6. “The floodgates of the heavens open and the foundation of the earth shake.” But these floodgates are not that of real water, this is but an image, the real weight that is breaking the earth, shaking it violently is that of “the guilt of its rebellion” v. 20
Isaiah has been proclaiming this issue since the beginning of this book, it is “the human problem of rebellion against God.” The human race refuses to bow down to the LORD of glory. The truth is, God defined the terms of the earth’s existence when He created it, but humans refuse to abide by God’s terms.
The results are proclaimed in Genesis 3:17-19
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
   through painful toil you will eat food from it
   all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
   and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
   you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
   since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
   and to dust you will return.”
 
 
Eventually, it will be replaced, as we will read in Isaiah 65:17
“See, I will create
   new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
   nor will they come to mind.”
Yet, Isaiah does not leave us today without hope, in verse 23, Isaiah reminds us that there is only One who has the right to be called Lord Almighty, King of the Universe, and he does not exist on the moon or on a star someplace. No, He reigns on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem.
Scientific knowledge has expanded since the day of Isaiah. For those listening to this for the first time, the cosmos were unchanging. Those on earth were the children of the heavens and the earth. The idea of progress or development was foreign to the Canaanites. They understood that things changed, but for them change always repeated itself.
Not much has changed today really,
the cosmos has been depersonalized,
but the idea that matter has always existed, remains, first in an “undifferentiated” or chaotic form and that matter predates spirit and that spirit has emerged from matter. Like those listening to Isaiah, scientists today believe the cosmos is eternal. Even with the invention of the Hubble telescope, the scientists have concluded that the Sumerians were right. They believe our universe had a beginning when eternal matter finally contracted to the point where it exploded in the “Big Bang.” That was our “beginning” and ever since our universe has been constantly changing, but like those in the Near East, they believe that the change is not leading anywhere. The universe will expand to a certain point, and then fall back in on itself and start all over again – just as human beings do.
Isaiah certainly has put forth a radical claim. For both the leading thinkers of his time and for those in our time as well.
Does the cosmos continually cycle or is the God of the Bible, LORD over the cosmos? Does earth determine the characteristics of God or did God set standards for the earth? The earth is certainly not living in the way God calls. Could it be that Isaiah was giving a revelation from the One who made the earth? If so, the idea of God destroying the earth and putting the sun, moon and stars in a dungeon was a shocking idea in the ancient world, and remains the same today.
Yet, it is biblical revelation, testified by Isaiah.
The Bible says that God existed before the universe did and that He brought it into existence as part of a prior plan. He also had a plan for the conduct of the earth.
This leaves me to wonder,
What is God going to do with a creation that has gone badly astray from its original purpose?
Is He going to destroy the earth?
Eventually,
but we read in Matthew 13, where Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Here Jesus shares that God is one of justice and mercy and He will not destroy the weeds until the wheat has had a chance to grow and mature.
Also, in Genesis 15, God would not give the land of the Canaanites to Abraham’s descendants until the sin of the Canaanites had reached irreparable proportions.
The end of the world will occur when when the harvest of both sin and righteousness has been reached.
In the meantime, we should be relearning the lessons of this chapter. We need to recognize that this world is NOT all there is. We need to stop acting like it is. We need to recognize that our culture believes and teaches us from a young age, that matter precedes spirit.
If we believe the Bible, we need to do whatever it takes to fight against what Paul labeled “the flesh.” The Greek word for this is “sarx,” and has a compound meaning of two attitudes:
That satisfying bodily desire is really all that matters in life That I am the only one who can really satisfy my desires, and I have an absolute right to do so That definition describes our society today, explicitly.
Paul’s answer in how to deal with this, is death. Colossians 3:5
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
This means deciding to die to it as a matter of your will, as well as,
daily renunciation of it.
You can do the former right now and decide to die to your fleshly desires. Then something as simple as 5-minutes a day in personal worship and reading of God’s Word is profoundly helpful in keeping one oriented to these truths:
This world and the material things in it are not eternal Only God is eternal. One day, the harvest of both sin and righteousness will be reached. Earth will no longer exist. Don’t wait until that day to be ready, because then it will be too late. Today is the day.
Let’s pray.