Isaiah revealed that the Lord's people are at the center of His plans for the world (cf. 14:2; 21:10). He will preserve them even though He will judge sinful humanity.227This passage contains many connections with the flood narrative (Gen. 6-9). Essentially, what God did in Noah's day He will do in the future Tribulation (cf. Mark 13).
24:1 The prophet predicted that the Lord would lay the earth waste, the sum total of all the nations including those representative ones condemned in the oracles. He would do the reverse of what He did in the Creation when He brought order out of chaos (cf. Gen. 1:2). He would devastate the earth, making it desolate. He would distort the surface of the earth, as when the Flood changed to topography of this planet. And He would scatter the earth's inhabitants, as He did at Babel (Gen. 11:9).
"It is not easy to know how literally these words will be fulfilled, but in these days of threatened ecological and nuclear catastrophe, it is not at all difficult to imagine a very literal fulfillment, and one which will indeed be the result of human greed and covetousness."228
24:2 God's actions will affect all individuals in all types of relationships, including religious, domestic, and commercial ones. Positions, possessions, and power will make no difference to God (cf. 1 Sam. 16:7).
24:3 The repetition of the revelation of this judgment (cf. v. 1), with the assurance that the Lord announced it, confirms its certainty (cf. 2 Pet. 3:5-7; Rev. 6; 8-9; 15-16; 21:1).229These things would happen simply because the Lord had spoken (cf. Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26; 2:16, 18; 3:12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 22).
24:4 It is the people of the earth that are the objects of God's judgment, not just the planet itself. All of humanity, even the most exalted individuals, would mourn and fade under the withering judgment of Yahweh.
24:5 Sinful humankind has corrupted its environment. Humans refused to live by divine revelation, introduced an innovative morality, and refused to walk in fellowship with God as He specified in the biblical covenants (cf. Gen. 2:16-17; 3:1-6; 9:16; Lev. 24:8; 2 Sam. 23:5; Ps. 105:10; Rom. 1-3).
". . . human beings in sin are the supreme environmental threat."230
24:6 God has cursed sin (cf. Gen. 3:17-19), so when people sin they set His curse to work, and it devours the earth. Those who sin are guilty before God and suffer the judgment due them. This is part of His covenant relationship with humankind (Gen. 2:17; cf. Deut. 27-28). The only reason all do not perish is that God graciously extends mercy to some (cf. Noah). A remnant of believers will survive the Tribulation.
Isaiah expounded on the effects of human sin in a poem, which follows.
24:7 Wine, which people use to escape feeling the effects of sin, ultimately proves ineffective. Its source, the grapevine, decays (as a result of drought? cf. Rev. 6:5-6), and even the constitutionally lighthearted cannot escape groaning.
24:8 Music, likewise, cannot keep the spirits up continually.
24:9 Even while people drink their wine they cannot bring themselves to sing for joy. Their beer is flat, as we say. It fails to provide the desired uplift.
24:10 Isaiah described the world as a city marked by meaninglessness (Heb. tohu, Gen. 1:2), like the earth before Creation (cf. Gen. 11:1-9; Jer. 4:23).231A spirit of fear pervades this city. Modern existentialist writers have done a good job of articulating the meaninglessness of life without God that Isaiah also described here.232
24:11 Shut up to life without God, humankind despairs because all remedies have been tried and found wanting. Stimulants fail to bring lasting joy, what joy there is sours, and gaiety is gone.
24:12 Life in the city (world) of meaninglessness is not only unsatisfying (v. 7), but it is also impossible. Not only is life desolate but it is also defenseless.
24:13 God's judgment of the earth will be like a harvest in which He will remove the olives from an olive tree (cf. v. 6; 17:5-6; Rev. 14:19-20; 19:15). But there will be a few people left at the end of the harvest; a remnant will survive (cf. Matt. 24:13).
24:14 These survivors will rejoice over the Lord (cf. Matt. 24:21, 23).
"One feature of chapters 24-27 that reminds the reader of the Book of Revelation is the way declarations of coming judgment are interspersed with songs of thanksgiving."233
24:15 Because the remnant will praise God in the west (v. 14), Isaiah called for praise of Him in the east (Heb. ur, lit. place of fire) as well--for universal praise, in other words. Specifically, the Gentile nations (the coastlands of the sea, the people farthest from Israel) need to praise Him. Their response will be the beginning of a great pilgrimage to Zion to honor the Lord (2:2; Mic. 4:1).234
24:16 Isaiah anticipated himself and others hearing the remnant praise God for His righteousness (in judging the ungodly).
But as the prophet contemplated this end-times scene, he also felt the condemnation of others as deeply as he formerly felt his own (cf. 6:5). Even though God was judging the wicked, they proceeded to act as bad as ever, betraying one another treacherously (cf. 21:2; Rev. 9:20-21).
24:17-18 Those who are the objects of God's judgment will not be able to escape it because He will use the forces of nature to judge them, above them and below them (cf. Gen. 7:11; Rev. 6:12; 8:5, 7; 11:13, 19; 16:18, 21). Windows above and foundations below is a merism indicating totality. God Himself would be the agent of their destruction (cf. 2 Sam. 22:8).
24:19 Like a tall building in an earthquake, the earth will crack, begin to sway, and break apart (cf. Rev. 6:12-15). What God had ordered would again become chaos (Heb. tohu, cf. v. 10).
"This is what they chose: a world without the ordering hand of God and this, in faithful divine justice, is what they got."235
24:20 The prophet compared the earth under divine judgment to a reeling drunkard about to collapse and to an old shack about to fall down. A drunkard falls because of internal weakness, and a shack gives way because of external pressures. What causes the destruction is the guilt of transgression that weighs heavily on the earth. This fall will be irrevocable.
This section of Isaiah's vision of God's victory over the nations (chs. 24-27) provides the basis for the following sections, which elaborate on features of the judgment already mentioned in 24:1-20.
