Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 24:1-12 The Lord Makes The Earth Empty

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Isa 24:1-12 The Lord Makes The Earth Empty

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

The first four verses of this chapter contain within them the purpose for which the Lord first created mankind in a “marred, dying”, condition, which operates upon ‘the law of sin and death’ (Rom 7:17-23):

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

The “marred… vessel… of clay” is not a slip-up on the part of our Creator. It is a deliberate, premeditated action which will require the sacrifice of Christ to “make it another vessel” which will then “seem good to the Potter”. We know this is all true because we are also told:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

It was “according to His own purpose and grace” that He first created a “marred vessel of clay”, which He already knew “before the world began” would require a Savior “which was given us in Christ Jesus”.

We are even told specifically that in the mind of the Father Christ was “slain from the foundation of the world”:

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world [Greek: kosmos G2889, the physical creation].

The sacrifice of Christ was not ‘Plan B’. The sacrifice of Christ for the sins of His marred vessel was “promised before the world began”, and He is working all that occurs “according to His own purpose and grace”.

The inescapable conclusion to all of this information is that in order to accomplish “His own purpose” of calling us in Christ before the world began, all mankind must first become sinners in dire need of a Savior. For that very purpose, our Creator, from the beginning while “the vessel of clay was … [yet] in the hand of The Potter”, deliberately “marred… that… vessel of clay” by placing within its members the law of sin and death. Indeed that is exactly why we are all “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin” before we are even born.

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

The New Testament accords with King David’s revelation of the nature of the Lord’s “marred… vessel of clay”. As we are plainly told:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Here we have the holy spirit telling us that we are all governed by “a law, [which], when [we] would do good, [makes] evil [to be] present with [us]. Then we are clearly told this “law of sin” was placed within our members by the “one lawgiver”:

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

It should now be obvious that “the first man Adam” was never intended to “inherit the kingdom of God” simply because:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

It is because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” that we are made to err from the Lord’s ways. It is because of “the law of sin… in [our] members” that we are made by the Lord to live out these first six verses of this 24th chapter of Isaiah.

Place your own name, or the words ‘My old man’, every time you see the words ‘earth’ and ‘the land’ in these six verses. If you can do that from your heart you will get more out of these words than the most learned of all the mighty men of ‘Tyre [and] Babylon’:

Isa 24:1  Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Isa 24:2  And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
Isa 24:4  The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
Isa 24:5  The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6  Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

“The curse devours the earth… the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left”, is primarily to be taken in its spiritual sense, by us as the Lord’s firstfruits. But dispensationally it accords with what Christ tells us about His appearing at the time of the first resurrection, which occurs at the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ and His Christ.

Here are Christ’s words relating to that time:

Mat 24:36  But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the floodthey were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Utilizing our “line upon line and precept upon precept” principle (Isa 28:10-13) let’s see what else we are told about the days of Noah:

Gen 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violencethrough them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Yes, men have been violent since the days of Cain, but there is no denying that today also “the earth [is] filled with violence” [and has] corrupted His way upon the earth”. For this reason, in its dispensational application, we are told “the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men [are] left.” (Isa 24:6)

The ‘fire’ here is the same “fire” in this story:

Jdg 9:19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
Jdg 9:20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

Here is this “fire [which came out from the men of Shechem… and devoured Abimelech”:

Jdg 9:22 When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,
Jdg 9:23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

This “fire” was civil unrest which turned every man against his brother, and destroyed Abimelech in the process. That is exactly what we see in the earth today, just as Christ said it would be before He sets His kingdom up on this earth.

Inwardly, “the earth” in these verses in Isaiah 24 and in Genesis 6, symbolizes our rebellious, deceived, old man with all of his false Babylonian doctrines, which he has received from his youth via the great whore who has deceived him (Jer 22:29). This great whore who is called ‘Babylon the Great the mother of harlots’ (Rev 17:1-4), is symbolized in scripture by ‘Tyre and Babylon’, and in Revelation 13 she is symbolized by a “beast [which comes] up out of the earth”:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

As impossible as it seems at this moment, while the religions of this world still have an incredible hold upon the people of this world, that hold will be taken away, and that harlot will be hated by all men. We are speaking of a very painful death both spiritually within each of us and outwardly in its dispensational, end time application. It will be a very painful experience in the Babylonian religions of the various societies of this world, and it will take place at the appointed time:

Isa 14:21  Prepare slaughter for [Babylon’s] children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
Isa 14:22  For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
Isa 14:23  I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom [Hebrew: maṭ’ăṭê’ – broom] of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

That dying process within us reveals the truth of the leveling effect of the grave upon all men as we read earlier in this same 14th chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 14:5  The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
Isa 14:6  He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
Isa 14:7  The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Isa 14:8  Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
Isa 14:9  Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isa 14:10  All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Isa 14:11  Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

This was the fate of the physical king of Babylon, and this will be the fate of the great whore of Revelation 17-18, who symbolizes the religions of this world.

Physical death is no respecter of persons. Over 6,000 years of history have demonstrated that the strongest, richest, most powerful men have all died and returned to the dust. Our experience of dying daily in Christ is the same. The first and most important application of the process of dying to our flesh is for each of us, regardless of our social standing, rich or poor, esteemed or despised in this world, is that we must all come to see that it is the kingdom of our own old man being utterly destroyed which brings life at the appearing of Christ and His Truth. As that truth slowly sinks into our hearts and minds, our old man, the beast, the man of sin sitting on the throne of God within our hearts and minds, is systematically dying daily, and we are daily being crucified with Christ.

This daily process is what is called “suffering with [Christ]” the painful, fiery death of our old man. Prophetically it is described to us in our next verses.

Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

If indeed we are to live by these words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4), how do we do so? We do so, and we experience these very words, by being brought by the hand of God in our lives to see just how hollow is our life as we continue turning our backs to His words and His commandments. When the Lord begins to judge us, all those things which once seemed so important to us begin to be revealed to us as destructive to our well-being, and are uncovered and shown to be nothing more than an insidious deception, and at that time they begin to be taken away from us. ‘The new wine mourns and the vine which produces it begins to wither away’, and all the things that once made us merry suddenly become an unbearable burden from which we now can see our own crying need for deliverance from the self-serving, materialistic beast we can now see within us.

When judgment begins at the house of God within us, an angel from the Lord intervenes in our life, and our life suddenly becomes very troubled and unsettled. All the things which once brought us “pleasure for a season” now cease to do so. The message of these words is repeated when Babylon is being judged and destroyed within our lives, as is also prophesied in Revelation 18:

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

That ‘sea’ into which “a stone like a great millstone” is cast is the flesh out of which arises our own lives.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

These three verses here in Revelation 18 are the New Testament repetition of Isa 24:7-9. Both are telling us that the life of our first man Adam must be revealed for the hollow, empty, hopeless and miserable and vain experience which it, in reality, is:

Isa 24:7  The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
Isa 24:8  The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa 24:9  They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

It is very important that we understand that this all comes upon us while we are in Babylon, while we think we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. These judgments come upon us while we are ‘proud of  heart’ and while we are prospering in the lies of Babylon, where we think we are God’s chosen people, when in reality we are His enemies.

Isaiah 24:7-9 are a repetition of:

Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
Isa 9:9  And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
Isa 9:10  The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
Isa 9:11  Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
Isa 9:12  The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:13  For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isa 9:18  For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

We, who think of ourselves as God’s chosen people, discover we are really nothing more or less than spiritual Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. This “vessel of clay” is a work of the Lord Himself, but it is “marred in [His] hand” by His design, and it was never intended to be saved from destruction. It was created as the larvae of a butterfly. This “vessel of clay” is typified by the caterpillar stage of a butterfly. In this stage all we do is eat and devour to satisfy our bellies upon which we crawl. But when His judgments are in our earth, everything we once enjoyed no longer satisfies, and it is “cut off from [our] mouth”:

Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

Amo 4:9  I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

But this ravenous caterpillar must first become a chrysalis, where the larvae will die. It is through this dying process that we will become a new man made to conform to the image of Christ, able now to mount up to and to dwell in the heavens. But to get to that stage we must first live out these words:

Isa 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
Isa 24:11  There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
Isa 24:12  In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

Only then will our predestinated change come upon us:

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

The end is a good end, but there is so much work that must first be accomplished by the Lord’s “great army”. That is what we will see in our next study where, Lord willing, we will learn that all these prophecies about the death of our old man are really very good news. We certainly do not at first consider our daily dying trials to be ‘good news’, but in His time the Lord brings us to be able to “glorify the Lord in the fires”, which we are at this very time enduring:

Isa 24:13  When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.
Isa 24:14  They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
Isa 24:15  Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
Isa 24:16  From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Isa 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Isa 24:18  And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

 

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