The next three chapters of Isaiah (from 24 to 27) are called (at least by the older Bible preachers/teachers) “Isaiah’s Apocalypse!”

Pure (and precise) Bible Prophecy!

Not cryptic symbolism, mind you … but (more along the line of Jesus’ “Olivet Discourse” of Matthew 24) amazing descriptions of the “last days,” not yet fulfilled for that matter!

More about that later.

Specifically for today’s lesson … Isaiah 24 is built around an “inclusio.” The Holy Spirit has “marked” (as do “bookends” or “parentheses” or “frames”) both the start and the end of His major thrust …labeling them with identical (at least matching) literary terms.

Let me show you.

Isaiah 24:1 … “Behold, the LORD maketh the EARTH empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.”

Then, near the end of the chapter but certainly the end of its foremost paragraph, Isaiah 24:19-20 … “The EARTH is utterly broken down, the EARTH is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The EARTH shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.”

Notice that in both Isaiah 24’s beginning and ending … the “earth” is falling apart!

In verse 1 … “empty, waste, upside down,” and “scattered!”

In verses 19-20 … “utterly broken down, clean dissolved, moved exceedingly, reeling to and fro,” and “fallen, not to rise again!”

Wow!

I am wondering something already. If Isaiah chapters 12-23 show God’s Power over the Nations … does perhaps Isaiah chapters 24-27 show God’s Power over all creation? At least over all of planet earth, with the whole world implied?

And “between” Isaiah 24’s verse 1 and verses 19-20 … is described a time of great tribulation (maybe better spelled Tribulation) on our globe!

God sent Tribulation!

As examples …

Verse 3 … “The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.”

Verse 4 … even the “people” now … “The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the HAUGHTY PEOPLE of the earth do languish.”

Verse 5 … chaos, rebellion, disobedience … “Isaiah 24:5 … “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.”

Verse 6, sounding much like Revelation 8:7, the Tribulation … “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.”

There’s even more (within this dramatic “inclusio”), life becoming a drudgery … Verses 7-12 … “The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.” What “city?” Any city of earth, a generic term here.

Then, suddenly, is this an earthquake? Verse 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.” Or just more severe judgment?

And yet, in keeping with Isaiah’s writing style (unexpectedly inserting harbingers of “Kingdom Blessing” into passages of horrible “tribulation gloom”), Verses 14-16a … “They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous.”

Wow!

Then immediately, back to all the suffering … as a result of sin. Isaiah 24:16b-17 … “My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously. Fear, and the pit and the snare, are upon thee. O inhabitant of the earth.”

And things are not going to improve for a while. “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.” Verse 18, sounding much like Amos 5:20 now!

Then finally … still from verse 18 … “For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.”

Here, not windows open to pour out blessings, as in Malachi 3:10 … but to pour out God’s wrath on a reprobate world!

What a chapter!

Isaiah 24, as astounding as anything John wrote from the Isle of Patmos. But of course, there is a Common Author behind both men’s hands!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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