God's final judgment upon the earth.
In striking contrast with man's self-complacent theories of continual progress and improvement in the world, resulting in something like the final perfection of our race, is God's prophetic announcement that, as the years roll on, mankind will go from bad to worse, plunge deeper and deeper into wickedness, bring calamity after calamity upon themselves, and finally so provoke him that he will destroy the very earth itself as "defiled' by its inhabitants (Isaiah 24:5), causing it to "fall, and not rise again" (Isaiah 24:20). The judgment, as set forth in this chapter, is—
I. PROGRESSIVE. It begins with wars, which spread from country to country, until all nations are involved in them. Territories are wasted (Isaiah 24:3); cities are thrown into confusion (Isaiah 24:10); the population of the earth rapidly diminishes; the "few men left" (Isaiah 24:6) are scattered widely over the face of the globe; there is general desolation; and there is general sadness and misery (Isaiah 24:7-12). All classes suffer (Isaiah 24:2); the haughty especially are brought down (Isaiah 24:4). If men escape one calamity, they are overtaken by another (Isaiah 24:18). Treachery is at work (Isaiah 24:16), and each man feels like a hunted animal, sure sooner or later to be the prey of the destroyer (Isaiah 24:17). The judgment passes on from man to the material fabric which he inhabits; man's transgression lies heavy upon the earth (Isaiah 24:20); it totters and trembles from its foundations (Isaiah 24:18), reels to and fro (Isaiah 24:20), is broken up and shattered (Isaiah 24:19); finally, falls from its place.
II. FINAL, AS FAR AS THIS DISPENSATION OF THINGS IS CONCERNED. "The inhabitants of the earth are burned" (Isaiah 24:6); the earth is "utterly emptied" (Isaiah 24:3); the remnant that has previously escaped necessarily disappears with the earth that is their habitation; and that earth is "utterly broken down," "clean dissolved," "fallen" so as never to rise again (Isaiah 24:19, Isaiah 24:20).
III. YET NOT UNCHEERED BY SOME RAYS OF HOPE. In the midst of the gloom, and the sadness, and the desolation, and the confusion, there are yet cheerful voices heard. All flesh has not corrupted its way before the Lord. There are still those who "lift up their voice, and sing for the majesty of the Lord" (Isaiah 24:14), who "glorify the Lord" in the midst of the "fires" of affliction, and pour forth songs whereof the burden is "Honor to the righteous." They constitute, it may be, a small minority; but they are not dismayed. "God," they know, "is on their side;" and they "do not fear what flesh can do unto them." They bear witness for God to the last; and when the final crash comes they are those blessed ones who "meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17), and are translated to the heavenly kingdom, without passing through the gates of death, there to "be forever with the Lord."
A sorer punishment reserved for the authors and instigators of evil than for others.
The kings of the earth to a large extent lead their subjects into sin. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, by the setting up of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, "made Israel to sin," and was the original and main cause of that lapse into idolatry which brought down destruction upon the Israelite nation. Ahab, by his marriage with Jezebel, and introduction of the Baal-worship, intensified the evil, and hastened the final overthrow. Manasseh "seduced Judah to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel" (2 Kings 21:9), and brought upon Judah a fate similar to that which had befallen the sister kingdom (2 Kings 24:3, 2 Kings 24:4). The blood-thirstiness and cruelty of the heathen nations were encouraged by their kings, who were forever engaging in unjust wars, and looking for success to the terror they inspired by the fierceness of their soldiers, who were instructed to be savage and unsparing. Hence, when the day of reckoning came, it was just that the kings should be reserved for special retribution, and punished with special severity. We must not too closely press the details of the prophetical announcement. "The pit," "the prison," are wonted phrases in the imagery of Divine retributive justice. What is intended to be taught is that exact justice will be meted out; wherever lies the main guilt of the evil done under the sun, there will be the main severity of punishment. Where kings have been in fault, kings will suffer; where nobles and prime ministers, on them will fall the heaviest woe; where leaders sprung from the ranks, theirs will be the sorest suffering. "God is not mocked." God will know who are the really guilty ones, and will execute his special vengeance upon them, however exalted they be. Nor will he spare the instigators of evil who belong to the spiritual world. Fallen spirits are ever tempting men to sin, suggesting lines of sin, egging their victims on, aiding them so far as they are permitted, and conducting them to depths of sin and wickedness whereof they would have had no conception had they been left to themselves. It is just that these spirits, who are the primary movers in the widespread conspiracy of crime, should suffer the most. St. Jude tells us of those evil angels who are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jud Jude 1:6). St. John saw in the Apocalyptic vision that "the devil who deceived the nations" was at length "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are," and was "tormented day and night forever and ever" (Revelation 20:10). These, too, have their deserts. Inexorable justice requires for so much sin so much suffering. The law is absolute, imperative, universal. And the whole redounds to the honor and glory of the great Ruler of the universe. "For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other we are the savor of life unto life" (2 Corinthians 2:15, 2 Corinthians 2:16). The thought is overwhelming, and the apostle with reason exclaims, "And who is sufficient for these things?"
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON