Judgment Coming on all the Earth, Part 1

Isaiah 24:1-12 

1 Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.

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 creditor, so with the debtor.

3 The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,
For the LORD has spoken this word.

4 The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The haughty people of the earth languish.

5 The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
And few men are left.

7 The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth of the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

10 The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.

11 There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.

As Romans 8:21 reminds us, all of creation is under sin’s bondage of corruption.  This includes not only the fallen people corrupted by the sin in Eden’s garden plot, but the world under our stewardship as given to Adam at its inception.  This means that it does not matter a person’s position in life, for judgment comes the same to all just as none is more righteous than another to deserve lesser condemnation for unrepentant sin outside of God’s grace given in Christ.  Common people, priests, servants and masters upstairs and down, consumers and businessmen, bankers and borrowers, and even any lenders and borrowers — all find they are under he same corruption of inherited sin and subject to the same accountability of justice in judgment.  We all have fallen short of God’s standards (Romans 3:23) and have inherited this sad state as well.  Even the best efforts of our doing good are tainted by that soul stain and we are utterly unable to keep every point of the law we are accountable to live by if we do it all (James 2:10-11).  We cannot earn and do not deserve reconciliation with God; only He can bestow it by grace in justice earned by His Son for us.  Isaiah told God’s people that they had corrupted the laws of God and suffered the consequences.  They broke their covenant contract agreement with the Lord to do what He said in order to live.  This corruption spread to all of creation under their responsibility as he also spoke of here.  The curse they brought on themselves are up the entire earth as we observe in its decay even today.  All the crops which supplied sustenance and joy had failed as a result, along with the prosperity of all.  The end result is a cry for more wine to drown out the suffering and sorrow in the midst of their spiritual desolation.  Such is the fallen state of man this day and every day apart from deliverance from our sin within which we have inherited and continue to practice (Romans 5:12, 18, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22).  Judgment is surely coming to all the earth which groans until that day (Romans 8:22) for redemption of being made anew.  May we then be found reconciled in the Son of God who takes away the sin of the world!