The result of God’s judgment will be a world that is empty, laid waste, and distorted, and whose inhabitants are scattered. The prophet may have had Genesis 1: and 11: in mind when he wrote this. Nobody on earth will escape, for “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). Position, power, and wealth are no protection against the wrath of God. God merely speaks the word and, like a dying invalid, “the world languishes and fades away” (Isa. 24:3–4 nkjv). People who are proud of their wealth and position will find themselves poor and without power.
Why does God punish the inhabitants of the world? Because they have defiled the world by their sins. When Adam sinned, God cursed the ground as a part of the punishment (Gen. 3:17–19; Rom. 8:20–22), and God warned the people of Israel that their sins polluted the Promised Land (Num. 35:33). Today we see man’s greed polluting land, water, and atmosphere, as well as exploiting the earth of its Godgiven treasures. Sin has consequences in nature as well as in human character and conscience.
For centuries, mankind has polluted the world by disobeying God’s laws and violating His statutes. This was the reason for the flood (Gen. 6:5; 11–13). Long before Moses gave the law, people knew that it was wrong to lie, steal, and kill (Rom. 1:18—2:16), but they did these evil things anyway. The “everlasting covenant” of Isaiah 24: refers to what we generally call the Noahic covenant (Gen. 8:20—9:17) and deals primarily with our care of God’s world and our treatment of fellow humans. Isaiah 24: suggests that God will also judge the world because people are treacherous and do not keep their word. The people of the world have abused both the earth and its inhabitants, and they will pay for it.
Verses 6–13 give a vivid picture of what it will be like on the earth during the day of the Lord. In Israel, the harvest was generally a time for great joy; but there will be no joy because there will be no harvest. God’s judgments will destroy the crops as well as the workers who would till the soil. (See Rev. 6:8; 9:15.) “The city” is mentioned at least eight times in these chapters (Isa. 24:10, 12; 26:5; 27:10) and should be taken generically rather than as a reference to any one particular city. Whether people live in rural areas or in the cities, they will not escape God’s wrath. Like a farmer harvesting the last olive or the last grape, God will do a thorough job of judging sinners (24:13). The only singing during His harvest will be done by the believing remnant who trust God and are delivered (vv. 14–16a). The doctrine of “the remnant” is an important part of Isaiah’s message (1:9; 10:20–22; 11:11, 16; 14:22, 30); Isaiah’s eldest son was named “a remnant shall return” (7:3).
The prophet changed the image in 24:17–18a when he described the futile attempts of frightened animals to avoid the hunters’ traps. But apart from faith in the Lord, there will be no place of escape in that great day of judgment. No matter where sinners go, they will not be able to hide from the wrath of God (Rev. 6:15–17).
The opening of the windows of heaven (Isa. 24:18b) reminds us of the flood (Gen. 7:11). Jesus said that, before the “day of the Lord,” society would be as it was in the days before the flood (Matt. 24:37–42). In that day, God will shake everything, and anything man has made will stagger like a drunk and collapse like a flimsy hut (Isa. 24:20; see 1:8). The weight of guilt will be too heavy for people to carry.
But the day of the Lord will affect not only the earth and its people but also Satan and his hosts. God will judge “the powers in the heavens above” as well as “the kings on earth below” (24: niv). These judgments will be part of the spiritual battle that has been waging for centuries between the Lord of Hosts and the armies of the devil (Gen. 3:15; Luke 10:17–24; Eph. 6:10ff.; Rev. 12). Isaiah 24: parallels Revelation 20:1–3, an event that will take place just before the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ (Isa. 24:23; Rev. 20:4–10). The word visited in Isaiah 24: (kjv) means “released” (cf. niv margin). The climax of the “day of the Lord” will be “the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion” (v. 23).