Israel’s ancient enemy Edom is singled out in verses 5–6, but this divine judgment will come upon the whole world. Edom is only one example of God’s judgment on the Gentile nations because of what they have done to His people Israel. “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause” (v. 8 niv). In the day of the Lord, the Gentiles will be repaid for the way they have treated the Jews and exploited their land (Joel 3:1–17). “Zion’s cause” may not get much support among the nations today, but God will come to their defense and make their cause succeed.
Isaiah began this section with a military picture of the armies on earth (Isa. 34:2–3) and in heaven (v. 4). The enemy armies on earth will be slaughtered, the land will be drenched with blood, and the bodies of the slain will be left unburied to rot and to smell. This is a vivid description of the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:11–21), the humiliating defeat and destruction of the armies of the world that dare to attack the Son of God. The hosts of heaven will also be affected by vast cosmic disturbances (Isa. 34:4; see Matt. 24:29; Joel 2:10, 30–31; 3:15; Rev. 6:13–14). What a day that will be!
In Isaiah 34:5–8, the prophet moved from the battlefield to the temple and saw the worldwide judgment as a great sacrifice that God offers. (See Jer. 46:10; 50:27; Ezek. 39:17–19.) The practice was for the people to kill the sacrifices and offer them to God, but now it is God who offers the wicked as sacrifices. Bozrah was an important city in Edom; the name means “grapegathering” (see Isa. 63:1–8). God sees His enemies as animals: rams, goats, lambs, oxen, and bulls to be sacrificed, along with the fat (Lev. 3:9–11). These nations sacrificed the Jews, so God used them for sacrifices.
The picture changes again, and Isaiah compared the day of the Lord to the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa. 34:9–10; Gen. 18—19). This is a significant comparison because, just before the coming of the Lord, society will be “as it was in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28). Tar running like streams and sulfur like dust will keep the fires of judgment burning (Gen. 14:10; 19:24). The description in Isaiah 34: reminds us of the fall of Babylon (Rev. 14:8–11; 19:3). We should also remember that the fires of eternal hell, the lake of fire, will never be quenched (Mark 9:43–48).
While Isaiah focused especially on Edom (Isa. 34:5–6), he was using that proud nation as an example of what God would do to all the Gentile nations during the day of the Lord. When God finishes His work, the land will be a wilderness, occupied by brambles and thorns, wild beasts, and singular birds (vv. 11–17). God will see to it that each bird will have a mate to reproduce, and no humans will be around to drive them from their nests.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10). Why is God waiting? Because God “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (v. 9 nkjv). How much longer God will wait, nobody knows; so it behooves lost sinners to repent today and trust the Savior.