Isaiah 24:1 - Meaning and Application

This prophecy gives us a very dark and mournful scene. No matter where we look, everything seems ruined and sad. The threatened destruction is described in many ways, all of them meant to deepen the force of the warning.

First, the earth is stripped of its beauty and seems to be pulled out of order. It is made empty and waste (Isaiah 24:1), as if it were back in the first chaos, “without form and void” (Genesis 1:2). Here, “earth” can mean the land, and in some places it clearly does. But the point is broader than one country, because this often happens to many lands and could happen to ours as well. It is also a picture of what earthly things are like in general, they hold no lasting comfort, and a small trouble can ruin them.

We often see large families and rich estates emptied out and ruined by judgment, or even by slow decline. Sin has turned the world upside down, so the earth is no longer what God made it to be for man’s home. Sin also scatters people abroad. That began at Babel, and we still see it in towns and households, where close relatives and old neighbors sometimes know nothing of one another.

The same warning appears again in Isaiah 24:4. The earth mourns and fades away because it cannot give people the happiness they expected from it. It disappoints those who trusted it too much. The whole world is fading like a flower in the hand, even before it is fully enjoyed. And as the earth grows old, the people in it are laid waste too. Human life is frail, often lonely, and often shut in by affliction (Isaiah 24:6).

If we look around at disease, plague, and burning fevers, we can see what the prophet means when he says the inhabitants of the earth are burned up, or consumed. Some are taken by one sickness and some by another, until only a few are left compared with the many who once lived. This world is full of disappointment. It is a vale of tears and a dying world, and the children of men are few in days and full of trouble.

Second, it is the Lord who brings these disasters on the earth. The same Lord who made the earth fruitful and beautiful for man can also make it empty and waste (Isaiah 24:1). As Creator, he has full right to judge what he made, and he has power to carry out his sentence. When he has spoken, he will do it (Isaiah 24:3). His curse has devoured the earth (Isaiah 24:6), both the general curse that came through Adam’s sin (Genesis 3:17) and the special curses people and nations bring on themselves by great wickedness.

Third, people of every rank and condition will share in these troubles (Isaiah 24:2). “As with the people, so with the priest.” This is true in many common troubles of life. All people are subject to the same diseases, griefs, family sorrows, and losses. In special judgments on sinful nations, God can make the punishment so wide that no one escapes. Whether people have much or little, they may lose it all.

This judgment reaches the great and the small alike. As with the people, so with the priest, or ruler. Their dignity will not protect them. The elders will not be honored (Lamentations 5:12). The priests had been as corrupt as the people, so why should their office keep them safe from judgment? It is like people, like priest (Hosea 4:8, Hosea 4:9). The same is true of master and servant, maid and mistress. All have gone the same sinful way, so all will suffer when the earth is made waste.

Rich and poor also stand on the same ground here. Those with money in hand, or those lending it out, will not fare better than those forced to sell their land and borrow at interest. There are judgments, even before the great day of judgment, in which rich and poor meet together. So those who are high in the world should not look down too far on others, because they may soon be brought to the same level. A rich man may think his wealth is a strong city, but it does not always prove so.

Fourth, sin is the cause of these calamities. The earth is made empty and fades away because it is defiled by the people living in it (Isaiah 24:5). Human sin pollutes the land, and that is why God makes it desolate in judgment. Sin is so filthy that it defiles the earth itself and makes it unpleasant in the sight of God and good people (Leviticus 18:25, Leviticus 18:27, Leviticus 18:28). Blood especially defiles the land (Numbers 35:33). The earth does not cast out its inhabitants until they have first defiled it by their sins.

Why, what have they done? They have broken the laws of their own creation and failed to live for the purpose God made them for. They have thrown off the natural law that bound them to the God who created them. They have also changed the commands of revealed religion, where they had the light of it. Some read this as saying they neglected those commands and made no effort to keep them. They broke God’s laws by sinning and ignored his ordinances by failing in duty.

In doing this, they broke the everlasting covenant, a lasting bond that becomes a lasting blessing for those who keep it. It is a great act of kindness that God deals with people by covenant, promising to do them good and calling them to serve him. Even those who did not benefit from God’s covenant with Abraham still benefited from his covenant with Noah and his sons, which is called an everlasting covenant, as well as his covenant with day and night. But they did not keep the duties given to Noah’s family. They did not honor God’s goodness in the daily coming of day and night, or try to thank him for it. So they broke the everlasting covenant and defeated its gracious purpose.

These judgments will bring down human pride and ruin human joy. When the earth is made empty, proud people are humbled. The haughty people of the earth grow weak, because they have lost what supported their pride and made them boast. Those who held their heads highest, God can make them bow down.

These judgments also take away people’s cheer. This point is repeated at length: all the merry-hearted sigh. That is the nature of worldly joy, it is like thorns crackling under a pot, which flare up fast and then go out (Ecclesiastes 7:6). Great laughter often ends in a sigh. Those who make this world their chief delight cannot be glad forever. When God sends his judgments into the earth, he means to make serious those who were given over to pleasure. Let your laughter be turned into mourning. When the earth is emptied, the noise of the happy crowd comes to an end.

Worldly joy is noisy, but that noise will not last, and its end is sorrow. Two things often stir up empty joy, and both are taken away from the people here. First is drinking. The new wine mourns, because it has gone sour for lack of drinkers. Though wine may help a heavy heart (Proverbs 31:6), it does not please the merry-hearted when their supplies fail. The vine grows weak and gives little hope of a harvest, so the merry-hearted sigh. They know no other happiness than seeing their grain, wine, and oil increase (Psalm 4:7). If their vines and fig trees are destroyed, their joy comes to an end (Hosea 2:11-12). They will no longer drink wine with songs and shouts, as they once did. Instead, they will drink it with a sigh. Strong drink will turn bitter to those who drink it, because they cannot help mixing tears with it, or because sickness has taken away their taste for it. God has many ways to make wine and strong drink bitter for those who love them most, through bodily sickness, inward grief, or the ruin of their wealth or country.

Second is music. The joy of tambourines stops, and the happiness of the harp ends, as at their feasts (Isaiah 5:12). The captives in Babylon later hung their harps on willow trees. In short, all joy is darkened. No pleasant face is left to be seen, and no one can force a smile. All the joy of the land is gone (Isaiah 24:11). If that was the kind of joy Solomon called madness, then there is not much loss in its passing.

The cities will feel these desolations of the countryside in a special way. The city of confusion is broken down. It lies open to enemy attack, not only because its walls are broken, but because its people are thrown into confusion. Every house is shut up, perhaps because of plague, which has burned through the people, leaving very few alive (Isaiah 24:6). Houses that are infected are usually shut so no one else may enter. Or the houses are shut because they are empty and abandoned. People cry out for wine, because the vintage has been ruined and there will likely be no wine. In the city, even in Jerusalem itself, once so busy with life, nothing will be left but ruin. Grass will grow in the streets, and the gate will be struck with destruction (Isaiah 24:12). All who used to pass through the gate will be struck down, and the city’s strength will be cut off. How quickly God can turn a city of order into a city of confusion, and then into a city of desolation.