Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 24

Verses 1-23

1. Intro:
   1. Pray – Doctors leaving tonight to Haiti.
   2. Prayer – For “things of earth to grow strangely dim.”
   3. The May 1984 National Geographic showed through color photos and drawings the swift and terrible destruction that wiped out the Roman Cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in A.D. 79. The explosion of MountVesuvius was so sudden, the residents were killed while in their routine: men and women were at the market, the rich in their luxurious baths, slaves at toil. They died amid volcanic ash and superheated gasses. Even family pets suffered the same quick and final fate.The saddest part is that these people did not have to die. Scientists confirm what ancient Roman writer’s record--weeks of rumblings and shakings preceded the actual explosion. Even an ominous plume of smoke was clearly visible from the mountain days before the eruption. If only they had been able to read and respond to Vesuvius's warning!
      1. God warns and provides an escape to those who will heed the rumblings.
      2. People need not be caught unprepared!
   4. Q: When is a national or personal insurance policy of no help?
      1. During the Tribulation time! – There will be no immunity on that day.
   5. Some call this “Isaiah’s Apocalypse”.
      1. This is earth’s finale. The grand crescendo.
      2. This deals with the Tribulation, Jesus’ Second Coming, His Millennial reign, & His ultimate victory over the forces of evil.
      3. On your car on the right-hand door mirror on your car says "Objects are closer than they appear". (Reason?) The mirror is convex, allowing a much wider angle of vision.
         1. These 2 chapters give us the wide angle & thus all the more “Jesus, the main Object of our love,…He’s closer than it appears!”
   6. Outline: The Great Tribulation & The Great Liberation!
2. THE GREAT TRIBULATION! (24)
   1. NO PARTIALITY! (1-6)
      1. (1) Behold – always anticipates a future event! (Shepherds Notes; pg.34)
      2. (2) Judgment not only on nations but on individuals…covering “all” classes of people.
         1. God only sees 2 classes of people: And it’s not rich & poor it’s [1] wicked/unsaved [2] Faithful/people of God.
         2. God only sees 2 races of people: It isn’t by color. It isn’t black & white…it is Jew & Gentile.
         3. He will pay no attention to economic or social status.
      3. (4) See 2 Pet.3:10.
      4. (5) Q: So why the punishment of the Tribulation?
         1. [1] They weren’t good stewards of earth.
         2. [2] They twisted the instructions of God.
         3. [3] They violated his laws.
         4. [4] They broke his everlasting covenant.
   2. ALL CREATION GROANS! (7-13)
   3. ​​​​​​​A WORSHIPING REMNANT! (14-16)
      1. Wow! Worshiping & glorifying…in the midst of utter chaos.
         1. ​​​​​​​This is the godly remnant that survives the tribulation.
         2. They will praise the Lord for His righteous judgments.
      2. He pronounced Woe on himself as he saw the sinfulness around him.
   4. WORLD WIDE WRECKAGE! (17-20)
      1. It is very clear that this cosmic judgment is world wide!
         1. ​​​​​​​(i.e. not local) Note: Earth 6 x’s in these 4 verses. [15 in ch]
         2. See also Rev.3:10
      2. I think this is the best argument against the Preterist view of Eschatology.
         1. Preterism is the teaching that places much New Testament prophetic fulfillment in and around 70 AD and in particular the destruction of Jerusalem.
         2. I read a good cartoon: Frantic man on the phone: "My wife just left me, I lost my job, I need surgery, and my spirits have hit bottom! Pastor, you've gotta help me. What's the difference between pre-, post-, and amillennialism?"
      3. No escape! – If you escape 1 terror, another will get you.
   5. How foolish then to live as if this world were everything!
   6. Our contemporary problem? – We live in a world that believes that “we can fix ourselves”!
      1. If we change our environment! (what changes do mom & dad see when they move their gang kid to a more rural environment? Nothing!)
      2. If we change our political structure! (Communism to capitalism; dictatorship to democracy)
      3. If we change our economic status! (kids in Beverly Hills aren’t’ doing better then kids in downtown LA)
      4. We are not fatalists, but we know that this world cannot save itself! - These things will happen!
         1. We don’t have a Nineveh situation(i.e. God going to relent)…we have a Sodom & Gomorrah situation!
   7. But the end is not with hell but with the glory of heaven! (Keep reading!)
   8. THE RETURN & REIGN! (21-23)
      1. (22) Interesting, put in prison(Hell) & then punished after many days(Gehenna).
      2. Isaiah ends on a note of triumph. The Lord will reign gloriously!
      3. The last word is with God!
      4. Read Luke 21:25-28
         1. Q: What do we do with this info on end times? Ask! (Inform, Warn, Live Holy, Look up, Watch, & Pray)
      5. Alexander Maclaren said, The primitive church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death or about heaven. The early Christians were looking not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory. They were watching not for the undertaker but for the uppertaker.