God's Cosmic Judgment (Isaiah 34:1-17)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
“1 Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it. 2 For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter. 3 Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4 All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree. 5 'For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment. 6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness.' 8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9 Its streams shall be turned into pitch, And its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch. 10 It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. 12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, But none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing. 13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces, Nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, A courtyard for ostriches. 14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, And the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, And find for herself a place of rest. 15 There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs And hatch, and gather them under her shadow; There also shall the hawks be gathered, Every one with her mate. 16 'Search from the book of the Lord, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them. 17 He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.' ”
Introduction
I heard the testimony during the 2nd Headquarter message and the person said that it was their lifelong prayer. Why is my household and church so poor? Why are there no doors opened for evangelism and missions in my life? Why is my household suffering from diseases and illness? These were the prayer topics that they had. I am sure all of the church members experience at least once or more than one problem. If you look at each of these prayer topics, you can see that God does not want you to suffer from any of these problems. You need to hold onto this. We have received the word until now but in front of God, we are considered very precious and with that heart, we have been created. God sees us so precious and does not want us to fall into problems, or suffer from that. If that is so, then when we face problems and in order to solve these problems, if we call out to God and pray earnestly, then God will absolutely answer us. What is earnest prayer? That is 24 hour prayer. God is waiting to bless you and wants you to have earnest prayer, and when we do that, then God will absolutely answer us. May you enjoy these blessings. We have been reading the book of Isaiah. If you look in Isaiah, the first part of Isaiah is considered from chapters 1-39 and the second part is considered chapters 40-66. The chapters that we are reading right now and next week will be the conclusion of the first part. We have read the book of Isaiah so we are reading the conclusion of the first part of the book of Isaiah. God has given us so many messages reading the book of Isaiah but God has given us a precious message again today.
1. God's Judgment
1) The cosmic judgment
Verse 1 - What does this mean? All nations refer to all people of this world. This was the word that was being proclaimed to all people of this world. From this word, it includes Judah, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and all nations. It doesn’t just include those nations and the age back then but it is also including the world right now and us. All people, including everyone, needed to listen. This is what the word is saying. Not only that but it also includes all of the living creatures like animals. All creations, all animals and even insects, it includes all of it. What did they need to hear? That God the ultimate judge will bring judgment onto this world. God is not only the Creator of this world but He is the ultimate judge, and if we hold onto this, then we cannot shake whatever comes upon us.
2) The cause of judgment
Verses 2-4 - Why did God bring judgment onto this world? It was because of His wrath and fury. Who did He have fury against? He had fury against the whole world and all creations. The entire world and creations is referring to the entire world and the nations that were tormenting Israel. We just said that God sees His people as most precious but He saw the Israelites, His children, suffering and being tormented.
When God saw them suffering, God said that He was furious and we can see how furious He was in verse 3. To destroy the enemy nations, God was so angry at them that He discarded them like they were a pile of trash. When a human dies, you would bury them but God just discarded them and let their bodies rot. The amount of bodies that were killed by God’s wrath were full to the top of the mountains, and God said that all people will see this.
Verse 4 - All of the stars and moons, and the idols that the Israelites worshiped as idols, God said that He will destroy all of them. God said that He will destroy them like drying grapes and withering leaves. God said that He will dry the skies. God was bringing judgment to the entire world. What has nature done to deserve the wrath of God? If mankind sins against God, then nature will also face punishment as well. It doesn’t end there but the people and nations who destroyed the nation of King David, Israel, God said that He will not leave them alone.
2. Judgment on Adversaries
1) Judgment on Edom
Verses 5-6 - God used the nation Edom as an example nation to show God’s punishment and wrath. Edom was a nation that was raised by Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. As you know Esau was born as the first born and was supposed to receive the blessing of the first born but he sold the blessing of the first born for just a bowl of soup to his brother, Jacob. God was not pleased with this. Esau saw the blessings that were given to three generations lightly so God bought curses to the three generations of Esau. Esau lost not only his birth right but his blessings as well. This caused Esau to hate his brother and wanted to kill Jacob. The curses and scars continued in Esau’s generations and lineage. This caused Edom to constantly hate and torment Israel. They did a great crime and sin against God by tormenting Israel.
Babylon attacked Judah, and when Edom heard this, they became so happy. To explain their happiness, we can see in Obadiah 1:12-14 “But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother In the day of his captivity; Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah In the day of their destruction; Nor should you have spoken proudly In the day of distress. 13 You should not have entered the gate of My people In the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction In the day of their calamity, Nor laid hands on their substance In the day of their calamity. 14 You should not have stood at the crossroads To cut off those among them who escaped; Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained In the day of distress.” - When Babylon came to attack Israel, Edom came to attack them as well, which Israel did not expect. They were only expecting Babylon’s attack but they were being attacked from two nations from different sides so Israel was taken aback. When God saw this, He became very angry. The moment Edom attacked Israel, God said that He will bring suffering and destruction to Edom.
Obadiah 1:13-14 - Babylon attacked Israel but Edom attacked Israel as well. The moment Babylon and Edom attacked Israel, Edom raided and destroyed the entire nation of Israel and bought Israel before Babylon. God saw all of this. God became so furious.
Verse 6 - What does this mean? God said that He will personally bring judgment upon Edom. God said that He will use Edom as a blood sacrifice like a ram and lamb. God said that He will take Edom, the entire nation as a blood sacrifice. When Israel was conquering the land of Canaan, they were commanded to conquer the Jericho wall. When they were conquering the wall of Jericho, they were told not to spare any animal, creature, or man when they entered. It was because the land of Jericho was filled with idolatry that God was telling the Israelites to get rid all of the trace of Jericho and idolatry in that nation. Edom will be a blood sacrifice to God.
Verse 7 - The wild oxen is explaining the leaders in Edom and God said that He will make their blood His fill their land. God was seeing His people, Israel suffering but it made God more angry that Edom, a sibling nation of Jacob, was attacking Israel.
2) God's retribution
Verses 8-14 - The day of God’s vengeance means that God will bring His people their revenge. God has completely destroyed all nations that were tormenting Israel. Zion is referring to Jerusalem and this was the time that God will bring Jerusalem’s revenge. There was a law in the Bible that speaks about God’s retribution which is referred to as the Gold Law. If a brother or sister of a family passes away or has a hard time, then contribution and retribution will be given to the widowed family. The siblings of the deceased brother or sister will bring money or contribution to the widowed family of their sibling.
Leviticus 25:25 “If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold.” - One of their siblings is suffering and poor then another sibling that has more money will help them out. This is what this message is talking about. When a nation that is lacking and weak, God said that He will pay on their behalf of His weak nation and people. This means that God and Israel are one, they are one family. Why is this important? We who are weak humans, in order to save us, He sent Jesus Christ to overcome the power of Satan. Jesus Christ sacrificed His body and died on the cross for us. His people, Israel, were experiencing difficulty and hardships. That is why God sent Jesus Christ to die a pitiful death on the cross.
Verse 9 - We can see what God continues to do to the Edom nation. The land of Edom became incompetent and in complete darkness.
Verse 10 - It was like hell and the entire nation became so desolate.
Verse 11 - God made the nation of Edom so desolate that only creatures possessed the land, and made sure to bring precise curses and destruction upon Edom.
Verse 12 - God was so furious that no king will reign over the nation of Edom ever again.
Verse 13 - Instead of kings living in the palace but only wild animals and creatures live there.
Verse 14 - When food appears, then the animals will fight with each other. There was so much food left in Edom, the dead corpses, that all of the animals would gather to feast on them.
Verse 15 - In the palace, the kings should be living lavishly but there was no trace of a king or a ruler but only animals and creatures would reside in there. When you look at these passages, then you can see that God does not tolerate when His people are being tormented or in suffering. This is how much God loves you. Are you facing problems? His heart is ripping because of that. God is not happy at all. When you are being persecuted, God is beating His chest. God has immense love for you, never forget that.
3. The Power of the Gospel
1) Confirm the gospel
Verses 16-17 - The book of the Lord is referring to the prophecies written in the book of Isaiah and God was telling them to confirm if these prophecies were fulfilled or not. It was because it was God who commanded these prophecies. People did not plan these events but God was the one who commanded all of this. God’s word will absolutely be fulfilled no matter what.
Verse 17 - God was so angry that He said this. God will fulfill whatever He commands and says, and to watch how He will fulfill His word. God said that He called all of the creatures and beasts to come into the land of Edom. God split the land of Edom to the creatures and animals. God made the land of Edom for the animals and creatures. This is so interesting. God is saying for people to watch how He is fulfilling His word. Where is the Edom nation now? It now remains around the north of Lebanon. If you look in that area now, only animals live there now. If you torment the people of God, then God does not stay still and will bring His revenge and wrath. Hold onto the Gold Law. We need to open our spiritual eyes.
2) Stephen's testimony of the gospel
We need to look at the spiritual background and heavenly throne. We can see what happens when the gospel is preached through the life of Stephen. Before Stephen proclaimed the gospel, you can see that God poured His grace upon him.
Acts 6:15 “And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.” - God was with Stephen and when he was in a spiritual state filled with the Holy Spirit, God was with him. This is a person who proclaims the gospel.
Acts 7:55 “But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” - When we proclaim the gospel, God is standing up at the throne of God. This is because God is so happy because we are testifying of Him.
Acts 9:4 “Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' ” - Stephen and God are now one body. Stephen was not the one who was martyred, it was actually God who was being persecuted. Paul was the one who persecuted Stephen. You can see that God’s grace for us is so amazing. We are so precious jewels and treasures of God. Before creation, God’s Spirit entered into us. God’s Spirit is now within us after we accepted Christ. We are so precious.
Conclusion
Hold onto Acts 9:5 “And he said, 'Who are You, Lord?' Then the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' ” - Paul went to go catch Christians and went to Damascus to do that. But when he was on his way to Damascus, God called him forward. Who were the brothers of Christ? God was saying that Paul was not persecuting Christians but Him. This means that we are one body with God. If people torment you then they are tormenting God. Truly pray. Truly enjoy Christ. May you receive answers today.
Comments