NOTES for Isa 24:1-23

What time is the prophet speaking about? Most likely the time when Israel will be conquered and laid waste by the Babylonians. But the picture the prophet paints is far broader and more terrifying. “Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth... The earth is utterly broken, the earth is torn asunder, the earth is violently shaken... it falls, and will not rise again.” Such prophecies are traditionally called an “Apocalypse”: a revelation of the end times, when God carries out His judgment upon the world. The diagnosis has already been made: in Isaiah's words, “the treacherous deal treacherously; indeed, the treacherous deal very treacherously.” Such a world cannot stand and collapses into nothingness. But the Lord intervenes. He always brings the possibility of salvation, even if a high price must be paid for it.