NOTES for Isa 24:1-23

Before us is a picture capable of bringing deep sadness. The earth is laid waste, and joyless scenes are everywhere. We see either the consequences of an ecological catastrophe or the result of the use of weapons of mass destruction; in short, something that today we are capable of many times over. So it is hard to determine where the prophet has a parable and where he has a literal vision of what human ungodliness is capable of doing to the world given to us by the Lord.

But even in the middle of the man-made desert where the surviving remnant of the people has once again found itself, we hear the call to praise the Lord. Even the ultimate disasters that have disfigured the world once created beautiful cannot cancel the triumph of the Lord and His righteousness. Precisely when it will appear to many that the world is perishing, He will triumph and defeat the ungodly kings who oppose Him.

At first glance, this speaks only of the Lord's triumph in Jerusalem and in the Land of Promise. But if we think more deeply, we notice something else as well: with his gaze the prophet penetrates into very distant times, when the power of sin will be overthrown on earth. There will be no more earthly kings, because the Lord Himself will become the only King.