I mentioned that Isaiah “nests” poems within poems and I'll continue to use Motyer's outline to look at the following nested section. We are in a section that is describing the judgment that will come upon Jerusalem.
C1 – The song stilled: the fall of the city
The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh. The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled. No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The wasted city is broken down; every house is shut up so that none can enter. There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city; the gates are battered into ruins.
Isaiah 24:7-12
These verses are actually a poem nested in the nest that we are working through. Motyer says that it can be laid out in 15 lines of mostly 3 word lines. He says it has a feeling of a series of hammer blows.
These verses look back to the party town that God indicated had the wrong response to their situation but remember that Noah is in view here too. So this is describing a curse with the blight of the earlier verses moving to the land. The vines are blighted. This is an agrarian society that lived close to the land and this is a sign of crop failure. The party town celebrated when they should have been mourning. The sin was found in that they had a joy that came only from grapes and did not come from valuing God. So they didn't celebrate God's blessing. They merely celebrated themselves and their harvest. Eventually they stopped celebrating and wine is only seen as a means of escape as their way of life ends and their city is left without protection. The word that gives us the translation “wasted” to describe city is the same word translated “formless” in Genesis 1:2. So the city is without form. Think of a lump of clay before the potter has begun to form it as it is beaten down. All the structure we associate with the word “city” is shattered. A city is defined by the physical, social, religious, and financial structure. Even joy itself has been taken captive in the desolation of this city. Apart from God, humankind's greatest city is a city without meaning. Babylon is a euphemism for that city. At the root it is without form and void of transcendent worth.
C2 – The song heard: world-wide gleanings
For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done. They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One.
Isaiah 24:13-16b
The gates are battered but Isaiah turns to battering olive trees for another picture of harvesting. So the city fades but then the nations begin to deliver a song. Harvest is a careful gleaning to gather from the nations. The nations accept the revelation and covenant that was ignored, modified, and broken by Jerusalem and they lift up their voices in worship. From the west, the east, and the farthest coastlines we see the Lord lifted up and praised. We have seen two significant fulfillments of these verses. First at the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and secondly, and more significantly for you, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles as they become children of Abraham. The last picture is of hearing praise from the ends of the earth. Have you ever thought about the wave of praise the circles the earth on a Sunday from timezone to timezone?
B2 – Personal wasting away: grief over treachery and its outcome
But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” Terror and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! He who flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare.
Isaiah 24:16c-18d
Here, again, I think we see Isaiah in shock over the judgment. I think a secondary fulfillment of these verses is found in Christ as Grace and mercy have been poured out on Gentiles and yet it is also tied to the horror of the destruction that came to Jerusalem in 70 AD. Just as the Apostle Paul said, "I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh (Romans 9:1-3).
Judas is the eternal example of a traitor and he changed what a kiss on the cheek can mean. Often the Bible doesn't pick what we consider big sins as it describes a coming judgment. Being a traitor may not always be seen as a big sin. We look for big sins and God looks at the heart. Isaiah doesn't generally describe the effect of these prophecies on him personally. However, I can't imagine it being any less than the impact on Daniel who tells us that his prophecies would put him in bed (i. e., Daniel 8:27). The impact on Isaiah personally must have been tremendous but we only get hints of the way it made him feel as a man (Isaiah 6:5; Isaiah 21; Isaiah 24:16c-18d).
A2 – The earth broken up: moral/spiritual causation
For the windows of heaven are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is split apart, the earth is violently shaken. The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut; its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again.
Isaiah 24:18e-20
These verses pick up the imagery of Noah as the windows of heaven are opened in judgment and close out this section of the poem by referring back to the beginning of the chapter. The word translated "windows" here is the same word as “floodgates” in Genesis 7:11. So the judgment is seen to come from above and below. I think of the events following the crucifixion of Jesus in this regard. The weight of rebellion or transgression is viewed as a heavy load bearing down upon a people who refuse to serve God. Creation itself, at the command of God, becomes an adversary.
Now from the sixth hour (noon) there was darkness over all the land (earth) until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Matthew 27:45-54
This was just the beginning of the judgment that would come upon Jerusalem over about 35 years. All of Scripture revolves around the atonement as God's plan to redeem. Our sins exchanged for His righteousness as His kingdom comes to the earth.
A1 Divine Visitation: v21 On that day the Lord will punish
a1 in the heavens: the host of heaven, in heaven,
b1 on earth: and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
B2 Dungeon Darkness: v22a They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
C The undated future: v22b and after many days they will be punished.
B2 Unparalleled brightness: v23a Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed,
A2 Divine Reign: for the Lord of hosts reigns
b2 in Jerusalem: on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
a2 gloriously: and his glory will be before his elders.
Isaiah 24:21-23
In this small poem we see Him high and lifted up. He sits on the throne and punishes the prince of the power of the air. His kingdom has aspects of both “already” and “not yet” or prophecy fulfilled and prophecy not yet fulfilled. God forbid that we would ever act as if He isn't on the throne and yet we also pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Ephesians 1:16-2:6).
Pray this portion of Scripture for yourself as Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit prayed it for the Ephesian Church.
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