1. God’s Judgment Against the Wicked  (Isaiah 34:1-7)  

2. Divine Retribution  (Isaiah 34:8-17)  

3. The Gladness of the Redeemed  (Isaiah 35:1-10)  

Central Truth:  God’s judgment awaits all who rebel, but the redeemed of the Lord will experience everlasting joy.  

Focus:  Acknowledge that our response to God has eternal consequences and choose to follow Him.  

Golden Text:  “ The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).  

INTRODUCTION  

God is a just God, and Judgment Day is coming. Those who persist in their sin and ignore the loving call of God will be held accountable for their lack of belief. A. T. Pierson put this matter in perspective: “God moves on a track of absolute and perfect equity and holiness, and the same qualities that ensure that you would be borne safely into the eternal ages if connected with God, make it sure that you would be ground to powder if you place yourself before the wheels of judgment” ( The Bible and Spiritual Life ). Pierson might have been thinking about Hebrews 9:27: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”  

God’s hatred for sin compels Him to act with justice and to carry out the penalty that sin exacts. The people of Noah’s day learned this lesson. God’s reaction to a wicked people was to execute justice. If anyone ever doubted the severity of a just God, they should read the first eight chapters of Genesis.   

If the future is bleak for those who refuse salvation, it is bright for believers. For those who trust in the atoning work of Christ, there awaits life more abundant and blessed than they have ever known. All the limitations sin imposes will be gone, and they will be like Jesus. John envisioned this time when he wrote: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).  

Believers will enjoy a place of “many dwelling places” (John 14:2 NASB) prepared by the Lord himself.  Horatius  Bonar described heaven this way: “[It will be] well built, well lighted,  well watered , well provisioned,  well guarded , and well governed.” The most beautiful thing about this afterlife is that believers will spend it with Jesus. We may not know all the types of service we will render in the next life, but we do know it will be activity perfectly suited for each individual. As it has been often said, “Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.”   

l.  GOD’S JUDGMENT AGAINST THE WICKED  

Chapters 34 and 35 offer two sides of a prophetic message. The first is a declaration of the vengeance of God against the enemies of the people of God; the second speaks to the blessings enjoyed by the people of God after these judgments against the unrighteous have been executed. These events are of the highest importance and speak to all nations. A terrible time of desolation is coming, and it will involve the whole earth and the hosts of heaven.   

A.  The Lord’s Fury  (Isaiah 34:1-2)  

1 Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. 2 For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.  

In their commentary on the Old Testament,  Keil  and  Delitzsch  wrote of chapter 34: “We feel that we are carried away from the stage of history, and are transported into the midst of the last things. . . .  After the fall of Assyria, and when darkness began to gather on the horizon again, Isaiah broke away from his own times—‘the end of all things’ became more and more his home.”  

In his study Bible, C. I. Scofield titled this chapter “Armageddon.” The period of the outpouring of God’s wrath will be followed by the joy and splendor of the earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

The devastation that will befall the world during the time described in Isaiah 34 is almost beyond comprehension. Here is a picture of utter destruction. Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon he titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Here we get a glimpse of what that is like.   

Individuals of all generations need to understand that false worship and idolatry, whatever form they may take, call for God’s wrath and indignation. Those who dare to defy Him will find out just how furious He can be.   

— What makes “the Lord . . . terribly angry with the nations” (v. 2 CEV)?  

B.  The Fall of the Nations  (Isaiah 34:3-4)  

3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their  carcases , and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf  falleth  off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.  

There are not many passages that give a more graphic description of the wrath of God in judgment against a wayward people. In the hour of desolation, the dead will lie unburied in the fields and become food for the fowls of the air and the beasts of the earth. The slain will become loathsome and abominable to those who remain alive. The putrid smell that arises from their corpses will repel the living from getting near them. Blood will run down mountains in large streams and carry down some of the soil of the mountains with it, as great showers of rain frequently do.  

Catastrophic events will be taking place in the heavens at this same time. The heavenly hosts—the  sun ,  moon , and  stars —appear to be in convulsions even to the point of being dissolved. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll, and the stars will fall from the sky like leaves and fruit falling from a tree.  

A scene similar to this one appears at the opening of the sixth seal spoken of in the Book of Revelation: “There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place” (6:12-14 NIV). 

One Hour to Explain  

Francis Schaeffer used to say that if he had one hour to explain the Gospel to someone, he would spend the first fifty minutes on the bad news of judgment and then the last ten minutes on the good news of salvation, because without the context of judgment we don’t appreciate or even understand salvation.—Raymond C.  Ortlund  Jr.,   Isaiah: God Saves Sinners  

C.  The Sword of the Lord  (Isaiah 34:5-7)  

5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon  Idumea , and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.  

God shows great patience toward humankind. It is because He wants to see all people find salvation. Peter wrote: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But His patience does not last forever. There is coming a day when great wrath will fall upon the human race.  

Peter continued, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (v. 10). The apostle then poses, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God . . . !” (vv. 11-12 ESV).  

Isaiah pictured the sword of God as “it descends for judgment upon Edom” (34:5 ESV). The  Edomites  were bitter enemies of the Jews and were ready to join with all those who sought to destroy them. But God would lift up His sword against Edom, apparently centering on  Bozrah , the chief city of Edom. Jeremiah prophesied: “For I have sworn by myself,  saith  the Lord, that  Bozrah  shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes” (49:13).  

The carnage in  Bozrah  reminds us of the destruction the enemies of God will face in the last days. John wrote: “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” (Rev. 19:17-18).  

— Why don’t we hear more about divine judgment in contemporary preaching?  

2.  DIVINE RETRIBUTION  

A.  A Day of Vengeance  (Isaiah 34:8-10)  

8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of  recompences  for the controversy of Zion. 9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up  for ever : from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.  

A day of His own choosing is coming when God will mete out punishment upon all who have persisted in their rebellion against Him and their persecution of His people. God’s actions will not be vindictive, but will show justice tempered with mercy. This will be a time of blessing for the righteous and punishment for the wicked. In a later passage, Isaiah wrote: “Everyone will see the Lord’s hand of blessing on his servants—and his anger against his enemies. See, the Lord is coming with fire. . . . He will bring punishment with the fury of his anger and the flaming fire of his hot rebuke” (66:14-15 NLT).  

Getting back to Edom, her land would be covered with sulfur and burning pitch that burned night and day. Isaiah prophesied the land would be deserted, a wasteland, from generation to generation. We have a similar picture in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground” (Gen. 19:24-25).  

That the smoke from the devastation of Edom would rise in perpetuity reminds us of a scene recorded in the Book of Revelation: “The smoke of their torment  ascendeth  up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever  receiveth  the mark of his name” (14:11).  

One Song  

The only song in hell has one word, one note, one chorus, and one verse. Eternally it rings out in the corridor of the fiery lake—“Forever! Forever!” Out of the realm of the dead it sounds—“Forever! Forever!”   

B.  A Place for Wild Creatures  (Isaiah 34:11-17)  

12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.  

With people being forced out of Edom, wild creatures would find a dwelling place there (vv. 11, 14-15). What a picture of divine judgment upon a people who felt no need of God in their lives and decisions! The destruction was so complete that if people even thought of rebuilding and  repeopling , it would be as an exercise in futility. No one could be found who had the strength, courage, or willingness to undertake the government of a country in such disarray and confusion (v. 12). Verse 13 says, “Thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and brambles in its fortresses.”   

The Lord has given clear warning about the consequences of sinful living, and He will not fail to exercise judgment on those who persist in this lifestyle. When people love the world too much, it leads to its ruin and defilement by their sin. Isaiah unhesitatingly speaks of suffering and death, and declares them to be instruments of justice and judgment in God’s hand.  

While the words of this prophecy come from Isaiah, he is only the mouthpiece. The Speaker was, and is, God. It is within His prerogative to grant to Israel a land flowing with milk and honey; and to assign to Edom desert land cluttered with rocks and waste. In his commentary on Isaiah, Ray  Ortlund  Jr. wrote: “The good life turning into an eternally barren desert—that is where God-neglect takes us (Isa. 34). But if you will put your trust in God, your desert will be transformed into a garden. That is what the grace of God can do ( ch.  35). Each one of us is moving in one of these two directions, either into judgment or into salvation. What God wants is to save you.”  

— Explain the God-given deed mentioned in verse 17.  

3.  THE GLADNESS OF THE REDEEMED  

A.  The Display of God’s Glory  (Isaiah 35:1-4)  

3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a  recompence ; he will come and save you.  

There could be no greater contrast than the darkness and gloom of the previous chapter with a time when “the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (35:1). The enemies of God’s people have had their day. The prophet pronounces blessing on the righteous and curses on the wicked.  

Following the execution of God’s judgment on the world because of its wickedness, He will usher in an era of peace, such as the nation of Israel has longed for since its inception. This long-promised restoration will finally be realized. This period is described as a time when the mountain range of Lebanon will show its majestic glory, Mount Carmel its beauty, and the plain of Sharon its loveliness (v. 2). But nothing can compare with “the glory [and] excellence of our God” (v. 2 NKJV), who will outshine them all. It will be a time of glorious discoveries of God's power and goodness to His people. They will receive blessings at His hand, and enjoy the fullness of salvation.  

What does this portrait of God’s working say to us? Believers are called on to encourage the depressed (feeble hands), the terrified (weak knees), and the fearful (v. 3). Words of comfort and courage will lift the hearts of those who are faint and will strengthen them in the faith. Furthermore, God will be with them and fight their battles (v. 4). There may be times when He seems to be absent as spiritual opposition arises. But be assured, “He will come and save you” (v. 4). As the apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Rom. 16:20 ESV).  

— Why should Christians have strong hands and fearless hearts (vv. 3-4)?  

B.  Streams in the Desert  (Isaiah 35:5-7)  

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. 7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.  

When God’s long-awaited kingdom is established on earth, marvelous restoration will take place. The heartbreaking effects of sin on the human body will be reversed. Things that sin turned upside- down will be returned to normal. What a blessed condition will prevail when the entire world acknowledges the wonderful works of the Lord!   

During Christ’s millennial reign, the Lord will open the eyes of the blind, as He did during His ministry on earth (Matt. 11:5). There is a spiritual application here as well. When the Gospel is preached, the eyes of those who are spiritually blind are opened to the truth. The apostle Paul was sent to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people” (Acts 26:18 NLT).  

In Christ’s coming reign on earth, not only will the blind see; the ears of the deaf will be unplugged, the lame will leap, and those who could not speak will shout and sing for joy (Isa. 35:5-6). What a day that will be!  

The changes that will take place during that time will not be limited to human beings. Amazingly, the land will be blessed and streams will flow in the desert (v. 6). What was a mirage in the desert will be a reality, and will not disappear as a wanderer approaches. There will be plentiful, life-giving fountains of water everywhere (v. 7). This is an external picture of an internal flooding of blessing, triggered by the Holy Spirt, springing up in believing hearts everywhere. Can you imagine what it will be like with Jesus living among His people as they walk in righteousness before Him? 

— How will the renewed earth be like the original creation (see Gen. 1:31)?  

C.  The Highway of Holiness  (Isaiah 35:8-10)  

8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up  thereon , it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: 10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  

We are given a remarkable glimpse of activity during the millennial kingdom as the righteous travel “The Way of Holiness,” which leads to the city of God.  Christianity  is frequently referred to as “The Way.” This highway is traveled by holy people who lead a godly lifestyle. There will be no room for the unclean and wicked. The psalmist wrote: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation” (24:3-5).  

There will be nothing on this road to hinder the redeemed of the Lord. Travel will be safe, free from any danger lurking in the shadows. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9). The sounds that will be heard as believers follow this Way of Holiness will be songs and thanksgiving. The joy and happiness believers experienced when they received Christ into their hearts will continue for all eternity. Praise the Lord!  

“Holiness does not consist of mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors, or  uncommanded  austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks and willing as God wills.”—John Brown,  Expository Discourses on 1 Peter  

THE CHOICE IS YOURS  

Will you be among those who will face the judgment of God at the end of this life, or will you be an overcomer “by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of [your] testimony” (Rev. 12:11)? There is victory in Jesus. There is also an eternity to enjoy the blessings of the Lord. It should not be a difficult decision, but the choice is yours. Turn to Christ; He is the gateway to glory.  

Daily Devotions:   

M.  The Great Flood  ( Genesis 6:9-17 )  

T.  Passover Celebrated With Gladness  ( 2 Chronicles 30:13-23 )