“Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The Lord has spoken! The earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive.”
Isaiah 24:1-6 NLT
Isaiah 24 is sometimes called “Isaiah’s Little Apocalypse”, because it moves beyond the judgment of individual nations (chapters 13–23) to a vision of God’s judgment on the whole earth, something thankfully followed by the hope of His glorious reign. It is both sobering and encouraging, reminding believers that while this world is passing away, God’s kingdom is eternal. The chapter starts with “the Lord is about to destroy the earth” but it doesn’t say when. Those impacted by this event are listed, but there are no exceptions. Everyone alive on Earth at the prophesied time will be affected. It is significant that social standing, career, or even religious affiliations will make no difference to those caught up in the catastrophe that will occur on the appointed day. As Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. And as is often said, the ground before the Cross of Christ is level; we all approach with repentant hearts, able and willing to receive forgiveness for all our sins, or we don’t approach at all and accept the consequences.
Isaiah continued his prophecy, explaining why all this would happen, and it is a damning indictment that only has one remedy. In today’s verses, we read, “The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant”. And it concludes that “Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive”. Quite how they would survive after such devastation isn’t clear until we read Isaiah 24:13, “Throughout the earth the story is the same— only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest”.
The world will be broken not because God failed, but because mankind rebelled. Isaiah painted a picture of creation itself mourning under the weight of human sin. The earth “dries up,” and “withers”, because we find that “the sins of its people” affect far more than individual lives; it damages families, societies, and even creation itself. Paul wrote, “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:20-22). Think about the impact sin can have. A lie destroys trust. Greed ruins communities. Sexual sin damages families. Pride destroys churches. Violence scars nations. Selfishness causes wars. We may think that our sins are private and don’t affect anyone else, but nothing can be further from the truth. We read in Numbers 32:23, “But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out”. In the news recently, there has been the story of a Cambridge professor who has been forced to resign following revelations about claims that he has made, revelations that boil down to a series of lies or “half-truths”. Several things about his life have come to light, including his academic qualifications, his authorship, his charitable work and his athletic prowess. The poor man is finding out the reality of the Scripture in Numbers 32. But we pilgrims cannot take the moral high ground because we ourselves will at one time or another have stretched the truth to bolster our credentials, and we need to look on with compassion rather than condemnation. Jesus said, and as recorded in John 8:32, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. Perhaps we can ask what the truth will set us free from, but we intuitively know that we tend to live deceitful lives, riven by sin, populated by lies, and that it is only by believing in Jesus that we can be set free to live a life God designed us for.
Sin has devastated God’s perfect creation through Adam, but it didn’t stay with him and Eve. It spread throughout the world just as an oil slick will keep spreading and spreading across the surface of a lake, destroying or covering everything that gets in its path. But God has a remedy. He didn’t create the earth with a view to walking away from it when mankind screwed up. He had a plan. Revelation 20:11, “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide”. Up to now, a series of woes had brought disasters upon the earth and its people (see the Trumpet woes in Revelation 8-11), but finally, the earth had to go, fleeing from His presence. And then we read the glorious event that John saw in Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone”. God always makes all things new. As a prophetic demonstration of this, we know that each Spring, after the winter when trees are bare, and vegetation has died away, new shoots appear, and once again we share in the excitement of God’s provision. Jesus makes all things new, in creation as well as the lives of new believers.
We pilgrims are the fruit of God’s plan, brought through Jesus and His willingness to die in our place as punishment for our sins. It is as though we are a prophetic statement of God’s provision and plan for dealing with the curse of sin that has blighted the world in which we live. But the question is, are we revealing this prophecy to those around us? Paul wrote, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins” (Ephesians 2:1). And I don’t think any of us pilgrims can dispute the truth in that verse. Two verses on in Ephesians 2, we read, “All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else”. But here’s the truth that the world needs to hear: “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4-5). You see, the Cross is empty. The Tomb is empty. All because Jesus is now in Heaven, mission accomplished, the price for mankind’s sin paid for all who believe in Him. Jesus said, “That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I Am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).
Paul wrote, “But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”” (Galatians 3:13). In Revelation 22:3, following the establishment of the New Heavens and the New Earth, we find, “No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him”. The curse has gone. Dealt with through God and His plan for eliminating sin. We pilgrims cannot walk away from the amazing love and grace that God has poured out on His creation.
Dear Father God. We are so sorry for our sins, and we confess them before You today, believing that through Your Son Jesus, they are dealt with once and for all. Please help us, through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, to live our lives Your way, and we pray, as David wrote, search our hearts for anything that offends You. We ask all this in Your precious name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 