Tuesday after the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 19, 2019 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 34:1-17 (NKJV)
34:1 Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world and all things that come forth from it.
2 For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations, and His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter.
3 Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine, and as fruit falling from a fig tree.
5 “For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, and on the people of My curse, for judgment.
6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made overflowing with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 The wild oxen shall come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust saturated with fatness.”
8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9 Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch.
10 It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.
11 But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it, also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and brambles in its fortresses; It shall be a habitation of jackals, a courtyard for ostriches.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall bleat to its companion; Also the night creature shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There the arrow snake shall make her nest and lay eggs and hatch, and gather them under her shadow; There also shall the hawks be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 “Search from the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”
Devotion
Isaiah prophesies the Last Day and final judgment in vivid and haunting images. It will be as a slaughter on the cosmic battlefield. The stench of corpses, mountains melted in blood, and the celestial bodies dissolved. The creation will be rolled up like a scroll once the end is reached. It is inevitable, just as the leaf and fruit fall from a fig tree once their end arrives. That day will be the day of the Lord’s vengeance. The horrid images throughout this chapter describe well “the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41) to which the unbelieving will depart.
Isaiah calls this “The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.” For whose sake is all this done? For believers! The Lord’s return shouldn’t terrify Christians. It is for their sake that the Lord God executes judgment on the Last Day. Zion is the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, all who believe the Gospel and trust Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. The vengeance and judgment executed will not be for the sins of Christians. Christ richly and daily forgives our sins in His Church. He covers us with forgiveness so that our many sins are forgiven each day. The Last Day will be a day of vengeance on unbelievers, those who are not justified because they reject the righteousness of faith.
We pray: O God, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Thy Holy Spirit that, being ever mindful of the end of all things and the day of Thy just judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with Thee forever hereafter; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
