July 2, 2024 - Isaiah 22-25

Isaiah’s announcements of judgment continue:  against Jerusalem and against Tyre.  And so, he has named nation after nation but those unnamed nations are not left out of his denunciation.   The prophet has all the world in view:  “Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. . . . The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word” (24:1-3).  I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Athenians when he explained that all people everywhere are ultimately accountable to the God who created them.  Furthermore, Paul pointed his listeners, and us, to the One in whom redemption is found:  “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth . . . The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:26-31).  This, by the way, is why we pray for the nations.  This is why we send missionaries to the nations.  From all the nations . . . what a gathering that will be!

O the moon shall be confounded and the sun shall be ashamed,

When the Lord shall reign in Zion in His love,

When His name shall be exalted over every name that's named,

And the saints of God His perfect will shall prove.

What a gath’ring, gath’ring,

‘Tis the sounding of the glorious jubilee!

What a gath’ring, gath’ring,

Where Thy saints together meet to worship Thee!   --Anonymous