14 They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west.
15 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.
16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to the Righteous One. – Yesterday was all about the future, even from our stance today it is yet to be fulfilled! Today’s passage starts with the present, that is the time when Isaiah was writing and maybe in some parts of the world even today. In many parts of the world it certainly is not typical for masses of people to be shouting out ‘give glory to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel‘. Certainly this is not what we hear being sung – ‘From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One.’
But I say, “I waste away,
I waste away. Woe is me!
For the traitors have betrayed,
with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.” – The ‘I’ is presumably the writer, who cannot but remember the severity of the message which he is in the midst of proclaiming (yesterday’s reading) and he continues with the message which God has given him about the future!
17 Terror and the pit and the snare
are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
18 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.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.
19 The earth is utterly broken,
the earth is split apart,
the earth is violently shaken.
20 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.
21 On that day the LORD will punish
the host of heaven, in heaven,
and the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 They will be gathered together
as prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.
23 Then the moon will be confounded
and the sun ashamed,
for the LORD of hosts reigns
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and his glory will be before his elders.
Comment: The prophesied future includes personal, geological, heavenly host, rulers in heaven and on earth events, and even the sun and moon are mentioned! The passage is poetic so you have to let your mind imagine as to what the prophet is referring. Does ‘The earth staggers like a drunken man; it sways like a hut;‘ refer to earth quakes, tectonic plate movements? Does ‘They will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit;‘ refer to the last judgement and hell, a bottomless pit? Does this prophesied judgement include the whole cosmos? -‘Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed.’ The following seems to indicate clearly the return and rule of Jesus! for the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.
Jude 1: 6 – 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Prayer: Please help me to honesty look at Your book, and please help me to learn from it and live by it, Amen!
As I read it! 