God’s Judgment on the Earth
“Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor. The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered.
The LORD has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away. The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.
The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan. The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent. They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it. The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry. In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land. The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.
They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD. Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.”
But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery. Terror and pit and snare await you, O dwellers of the earth. Whoever flees the sound of terror will fall into a pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in a trap. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently. The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.
In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below. They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days. The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.”
Just in case you still thought being a prophet was fun, consider the words of Isaiah 24! Here Isaiah is foretelling the final destruction of the whole earth, and the visions are so horrible that Isaiah responds, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.”
Isaiah is foretelling a time when God will judge the earth and bring an end to it. In that day, social position, religious affiliation, and profession will mean absolutely nothing. God who knows all human hearts will judge the earth and its people. What will happen to bring this cataclysm about? Sin! “The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away. The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.”
Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” The sin burden of the world will become so great that the whole earth will be defiled and cursed. God warned the Israelites in Leviticus 18:28 that He was giving them the Promised Land because of the sins of the people who were already there. But the Israelites could equally find themselves rejected as well. “And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” Frankly, mankind is fouling its own nest, bringing curses on the innocent earth and defiling it.
But is everything gloom and doom? No! George Otis Jr. and his group Sentinel Organization have faithfully recorded amazing restoration of the earth and its fish and wildlife when people repent, repudiate ancestral sins, and follow the One True Living God.
APPLICATION: We live and work in Ghana. When we came more than 34 years ago, Ghana had vast forests with huge trees. Now those trees are gone. Resources are disappearing. Farmers are being forced to employ chemical fertilizers and herbicides to grow decent crops. These chemicals carry their own side effects, some of which may last for generations. Due to extensive mining, water quality in many areas has severely deteriorated. Rivers that once ran clear are now murky with few fish.
Can God turn these situations around if we repent? YES! YES! YES! Just as sin defiles the earth, repentance and righteousness can heal it. For documentation of such miracles, go to https://www.sentinelgroup.org/documentaries or look up videos by George Otis Jr. on YouTube. In places as far apart as Fiji, Guatemala, Alaska, Canada, Hemet, California, and the Scottish Hebrides Islands, revival has been followed by restoration of the land. In one location in Guatemala, local farmers who scarcely had any produce began sending several truckloads of vegetables a week to market. These vegetables were enormous – carrots as big as a man’s forearm. The 4 local jails that formerly were overflowing closed for lack of drunken prisoners.
God has been, is, and always will be a Redeemer. When we turn to Him, confess our sins, beg Him for forgiveness, and worship Him, he will heal us and our families and will heal our land. God promised King Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:13 – 14, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
We all have choices. We can choose to sin and defile our environment, or we can choose to worship God and allow Him to heal it. The whole universe tilts on the axis of free will; God does not create puppets. Will we choose to serve God, to fear Him and to follow His leading, or will we choose to sin, defiling ourselves and everything around us?
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help all who read this devotional to choose to follow You and to serve You all the days of their lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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