Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Isaiah 13:9

Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Isaiah 13:9ues

9 Behold, the day [yowm] of the LORD [Yahovah] cometh [bow'], cruel ['akzariy] both with wrath [`ebrah] and fierce [charown] anger ['aph], to lay [suwm] the land ['erets] desolate [shammah]: and he shall destroy [shamad] the sinners [chatta'] thereof out of it. KJV-Interlinear

9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. NASB

The day of the Lord, generally always has two connotations that attach to the phrase.

The first is that when God judges, then that is the time of His day, or the time of His judgment, and can occur in any given situation against any person or group of people or against any nation or empire or whatever.

But the most common application of this phrase, is that it applies to the last days of history, when God issues His final judgment against all evil.

And that is the reference in view here.

In the context, we can see the reference easily usually by the result of the action of the judgment.  Here the judgment will end in extermination.

Isaiah has been addressing Babylon.  In the next verses and chapters, many of the surrounding nations relative to Israel, will be receiving their prophetic destruction notice.  All of these do not apply to the many incidents over the course of time, but they, the nations, will all receive their due judgment at the same time at the end of history, thus the end times.

Throughout history there is always a recovery of some sort, but not in this final days judgment.  There will be no recovery for those sinful nations.

Therefore, in this final judgment, an extermination will be on the agenda, and from Isaiah’s words, fair notice is given to all who interested and especially to all that could care less.

Desolation is on the calendar for the land, and extermination is scheduled for the sinners.  And in this case, the term sinners has a broad application for all who stand in opposition to God.

Opposition, indifference, apathy toward God, toward Christ, toward doctrine, toward Gods plan, towards Gods policies and mandates, and so forth, are all terms that describe sinners. These are not necessarily just unbelievers, even though in the finals days of history certainly most of the world will be mostly unbelievers.  There could and most likely will be, believers that are simply negative toward God and have never really turned or had the courage to turn their lives toward God.  And with their focus on the world, it will certainly be easier to turn toward the anti-christ just to make life more bearable.

Recall that in those final years, no one will be able to buy or sell unless they give allegiance to the anti-christ.  And with everything else in life being unbearable, then that will pose a huge temptation for folks, especially if they are unemployed and hungry.

Even so, when the final judgment does come, then the end will also come upon all who have turned away from Christ, for whatever reason.

Cruel with burning anger, makes it very clear that the final judgment will be intense, unrelenting, and thorough.  There will be no escape.  And no one will escape.  All will die with extreme violence and in extreme terror.

And not only the people, but the land as well, will be destroyed.  The violence of the war, the violence of the earthquakes, the violence of all of the natural disasters and so forth, will render the geographical look of the planet as virtually unidentifiable and unrecognizable.