Isaiah 13:9
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.
