Isaiah
24:5
5 The earth ['erets] also is
defiled [chaneph] under the inhabitants [yashab] thereof; because they have transgressed [`abar] the laws [towrah], changed [chalaph] the ordinance [choq],
broken [parar] the everlasting [`owlam] covenant [bariyth]. KJV-Interlinear
5 The earth lies defiled under its
inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken
the everlasting covenant. ESV
Here in this
verse and the next, assuming that you actually read this study, you should
commit to memory because when so many ask why this world and life are so
difficult, the answer is given here through Isaiah.
The earth is
defiled, ‘chaneph,’ means defiled or polluted, but it also means deceitful or
to be wicked or false.
Just as God
created the universe to be a place for habitation and it was destroyed by Satan’s
sin, and the eventual sin of all of the angels, then so too, when God created
the Garden of Eden for a place of habitation and endless provision, that too
was destroyed by Adam and Eve by means of their sin.
And now we know
that the world that we live in was intended to provide for all of our needs, as
a basic understanding or arrangement between man and earth. An arrangement established by God through His
ordinances.
However, man has
sinned continually and has thus violated that arrangement through mans
violation of Gods ordinances. And not
only violated Gods ordinances, ordinances between man and the natural laws of
the world, but man has gone so far as to superimpose his own rules, that
perpetuate and escalate the decline of the world.
This has nothing
to do with the environment, but everything to do with mans sins and rejection of
God, rejection of Christ, rejection of Gods natural laws, which we call the
Laws of Divine Establishment.
Under its
inhabitants, refers to humanity. We are the cause of the earths decline.
What used to be
plush forests and lakes and such, and are now deserts, all occurred long before
modern industry.
It is not mans
burning of camp fires or pollution that is the cause of the worlds decline, it
is mans sins and continuance in those sins, or the fundamental rejection of
Gods original ordinances.
Laws, ‘towrah,’
and ordinances, ‘chalaph,’ refer to all of the rules and commandments and moral
codes of the Mosaic Law, but more than that, they refer to all of the rules God
has handed down to man since Adam.
This is the
entire embodiment of right, which has been fundamentally rejected and changed
by man.
Examples of
crime, homosexuality, socialism, self-righteousness and so forth are only a few
of the many results caused by mans indifference toward truth, which man has
refused to learn by refusing to engage in a daily study, or has rejected
outright in favor of more convenient or enticing agendas.
But mans
rejection also has overflowed into the world as a planet of perpetual provision. And it is that provision which has been
deficient and in decline.
Now note one
important principle. When Christ returns
and establishes His kingdom, the earth will again become an abundant source of provision
for all of that 1000 year period, and for a world population that will far
exceed anything we have today.
So, do not get
the idea that the world is running out of resources. It is man who is running out of truth.
The everlasting
covenant, ‘bariyth,’ is the third term used in this verse to represent the time
frame over which Gods laws span, namely forever. And this incorporates all laws of nature, all
laws of justice, all laws of righteousness, which are immutable inflexible and
perpetual.
And, since we
are studying the prophecies that point to the eventual total destruction of the
entire planet, we can now know that it is man who is responsible for his own
destruction.
Man establishes
government regulations, man establishes social compromises, man does virtually everything
that leads to not only the rebellion of the planet, but to all of the problems
that exist in life.
So, the next
time someone makes a righteous sounding statement demanding why God allows this
or that, then now you can respond to them that it is they who are responsible
because of their indifference and lack of truth, not God.
