Marked Devotional 22

ISAIAH 24:17-19 | ¹⁷Terror, and the pit, and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth! ¹⁸ Whoever flees at the sound of the terror shall fall into the pit; and whoever 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 torn asunder, the earth is violently shaken.

ISAIAH 25:6a | ^6aOn this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food.

In graphic prose and gruesome poetry, the great prophet Isaiah describes the universal judgement of the earth in Chapter 24. Active during the reigns of 4 kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Isaiah predicted the rise of Assyria and its invasion and pronounced judgement on the unfaithfulness of God’s people. Active between 740 and 700BC he saw the destruction and dispersal of the ten northern tribes of Israel and the precarious position of Judah and Jerusalem.

Yet he also had visions of a universal renewal and restoration. God would prepare a “rich feast for all peoples.” Jesus announced, after witnessing the faith of the Roman centurion, to the surprise of His disciples, that “many would come from the east and west and feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

The themes of judgement and hope in both the teaching of Isaiah and Jesus reflect the twin realities of the world’s great trouble and God’s greater solution.

What is the character of your hope like?

Does it include judgement?

Tags: hope, character