CHAPTER 34

(713 B.C.)

ARMAGEDDON; GODS WRATH ON THE NATIONS

¹Come near, you nations, to hear; and hearken, you people: let the Earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. (Chapters 34 and 35 form one Prophecy. Chapter 34 pertains to the Great Tribulation, while Chapter 35 pertains to the coming Millennium.

In this Prophecy, as throughout the Bible, the evening of judgment precedes the morning of blessing. Man, in his energies, must be judged and broken before the Kingdom of God can be established.)

²For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He has utterly destroyed them, He has delivered them to the slaughter. (This speaks of the nations and the armies that will be gathered at Jerusalem in order to destroy that city and to annihilate the Jews. The Lord will meet this with His fury.)

³Their dead also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. (Concerning statements such as the mountains shall be melted with their blood, some have accused Isaiah of lapsing into hyperbole; however, Isaiah is merely speaking the words of the Holy Spirit, and it is certain that He would not resort to such!

Actually, the entirety of the army of the Antichrist will be destroyed, with the exception of one-sixth, and this will happen in one day [Ezek. 39:2; Zech. 14:1-15; Rev. 19:11-21].)

⁴And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. (This speaks of the Great Tribulation, which will last for seven years. During this time, the host of Heaven, which includes the stars and planetary bodies, will be greatly affected. The word dissolved seems to imply that their orderly conduct will be interrupted, which will cause tremendous upheaval on the Earth [Rev. 8:7-12].)

⁵For My sword shall be bathed in Heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of My curse, to judgment. (Idumea is the same as Edom, and symbolizes all who are opposed to Zion. It represents all the nations, Edom and Adam being the same word.

The sword bathed in Heaven is the Wrath of God purposed in Heaven and descending upon guilty man like the fire fell out of Heaven upon Sodom.

The statement, the people of My curse, literally means the people on whom I have laid a curse the Edomites. To be cursed is one thing, but to be cursed by God is something else altogether.)

⁶The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. (The Sacrifices are mentioned because they are used as an example of the coming slaughter. This will be in the Great Tribulation and at the Battle of Armageddon.

At that time, the Lord, in effect, will perform major surgery on planet Earth; otherwise, Earth would be destroyed.)

⁷And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. (All the power of man, as symbolized by the strong animals of this Verse, shall be destroyed in that day.)

⁸For it is the day of the LORDs vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion. (The controversy of Zion relates not only to the hostility of the nations to Israel, but also to the age-long war of man against God. This war has raged since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. All of this will come to a head in the Great Tribulation [Mat. 24:21].)

⁹And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. (These two Verses seem to describe one of the openings in the Earth where men will be able to see down into Hell, which will exist during the entirety of the Millennial Reign.)

¹¹But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. (This continues to describe the opening in the Earth, which could well be the site of Babylon [Isa. 66:22-24].)

¹²They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. (This speaks of all the nobles who have lived down through the ages but refused to serve God. Irrespective of their nobility and their lofty station in life, they will not gain entrance into the Kingdom.)

¹³And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. (This tells us what the Lord says about those things in which man placed such stock; they are good for nothing except to grow nettles and brambles.)

¹⁴The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. (In Lev. 17:7, the word satyr is used for devils, and probably means this here. The idea of this Passage is that on this particular site, wherever it may be [probably where Babylon once existed], the sounds that come from it will be debilitating, to say the least. The screeching and crying will characterize the horror of eternal Hell, which it represents [Mat. 8:12].)

¹⁵There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. (The type of animals and fowls that are mentioned here come under the heading of unclean. Such will characterize this place.

Many may ask the question, Why would the Lord have such a place or opening to Hell in the Earth? Perhaps the purpose of this opening will be to cause coming generations to abhor sin and its consequences. When natural men can actually see into eternal Hell, it will be a great warning to them to walk in the Ways of God. Not only men on the New Earth, but Angels also, and all other beings will be able to look into this place and see how horrible the punishment of sin is [Rev. 14:9-11].

Horrifying as the thought may be, the view may be Gods best method of keeping eternal generations in line with His Laws and Commandments, as they progress in the New Earth in the eternal future.)

¹⁶Seek you out of the Book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for My mouth it has commanded, and His Spirit it has gathered them. (It seems as if the Holy Spirit senses the unbelief of men regarding these predictions and proclaims to all that no one of these shall fail. Mankind is ordered to seek you out of the Book of the LORD, and read and understand that of all the things predicted, all shall come to pass.)

¹⁷And He has cast the lot for them, and His Hand has divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it forever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. (The words, He has cast the lot for them, refer to the fact that God allots to all nations of the Earth their particular destiny. It all has to do with their acceptance or rejection of Him. It is said that His Hand draws the line of their habitation; consequently, He has said, The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God [Ps. 9:17].)