Isaiah 34 highlights God’s wrath against nations that choose not to submit to Him and live according to His ways. Those who choose their own ways, the ways of sin, are not pleasing to the LORD. There will be judgment. In fact, we can also remember that sin by itself, even without God’s wrath, separates us from God and transforms our personal lives, marriages, families, communities, or nation from what God desires to a mess.
God’s Wrath against Nations
1Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!
Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.
2For the LORD’S indignation is against all the nations,
And His wrath against all their armies;
He has utterly destroyed them,
He has given them over to slaughter.
3So their slain will be thrown out,
And their corpses will give off their stench,
And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.
4And all the host of heaven will wear away,
And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;
All their hosts will also wither away
As a leaf withers from the vine,
Or as one withers from the fig tree.
5For My sword is satiated in heaven,
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom
And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.
6The sword of the LORD is filled with blood,
It is sated with fat, 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 Edom.
7Wild oxen will also fall with them
And young bulls with strong ones;
Thus their land will be soaked with blood,
And their dust become greasy with fat.
8For the LORD has a day of vengeance,
A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
9Its streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into brimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.
10It will not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will be desolate;
None will pass through it forever and ever.
11But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And owl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the line of desolation
And the plumb line of emptiness.
12Its nobles—there is no one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its princes will be nothing.
13Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And an abode of ostriches.
14The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,
The hairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the night monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
15The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its protection.
Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.
16Seek from the book of the LORD, and read:
Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For His mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.
17He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it to them by line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Seek to live according to God’s ways. Do not sin. Seek forgiveness. Submit to the LORD. The very nature of living according to His instructions is to live in a way that loves God and loves others. On top of that, we want to seek and receive His blessing for obedience rather than His wrath for disobedience.
For those that want to focus on the forgiveness we get through Yeshua, that is true. We can be very grateful! However, He also tells us to go and sin no more, which is to repent and change our ways to God’s ways.
Take a few minutes to pray. Ask God to show you any areas in your life in which you have not fully submitted to Him. It may be a job or marriage. It could be a hobby or friends that you know are not a good influence. Once He shows you where you are not fully submitted, ask forgiveness and take action to bring that part of your life into submission before Him. No excuses.
33But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.
Shalom. May the grace and peace of our Lord, Yeshua, be with you. Devotion by John in service to Christ
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