We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

The New Earth? And who Adventist believe will dwell there

We continue with our examination of Isaiah Chapter 34

VERSE 8 “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.”

The “day” is contrasted with the “year.” In the spiritual context here with Christendom, the “day of the LORD’s vengeance” would be the day of God’s indignation when the nominal systems fall. (Of course, the fullness of God’s wrath, the time when His fury comes up into His face, will require His revealment, and that will occur in Jacob’s Trouble.) The trouble will start with the fall of Papacy followed by other judgments, and it will climax in Jacob’s Trouble.

A “year” is longer than a “day.” Sometimes in Scripture the use of “day” and “year” together in a verse pinpoints a particular event. If that is the case here, it means that the Lord has a specific timetable of a certain year and a certain day (or a very short period of time)—a date or an exact time—for doing these things.

For example, in Rev 9:15, “So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”

Here the “day,” “month,” and “year” refer to the exact day—October 31, 1517—when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg.

VERSE 9 “Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone; Its land shall become burning pitch.”

Verses 9–15 pertain to the judgment of Edom. This land was laid waste in the past and remains desolate today, yet it was once a very prosperous land with people and animals. The “dust” or topsoil became unproductive and so dry (like “brimstone” and “pitch” radiating heat) that it would not support either crops or animals. (This is also true of Ephesus, which was once a thriving, populated city in Turkey or Asia Minor. No one lives there today.)

VERSE 10 “It shall not be quenched night or day; Its smoke shall ascend forever. From generation to generation, it shall lie waste; No one shall pass through it forever and ever.”

Verse 10 further describes the effect on the land.

VERSE 11 “But the pelican and the hedgehog shall possess it, Also the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. And He shall stretch out over it The line of confusion and the stones of emptiness”.

Birds of prey and, for the most part, darkness frequent the desolate land of Edom. In the Revised Standard Version “cormorant” is “hawk.”

As it is explained in the Pulpit’s Commentary: The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it. Compare the prophecy against Babylon in Isaiah 14:23. The Hebrew word translated “cormorant,” is now generally regarded as designating the “pelican,” while the one rendered “bittern” is thought by some to mean “hedgehog” or “porcupine.” Animals that delight in solitude are certainly meant, but the particular species is, more or less, matter of conjecture.

God will stretch out “the line of confusion” upon Edom (Christendom). What happened to literal Edom in the past will happen to antitypical Edom (mystic Babylon). There is a relationship between Edom, and mystic Babylon. Originally, “Babylon” meant the gateway or door to God, but with a different pronunciation of one syllable, its meaning changed to “house of confusion.” To say that God will stretch out a “line of confusion” is a form of sarcasm. That which was formerly the great Babylon became “confusion,” which suggests that it will come to naught.

In addition, God will stretch out upon Edom “stones of emptiness” (“plummet of chaos” in the Revised Standard Version). Very often a line and a plummet (weight) are tied together to determine a perpendicular line.

“Stones of emptiness” suggest the empty, boastful claims of Papacy. An example is the boast that “the gates of hell will not prevail against Papacy,” that Papacy can withstand any onslaught because it is the true church of God. Such claims of superiority will be reversed. Many archbishops, priests, etc., will be shame-faced when they come forth in the Kingdom and learn that the system was false. The “stones of emptiness”—their proud, boastful claims of security, fixity, vanity, and eternity—are nothing but hot air. God will show by the true “plummet,” His Word, that the whole house of Papacy is askew and not founded upon the proper basis of authority. Consequently, the structure is doomed to fall.

The “line” and the “plummet” show that its future is eternal only in the sense of being desolate.

We continue with Verse 12 in our next post.