The NIV 365-Day Devotional Reading PlanSample

How and when will God devastate the earth?

To this point, Isaiah’s warnings have been about God’s judgment on specific nations. But here he broadens the word of doom to encompass the entire world: destruction will come to all who sin.

The picture he paints is of devastation so complete that it will rival the flood God sent in the time of Noah. Ruin its face (v. 1) suggests a disaster that will change the contours of the planet, much like the flood did. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts and crashing meteorites have the potential to do that. This much is clear: God, not human beings, will lay waste to the planet in judgment for sin.

We don’t know when this destruction will happen. But Isaiah seems to say that after the earth is laid waste (v. 3), God will make a new creation (26:1). Perhaps this will be in the last days of human history, when God defeats evil once and for all. Because many scholars have interpreted the message this way, chapters 24 – 27 are known as the “Apocalypse of Isaiah.”

Taken from Quest Study Bible