OUR LORD WHO BRINGS JUDGEMENT ON THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS

Isaiah chapter 34 verses 9 to 11 speaks of the  retribution that is visited on the nations for the sake of Zion. The passage says this;

Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!

It will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever.

From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.

The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there.

God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. 

Edom, representing the coalition of nations who aligned with the kingdom of darkness against Zion, is fearsomely  judged.

Her streams of water  that used to bring life and refreshing, are turned into streams of burning tar and the acrid smoke of sulphur and bitumen rise and fill the atmosphere making the whole land a toxic, uninhabitable wasteland.

The land is forsaken and abandoned so that only unclean birds (evil spirits) could dwell there.

The devastation of this judgement is so complete that the conditions in the aftermath are described with the same terms ( chaos and desolation ) that are used to outline the primordial conditions at creation which Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 says this way;

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, 

This passage in Isaiah chapter 34  also mirrors the book of Revelation chapter  14 verse  11 with the  description of  smoke rising up forever. The passage in Revelation reads this way;

And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

The judgement against the kingdom of darkness and those who align with darkness is dreadful and eternal. The finality of the destruction is marked by the eternal columns of smoke rising from the scorched landscape.

Let us be sincerely grateful to our Lord who has given us the power to believe in the gospel of His salvation that saved us from the judgement reserved for the princes of darkness.

Amen.