SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 34
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. [Isaiah 34:2]
The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat– the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom. [Isaiah 34:6]
Isaiah uses disturbing language to describe how God will punish the violent, cruel nations (including Edom) for the bloodthirsty viciousness that they used against Israel (and other weak peoples).
God does not actually carry a blood-bathed sword, He does not actually kill people in the way described here; rather Isaiah is describing the gore of warfare, how people fought and killed and tortured one another.
God has entrusted this world to human care and oversight, and we have turned it into a bloodbath.
God is allowing the tables to turn, and the victimizers will now become the victims of their own cruelty.

What Isaiah describes is more than an incident in history, it is also the eventual goal of history.
The day is coming when humanity will reap what it has sown; we will see the full extent of sinful depravity.
This is what hell is, the culmination of human depravity; God did not create a place called “hell” to hold the damned, rather hell is the natural outcome of turning away from God.
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 and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again. [Isaiah 34:9-10]
This is the language of hell, reminding us of how Jesus also spoke: And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ [Mark 9:47-48]
Notice the evolution of sin: sin that is not eradicated eventually leads to hell and misery.
We see this in part in this life, where foolish and sinful choices lead to awful consequences; but God holds back the consequences for now, in mercy He gives us time to come to our senses.
But eventually, if we refuse to change direction, He will finally say, ‘OK, have it your way if you must’.

I believe that there are two destinations for humanity – eternal life or eternal judgment.
I do not get technical or specific or literal in describing “hell” – some people see it as an actual place of fire and worms.
I don’t know exactly what eternal judgment will be, but it will be eternal (or final), and it will be the natural consequence of our choices in this life.
Those who humbly repent and seek God’s mercy and help will receive eternal life; those who stubbornly refuse and live for themselves will receive eternal death.
God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. [Romans 2:4-8]
The Edomites were receiving “according to what they had done”; they persisted in violence and cruelty, so that is what they received.
The same is true for all people – the direction of their hearts and lives, towards a God-life or away from a God-life, will eventually determine the destination of their hearts and lives.

But as I said before, God holds back the consequences, giving us time to repent.
Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. [Romans 2:4-5]
Storing up wrath for myself, this is what I do when I refuse to come clean before God.
Do I really want to inherit the eternal misery of selfish, God-less living?

PRAYER:
Lord, this message is no designed to frighten me, but to provoke me to humility and repentance. Your kindness is protecting me from the full consequence of my sinful behaviour… but one day if I refuse to repent, You may say to me: ‘OK, have it your way if you must’. May it never be!!!!