Isaiah 24:14-23: a reflection

14These shall lift up their voice. They will shout for the majesty of the LORD. They cry aloud from the sea. 15Therefore glorify the LORD in the east, even the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea! 16From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously. 17Fear, the pit, and the snare are on you who inhabit the earth. 18It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. 19The earth is utterly broken. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently. 20The earth will stagger like a drunken man, and will sway back and forth like a hammock. Its disobedience will be heavy on it, and it will fall and not rise again. 21It will happen in that day that the LORD will punish the army of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth. 22They will be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison; and after many days they will be visited. 23Then the moon will be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of Armies will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem; and glory will be before his elders.

This is apocalyptic language at full stretch: the earth broken apart, reeling like a drunk, swaying like a hut in the wind, its foundations trembling. Isaiah piles up images of a world coming undone, where even the things that seem fixed give way. It is a vision of everything shaking.

But notice where the passage lands after all that upheaval. The moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, Isaiah says, for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion, and his glory will be before his elders. When even the sun and moon, the great reliable lights, fail and are put to shame, one thing remains standing: the reign of God. The shaking is not the last word; the throne is.

There is steadying hope in this for times when everything seems to reel. Sometimes the foundations we counted on do give way, the certainties fail, the world feels like it is coming apart at every seam. Isaiah's vision does not deny the shaking; it insists that above and beyond it, God still reigns, and his reign is what will still be standing when even sun and moon are ashamed. When your world shakes, do not anchor to the trembling foundations. Anchor to the throne that does not move.

Lord, when the world reels and even the certainties I counted on give way, remind me that your reign still stands. Keep me from anchoring to trembling foundations, and anchor me instead to your throne, which does not move.