Isaiah 24:1
Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
Behold, the Lord Himself makes the earth empty and waste, overturns it, and scatters abroad its inhabitants in the great final judgment day. That desolation occurs at Christ's coming, when the wicked are destroyed and Christ takes His people to the city of God, leaving the earth without inhabitants. The emptied earth will then lie like a wilderness strewn with the ruins of cities, with uprooted trees and rocks tossed in wild confusion, and with great caverns where mountains have been torn from their foundations.
The cause is that the inhabitants have defiled the earth by transgressing God's laws, changing His ordinance, and breaking the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse devours the earth, land and dwellers are left desolate, and mirth, noise, rejoicing and music cease. The judgment reaches people of every rank and every level of society.
The cleansing judgment begins in a limited degree and grows in power to warn people and urge them to repent. The event is near at hand, and its approach already casts shadows before, with a sound of approach that causes the earth to tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear. Only the Bible gives a correct view of these great final scenes in the history of the world.
The crisis portrays the coming time of worldwide trouble, destruction and strife when God permits the restraining angels to release the winds. The passage also applies to people sunk in degradation through strong drink, indulgence, lust and worldly pollution, some once wealthy or highly educated, who are helpless, spiritually unresponsive and unable to restore themselves or recognize the hope offered them. Yet they remain prisoners of hope to be reached and brought in with the call to come to Christ and hear.