Isaiah 64:2
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
The verse is a prayer for God to tear open the heavens and come down, so that mountains melt and flow down at His presence as melting fire burns and causes waters to boil. That burning and boiling pictures overwhelming upheaval at God's presence bearing the special marks of His power, seen in earthquakes and volcanoes, in burning mountains pouring forth fire and flame, in torrents of melted ore, in dried-up rivers, in overwhelmed populous cities, and in ruin and desolation spread everywhere. The depths of the earth are the Lord's arsenal from which weapons were drawn to destroy the old world, when waters gushing up from the earth united with waters falling from heaven, and since the Flood fire as well as water has been His agent to destroy very wicked cities.
These exhibitions are designed to make His name known to His adversaries and to cause the people of the earth and the nations to tremble before Him. They silence proud defiance like Pharaoh's refusal, Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice, and they lead those who lightly regard God's law and trample His authority to tremble before His power, confess His just sovereignty, and acknowledge His infinite power, filling even the stoutest heart with terror and constraining infidels, blasphemers, and hardened unbelievers. The verse applies to earthly judgments such as volcanic eruptions and destruction by fire and water, and it also points to still more terrible manifestations at Christ's second coming, specifically the time just before His coming when He destroys the wicked inhabitants of the earth.
In that day of the Lord just before Christ's coming, God in wrath sends lightnings from heaven that unite with fire in the earth, so that mountains burn like a furnace and erupt. They pour forth terrible streams of lava, molten rock, melted ore, rocks, and heated mud that destroy gardens and fields, villages and cities, and as they pour into the rivers they make them boil like a pot. Massive rocks are hurled and broken fragments scattered upon the land with indescribable violence, whole rivers are dried up, and the earth is convulsed with dreadful eruptions and earthquakes everywhere. By these commotions God plagues the wicked inhabitants of the earth until they are destroyed from off it, while the saints are preserved alive in the midst of them as Noah was preserved in the ark at the Flood. As part of Isaiah 62 to 65, the verse speaks in a most decided manner to leaders in the cause, to those connected with institutions carrying great responsibilities, and to God's people, carrying the Lord's reproof for disregard of reproofs, for accepting only chosen parts of the word without thorough consecration to God, and for neglected duty to warn the people what is truth. It is understood when reformation comes, so that all complaining and every evil work are stopped through repentance and conversion, after which the Lord manifests His power in the conviction and conversion of souls.