I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
The verse looks forward to the earth made desolate, emptied of people with no man left and with all the birds fled, its land ruined and its cities broken down. The wider scene around it is without form and void, with no light in the heavens, the mountains trembling and displaced, the fruitful place become a wilderness, cities and villages lying in ruins, and trees uprooted. In this condition the earth is brought back, at least in part, to the confusion, darkness, disorder and emptiness of its beginning. The vision belongs to a time of great trouble identified with Jacob's trouble, from which God's people will be saved, and is applied to the scenes of trouble expected before Christ's second coming.
It shows the coming doom of the earth at the time of the end when God bids His angels loose the winds, bringing a scene of strife no pen can picture, standing on the very verge of fulfillment as one of the great coming scenes watched and waited for since Eden. It describes the earth after the destruction of the wicked at Christ's second coming, after Christ appears, the righteous dead are raised, and the living saints are changed and taken with them to meet the Lord in the air. The desolation lays human pride low and comes because men have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. The desolate earth then becomes the dwelling place of Satan and his angels during the thousand years, where they are confined to wander over the ruined earth with no one left to deceive and see the effects of rebellion against God's law.
The verse looks forward to the earth made desolate, emptied of people with no man left and with all the birds fled, its land ruined and its cities broken down. The wider scene around it is without form and void, with no light in the heavens, the mountains trembling and displaced, the fruitful place become a wilderness, cities and villages lying in ruins, and trees uprooted. In this condition the earth is brought back, at least in part, to the confusion, darkness, disorder and emptiness of its beginning. The vision belongs to a time of great trouble identified with Jacob's trouble, from which God's people will be saved, and is applied to the scenes of trouble expected before Christ's second coming.
It shows the coming doom of the earth at the time of the end when God bids His angels loose the winds, bringing a scene of strife no pen can picture, standing on the very verge of fulfillment as one of the great coming scenes watched and waited for since Eden. It describes the earth after the destruction of the wicked at Christ's second coming, after Christ appears, the righteous dead are raised, and the living saints are changed and taken with them to meet the Lord in the air. The desolation lays human pride low and comes because men have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. The desolate earth then becomes the dwelling place of Satan and his angels during the thousand years, where they are confined to wander over the ruined earth with no one left to deceive and see the effects of rebellion against God's law.