Isaiah 24:17

"Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble. The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently. The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway to and fro like a hammock, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again."

The first three verses here remind one of Amos 5:19 -

"Wherefore would ye have the day of Jehovah? It is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of Jehovah be darkness and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it" (Amos 5:18b-20).

Perhaps a few words are here in order with reference to why the final judgment will be such a terrible time for the human race. It all goes back to the primeval sentence in the Garden of Eden, where God told Adam and Eve that they would surely die "in the day they ate of the forbidden tree." Of course Adam and Eve ate; and the sentence of God still stands against them. God did not change his mind. He did not commute or change their sentence. He did not repeal it. It stands yet like the sword of Damocles over the head of Adam's race; and it will yet be executed! Adam and Eve shall indeed die in the person of their total posterity upon the planet earth upon the occasion of the final judgment, the second advent of the Son of God.

The commentators are generally ignorant of the great truth that "Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree on the seventh day"; and, therefore, that day, "the seventh day" of creation, not the seventh day of the week, namely the present dispensation, is the occasion when Adam and Eve shall die in the person of their total posterity, the only exceptions being the redeemed of God, especially the redeemed in Christ. For further light on this, one should read the discerning article by the Bishop of Edinburgh in the Pulpit Commentary.[11]

The fate of God's Operation Adam has already been decided, and the verdict has been announced. Amos and Isaiah are merely telling mankind what it is. Intelligent men should pay attention to it.

The great philosophers of our own day are not any more optimistic regarding the future of the human race on earth than were the inspired prophets of God. Our prospect is indeed darkness and not light, apart, that is, from the "Light of the World" who is Jesus Christ, our Lord.

These verses (Isaiah 24:17-20) also entail the account of cosmic disturbances that shall mark the final judgment. The great earthquake that shall move every mountain and every island out of its place (Revelation 6:14), resulting, as Isaiah reveals here, in the "fall of the earth," which shall "not rise again," thus supporting Peter's revelation that we shall indeed look for "A new heaven, and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13)." To us, it appears absolutely mandatory to view this portion of Isaiah as applicable to the final judgment.

Note the reference to the opening of the "windows on high," obviously the same as the "windows of heaven" that were opened during the Great Deluge; and because that judgment is connected with the final judgment (2 Peter 3), we feel that this prophecy implies the same thing.