Isaiah 24:23

"Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Jehovah of hosts will reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders shall be glory."

This verse again points squarely at the Great Day. "And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood" (Revelation 6:12). It appears here that the same cosmic disturbances mentioned by Isaiah were also foreseen in the revelation to John. There is little doubt that both visions contemplate the final judgment and second advent of Christ.

"After many days shall they be visited ..." (Isaiah 24:22). This indicates a very long period of time to elapse between the time when the ones to be punished were either in the pit (dead) or "in prison" (the chains of darkness) and the time of the final judgment. We agree with Hailey that these "many days" are the same as, "the symbolic thousand years of Revelation 20:1-6)."[12] Amazingly, a number of the time designations in Revelation all have the same meaning, that being, "all of the time between the first advent and the second advent of Christ," namely, the whole current dispensation of the grace of God. Note the following references from the Book of Revelation: (1) The souls of the martyrs were promised that before the judgment they would "rest for a little time" (Revelation 6:11); (2) Christ's church will be nourished in the wilderness (her probation) for "one thousand, two hundred and sixty days" (Revelation 12:6); (3) Satan is "wroth" against God's people, because "he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:12); (4) God's church will be nourished "for a time, and times, and half a time" (Revelation 12:14); (5) The beast had authority to oppose the church for "forty and two months" (Revelation 13:5). (6) It is obvious that 42 months, 1,260 days, and time and times and half a time are all exactly the same amount of time, three and one-half years. (7) It is just as obvious that the "thousand years" of Revelation 20:1-6 refer to exactly the same time as indicated in the other symbolical expressions, namely, the whole dispensation of Christ.

In view of the tribulations, sorrow and death that are clearly foretold in passages such as these chapters of Isaiah, one can understand why the Son of God had compassion and pity upon the children of men. Twelve times, the New Testament states that "Jesus had compassion ..." No one who studies the Bible can be unaware of our human need for Divine mercy and compassion. Every thoughtful person on earth may join in the prayer of the publican, "O Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). Our poor world, following the leadership of arrogant, conceited, but ignorant men, ignoring the "Light that has come into the world through Christ," and blundering along in the darkness of human wisdom, is inevitably headed for a disaster. Our sinful world, in rebellion against God, is on a collision course with the inevitable reckoning. All mankind moves toward that awful moment described by John Milton, "When God shall cast his throne in middle air, and all receive their sentence there." On that occasion, God will appear in righteous wrath and cast evil out of his universe.

Before leaving this last verse, there are two or three more observations which we wish to include:

"The thought here passes to the final convulsion of nature, and the manifestation of Jehovah's kingdom in all its glory.[13] If sun and moon are to lose their luster, it is only as outshone by the Light itself, by the Lord reigning in full state, This is essentially the same vision as Revelation 21:22ff.[14] The mount Zion and Jerusalem mentioned here can only mean the spiritual Zion and the New (heavenly) Jerusalem, because the earth is no more (Isaiah 24:20) at the time indicated here."[15]