24:1
We have had various prophecies against various nations, and significantly Jerusalem was included in this (chapter 22). We are now going to a chapter which your Bible will probably give the heading “devastation of the earth”. Now the whole earth is in view. The actions against individual nations demonstrate the reality God’s judgement, it is no mere abstract thing, but something with t very tangible reality. Fortunately, judgement is not all that the next few chapters are about, they are also about salvation, and just as the judgement is utterly real, so is the salvation. So here in verse 1 we read that the Lord is going to devastate the whole earth and scatter its inhabitants.
24:2,3
This devastation of the whole earth will afflict all stratas of society. No one will be able to escape. So the religious elite and the people will be affected. Masters and servants will be affected. Mistresses and servants, sellers and buyers, borrowers and lenders, debtors and creditors. All will be affected, none can escape. At one time the main lesson that would be drawn from this is that no matter how powerful or privileged you might be in society, this will do nothing to protect you from God’s judgement. Today we would draw the same lesson, but there is another lesson we need to draw. No matter how much of a victim you might see yourself as do not think that you will be spared God’s judgement. Just because you have been oppressed does not mean you will be spared judgement. There is an increasingly prevalent attitude in society, even in the church, that because you are a victim then you are somehow better than others, somehow immune from God’s judgement on sin. This is not true, all have sinned, and our biggest problem is not any real or perceived victimhood, but our sin against the holy God.
The devastation will be total, the Lord has spoken. So that settles the matter.
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