The High King in His Holy City Text: Isaiah 24:21-23
Introduction: The Great Inversion
The prophet Isaiah, in this section of his magnificent prophecy, is painting a picture of cosmic upheaval. The earth is reeling like a drunkard, the foundations are shaken, and the world as men know it is coming apart at the seams. This is not, as our dispensationalist friends might imagine, a play-by-play of the end of the space-time continuum. This is the language of covenantal judgment. When God brings a civilization, a kingdom, or a city to an end, He speaks of it in terms of de-creation. The lights go out on their world. And when their world ends, a new one begins.
We must learn to read our Bibles like grown-ups. The prophets used this kind of apocalyptic language to describe the fall of Babylon, of Edom, of Egypt. And Jesus, the ultimate prophet, picks up this very language in Matthew 24 to describe the cataclysmic end of the old covenant world with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The sun, moon, and stars of the old Jewish order were darkened, and the Son of Man came in judgment on the clouds.
What Isaiah describes here is the great inversion of all human pretensions to power. Man, in his rebellion, builds his towers of Babel. He establishes his thrones, his corporate headquarters, his halls of parliament. He appoints his kings, his presidents, his CEOs, and his principalities. He has his powers on earth, the kings of the earth, and he is in league with spiritual powers in high places, the host of heights. But God declares that there is a day of reckoning. A day when He will visit, in judgment, both the spiritual and the earthly thrones of rebellion. This passage is a declaration that all authority, both seen and unseen, that sets itself up against the Lord and His Christ, will be brought low. And in its place, Yahweh of hosts will establish His throne, not in some far-off, ethereal heaven, but on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, before His people.
This is a prophecy of the victory of Jesus Christ. It is a prophecy of His kingdom, which was inaugurated at His ascension and which is now, at this very moment, advancing throughout the world. This is not a message of retreat, but of triumph. It is the assurance that every enemy will be made His footstool.
The Text
So it will be in that day, That Yahweh will punish the host of heights on high, And the kings of the earth on earth. They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the pit, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed, For Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.
(Isaiah 24:21-23 LSB)
The Double-Barreled Judgment (v. 21)
The judgment begins with a comprehensive sweep, targeting both the invisible and visible sources of rebellion.
"So it will be in that day, That Yahweh will punish the host of heights on high, And the kings of the earth on earth." (Isaiah 24:21)
Notice the parallel. God is dealing with two echelons of authority. First, "the host of heights on high." This refers to the spiritual powers of darkness, the principalities and powers that the apostle Paul talks about. These are the fallen angelic beings who incite and orchestrate rebellion against God from the unseen realm. They are the puppet masters behind the thrones of earthly power. The Bible is not a materialistic book; it recognizes that our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against these spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).
Second, God will punish "the kings of the earth on earth." These are the human rulers, the earthly authorities who embody and enact the rebellion of the host of heights. They are the visible manifestation of man's defiance. Whether it is Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Caesar, or a modern secularist state, the principle is the same. They set their counsel against the Lord. They imagine a vain thing, which is that they can rule without Him.
The phrase "in that day" points to a decisive moment of divine intervention. In the ultimate sense, this intervention was the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At the cross, Christ disarmed these very principalities and powers, making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (Col. 2:15). He bound the strong man so that He could plunder his house (Matt. 12:29). The judgment on the host of heights was secured at Calvary. And the judgment on the kings of the earth began to unfold from that point on, starting with the destruction of apostate Jerusalem and continuing down through history as the gospel subdues the nations.
The Long Imprisonment (v. 22)
Isaiah then describes the fate of these defeated authorities.
"They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the pit, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be punished." (Isaiah 24:22)
This is not an immediate annihilation. It is a binding, a confinement. They are rounded up like prisoners and thrown into a dungeon. This imagery corresponds perfectly with what the New Testament tells us about the current state of Satan and his minions. They are bound. They are on a leash. The apostle Peter tells us that God cast the angels who sinned down to hell, delivering them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2:4). Jude says something very similar (Jude 6).
This binding is not absolute in the sense that they can do nothing, but it is absolute in the sense that they cannot prevent the success of the gospel. Satan is bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations in the way he once did (Rev. 20:3). Before Christ came, the nations were universally shrouded in pagan darkness. After Christ's victory, the light of the gospel went out and began the great work of discipling the nations.
The phrase "and after many days they will be punished" is crucial. It points to a long period of confinement before the final sentence is executed. What is this long period? It is the gospel age. It is the entire period between Christ's first and second comings. During this time, the defeated spiritual powers are held in check, and the rebellious earthly kingdoms are being progressively dismantled and subdued by the steady advance of Christ's kingdom. The "many days" will conclude at the final judgment, when the devil, his angels, and all who followed them will be cast into the lake of fire. This is the final punishment.
The Reign of Unrivaled Glory (v. 23)
The climax of this passage is the result of this great judgment: the undisputed and glorious reign of God.
"Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed, For Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders." (Isaiah 24:23)
Here we have that de-creation language again. The sun and moon, the greatest created lights in the sky, are put to shame. Their glory is utterly eclipsed. Why? Because a greater glory has appeared. The pagans worshipped the sun and moon. They were the highest symbols of power and majesty in the natural world. But Isaiah says that when Yahweh of hosts begins to reign in His city, the glory of His presence will be so brilliant that the sun will look like a dim bulb in comparison.
This is prophetic poetry to describe the sheer magnificence of Christ's kingdom. It is not about literal astrology; it is about doxology. The glory of the new covenant in Christ is so far superior to anything that came before, or anything that the world has to offer, that all other glories simply fade away.
And where does He reign? "On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem." We must not be flat-footed here. The New Testament is our inspired commentary on the Old. And the writer to the Hebrews tells us exactly what this Mount Zion is. He says to Christians, "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22). This is not a future millennial kingdom in the Middle East. Mount Zion is the Church. It is the assembly of the firstborn, the people of God united to Christ. Christ's reign is not postponed. He is reigning now, from heaven, and His reign is manifested on earth through His body, the Church.
His glory, we are told, will be "before His elders." Who are the elders? They are the rulers of the new covenant people. This is a picture of the government of the church, where the glory of the ascended Christ is displayed before the leadership and people of God. When we gather for worship, when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, when we live out our lives in faithful obedience, we are standing in the courts of the great King, on His holy hill, and His glory is among us.
Conclusion: The Humiliated Powers and the Glorious King
So what does this mean for us? It means that the central conflict of history has already been decided. The host of heights and the kings of the earth have been sentenced. The decisive battle was fought and won at a place called Golgotha. The King has ascended and has taken His throne. The long process of mopping up is now underway.
This means we are not to be intimidated by the bluster of the kings of the earth. We are not to be terrified by the spiritual darkness that still prowls about. They are prisoners on death row. Their final punishment is certain. They are a defeated foe.
Our task is to live as citizens of the true Jerusalem, the city of the great King. His reign is not hidden; it is glorious. And it is a reign that is destined to fill the whole earth. The glory that makes the sun and moon blush is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the glory of sins forgiven, of rebels reconciled, of a new creation being built from the ruins of the old. Every time a sinner repents, every time a Christian family raises their children in the fear of the Lord, every time the church gathers to sing praises to her King, the glory of that reign on Mount Zion is put on display. The sun and moon of secular humanism and pagan rebellion are humiliated a little bit more, and the bright dawn of the King's inexorable victory gets a little bit closer.