“The Earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the Earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. Therefore, the inhabitants of the Earth are scorched, and few men are left.”
– Isaiah 24:5-6
Isaiah 24:5-6, in a sense, are depressing verses. And I don’t mean to be overly depressing, but they lead us to hope. So think about what Isaiah is talking about here. He’s talking about the effects of sin in the world. He’s talking about the reality that comes when you have seven billion sinners on the planet today and there’s a curse that comes from that. There’s brutal, horrible, painful effects of sin all around us.
Isaiah 24:5-6 Reminds Us of the Effects Of Sin
The effects of sin are all around us—in our lives, in our families, in our culture—which leads us to hope in Christ.
Just this week, I think about news I heard of someone I know who took their own life. I just heard this morning of a terrorist attack taking many people’s lives. Then, I look around the world at headlines. I see natural disasters in different places, flooding or hurricanes. I look around at all of this, and it’s just the effect of sin. You look around the world, the effects of sin are all around us, in our lives, in our families, in the culture around us, in everything we see going around us in the world.
Isaiah 24:5-6 Reminds Us We Need Jesus
So, this is where we realize, okay, the Bible teaches very clearly that this is the result of sin. What’s wrong with the world is we have sinned against a holy God, which means, okay, how can we then be saved from sin and its effects? And that’s where Isaiah 24:5-6 leads us, obviously to the hope we have in Christ, the reality that God has sent his son to live the life we couldn’t live, a life of sinless obedience to God, the only person in all history that has no sin, Jesus.
And then, though he had no sin for which to pay, he died the death we deserve to die. He paid the price for sin. He endured the curse of sin on a cross, and then he rose from the dead in victory over sin, so that anyone, anywhere, who turns from sin and trust in Jesus will be forgiven of all our sin, and ultimately, freed from the curse of sin, the reality that yes, because we trust in Christ, we have power over sin in our lives now, and the reality is we have a hope of a day that’s coming when sin and all of its effects, suffering, death, will be no more.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray to Hate Sin
So God, we pray today that you would help us to hate sin all the more, in our lives, in our families, in the church, in the culture around us. God, help us to hate sin. We see its disastrous effects all around us, and we plead for your mercy. Oh God, we praise you for the mercy you’ve given in Christ. And we praise you for the forgiveness of our sins. We praise you for freeing us from the curse that we deserve. God, thank you for sending Christ to die on a cross for us.
Jesus, we praise you for taking the curse of sin upon yourself in our place. All glory be the your name. Thank you for the hope that you’ve given us of a day that’s coming, when sin will be no more. We’ll be totally delivered from this curse, and a new Heaven and a new Earth, where there won’t be the effects of sin. God, we long for that day, so help us. Help us to hate sin today. Help us to hate even what we would be tempted to categorize as little sin in our lives.
Isaiah 24:5-6 Leads Us to Pray For Help To Flee From Sin
God, help us not to see any sin as little. Help us to see it for what it is and help us to walk in righteousness today, we pray. Help us to walk in holiness. Also, help us to flee sin, not to flirt with it, but to run from it. And in the process, God, we pray that you would help us to call others to do the same. We pray that you would help us, today, in a world marked by the curse of sin, help us to point people to Jesus as the savior from sin, as the redeemer, who frees us from the power, the curse of sin.
God, use us today, we pray, to proclaim that good news in a world that’s filled with sin and all of its effects. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
