9 [j]Its streams will be turned into pitch,
And its loose earth into brimstone,
And its land will become burning pitch.
10 It will not be quenched night or day;
Its smoke will go up forever.
From generation to generation it will be desolate;
None will pass through it forever and ever.
11 But [k]pelican and hedgehog will possess it,
And [l]owl and raven will dwell in it;
And He will stretch over it the line of [m]desolation
And the [n]plumb line of emptiness.
12 Its nobles—there is no one there
Whom they may proclaim king—
And all its princes will be nothing.
13 Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And an abode of ostriches.
14 The desert creatures will meet with the [o]wolves,
The [p]hairy goat also will cry to its kind;
Yes, the [q]night monster will settle there
And will find herself a resting place.
15 The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there,
And it will hatch and gather them under its [r]protection.
Yes, the [s]hawks will be gathered there,
Every one with its kind.16 Seek from the book of the Lord, and read:
Not one of these will be missing;
None will lack its mate.
For [t]His mouth has commanded,
And His Spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
And His hand has divided it to them by line.
They shall possess it forever;
From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Well, we go from “gross” to “strange”… For context, this is a continuation of the “day of Judgment” when God’s wrath is poured out on all nations. At first, some might be inclined to say, “Oh good, the land is being preserved for a wildlife refuge…” There are ostriches, and owls, hedgehogs, and pelicans, hawks, and snakes, until we remember the burning pitch, brimstone, and smoke in vv. 9-10.
Then we get to wolves and jackals (v. 13-14), and hairy goats and night monsters, and this just doesn’t sound like a very nice place. It seems like there are people there, but scattered and few, with no authority, nobles or kings. Truthfully, it very nearly sounds like hell, given “hairy goat” could also be translated “demon” and the “night monster” is literally named Lilith, which is well, a monster… But I don’t know if that is what God intended, and perhaps this is too nice a place yet for hell. That should give anyone reason to stop and think…
That’s all well and… okay, not well at all, but what are we to make of it? God has commanded it, and His Spirit has done this and gathered all the animals and designated the land to them forever. He apparently is going to wipe out nearly all of mankind, and you’d have a heart of stone not to feel bad for the poor folk left in this miserable place (if any). But no one can change what God has planned, right?
Except God himself has “made a way of escape”. This judgment will come some day, along with everything else we read in the book of Revelation and various other prophecies (in Daniel, among others). Yet God himself provided the ultimate sacrifice, that negates the need for any other animal sacrifices, let alone the slaughter we saw in the first half of this chapter.
The choice then is up to us, to live for God, and accept that sacrifice, or to go our own way and live for ourselves, which will result in the mess we just read. Joshua said it best, centuries earlier, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.” We will serve someone, but we get to choose. Most of the Israelites of Isaiah’s day didn’t choose very well, and suffered their own judgment. God didn’t make us for that, “and is not willing that any should perish.”
We still have to choose, and though it ought to be obvious, our flesh is really good at fighting for it’s own (selfish) way. I’m reminded again of something from Romans 8, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” As we saw in this passage (and because our flesh isn’t immortal), the flesh is going to die either way. But, because God loves us so much, we can choose to “put to death the deeds of the body, live selflessly for God our Father, and receive life eternal. That’s the bargain of a lifetime…