Isaiah 34 - Indignation of the LORD

I. Judgment on the nations (v1-7)

The prophecy speaks about "all nations" of the earth. "For the indignation of the LORD is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies;" (v1).  The fulfillment of this prophecy will be at the end times, when God's wrath are filled to the rim and judgment is to be poured out on corrupt nations.

In Matthew 24:21, Jesus spoke about the great tribulation.  Revelation speaks about the fulfillment of that prophecy, where natural disasters and wars will kill one third of the earth.

The mountains are described to be full of corpse and blood. "And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them". (v2)  

"All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll." (v4). The tribulation will be supernatural and affects nature. 

Revelation 6:12-14 has a parallel description: "When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place."

God used Edom as a representative of all nations that hated the Jews. His "sword", symbolising punishment, will come down on all such nations. It will be filled with blood. The culmination of deaths will be fulfilled at the battle of Armageddon: "And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia" (Rev 14:20)

II. God's Day of Vengeance

Evil and injustice may rule today, but God has a "day of vengeance" (v8). The lands of the nations will burn for nights and days. The land will be lie waste, such that no one shall pass through them except for the animals. (v11) 

No one will rule those kingdoms. (v12).  Their buildings will be run down with forests and thistles, and dwelled only by wild animals, birds and owls.

Isaiah said that this is something that this scenario is something God had planned, and we are to search His Word to see it is fulfilled. It may be that Edom will be one of such land after the Armageddon (v16-17). 

We can imagine that if one-third of earth's population are dead, and perhaps another billion of Christians have been raptured, many of earth's cities will be empty. Most people will move out to the big cities, and thus leave their towns uninhabited. Animals will come out of the jungle and live in the deserted cities.

Death and destruction are consequences of rejecting God.