Just as in its formative stage the earth underwent horrendous upheavals, so in Isaiah’s end-time scenario the earth undergoes a temporary return to chaos. Characterized by cosmic disturbance and weapons of mass destruction, celestial and terrestrial upheavals form an integral part of God’s Day of Judgment that overtakes the earth in order to cleanse it of wickedness.
Isaiah 24:18–20When the windows on high are opened,
the earth shall shake to its foundations.
The earth shall be crushed and rent;
the earth shall break up and cave in;
the earth shall convulse and lurch.
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,
sway back and forth like a shanty;
its transgressions weigh it down,
and when it collapses it shall rise no more.
Isaiah 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens;
look on the earth beneath:
the heavens shall vanish as by smoke,
the earth wear out like a garment—
its inhabitants shall die in the manner of vermin.
Isaiah 13:10, 13The stars and constellations of the heavens
will not shine.
When the sun rises, it shall be obscured;
nor will the moon give its light. . . .
I will cause disturbance in the heavens
when the earth is jolted out of place
by the anger of Jehovah of Hosts
in the day of his blazing wrath.
Isaiah 34:2, 4–5Jehovah’s rage is upon all nations,
his fury upon all their hosts;
he has doomed them,
consigned them to the slaughter. . . .when the heavens are rolled up as a scroll,
and their starry hosts shed themselves
with one accord,
like withered leaves from a vine,
or shriveled fruit from a fig tree.
When my sword drinks its fill in the heavens,
it shall come down on Edom in judgment,
on the people I have sentenced to damnation.