God's Triumph Over the Nations (Isaiah 24-27), 1-39

Outline of Isaiah 1-39:

• 1-5: The problem: A lack of servanthood.
• 6: The solution: The call to servanthood.
• 7-39: Lessons in trust, the basis of servanthood.

7-12 (739 BC): God or Assyria. No Trust (Ahaz). Thus the need to learn lessons in trust.

13-23: God's judgment on the nations--Don't trust the nations.

24-27: God's triumph over the nations--God is the sovereign actor on the stage of history.

28-33: Woe to those who trust the nations, who do not trust and wait on God.

34-35: Trusting God or the nations--Results.

36-39 (701 BC): God or Assyria. Trust (Hezekiah).

Isaiah 24-27 has been titled by various commentators as:

• God's Final Victory.
• God's Triumph Over the Nations.
• God is the Sovereign Actor on the Stage of History.
• Trusting Now in God, Who Will Reign Over All.
• Two Cities in Contrast: Endurance Through to Glory.
• The Little Apocalypse (or The Isaiah Apocalypse).

Isaiah 13-23 has been titled:

• God's Judgment of the Nations.
• Don't Trust the Nations.
• Messages for the Nations.
• The Oracles of Judgment.
• Lord of the Nations (ch.13-27).
• The Kingdom Panorama: The Whole World in His Hands (ch.13-27).
• The Supremacy of God Over the Nations (ch.13-27).

After viewing the separate nations in Isaiah 13-23, now the world as a whole comes into view in Isaiah 24-27. Isaiah writes about the downfall of supernatural as well as earthly enemies (Isa 24:21-22; Eph 6:12; Isa 27:1). They contain one of only a few clear promises of bodily resurrection in the OT (Isa 26:19; 25:8; Dan 12:2; Job 19:25-26). But this wider scene is still viewed from Isaiah's own vantage-point of Jerusalem, with Judah, Moab (Isa 25:10-12) and the great powers of Egypt and Assyria (Isa 27:12-13) in the near and middle distance. Overwhelming as the judgments are, the dominant note is of joy, welling up in the songs which frequently break into the prophecy.