Going back to Isaiah 24. In verses 7 to 13, he says,
7 The new wine fails, the vine languishes,
All the merry-hearted sigh.
8 The mirth of the tambourine ceases,
The noise of the jubilant ends,
The joy of the harp ceases.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song;
Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
10 The city of confusion is broken down;
Every house is shut up, so that none may go in.
11 There is a cry for wine in the streets,
All joy is darkened,
The mirth of the land is gone.
12 In the city desolation is left,
And the gate is stricken with destruction.
13 When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people,
It shall be like the shaking of an olive tree,
Like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done. Isaiah 24:7-13
Well, we don’t have so many harps but we do have tambourines, don’t we? We have guitars. But the noise of the music is part of our society as well, isn’t it?
Do you get irritated when you go into a shop or into a restaurant and you have music blaring out to you all the time? You can’t just go around and be quiet, and just talk, you can’t even go on a coach or somewhere without there being music blaring out everywhere. There’s got to be this music. And it’s just sort of tatty music, it’s not even decent music to listen to.
And, all the time, there’s this kind of spirit of triviality and a base culture which is being imposed upon us. And it ends up with the kind of partying music, alcohol, drugs, etc.
You go down the West End on Saturday night and you’ll find thousands of people, many young ones, out to have a good time, with music, drink, drugs, pleasure seeking.
But the prophet here is saying it’s not going to last. The time is coming when it’s going to be over, when the joy will be darkened, the mirth of the land will be gone, the good times will be over.
The party is over. And, when it comes to that, people have got two options:
To curse God and die, or
To repent and believe the Gospel and be saved and go to be with the Lord.
So, you have the picture here and I think the picture lines up with what we see happening in our society.
