Isaiah 24: 3-6, 13-16a
The Earth will be completely emptied and looted. The Lord has spoken. The Earth mourns and dries up, and the crops waste away and wither. Even the greatest people on Earth suffer for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God's instructions, violated His laws, and broken His everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the Earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive.
Throughout the Earth the story is the same--only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest. But all who are left shout and sing for joy. Those in the West praise the Lord's majesty. In Eastern lands they give glory to the Lord. In the lands beyond the Sea, they praise the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. We hear songs of praise from the ends of the Earth, songs that give glory to the Righteous One!
Isaiah has been shown some of what will happen when Jesus returns. (See also what Daniel says, and Zechariah, and John in Revelation, and all the other Scriptures).
When we put all these descriptions together, connecting the dots to see more of the Big Picture, then we can understand better how God will righteously judge the very Earth itself, as well as it's inhabitants who have rejected Him and His ways. Only those who have turned to Him, and accepted His gifts of Grace and Mercy in the Saving Faith He gives to save and redeem us through what His Lamb of God has already accomplished on the Cross will survive to reign with Him.
Then those who are left will shout and sing, His praises will ring out over the whole Earth, out to the farthest reaches of the Universe!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
