The Lord will not destroy the earth, not in the sense that it will cease to exist. But He will cleanse and remake the earth---and not only the earth, but the heavens as well, for the Apostle John was given a vision of new heavens and a new earth in Revelation 21.
Why will the heavens need to be remade? It is clear in the Bible that Satan, though he has sinned against God, still has access to the Lord's throne room. We know this because he accuses us before the Lord (Revelation 12:10). For example, when we arrive at the book of Job we will find Satan, whose rebellion has already taken place sometime in the past, claiming that the only reason Job loves the Lord is because the Lord has caused Job to prosper. But a time is coming, in Revelation 12, when the Lord hurls Satan and his minions eternally from His presence, casting them down to the earth in the last days for judgment.
What we are studying in Isaiah 24 is end times prophecy, and in the coming days I will discuss my reasons for believing in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church, so we need to keep in mind that the terrible woes in those days are reserved for those who have rejected the Lord and for our accuser (Satan) and his minions. We need not fear and tremble when reading about these astonishing events because we, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, will be in heaven with Him when the most dreadful days of all time fall upon the earth.
When those days come, there won't be any reasons for those left on the earth to make merry. "The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers." (Isaiah 24:7-9)
Those who are used to holding drunken celebrations find nothing to celebrate during the Great Tribulation, but still they don't turn to the Lord. They don't ask themselves, "Why is this happening?" They don't conclude, "It is because we have sinned against the Lord." They don't say, "Let us repent and turn to Him for mercy and salvation." Instead they will "curse the God of heaven" according to Revelation 16:11.
How bitter does a soul have to be to curse the very One who created them, who offers them salvation, who is correcting them in His goodness in order to lead them in the right direction? How wicked and wayward does a heart have to be to reject the Lord's mercy? The Lord doesn't want to judge anyone! The Lord wants to save everyone! The correct way to respond to His discipline is to acknowledge that we have transgressed the laws of a holy God, to confess to Him that we are sinners, to ask Him to forgive and save us, and to commit our souls to Him. Then we will escape judgment! Then we can look forward to a blessed eternity in the presence of the One who loves us more than anyone has ever loved us.
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