Isaiah 24-26

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;
   God makes salvation
   its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates
   that the righteous nation may enter,
   the nation that keeps faith.

You will keep in perfect peace
   those whose minds are steadfast,
   because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
   for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. (Isaiah 26:1-4)

In chapters 24-26 of Isaiah's prophecy the destruction of the earth is foretold. When the message was first delivered in antiquity Judah was the last stronghold of the once-unified nation of Israel. They were being threatened by foreign powers; and Isaiah delivered an unpopular prophecy, namely that just as all of its neighboring kingdoms had been conquered, so Judah would be defeated also. But some time after Judah's defeat, Judah would rise from defeat and become a great nation again. (See Isaiah 25:1-4 above.)

The destruction of Judah as described in Isaiah 24-26 is thorough and widespread. In fact it is characterized as the destruction of the whole earth. If, as Isaiah 24:23 states, "The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed...," then perhaps the destruction foretold extends to the whole cosmos! Was Isaiah the prophet naming the feelings of Judah's people, that is, they felt the foundations of both nation and creation threatened, or was he describing an actual undoing of both nation and creation at some time in their future? 

There is one thing of which I am fairly certain: In his time Isaiah expresses the hopes and fears of the people of Judah.