Isaiah 24

Isaiah 24:23

"And the brick shall decay, and the wall shall fall; for the Lord shall reign from out of Sion, and out of Jerusalem, and shall be glorified before [his] elders."
Isaiah 30:26—Will the light of the sun and moon be increased or decreased in the future kingdom?
Contrasting Link: Isaiah 30:26

Problem: Isaiah has two apparently contradictory predictions. One is that the light to the heavenly bodies will be increased sevenfold ( Isa. 30:26 ). The other is that it will be “ashamed” in the light of the Lord Himself ( Isa. 24:23 ).

Solution: Some scholars believe these are mutually compatible poetic predictions that even though the light of the sun and moon is increased manifold (perhaps, figuratively), nevertheless, the light of the Lord will outshine them.

Others take these as literal predictions about two different future times. They hold that the natural light of the heavenly bodies will be increased during the reign of Christ for “a thousand years” ( Rev. 20:4–6 ). But after that, when the “new heaven and a new earth” ( Rev. 21:1 ) are created, there will be “no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it” ( Rev. 21:23 ).