The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
Isaiah 24:19
The context of Isaiah’s words is God promising punishment against the sinful world (while at the same time promising salvation to the penitent world through the Christ). Even though it’s written in the present tense, it’s actually a prediction (one of the common themes of the Old Testament is the way many of its prophesies are written in the present or even past tense, to highlight the certainty of God doing what He promises). Of the three hardships listed in this verse, the second is most interesting. God promises that the earth will be “clean dissolved.”
The words literally mean “detached and removed.”
The basic meaning is “God is going to crack the earth like an egg.” It’s a very poetic way of describing a heavy dose of punishment. But I love the way it is rendered in the King James, because it makes me think of dishwashing detergent. You know how, in the commercials, they always show the sudsy and foamy stuff “swooshing” against the plates in the dish washer, and breaking the food particles away from the surface of the dishes? That’s what I think of when I read this. God is going to take the sin that has stained the world and give it a dose of detergent. He’s going to use His ultra stain-removing power to “detach and remove” the iniquity of the world.
How? Through the Christ; specifically through the power of His blood.
So while Baptism is not about cleaning dirt off your flesh (1 Peter 3:21), it is about cleansing the sin off your soul, which gives the newly-saved person a sparkling-clean conscience before God:
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 3:21