He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:8
The Sure Purpose of God (25-35)
This fourth and final section in part one of Isaiah affirms the great purposes to which God is committed for the future. Isaiah gives us two looks at the distant future and the blessings it holds, to put the tragedies to be experienced in the immediate future in perspective. The failure of any sigle generation of God’s people on their millennium’s long march through salvation history will not detour the sure progress of the ages toward God’s promised time of fulfillment.
Chapter 25-27. Songs of “That Day”
The prophets, when speaking of history’s end and of the Day of the Lord, normally stress the judgments God will bring upon the world. But in this section, Isaiah the prophet lifts up the joy to follow the purgings of “that day.”
Joy for All Peoples; 25:1-12. When the strongholds of the foreign powers are broken down, never to be rebuilt (2), all peoples will join in a great feast, prepared by the Lord Almighty (6). Then all tears will be wiped away, for death will be swallowed up forever (8).
Key Verses
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” Isaiah 25:9
Key concepts, “That day” Covenant, Music, Praise, Salvation
25:6 A feast of wines on the lees refers to the best wine. Fat things full of marrow refers to the choicest food. The feast is similar to the one prepared by Wisdom in Prov. 9:1-6.
25:7 The surface of the covering and wall refer to a “shroud.” This is a promise of the end of death (v.8).
7 And He will destroy on this mountain The surface of the covering cast over all people, And the veil that is spread over all nations.
⇒ Nothing to add nor remove. We, God’s people, wait silently with pounding hearts for the day when this will happen. We wait until it is over.
25 1 O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, For You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 2 For You have made a city a ruin, A fortified city a ruin, A palace of foreigners to be a city no more; It will never be rebuilt. 3 Therefore the strong people will glorify You; The city of the terrible nations will fear You. 4 For You have been a strength to the poor, A strength to the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, A shade from the heat; For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. 5 You will reduce the noise of aliens, As heat in a dry place; As heat in the shadow of a cloud, The song of the terrible ones will be diminished.
6 And in this mountain The Lord of hosts will make for all people A feast of choice pieces, A feast of wines on the lees, Of fat things full of marrow, Of well-refined wines on the lees. 7 And He will destroy on this mountain The surface of the covering cast over all people, And the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day: “Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” 10 For on this mountain the hand of the Lord will rest, And Moab shall be trampled down under Him, As straw is trampled down for the refuse heap. 11 And He will spread out His hands in their midst As a swimmer reaches out to swim, And He will bring down their pride Together with the trickery of their hands. 12 The fortress of the high fort of your walls He will bring down, lay low, And bring to the ground, down to the dust.
