Year 2, Day 9: Isaiah 25

Perspective In The Midst of Judgment

In Isaiah 25, Isaiah looks forward to a perspective of a person who will have passed through the judgment of the Lord and come out alive on the other side.  Certainly such a person is faithful.  Certainly such a person is humble and repentant.  As we saw at the end of the last chapter, certainly such a person is capable of seeing the righteousness of God amidst a trying time.

Notice the main theme of the opening verses of chapter 25.  God is the redeemer of the poor.  God is the savior of the needy.  Those who are foreign to God fear Him.  God is a storm against the ruthless.

If we think about this passage with respect to what Isaiah is going through at the time that this passage is written, these qualities make sense.  Assyria has come upon Jerusalem and is setting up a siege against the city.  Israel and many of the countries around Judah have already been taken captive.  Most of Judah has fallen into Assyrian hands.  Captives have been dragged away.  No other nation has been able to understand the ruthlessness of the Assyrians.  Thus, Isaiah would focus on the rescue of the poor and the salvation of the needy.  He would focus on the fact that the brutality of the foreign nations would not be able to prevail against God.

Future Glory

Then we turn to one of my favorite passages.  I love using Isaiah 25:6-9, especially in the context of a funeral.  Here’s what we can learn from this passage.

First, notice that this prophecy is made for all peoples.  But here we need to be careful.  Just because the prophecy is made for all peoples doesn’t mean that all people will be there.  God gives the opportunity to all, but that does not mean that all receive Him. 

In any case, the first thing we need to realize is that even in Isaiah’s day there was a hope that faithfulness to God would spread among the Gentiles and around the whole world.  The Hebrew people may have been the people that God chose to bear His Word to the world, but God does not desire to keep Himself only among the Hebrew people.

Next, we can learn that Isaiah sees our time with God as a time of a great banquet.  Not only will there be plenty to sustain us, but it will be the best kind of sustenance.  It will be such a great restoration that the memory of a difficult past time and hard events won’t even be able to bring about a tear!

Contrast this thought with a people who know the reality of starvation as the Assyrians lay up a siege against them.  Can there be any wonder this image finds its way into this chapter?  God can sustain the faithful.

We also learn that God will swallow up the scourge that lies among us.  God will take care of the shroud of death.  Since death is the wage of sin; we can imply that God will also deal with sin.  We know from a New Testament perspective that He does deal with sin through Jesus Christ!  He will take away our reproach.  He will deal with it, not us.  He will be the answer, not us.  He will be the source of power, not us.

Our Role

In verse 9 we learn that our role is to wait for God.  If it is God who saves us – and I believe it is – then we must wait for Him to act.  God sets the agenda, we follow.  God plans salvation, we embrace it.  Our chief duty is to rejoice in His salvation when it comes to us.

The Enemies Of God

Lastly, we turn to the concluding verses of this chapter and we see that even then, God will have His enemies.  Moab – symbolic of the enemies of God – will attempt to spread out against God.  Moab will come against God, but God will put aside His pride.  God will bring down that in which His enemies find strength and protection.

What is the focus of these last verses?  What is it that God finds repulsive about His enemies?  Pride.  It is the pride of Moab that Isaiah tells us God will crush.  In fact, Isaiah tells us not just pride, but pompous pride.  One could also say that this word means haughtiness or arrogance.

In the end, in this chapter we can see the dynamics of both a proper relationship with God as well as the antithesis of relationship with God.  The proper relationship with God begins with us understanding our place and waiting for Him.  However, those who approach God with arrogance, pride, and haughtiness only ask to find punishment and destruction at His hand.  It really seems so simple.  The key to a good relationship with God begins in our humbleness before Him.

<><