Isaiah 25:1-10
SS Lesson for 10/20/2024
Devotional Scripture: Ps 121:1-8
Today’s text comes from a section of Isaiah that is often called “The Isaiah Apocalypse” (chap. 24-27). This is because the scenes pictured are similar to the apocalyptic language (which is imagery describing the end of the world) found in the book of Revelation (compare Zechariah 9-14; Mark 13:24-27). Isaiah became a prophet in the year King Uzziah of Judah died around 740 BC (Isaiah 6:1-10). By the time Isaiah appeared on the scene, the Israelites had been divided into two countries for almost 200 years: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The prophet had a long ministry of several decades in Judah during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Isaiah’s ministry began during a time of economic and military prosperity (Isaiah 2:7). But spiritual rot had set in (2:8), and it was only a matter of time before God intervened (2:9-4:1). God’s interventions took the form of oppression by foreign powers (Isaiah 7:20). One such oppression occurred during the reign of Ahaz of Judah (735-716 BC) when Syria (Aram) and the northern kingdom of Israel joined forces against Judah (2 Kings 16:1-10). Ahaz “saved” Judah by means of an unholy alliance with Assyria (16:7-9). That country eventually conquered northern Israel and exiled its inhabitants in 722 BC (17:6). The city of Jerusalem (in Judah) barely escaped the same fate in 701 BC (18:13-19:27). But that was only temporary. Jerusalem’s reaction to that time of forthcoming darkness would reveal where the inhabitants’ hearts actually lay (Jeremiah 7:1-8; compare Isaiah 42:20-25). Isaiah not only served during difficult times, but he also foresaw them, not only for Judah, but for the idolatrous nations around her, such as Egypt, Edom, and Tyre (Isaiah 14:28-23:18). But while confrontation about sin was a critical part of the task of the prophets, that was not their only function; the prophets also provided hope. The situation looks utterly hopeless by the time the reader gets to Isaiah 24. That chapter’s 23 verses are dire in their prediction of the devastation of the whole earth. The reason is given in Isaiah 24:5: “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.” The utter holiness of God that is unmistakable in Isaiah 24 is followed by a message of God’s love in Isaiah 25. It bears a message of hope—today’s lesson.
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.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
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.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
14 Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power.
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. 2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
9 Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.
26 He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
3 What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge." 5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
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 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will befall you. 20 In famine he will ransom you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. 21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes. 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth. 23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you. 24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing. 25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth. 26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season. 27 "We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself."
19 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;
9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
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.
2 that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
16 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
The prophet reflects a personal knowledge of God; he is a saved person. He exalts and thanks Yahweh his God because He supernaturally and faithfully executed the outworking of plans that He had formulated long before.
The singer is probably Isaiah himself, who projected himself into the future time that he envisioned (cf. chs. 40-66). He spoke for the redeemed of that time, the beginning of the Millennium. Since Old Testament saints will be resurrected at the beginning of the Millennium (Daniel 12:2), Isaiah himself may utter this prophetic psalm of praise in the future. Isaiah included more praise of God among his prophecies than any other Old Testament writing prophet. We might even think of him as a psalmist as well as a prophet. [Note: Grogan, p. 158.]
What did God do? He destroyed the city of man, the world of city-state culture (cf. Isaiah 24:10), as He said He would. The city, since the time of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), was a biblical figure of self-salvation. In the Tribulation, God will humble the pride of man who seeks to save himself.
Strong people and groups of ruthless individuals will fear God and respect Him for what He has done. They will not necessarily become believers in Him, but they will acknowledge that He has done great things (cf. Revelation 9:20-21).
Specifically, they will confess how He delivered those who trusted in Him (during the Tribulation) in spite of the fierce antagonism of their enemies, which was like driving rain (cf. Psalms 61:2-4).
As a passing cloud provides relief from the heat during a drought, so the Lord gives His people relief by humbling the song of their ruthless foreign enemies.
"In either the sudden intensity of the cloudburst or the steady, enervating heat, life is threatened. Unless one has a stronghold against the flood (cf. Matthew 7:24-27) or a shade from the heat [Psalms 121:5], there is no hope." [Note: Oswalt, p. 462.]
All who enter the Millennium-everyone who does will be a believer-will stream to Mount Zion (Isaiah 24:23) where Yahweh will provide a joyful banquet for them. Amillennialists typically take Zion as a figurative representation of the church. According to Young, the banquet signifies "the spiritual blessings that God brings to mankind through His kingdom." [Note: Young, 2:192.] Inaugural banquets were fairly customary when ancient Near Eastern kings were crowned (cf. 1 Samuel 11:15; 2 Samuel 6:18; 1 Kings 1:9; 1 Kings 1:19; 1 Kings 1:25; 1 Kings 8:62-65). The new king often bestowed favors on such occasions.
Having delivered His people from the Tribulation and preserved them to enter His earthly kingdom, the Lord will invite them to rejoice with Him at a great banquet at the beginning of the Millennium (cf. Exodus 24:11).
The Lord will also remove the curse of death that has hung over humankind since the Fall (cf. Isaiah 26:19; Genesis 2:17; Job 19:26; Daniel 12:2; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:54; Hebrews 2:15; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4; Revelation 22:3). This will occur at the end of the Millennium, after the final rebellion and God’s creation of new heavens and a new earth. Isaiah’s vision of the future followed the course of events that later revelation clarified, but he did not present the eschatological future as consisting of consecutive watertight compartments for two reasons. First, he did not see the future as clearly as later prophets did (1 Peter 1:10-12), and second, he described the future here as a poet rather than as a historian. Isaiah here telescoped the millennial and eternal reigns of God-both aspects constitute His future kingdom-as He did the first and second advents of Christ (Isaiah 65:17-25).
Sovereign Yahweh will wipe the tears from each face (Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4), as a loving mother, and will remove the disgrace to His people from living in slavery to sin (cf. Joshua 5:9; Ezekiel 5:13-17; Romans 11:11-27). This is a promise from the Lord. It was customary for an ancient Near Eastern king at his banquet to demonstrate his power by performing some heroic act. [Note: Watts, p. 331.]
The redeemed will rejoice that they are finally in the presence of the God, whose rule and care they had longed to be delivered to for so long (cf. Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-12). Finally, hope will have given way to sight, and Old Testament saints will rejoice because they are finally with their Savior (cf. Romans 11:25-26; 1 Corinthians 13:9-10; 1 Corinthians 13:12).
The great joy to come 25:9-12
The last part of this chapter returns to the emphasis of the first part: the joy that will come to God’s people at this time.
(Adapted from URL:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc/isaiah-25.html)
Isaiah 25 provided a message of hope for God’s covenant people. In response, a song of praise and victory was predicted to be sung by Judah in Isaiah 26. The message of today’s lesson text was what assured that song. We mentioned in the Lesson Context that the section of Isaiah 24–27 has been called “The Isaiah Apocalypse”; the final and concluding work of this section is this: there will come a day when God gathers his people to worship him in a place he has made holy. People experience oppression in different ways and degrees. But everyone experiences death. We certainly should use godly methods and motivations to overcome oppression and injustice, as well as work for the sanctity of life. But as we do, we should remind ourselves that the complete presence of justice and absence of death in the life to come is what to focus on. It’s coming! As we so focus, we experience and expect God’s continuing faithfulness for our assured hope in ultimate deliverance. One way to express this hope is to practice gratitude. We can do so in many ways. Some do so through music as they write and sing songs. Others do so via personal contact. Still others [you fill in the blank]. One of the simplest ways to express gratitude and become thankful, even during trials, is to create a gratitude list daily, perhaps first thing in the morning or the last thing before bed. A daily gratitude list will remind you of God’s many gifts. To name them is to offer thanks. Built into this naming is also an expectation of more good things from God, including the death of death. A gratitude list reorients our experience of the trial, recenters our faith, and expresses hope in the future. As believers in Jesus, we anticipate and yearn for the messianic banquet hosted by Jesus in the presence of God (Matthew 26:29). As Israel shared in the blessings of God through the altar when they ate the sacrifices, so we share in the fellowship of body and blood of Jesus at the table when we eat and drink: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). It is a foretaste of the messianic banquet. When we eat and drink at the table of the Lord, we give thanks for the body and blood of the Lord. We also remember God’s faithfulness and yearn for the death of death. We eat and drink, and we go out into the world to serve, comforted by hope (Acts 20:7–12).