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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Isaiah 25 Praise
To The Lord (ch. 25:1 - 12) To begin, the pronouns
"my" and "I" refers to Isaiah.
Isaiah has seen great,
scary, and marvelous things from the Lord, and now he is giving praise
to God. Note the specific
reason why Isaiah gives this praise.
He does so because God has planned marvelous things from long
ago. The marvelous things
Isaiah is talking about are all these prophecies he has heard from the
Lord. The point here is that
God has human history under control because He is involved in humanity
in the things that are shown us in these prophecies.
Some see Calvinism, that is, predestination, in these verses, but
I don't. The point I'd like to
make here is that God has world events under His control, not only
because He is supreme over all things, but because He is actively
involved in humanity. Christians
aren't Deists. A Deist is
one who believes in a God who does not involve Himself in humanity.
He has created all things and has stepped back from all things to
let all things evolve as they wish. Verse 2 speaks of a city.
As I've said in the last chapter, I don't believe this is a
specific city. I believe the
city represents humanity and the nations of the world.
All the nations will come to ruins.
Verse 3 speaks of people
and ruthless cities honoring God. You
might wonder how any city will honor God if they're all destroyed as we
see in the last verse. I
can't say for sure, but these cities are either the cities of the
thousand year rule of Christ who fall to satan at the end of the
thousand years, or, possibly, the cities of the earth that fall at the
end of this age when Jesus returns to earth.
I tend to think these cities are those who are conquered by satan
at the end of the thousand years. They
are made new in the new heaven and the new earth as seen at the end of
the book of Revelation. Verse 4 speaks to God as
being a refuge for the needy. Supporting
the needy is something the Bible talks much about.
The prophets are full of passages that tell us that God judges
nations who fail to support their needy.
This is hinted at here. The rest of verse 5 and
into verse 6 speaks of the way God deals with ruthless nations.
They are ruthless because they mistreat those in need, the very
one's that find refuge in God. Verse 6 speaks of a great
feast on "this mountain".
I believe the mountain spoken of here is Mount
Zion
which we referenced in verse 23 of the last chapter. Note the feast is not for
Israel. It's for all peoples.
This might well be the feast of the Lamb spoken of in Revelation
19:9. Notice at this feast the
people will be drinking "aged wine", the "finest
wine". Interpret this
as you will, but "aged wine" is not grape juice.
Notice too that we will be eating meat at this feast. In verse 7 we note that
from Mount Zion God, through Jesus, will destroy the shroud, the cover,
or, the veil, that is over all people.
It might be debatable, but this is either at the return of Jesus
or at the end of the thousand years.
I believe it's at the end of the thousand year rule of Christ,
especially if you understand the feast in the last verse to be the
"marriage feast of the Lamb" seen in Revelation 19:9. Paul, in 1 Corinthians
15:54 and 55 quotes verse 8 here. God
will swallow up death. Death
will be no more. The curse
of the fall of Adam will end for those who belong to God, for those who
have given their lives to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
clearly takes place at the end of the thousand year rule of Christ with
the creation of the new heaven and the new earth.
Although the word "shroud" is understood by many to be a shroud of not understanding, as it is often seen in the Bible, the context suggests the shroud has more to do with death than anything else. The shroud spoken of here might well be in reference to the shrouds that cover dead people in their graves Verse 8 also speaks of
God wiping away all tears. We
see this very thing prophesied about in Revelation 21:4, which again,
tells me that this section concerns the time at the end of the thousand
year rule of Christ, when our present heaven and earth will be destroyed
and replaced with a new heaven and earth. Verse 8 also speaks of
the "disgrace of God's people" being removed".
Over the centuries, and from time to time, God's people have been
disgraced by the world around them, but this will end.
No more will we be the laughing stock of humanity. We see the words
"you and I" in verse 9. Those
of us who have given our lives to Jesus will say.
"Surely, this is our God.
We trusted in Him and He has saved us".
The word "surely" seen at the beginning of this
sentence speaks of a surety, a certainty that we have right now as we
trust Him. We will look back
with thanksgiving and will be grateful that we did indeed trust our very
lives with our Lord and Saviour. Again, to be contextually
consistent, the mountain spoken of here is Some understand Verse 11 says that
"they will spread out their hands in it".
I could be wrong, but to me this seems to suggest that the people
of God will spread out their hands in the ruins of Moab, that is, the ruins of the nations of the world.
The people of God will rule on the new earth.
This speaks to me of the people of taking over the nations that
once were, and, there will be nations and kings on the new earth as seen
in Revelation 21:24. The rest of verse 11 and
verse 12 speaks of God bringing down the prideful nations of the world.
Again, in context, I suggest the time frame here is at the end of
the thousand year rule of Christ. Remember,
at that time satan will be loosed once again for a short time.
He will cause the once ungodly nations to be ungodly again, at
this time, God will bring these ungodly nations down for the last time.
It will all end as the
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