Isaiah 25:1-9
As you might have guessed, I was not that popular during most of my high school experience. For some strange reason, a “geek” and “nerd” who loved comic books and sci-fi and wore glasses and who was socially inept didn’t have ten girlfriends on a “wait list.” And of course with the unpopularity came the bullying. I’ve always been shorter than most, so that also invited bullying by guys who were bigger than I was. Man, I wish I'd been bigger and taller and stronger!
That’s the story of most of the world, isn’t it? The stronger preying on the weaker, both on the micro level up to the international level. But there’s something else that even the strongest man or nation has to remember: No matter how big or strong or tough you are, there’s always someone bigger or stronger or tougher.
The reason I bring this up is because I think of that every time I read today’s passage. What does the passage have to do with what I talked about before?
Today’s reading from Isaiah predicts a time when the Lord comes and makes everything right. As N.T. believers we know that this is referring to the return of the Lord Jesus. But what I want to point out is the prophet’s description of the arrival of the Messiah in vss. 6-9.
He says that the Lord will set before “all” peoples (Jew and Gentile) a feast fit for a king. There will be “aged wine” (representing the best of the best) and the “finest of meats,” symbolizing the almost decadent nature of what he’s prepared for his people. But then he gets to the best promise of all.
He will finally do away with the “the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations.” What is this sheet/shroud?
Well, even if he doesn’t answer that question in the very next verse, you might've guessed. What is the one thing that hangs over all our heads, the one enemy that no man can defeat and which every man naturally fears? Death. It’s the great leveler. Ever since our first parents put us under its power, it stands pretty much undefeated. As the saying goes, the death rate is 100% nowadays. It claims everyone of all races, ages, economic status, national citizenship, and geography.
Like the proverbial bully, it takes what it wants from us, and we have no say in it. Why? Because it’s bigger than we are.
But one day that will change. Isaiah says that the Lord will “swallow up” death forever. My friend, the only way you can swallow anything is if you’re bigger than it is. And he is.
That process started two thousand years ago when a Man walked out of a tomb after inhabiting it for three days. Now it holds no fear over us, because we know that our Savior escaped from its grasp, and he’s just the first of many.
And one day he’ll return and we’ll have new bodies which will never be subject to that tyrant again. The greatest fear of all mankind will be thrown out into the garbage in front of all of us. The tears will be wiped away. And what will be our song as we watch?
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Amen.
Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the sure hope which we have in you. When we trust in you, we’ll see in the end that you are completely worthy of that trust.
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