I originally intended to write sort of a summary Lesson for each of Isaiah’s 66 chapters … about 2 1/2 months of studies here on the Website. But soon I realized that could not be done … and still come anywhere near helping us better understand this great Bible Prophet.
That’s when I came up with the idea of writing a subsequent Lesson (“Things I didn’t say”) for each chapter! And as you know by now, even that two-lesson Plan has not worked on a few chapters of Isaiah.
This Book of Scripture is that vast! As says Psalm 119:96 … “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment (God’s Word) is exceeding broad.” Literally, “very wide!” The Psalmist here praying/communing with God!
And, in keeping with that program, Isaiah 25 certainly demands more attention. Particularly verses 7-9 … “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, 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.
God is the Subject of the first verse, removing some sort of veil! “And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.” Interpretive ideas about this Line are varied.
Some believe this “vail” can be blindness to spiritual truth, because of sin. As in 2 Corinthians 3:14 … “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.” Paul talking about his own people, Israel.
Others, equally as fundamental, believe the vail is the death shroud, a cloth covering often placed over the head of a dead corpse, preparing it for burial. A practice followed years later, when Lazarus died. John 11:44 … “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” “Napkin” here just meaning “cloth, handkerchief.”
Both these ideas excite me!
God removed a vail the day I was saved! “Once I was blind, now I can see!” 2 Corinthians 4:4 states/teaches … “The god of this world (Satan, the devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Now, because of Calvary, my “blindfold” (“vail”) is gone!
But equally so, because of the Shed Blood of Jesus (when applied to our hearts by faith), I no longer am a “dead man.” (No longer wearing putrid grave clothes!) I have been born-again. Jesus’ Resurrection became my resurrection! The death clothes have been “destroyed,” to use the word God did … in our Text today. Death died the day Jesus died on the Cross! A death that demanded subsequent (3 days later) Resurrection!
Praise the Lord!
But Isaiah 25 gets even more specific. “He (still our Lord) will swallow up death in victory.” The verb “swallow up” (in Hebrew “bala”) means “to devour!” (“To eat alive!”) To bring to an end!
Paul later (in the New Testament), quoting this Isaiah Passage and Hosea 13:14 (“I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction”) applies this whole transaction to Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection!
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 … “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Wow!
And in a world with (potentially) “no more death” … it can be accurately said that “the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 25:8
Tears of sorrow, clearly because of death! All wiped away, because of the saving Grace of God! A glorious idea repeated in Revelation 21:4 … “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death.”
Some day, saved ISRAEL (born again via the Blood of Jesus) will say … “Lo, 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
Death destroyed!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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