Especially a time when the Lord graces Israel, the Kingdom of Heaven (another Bible name for the Millennium) will also bring God’s Goodness down upon all the earth in veritable “showers of blessings!” (Alluding to Ezekiel 34:26 … “And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.”)

My Bible Text this morning is Isaiah 25:7-8, precious Scripture indeed. The last clause of that two-verse Span speaks of Israel specifically … “And the rebuke of his people (Israel) shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” The Jew will be no longer hated, God having effectively removed world-wide disgrace, shame, reproach, rebuke!” Instead of anti-Semitism, the world will be saturated with pro-Semitism! (I may have just coined a word!)

Yes, the “remnant” of Jews surviving the Tribulation, entering the Millennium, will be a saved group of Jews!

But my main interest today concerns the remaining parts of Isaiah 25:7-8, not just that last Line.

Beginning here: “And he (God) will destroy in this mountain the face of the COVERING cast over all people, and the VAIL that is spread over all nations.” God will remove a “dark blanket” that has been enshrouding mankind since Adam and Eve sinned in Eden! A “covering” or “veil” that has weighed heavily on humanity, likely because of our sin! (As in: “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23a) I believe the Prophet Isaiah means that dark cloud is death itself!

God cancelling death?

The Lord lifting that universal curse?

As in Romans 5:12 … “Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and DEATH by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

Death somehow overcome?

Keep reading: “He will SWALLOW UP death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.” Isaiah 25:8

(The Apostle Paul quotes this in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55 … “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 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?”

Because Jesus lives!

God Almighty (initially in the Millennium, perpetually in eternity future) will “swallowed up” something! (Isaiah 25:8, remember!) No more death! This powerful Hebrew verb is also translated “to destroy” nine times in the King James Version of the Bible! And it is “devour” three more times!

Death will be gone!

And what does death cause, how does it affect the living, the survivors? Sorrow, tears, heartache! So God will also … “wipe away tears from off all faces.” (Again, Isaiah 25:8!) Eternal comfort!

It really does appear that “death” will be extremely rare on this earth during Jesus’ Reign! But in New Jerusalem, in the new heavens and earth … no death ever!

Conquered for all time (if time even exists)!

HOW did God to this, absolve death?

Through the shed Blood of His only Begotten Son on Calvary! And Jesus’ subsequent Resurrection!

Because Jesus lives … we shall live also, those of us believing in His Name! (John 14:19 promises so! There Jesus plainly says: “Because I live, ye shall live also.”)

Yes, Jesus has now the very “keys” of death! (Revelation 1:18)

No wonder the Bible talks so much about “eternal life!”

Tomorrow I will take a trip to a cemetery. My 48 year old son has died. He will be entombed there … death has claimed over him a temporary victory. But, Oh … Jesus is coming again! Joel’s pained body will be raised incorruptible! Literally and gloriously … he will be given a body like that of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Yes, Jesus … “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” … always keeps His Word! (Quoting Philippians 3:21, again King James Version)

Tearfully I say … HALLELUJAH!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Even so … come Lord Jesus.

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I base my question on one verse of Scripture in Isaiah chapter 25. “And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” Verse 6, King James Version.

The “mountain” being the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where Jesus will rule for a thousand years!

“Lord of Hosts” is literally in Hebrew “the God of the armies!” Antichrist having just been defeated and banished forever!

And here Jesus is depicted as “making a feast!”

Feast implies food, “bread” to the eastern mind.

And that abundant wine certainly hints at “the fruit of the vine,” the two elements (ingredients) in the Lord’s Supper!

Remember, many of the Jews who have entered the Millennium, having been hounded and starved and mistreated by the Antichrist’s government … would especially delight in “food!”

Remember too Jesus promised His Disciples long ago: “And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, I WILL NOT ANY MORE EAT THEREOF, UNTIL IT BE FULFILLED IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” Luke 22:14-20

Wow!

Eating with Jesus … for centuries!

Bread and Juice!

Revelation 7:15-17 … “And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall FEED them, and shall LEAD them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

Amen!

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

We Christians can even now sit and “feast” off the things of God, the things of the Word, the blessings of the Cross of Calvary!

Jesus said as much in Psalm 22:26. Because of the Cross, Jesus’ Death there: “The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.”

Hallelujah!

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I have no doubt that lots of Scripture written two thousand years ago (or more) … will have its fullest impact in days yet to come! I personally believe Jesus’ famous “Olivet Discourse,” for example (Matthew chapters 24 and 25 in its largest New Testament Form) gives detailed instructions to those alive during the Tribulation when the Anti-Christ commits that infamous “abomination of desolation.” (Jesus teaching: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth let him understand: then let them which be in Judaea FLEE into the mountains.” Get out of town! Danger looming! Escape! I’ve reprinted here Matthew 24:15-16.)

Wow, this is another way the Bible is a miraculous Book!

Even the “Plan of Salvation” in some of those unusual Texts (meaning “Tribulation” oriented) are likely designed to tell the Jews (evangelizing lost souls) about our Lord’s Saving Grace and specifically how to be “born-again!”

“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Acts 2:20-21 quoting Joel 2:31-32, God still saving the lost … at an unprecedented (difficult) time!

Well, I think I have found one of those “encouraging verses” in Isaiah 25. A Millennium Chapter, for sure.

That little saved “remnant” of Israelites … worshipping the great God Who has spared them (somehow) throughout the Tribulation … opine: “For thou (God) hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat.” Isaiah 25:4, King James Version.

Why “poor,” Jews?

Because they have been deprived of everything, fleeing for their very lives, refusing the “Mark of the Beast,” under a death watch imposed by that wicked Anti-Christ!

Poor because persecuted! (To the tortured Church in Smyrna, Jesus says: “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and POVERTY.” Poverty stricken, living in total penury, financially bankrupted, Revelation 2:8-9 … yet spiritually wealthy, “but thou are rich.”)

To those (especially in the coming Tribulation) who will have suffered so (and miraculously will have been rescued by Jesus’ Second Coming to earth) … God has been such STRENGTH!

Back to Isaiah 25:4 … “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress.” Pretty clear, isn’t it?

“Distress,” simply (and obviously) meaning “affliction, tribulation!”

Both the substantives “poor” and “needy” imply “beggary,” that starkly destitute! They are synonyms to that extent.

Yet they (though lowly and despised by the world) have been born-again and are praising God Almighty, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Then our Text Verse, in closing, describes the God-hating “wicked” in those future dark days … “When the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall,” Isaiah 25:4, where the expression “terrible ones” re-names the enemies of the Jews, all of them being anti-Semitic to the core! The Devil (Dragon) and his cronies!

These poor Jews have been pursued and if caught, brutally executed “en masse!”

“A storm against the wall” pictures how a violent rainstorm with its resultant torrents of rushing water (flooding) washes away the earth, often literally destroying “walls,” barriers of all kinds!

And yet the Lord Jesus has (for His children) halted the flood, tamed wild waters once again! Remember during His first Visit to earth? “Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” Quoting Matthew 8:26.

A worship Verse indeed, Isaiah 25:4 … “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.”

We would be so praising God as well, had we not forgotten how He has so gloriously delivered us too!

The noun “refuge” means “shelter!”

As in Psalm 46:1 … “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Out little Verse today truly is a “How to do it Manual” concerning Praise and Worship and Thankfulness for Deliverance from the fiercest of enemies!

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Yes, Isaiah 9:6 does call Jesus the “Prince of Peace.” (Remember? “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”)

The Kingdom of Heaven come to earth, when … as our King James Bible beautifully declares … “Neither shall they learn war any more.” Quoting Micah 4:3.

But when Jesus first descends from Heaven all the way to earth, with us (the Church) in His Wake, He interrupts the Battle of Armageddon! He defeats anti-Christ and his vast armies! He really, in two words, “reaps havoc!”

“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? Wherefore art thou RED (BLOOD RED) in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I (Jesus) have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine ANGER, and trample them in my FURY; and their BLOOD shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” Reprinting Isaiah 63:1-3 here.

At Jesus’ Second Coming … “These (wicked nations) shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Revelation 17:14, war!

“Havoc,” Preacher Bagwell? (Havoc historically means “widespread destruction, devastation.”)

You decide: “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and BLOOD came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” A lot of blood, Revelation 14:20!

Now to this morning’s Text, Isaiah 25:2-3.

New verses to me, honestly!

“For thou (Lord Jesus) hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.”

Our gentle Lord (unless you recall Him cleansing the Temple those two times, or rebuking the Pharisees so vehemently, or casting our demons) … doing what these two verses imply?

Making wicked cities into a “heap!” (A pile of trash, junk, useless clutter!) Cities of God denying men and women who have hated Israel for centuries, anti-Semitic to the core!

Even strong cities (well-fortified, defenced) now in “ruins?” Literally now “fallen” places. Their glory days being over!

The place where “strangers” (non-Jews, gentiles, heathen) once lavishly lived, now “no more, no city at all!”

Yes, this is havoc!

And apparently these places will never be rebuilt!

And the “Wrath of the Lamb” (alluding to Revelation 6:16) here will be so convincing … remnants (the few survivors) of those once strong cities will “glorify” Jesus! (Magnify Him, uplift Him!) And these “terrorizing” municipalities will “fear” (often a word for “worship” in the Old Testament) our dear Lord!

This is our Saviour setting up (initiating, establishing) His Kingdom, His Millennial Kingdom!

And guaranteeing the safety of Israel in perpetuity!

Goodbye, Jew haters!

Genesis 12:1-3 is true! God speaking to Abraham: “I will make of thee a great NATION (ISRAEL), and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will BLESS them that bless thee, and CURSE him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

You can chart world history by using these verses as a template. The Nations who have blessed Israel, the Jews, have prospered. And those who have hated, cursed the Jews have plummeted, have fallen!

I close today with John’s description of this magnificent Return of Jesus to earth … us (the Church, part of those “armies” mentioned in this Text) with Him … “And the ARMIES which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should SMITE the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Revelation 19:14-15, but let’s add verse 16 as well: “And he (Jesus) hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Enough said!

Isaiah 25:2-3, I’m sure glad I “found” these Verses to add to my Millennial repertoire. In fact, I really think all that 25th chapter is Millennial, to tell the truth!

Read it again now … and see if things better fall into place. They sure do for this Preacher!

“For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.”

What a “reversal!”

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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True, Paul does teach us that some day (at the end of Armageddon, the beginning of the Millennium) … “All Israel shall be saved.” Quoting Romans 11:26. He then immediately bases that Statement on Old Testament Scripture: “As it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” alluding to Isaiah 59:20. That’s solid Bible Background.

But (notice the Lesson title again, “That Believing Remnant”) today I’d like to emphasize the participle “BELIEVING” more than the noun “remnant.” Yes, though a small nation for sure (due to the ravages of the Tribulation) … Israel is going to believe!

And this morning’s Text, Isaiah 25:1, is likely a prophetic “quotation” (sounds like a “paradox,” but it’s just Bible Prophecy in action) of this small band of now saved Jews!

“O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” Isaiah 25:1

Wow!

That sounds as spiritually mature as just about anything in the New Testament, folks!

Beginning with God’s two most frequently used names, “Jehovah” (here printed as “LORD”) and Elohiym (in our Bible, “God”) … the speakers here certainly know their God!

Note too the personal nature of this burst of praise … “MY God!” Yes, somebody has been born-again!

Then come two parallel verbs, “exalt” and “praise.” Meaning, respectively, “to lift up on high” and then “to lob, toss words of thanks and confession” heavenward! “Exaltation” can be done silently, but “praise” cannot! So both inwardly and outwardly these Jews are fervently worshipping Jehovah God!

Wow!

Then three (at least) Attributes (Characteristics, Traits) of God are specifically mentioned. His Power (Omnipotence) … what He has done! (“Wonderful things!”) Then His Faithfulness (meaning “Immutability,” never changing Stability) as well as His Truth (“Veracity” … He being unable to lie)!

Are these newly saved Israelites (babes in Christ) … or are they theologians (seasoned Bible students) of some kind?

Wow!

Who God is!

What God does!

True Worship gets no fuller than acknowledging those two Aspects of our dear Lord!

The verse again, today’s Meditation … “O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”

May we all subscribe to the spirit of these words!

Millennial Worship can inform our Monday-after-Easter worship, too!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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