Introduction

This chapter’s aim seems to be twofold as it:

1. Describes the fall of a powerful nation that previously cast a shroud over all peoples and spread a sheet (of oppression) over all nations. (v.7)

2. Describes God’s liberation from said oppression as a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat (v.4), and the destruction of rebellious nations (Moab).

As a part of the “Apocalypse of Isaiah” (Isaiah 24-27), Isaiah shifts here in the 25th chapter to a song of thanksgiving from the perspective of someone who has seen into a future where God swallows up death forever and wipe away tears from all faces. (v.8)

Key Theme: The liberating power in a believer's personal relationship with God.

Read Isaiah 25:1-3 NRSV

Isaiah's opening declaration is one of praise to the LORD God for the fulfillment of his wonderful plans thought up in the mind of God even before creation. The prophet’s claim is personal as he states, “O LORD, you are my God.” (v.1). Just as it is for Isaiah it is for us; when we develop an awareness of our personal relationship with our Heavenly Father, that we can then boldly profess that the Lord is our God (v.1), then we can experience God's liberating power in our lives.

The prophet gives further boast of the faithfulness of the LORD his God, the God of the opressed, as he describes God’s arm of destruction against the fortified city, implying that his God is the Soverign ruler of all nations of the earth and one day he will turn them all into ruins never to be rebuilt (v2). In this Isaiah describes an Omega God, who is glorified in the end of things, this opposed to the Alpha God that is glorified in the beginning of all things - which is further evidence that the LORD is both Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. And because of this, strong peoples will glorify God and nations who have been ruthless to those less powerful than they will repent of their oppression and begin fear the LORD God (v.3).

Read Isaiah 25:4-5 NRSV

The Lord God of the oppressed, whom Isaiah has a personal relationship with has also been a refuge to the poor, while all the gods of men sought only to make the rich richer and the poor poorer (v.4), and kings created gods in their own image and forced their subjects to worship them. But the LORD God of Isaiah will subdue the heat of oppressive leaders with the shades of clouds on high, and all the songs of those ruthless kings will be silenced (v.5). 

Read Isaiah 25:6-9 NRSV

Isaiah says that his God does not seek to bless him and his people only, but that all people will come to Zion for a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear (v.6). Again, in contrast to the gods of men, the LORD God of Isaiah will destroy all forms of oppressive sinful rule that is cast over all peoples, and rather than a select few, all people will become prosperous.

This sheet that is spread over all nations is the sin of greed and idolatry often revealed in the oppressive leadership which has corrupted the heart of man; starting with the most strong and influential nations and spreading down throughout the whole earth (v.7). The penalty for this sin resulted in death in his day, but Isaiah says one day the LORD his God will swallow up death forever(v.8)! This will be a comfort to all faces and hearts to those who were oppressed, as well as a sanctification process for the whole earth (v.8). All this, though a distant future, is a sure hope that was plannedfrom long ago (v.1), but not because Isaiah had spoken it, but rather because the LORD himself did (v.9).

Read Isaiah 25:10-12 NRSV

Zion, the LORD’s holy mountain, where it is said Christ will rule out of his future kingdom, is where Isaiah says the hand (authority) of the LORD will rest (v.10). Isaiah mentions the Moabites but only as representatives of all the nations that have set themselves against the LORD God, who will be trodden down in a dung-pit (v.10). Yet even in the sewer of shame these nations will not repent, instead they will find pleasure in it.

Thus, the prophet says that for those rebellious to the LORD, their pride will lead to their complete humiliation when they are laid low, even to the dust (v.12).

Reflection

1. The LORD is indeed our God because we share a communal relationship with him. Yet Isaiah’s boast, “the LORD my God”, tells of the personal relationship between he and his Creator, and it is an example to us of the intimacy that is available to us with our Creator. How important is a personal relationship with God to you? Do you refer to God as “my God”, or to Jesus as “my Jesus”?

2. Isaiah says that the LORD God is a refuge to those in trouble and a provider to those in need. This is the heart of the Gospel message; that God does not simply look down on us and find pleasure in our worship of him, but that God also intervenes in human affairs to save and deliver us, and finds pleasure when we repent. How has God intervened in your difficult circumstances and caused you to draw closer to him?

3. Isaiah says that the nations who will choose to oppose God will be so blinded by their pride that they will enjoy the sewer God will put them in. When you experience consequences from your rebellion, do you repent and submit to God or do you simply look for ways to cope and live with your punishment?

Payer

LORD my God,

I call upon you in a personal way today, for I know you personally through your word and by your hand of mercy in my life. You know the number of hairs on my head because you care for me deeply, and your eye of protection and provision is always on me. May you draw me closer to you out of this personal relationship we share, so that I take heed to your instruction. May the love you have for me compel me to love others in a genuine manner, and let me not forget to also love myself. Remove pride and confusion from my mind and heart, so that I will not take your kindness and mercy for granted, but that I adjust my life according to your purpose and your will, in Jesus name. Amen!