ISAIAH
Prophecies of the Apocalypse
The song of praise
Praise for deliverance ( 25: 1-5 )
The set of chapters 25, 26 and 27 of Isaiah has been called "Book of Songs".Here the Israeli remnant restored praise the Lord for his release through the Great Tribulation. The enemy cities (not necessarily any particular city) were sprayed, causing the nations to recognize the power of the Lord. For his people God has given all that was needed.
People first praises God for his release, for three reasons:
- God did wonders. In Isaiah 9: 6 we have a list of names given to Jesus Christ being the first Wonderful Counselor. This is the first reason, because what is happening in his kingdom was conceived long before in God's plan, and is now being fulfilled in their time, and all their counsel will be held.
- God will have destroyed Babylon and fulfilled His judgment. This city was destined to be the capital of the world, but will be destroyed at the end of the Tribulation and will never be rebuilt. Another powerful people will praise and fear the Lord.
- God will have delivered the faithful remnant of Israel, who were poor, needy, subject to violent enemies. Throughout the Old Testament the prophets, especially Isaiah, use the phrase "the poor and the needy" when referring to the remaining faithful Israelites of the Great Tribulation. God will rid the storm and heat, not only literally but also to the persecution suffered by them.
Praise for the millennial blessings (25: 6-8)
Then the people praise God for two millennium of blessings: the wedding supper and the removal of the cover that covers all people:
- The Kingdom will begin on Mount Zion, which is Jerusalem, with the wedding supper or feast of the Lamb. The wedding feast is provided with " fat things full of marrow ," symbol of goodness and abundance, and "pure wine well refined " welfare symbol and contentment.
- God will have removed the cover of ignorance, the veil existing satanic blindness over all nations. The original word for " covered " in Hebrew emphasizes its "wholeness" and " veil " emphasizes the "thickness" of the deck. The picture is that all the people were with a full and thick cover over them (this coverage is not the " hardening (it) in part to Israel " of Romans 11:25.) In the context of the Old Testament, a thick cover as this was a sad symbol (2 Samuel 15:30, 19: 4, Jeremiah 14: 3-4).
The reason for the removal of the cover is given in verse 8. There are three factors:
- In the Kingdom death will be annihilated to the living believers still in their human nature (but unbelievers will die before they are one hundred years old - Isaiah 65:20). The Old Testament saints and those who died in the Great Tribulation will be resurrected in the second phase of the "first resurrection" (Revelation 20: 5,6).
- The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.
- The Israelite opprobrium will be taken off all the earth.
The Lord gives his assurance as he himself said, and it certainly said will happen.
Praise for the judgment of Israel's enemies (25: 9-12)
The people will praise God for his expected salvation from the hands of enemies, and rejoice at trial that will bring on them. Israel's enemies will be shamefully humiliated.
Verses 10 to 12 are understood in different ways:
- The Lord is compared to a man opening a path through the grass in a field flooded by sewage water, trampling and destroying the straw in his way. Like other enemies, Moab gets in the way, but will also be trampled and killed by the Lord as straw, its walls with high fortresses will be slaughtered and shot down in the dust.
- Moab, as an example of the enemies will be trampled ignominiously. God is compared to a swimmer in verse 11, extending His hands to swim in the middle of Moab. Moab will be humbled and its walls and fortifications destroyed .
R David Jones
1 LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, For You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
2 For You have made a city a ruin, a fortified city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore the strong people will glorify You; The city of the terrible nations will fear You.
4 For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 You will reduce the noise of aliens, as heat in a dry place; as heat in the shadow of a cloud, the song of the terrible ones will be diminished.
6 And in this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.
7 And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
8 He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.
9 And it will be said in that day: "Behold, 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."
10 For on this mountain the hand of the LORD will rest, And Moab shall be trampled down under Him, as straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.
11 And He will spread out His hands in their midst As a swimmer reaches out to swim, And He will bring down their pride Together with the trickery of their hands.
Isa 25:12 The fortress of the high fort of your walls He will bring down, lay low, And bring to the ground, down to the dust.
Chapter 25, verses 1 to 12