GOD PICKS UP THE BILL
Opening Prayer
Lord God, thank you for your salvation, and thank you that you are altogether trustworthy. Help me to respond with thanksgiving and praise in ways that bless you and show others who you are.
Read ISAIAH 25
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Praise to the Lord
25 Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago.
2 You have made the city a heap of rubble,
the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
4 You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
is like a storm driving against a wall
5 and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is stilled.
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day they will say,
“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.”
10 The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;
but Moab will be trampled in their land
as straw is trampled down in the manure.
11 They will stretch out their hands in it,
as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
despite the cleverness[a] of their hands.
12 He will bring down your high fortified walls
and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
to the very dust.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 25:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
The Lord has prepared a banquet for you. What exactly is on the menu?The central point of this chapter is the great feast that the Lord has prepared (v. 6). Notice that the table is spread ‘for all peoples.’ Remember that this is apocalyptic writing, akin to the final passages in Revelation. Verses 7 and 8 wonderfully describe an ultimate event through which God will destroy all that is dark, wicked, and deathly. What, I wonder, is ‘the shroud that enfolds all peoples’? Perhaps it’s our spiritual blindness—or just that gray, sad feeling with which so many people pass through life. Now gone forever, praise be to God!
There are two songs here. The first—verses 1 to 8—is by an individual, presumably Isaiah. The second—from verse 9—is a group of people celebrating their God. Both recount ‘wonderful things’ (v. 1): God in action utterly destroying ‘the ruthless’ and saving and blessing his people. If you didn’t know the very special God who has made all this happen, you would probably be surprised by verse 4. Amid cataclysmic events, we find God taking gentle care to ensure that the poor and the needy are sheltered and protected. Let us not doubt that such people have special servings reserved at the feast (v. 6)!
Apply
This is a word for all time. However, the people praising God here recounted things he had achieved in their days. As you respond, in what ways can you praise God for what he has done, specifically in our own age?
Closing prayer
Father, because of the hope that is mine in Christ, help me to live in ways that are overflowing with gratitude, with joy, and with expectancy for the things you have promised.
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