Isaiah Chapter 25
SONG OF PRAISE TO GOD
Isaiah 25:1-12 NLT:
1 O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them.
2 You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. Cities with strong walls are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt.
3 Therefore, strong nations will declare your glory; ruthless nations will revere you.
4 But to the poor, O Lord, you are a refuge from the storm. To the needy in distress, you are a shelter from the rain and the heat. For the oppressive acts of ruthless people are like a storm beating against a wall,
5 or like the relentless heat of the desert. But you silence the roar of foreign nations. You cool the land with the shade of a cloud. So the boastful songs of ruthless people are stilled.
6 In Jerusalem, the Lord Almighty will spread a wonderful feast for everyone around the world. It will be a delicious feast of good food, with clear, well-aged wine and choice beef.
7 In that day he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth.
8 He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken!
9 In that day the people will proclaim, “This is our God. We trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!”
10 For the Lord’s good hand will rest on Jerusalem. Moab will be crushed like trampled straw and left to rot.
11 God will push down Moab’s people as a swimmer pushes down water with his hands. He will end their pride and all their evil works.
12 The high walls of Moab will be demolished and ground to dust.
Isaiah has been so overwhelmed that he breaks into song here: “Oh, Lord, Thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will give thanks to Thy name; for Thou hast worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.” As he pens the words the Holy Spirit gives him, he is awed by the perfection and wonders of God’s perfect planning for His people. Then Isaiah proceeds to list some of the works of God.
Here is another wonderful glimpse of who God is. While the book of Isaiah can feel very heavy at times with its judgments and pronouncements of doom, the heaviness is broken up at points with these glorious descriptions of God and what He does.
This chapter and much of the next give us another picture of God.
Isaiah cannot contain himself as he is writing these predictions of the judgment of the enemies of God and His people. He has to write words of praise: “I will exalt Thee, I will give thanks to Thy name” for all the things God is doing and is promising to do.
And what kind of God is Isaiah praising? He is a God who destroys ruthless cities and nations. He is a refuge for the poor and needy during their distress. He avenges His people. He will prepare a lavish banquet for His children. And one day God will destroy death, wipe away tears, and remove the reproach of His people. His good hand will be on His people.
In these verses we see the long promised believing remnant of Israel who have come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior at His Second Coming. Isaiah responds to God’s final judgment on the world with praise to Him for planning these actions long ago. It is most likely that the cities referred to here as being destroyed represent the world government of Babylon. When Jesus reigns upon the earth during the Millennium, nations from the whole earth will glorify and fear Him (Isaiah 24:14-16).
Isaiah also thanks God for being a shelter to the poor and needy throughout history. Then we see this marvelous celebration beginning in verse 6 when the Gentiles will join the Jews at God’s feast to celebrate the overthrow of evil and the reality of eternity with God. It shows that God intended His saving message for all people everywhere, not just to the Jews. During the feast God will put an end to death forever. The people participating in this feast will be those who have been living by faith and are now being rewarded. Finally we see a reference to Moab which is a symbol of all who oppose God and are rebellious right up to the end.
