In Chapter 24 Isaiah saw the great tribulation period. In Chapter 25 Isaiah sees the millennial reign of Christ.
Father, give us understanding was we read thy word, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Isaiah 25
1 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.
This is the Old Testament version of John 17:17b; thy word is truth.
2 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.
The city Isaiah refers to is generally understood to be Babylon, which of course is destined to be rebuilt according to Zechariah 5:5-11, Revelation 17-18, et al. Once rebuilt and then destroyed by fire according to Isaiah 13:19, it will never be built again.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
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.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
6 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.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
Here we have the Old Testament version of 2 Corinthians 3:14-16. In our current age, even those of us who are in Christ merely see through a glass, darkly (1 Cor 13:12). In the millennium all shall see Him face to face.
8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Here, of course, is the Old Testament version of Revelation 21:4. Jesus is the solution. Jesus is the way; Jesus is the truth; Jesus is the life. Jesus is the answer. (The question is how do we get out of this mess?)
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, 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 in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.
Moab will not hold a prominent place in the millennium. (Cf Ps 60:8) However, if you are a Moabite (ie a Jordanian) in this present age, the invitation is open to you the same as everyone. All are invited. Those who receive Him now will rule alongside Him in the millennium, Moabites included.
11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
Isaiah 25
Although Moab will not have a prominent place in the millennium, the thing about Jesus is He gives everyone the same opportunity. Ruth was a Moabitess and she made a great name for herself in Israel because she was willing to receive the Messiah. (Ruth 1:16) The enemy uses this issue of ‘race’ to divide and conquer. Jesus warned us about this:
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Matthew 24:7
The word for ‘nation’ in Matthew 24:7 is the Greek word ethnos, from whence we get our English word ‘ethnicity’. This is a different word than the one used for ‘kingdom’ which literally means kingdom or ‘realm’. Of course, ‘nation’ is a perfectly fine way to translate the word ethnos. However, careful consideration of the word shows that Jesus warned us specifically about what is taking place in the world today. Organizations like the collapsing SPLC have been doing their utmost to stoke tensions between different ‘races’, but according to the Bible, there is only one race, the human race. In Acts 17:26 the Bible says God hath made of one blood all nations [Gk ethnos] of men… The Bible speaks of different tribes, kindreds, and tongues, but there is only one ‘race’.
It is important to remember that we each have our own unique ethnicity because that is the way God made us. An Indian child once asked me ‘how come some people are white and some are not?’ I told him that if God made us all that same, that would be boring, like if you went to Baskin-Robbins and they only had vanilla. (Yes, they have Baskin-Robbins in India.) God made us different and that is a good thing; like the French say, ‘viva la diffe-rance’. Although God made many different ethnos, there is one thing that is the same among us all. We are all sinners in need of a Saviour. When we stand before Him one day it is not going to matter where we came from or what language we spoke on earth. All that is going to matter is whether we received Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.
Father, thank You for sending your Son. Thank You for sending the gospel into all nations. Thank You that your invitation is open to all who will come by faith and receive the free gift of everlasting life made possible by your Son’s death and resurrection. Thank You for the precious blood He shed for us on Calvary, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
