CHAPTER 25

(712 B.C.)

MILLENNIAL WORSHIP: PRAISE FOR GODS PAST RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENTS

¹O 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. (This Chapter pertains to the coming Millennial morn, when the cause of all suffering will be put away and the cause of all life will be enthroned. He is Christ. The Promises are glorious and they will surely come to pass.)

²For You have 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 things outlined in this Chapter include the destruction of Babylon, which represents all of mans rebellion against God. It will never be rebuilt. Sin and rebellion have had their day; Righteousness now prevails.)

³Therefore shall the strong people glorify You, the city of the terrible nations (Babylon) shall fear You. (Babylon, whether the actual city or the system, is the city indicated in Verse 2; it will be rebuilt by the Antichrist, who will head it up; it will express all the opposition to the True Prince of this world from the day of its foundation by Nimrod. But now all of that will have its end, and will never rise again.)

⁴For You have 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. (The poor and needy in this Passage refer to Israel in particular and to all who follow the Lord in all ages, in opposition to the strong people and terrible nations in Verse 3, which oppose Gods People.

While the efforts by the Evil One against the Child of God are mighty, still, the protection by the Righteous One is Almighty!)

⁵You shall 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. (The Prophecy now reverts from the Millennial Reign back to the Battle of Armageddon and the defeat of the Antichrist.)

PRAISE FOR BLESSINGS TO GODS PEOPLE AND JUDGMENT ON ENEMIES

⁶And 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. (The greatness of this feast is vividly suggested by the way the words are heaped together. This is even more apparent in the Hebrew Text.

The Kingdom Age will be the grandest time the world has ever known. For the first time, planet Earth will be at rest from all war, starvation, pain, and sickness.)

⁷And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. (In this mountain refers to the headquarters of Christ on Earth, which will be Jerusalem and Mount Zion.

Since Adams Fall, no one has ever seen the world, or man for that matter, as God originally created them. When Christ comes back, for the first time things will be as they ought to be, because Christ reigns.)

⁸He 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 has spoken it. (The swallowing up of death in victory has to do with the First Resurrection of life. While death will not be taken away totally from the Earth during the Kingdom Age, it definitely will be taken away totally for all who know Christ.

Hosea, who was a contemporary of Isaiah, was the first one to mention the abolishment of death. Other than that, this Passage by Isaiah was the first announcement that death was to disappear and cease to be a possibility. To have such an announcement as this was an enormous advance on the dim and vague conceptions of a future life current to that time. Hitherto, men had been through fear of death all their lives subject to bondage [Heb. 2:14]. Now, they were taught that in the Resurrection-life there would be no fear and no possibility of death.

The joyous outburst of the Apostle Paul, when he quotes the present Passage [I Cor. 15:54], is the natural thanksgiving song of reassured humanity from recognizing its final Deliverance from the unspeakable terror of death and the unknown beyond.

This great pronouncement is closed by the words, The LORD has spoken it. There can be no retraction. The blessings promised are certain to be obtained. As stated, this will be during the Millennial Reign.)

⁹And 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. (The words, in that day, place the time factor of this great pronouncement in the Millennium, which is the same as the Kingdom Age.

The phrase, this is our God, means this Man is Jehovah, speaking of Christ.

The words, He will save us, refer to the Second Coming, when the Lord of Glory, the One they first rejected, will come and save them. He is the only One Who can save them.)

¹⁰For 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. (Once again, this mountain refers to Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The first nine Verses of this Chapter contain the song that is to be sung; the last three, faiths subscription as the certitude of its being sung.

Moab is representative of every form of human hostility. In fact, the Moabites in ancient times were the bitterest of all the adversaries of Israel [II Ki. 24:2; Ezek. 25:8-11]. Therefore, they are regarded as the fittest representatives of the human adversaries of God.)

¹¹And He shall spread forth His Hands in the midst of them, as he who swims spreads forth his hands to swim: and He shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. (Christ will only have to order the decree and it shall be done; that refers to whatever is needed. All enemies of Righteousness will be put down, and forever.)

¹²And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall He bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust. (Your walls refer to both Babylon and Moab. Thus, Babylon and Moab are morally united in this Prophecy. Babylon often appears as a political oppressor and Moab as a spiritual corruptor [Num., Chpts. 22-24].

The idea is that this fortress of Satan will be brought down to the ground, even to the dust, which insures certain, total, and absolute defeat, never to rise again.)