Isaiah 25 - From Curse to Consolation Part 2

I speak on behalf of all my family, of course, to just say what an incredible time it has been with you.

We have simply been incredibly blessed by your hospitality, your fellowship, just time with you, and so the privilege to preach the word is in addition to the overwhelming abundance of living in your midst as a congregation.

You are such a precious church.

I know your pastor knows this, your pastors know this, but I just wish to say it to the glory of Christ, for what a blessing it is to be in your midst, having fellowshiped with you again all of this week.

You are truly precious saints, and Banu is making it incredibly hard for us to leave tonight with pizza night, so I think I'll send Alex and the kids home and I will remain.

Please open your Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 25.

Isaiah 25 · chapter mention

Isaiah, chapter 25.

Isaiah 25 · chapter mention

We have had the blessing of looking at Isaiah, chapters 24 and 25 that we have entitled, that I have entitled, from Curse to Consolation.

Isaiah 24 · chapter mention

God's Glory in the Last Days, god's Glory Through Christ.

Christ will be displayed at the center of Isaiah, as I pray.

We saw together last week, even amidst the curse, we were able to see visibly before us exalted the cursed one who was cursed on our behalf, as the introduction to the sermon this morning and to your service has said so wonderfully, through song and prayer.

And so please follow along as I read our text this morning Isaiah, chapter 25, verses 1 through 12, chapter 25, the whole of it, isaiah speaks oh Yahweh, you are my God.

Isaiah 25 · chapter mention

I will exalt you, I will give thanks to your name, for you have worked wonders.

Councils formed long ago with perfect faithfulness For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified town into a ruin.

A palace of strangers is a city no more.

It will never be rebuilt.

Therefore, a strong people will glorify you.

Towns of ruthless nations will fear you, for you have been a strong defense for the poor, a strong defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the breath of the ruthless is like a rainstorm against a wall, like heat in a dry land.

You subdue the rumbling of the strangers.

Like heat in a dry land.

You subdue the rumbling of the strangers Like heat by the shadow of a cloud.

The song of the ruthless is silenced and Yahweh of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine.

And on this mountain he will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

He will swallow up death for all time, and Lord Yahweh will wipe tears away from all faces and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth.

For Yahweh has spoken, and it will be said in that day Behold, this is our God, in whom we have hoped that he would save us.

This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped.

Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation, for the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain and Moab will be trodden down in his place.

A straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.

He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim.

But Yahweh will lay low his lofty pride, together with the trickery of his hands, the unassailable fortifications of your walls, he will bring down, lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.

Isaiah, chapter 25 is about consolation.

Isaiah 25 · chapter mention

Therefore, after God's curse in redemption comes God's consolation.

As a part of that same plan of redemption, there is judgment, just judgment.

That is a part of God's work, wonderful works, as we heard from Isaiah in our passage.

But that justice never comes without joy, the joy of deliverance, the joy of deliverance, the joy of deliverance from the injustice lived out prior.

The faithful remnant.

Rejoice, therefore, and this morning we rejoice with our passage.

Along with our passage and with Isaiah, we rejoice.

The righteous sing songs to the righteous one whose glory is displayed through righteousness, righteousness reigns.

The voices of his people thereby cry out from the east to the west.

The faithful lift up their voices, magnifying God for his salvation, magnifying Christ, magnifying God for his salvation, magnifying Christ.

The tears shed for the sufferings of the present time are incomparable to the hope realized when his glory is revealed in that day.

And so we rejoice as we simply review what we've seen thus far and what we're about to be, about to be being blessed with, if you will, in chapter 25, the cry of the redeemed and the joy of salvation all lifted up in Christ.

Lifting up Christ, lifting up Christ.

Let's look more closely at our text with those words in mind Consolation to the one who has been faithful, Consolation as expressed from the individual's praise.

Isaiah 25, as we said, is about consolation.

The consolation will be explained through the following flow of thought, through the following flow of thought.

I've just shared that first flow of thought Isaiah expresses in lifting up the consolation.

God's consolation will be seen through the eyes of those who persevere, who persevere through the curse, through the judgment, the persevering.

These are the faithful, these are the overcomers, these are the remnant In our passage in chapter 25, we'll be speaking directly to them through and in Christ, as we'll see in the prophecy.

They are the beneficiaries of the joy of salvation, they are the beneficiaries of God's consolation.

And so our passage will thus be explained through the flow of thought, through Isaiah's logic.

First, we have consolation as expressed from the individual's praise.

We will see the individual's praise, chapter 25, verses 1 through 5.

And second, we have consolation as expressed through the community's praise.

The community's praise, chapter 25, verses 6 through 12.

Closing off our passage and chapter, consolation will thus be explained through Isaiah's flow of thought in looking at praise coming up to God, lifted up to God, thanksgiving being given to God for his consolation, from the individual believer to the whole community, to the whole community, to all of his people, in other words, to all of his people.

And so let's look more closely at our text, beginning with consolation as expressed from the individuals, as I stated and said earlier.

Consolation to the one who has been faithful.

Consolation as expressed from the individual's praise Chapter 25, verses 1 through 5.

Please observe how verse 1 of chapter 25 begins.

We have a very, very strong commitment to the praise of Yahweh.

Yahweh, god, emphasis, emphasis on the you, emphasis on the you.

Notice verse one you are my God.

I will exalt you, emphasis on the you of my God.

At the beginning of verse one.

I will give thanks to your name.

This, in other words, this consolation, this rejoicing, this hope after the curse, is about God.

So was the curse.

It's all to God's glory.

This is about God.

Trials and tribulation are more about God than they are about us.

They give us this God-centered vision.

We look up.

Life is about God.

All of our experiences in a sin-cursed world hence afflictions and tears, reproach for sin, our sin and that of others is all, all, everything about God, about knowing God, even amidst the incomparable tribulation faced on that day, on the final of days, judgment day, it will be about possessing a deeper understanding of the holiness of God and that the whole earth is full of his glory.

Isaiah 6, 3, isaiah's vision.

The believer will be brought to that, to that greater understanding.

He will be brought to him, to a greater knowledge of God, of who God is.

And for this, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the trials or the cost, we praise him, we praise him.

We praise him.

The righteous, the remnant, those who faithfully persevere, clinging to the word of God and the testimony of the Lamb.

The persevering know this, know this, they mature through this and they praise God for this, for the sufferings they face.

They are brought further, closer, deeper to the mercies of God.

Through the worship of God, they exalt rather than lament, they confess rather than complain.

They bring themselves to humble adoration of the only God, only Christ and Messiah.

The exaltation, moreover, is very striking in its expression.

Again, verse 1, I will exalt you, I will exalt you is in the passive, whereas right beside it is the following action as you can see from your Bibles, I will give thanks to your name, which is in the active voice, if we were just to bring out the grammar briefly placed back to back, in other words, to enhance the all-around thrust of the worshiper's praise on that day, to Yahweh, to his God.

In other words, body and soul.

Body and soul are moved and moved upon as stirred to and fro, back and forth, lifting up praise to God.

This is the affection of the redeemed, after redemption has been delivered.

The saved, in other words, worship this way, said differently, they worship this way for their salvation, for their Savior and Lord, the one who has rescued them from the finality of his curse upon the wicked and the earth.

He who is consoled from God's consolation responds, praises Yahweh through such devoted worship.

That is all he wants.

Is Christ at the end of the day.

How different, how different, how different.

Please notice and recall this is from those cursed.

How different this is of the day.

How different, how different, how different.

Please notice and recall this is from those cursed.

How different this is from the curse.

Do you remember?

The curse evokes no consolation.

Those cursed, rather than rejoice, cry out, cry out.

I waste away, I waste away.

Woe is me.

Chapter 24, verse 16, says just that.

We looked at it last week Under the curse.

You are anxious and cannot be helped from your anxiety.

And we just recall here, in similar fashion, christ Jesus as he prays in Gethsemane before his hour, the hour of his suffering, perfect without sinning, and yet experiences the heaviness, the grief, the distress that death brings upon all men.

As he tastes death for all men, on all men.

As he tastes death for all men Under the curse, then you have no deliverance.

These words, the cry of those who waste away and call woe upon themselves, come from Isaiah as he identifies with the horrors of the unrighteous, all the more Christ, as we've just said, in his own passion.

These will perish as the curse rains down from heaven upon them.

The treacherous who deal treacherously are overcome by panic.

They run from the judgment only to find themselves falling into a pit and if able to get out of the pit, the pitfall captures them.

They are forever entrapped.

Again, we saw this in chapter 24 last week.

Amos, amos, just by way of help and illustration, amos the prophet illustrates the dreaded fate of the unrighteous on that judgment day.

In Amos 5, in chapter 5 of his prophecy he explains as a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him.

Or he goes home, leans his handes from a lion and a bear meets him, or he goes home, leans his hand against the wall and a snake bites him.

Amos 5.19.

There will be no hope for the unrighteous on that day, no immediate relief, but constant and growing distress.

They will never be consoled.

In other words, in the words of Amos once again, the Lord will set his eyes against them for evil and not for good.

Not so, not so the faithful remnant, not so the persevering, the faithful that hold fast to the word and the testimony, again of the lamb.

Verse one of our passage continues giving us the reason for the believers praise on that day.

God is exalted because please look at verse one he has worked wonders.

He has worked wonders and his counsels, formed long ago with perfect faithfulness, have have been fulfilled.

Fulfilled.

The expression carries with it a completion, a satisfaction, a perfect peace that the steadfast experience at the end of it all because of God's faithful faithfulness.

That's exactly the way the term is said Faithful faithfulness, the meaning of perfect faithfulness at the end of verse one, faithful faithfulness to it all, to the whole plan.

Conjured up is a scene mixed with dread and splendor isaiah 2.

Isaiah 2, if we were to go back as cited in chapter 24, is back as cited in chapter 24, isaiah 2, as cited in chapter 24 last Sunday and hence just reading it for you.

In Isaiah 24, speaks this way, as the prophecy begins to unfold In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the baths their idols of silver, their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, before the dread of Yahweh and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble.

This is from Isaiah 2, verses 20 through 21, but expressed in chapter 24, as we looked at last week in our in our study of the curse.

Isaiah 2:20–21

Yahweh is worthy to be praised for.

He has worked wonders.

The work first off notice is depicted as something overall.

Overall, then as a grand, as a grand opera through the unity heard, through the unity heard through the unity of all its voices, in a majestic crescendo that spans time.

This is how the faithful and remnant will see salvation.

There is awe in fixing one's sight on its finish.

The blueprint of salvation before the ages is now a finished work.

Wonders, wonders.

Furthermore, speaks of the miraculous Before every one of the living, those that have survived the wrath of God, there is astonishment at something that is too wonderful to be explained by human hands, done or performed by human hands.

That which is wonderful is simply the work of God revealed.

That is what salvation is.

In other words, we take a step back and Isaiah pictures that day when the redeemed sing and see God's purposes all along.

What we did not understand fully, we see now clearly.

Those witnessing it from the earth see the wonderful display of divine condescension in history and time.

A sheer mercies, the mercies of God to them, overflowing.

We will not get there that day if you will and complain with God and say please explain this to me.

Why did you do that?

I was really disappointed with that.

No, we will be before God simply praising him for his mercies and wanting more mercy, thanking him for his over abundant mercy.

It is all mercy.

The instinctive impulse is to tell of it, speak of it and cry it out in praise.

The Psalms frequently express this attitude, in Psalm 9, for example.

Psalm 9, david erupts in praise, proclaiming I will be glad and exalting you.

I will sing praise to your name, o Most High, verse 2, psalm 9, verse 2.

Psalms 9:2

Later he adds sing praises to Yahweh who abides in Zion.

Declare among the peoples his acts, for he who requires blood remembers them.

He does not forget get the cry of the afflicted.

This is good news, good news In fact.

In fact, this is messianic news in the context of Isaiah Wonders recalls.

Wonders recalls exactly what you hear it from the sound of the word.

Wonders recalls the wonderful counselor.

Counselor for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor.

Mighty god, eternal father, prince of peace, there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of david and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness.

From then on and forevermore, the zeal of yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9, 6, 7.

Again, there is a seeming play on words in verse 1, always of our passage.

There's a seeming play of words in our text that is followed by counsels, so that we have praise for the counselor and his counsel.

The plan we could say formed long ago, a time remote and distant from that of Isaiah, way before the prophet and his prophecy, and from the day in the future, isaiah's prophecy points to the senses of an eternal plan, worked, planned and counseled long ago.

Much more can be said here about God's work, coupled with God's counsel In the immediate context of the prophecy.

Notice verse 23 of chapter 24, just above in our previous passage, and study study.

Verse 23 of chapter 24 concludes the section on curse with the triumph of God's reign, do you remember?

Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed, for Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.

24, 23.

Together we have the plan devised for the coming kingdom of God through the King Christ, the Lord.

Consider for a moment, consider for a moment how profound God's plan is, his wondrous works and counsel.

In the greater context of our passage, that is to say early on in the book of Isaiah, we are told of the sign.

The sign, the sign of Emmanuel, isaiah 7.

The sign speaks to something miraculous that God will do for his people as a part of God's future deliverance of them.

All of this, the two expressions wonderful works and counsels at the beginning of verse one in our passage, along with, furthermore, the idea of God's coming reign and kingdom in the immediate context 24-23, seem all of this, all of this I hope you can follow along, seem to lift up the sign of Emmanuel, the coming of Messiah and the Lord Jesus as God's future consolation after the curse.

In other words, jesus as God's future consolation after the curse.

In other words, as we await to hear about consolation, we are awaiting to hear about who or whom.

Christ, christ.

Again, this is not about us.

Isaiah is lifting up Christ so that we can all look to him.

Isaiah is lifting up Christ so that we can all look to him.

The consolation we're talking about in our passage in chapter 25, said differently, is Emmanuel, christ himself.

Christ is the answer to joy everlasting.

God curses him and God consoles those who find their refuge in him because Christ has been cursed on their, our behalf.

To render it very simply you want peace away from the distress, grief and anxiety.

You turn to Christ in repentance and faith.

Believe Isaiah's message.

Simply put Believe in the future as you believe in the promise now from his time.

Therefore, he, the Lord Jesus, is God's wonderful work, counsel before time and salvation to the joy of the redeemed to the ends of the earth.

Last week, in coming to grips again, just by way of review, in coming to grips with the curse of God upon the earth.

In chapter 24, we asked how the end of days will end.

We said Isaiah gives us that picture through his prophecy, I pray.

We responded to that then through our study of chapter 24.

That said, 24 provides a partial answer.

That is answered more fully and clearly in chapter 25.

That is answered more fully and clearly in chapter 25.

Our chapter today, 24 through 27, provides the full answer and picture.

How will our world come to an end?

Behold, from what we have seen in verse 1 of 25, simply at the beginning of our chapter, as soon as you prick the chapter, so to speak, it bleeds Christ.

Here is the answer envisioned in Isaiah 25, is the kingdom of God and of his Christ, their reign.

That is how the world will come to an end.

Our world will end with the establishment of the kingdom of God, of Christ, which is the revelation of God's salvation, the accomplishment of his plan of redemption.

From Isaiah, therefore, the end means the coming of Emmanuel, which means the coming of his kingdom and the coming of salvation.

Please notice before we jump immediately to revelation Isaiah will see Christ's coming as one, as one, coming to reign and redeem, no distinction, though the New Testament will unfold this into two comings Christ's first and second coming.

Isaiah again expresses it as one magnificent arrival bringing both salvation and an end to sin and death.

The latter days of Isaiah, chapter 2, then the beginning of the prophecy project forward to include the present days, our days to the end of days climactically leading into the new heavens and the new earth spoken of in Isaiah 60 through 66 and Revelation 21 and 22.

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

For behold, I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come upon the heart, but be joyful and rejoice forever in what I create.

For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for joy.

Isaiah 65, verses 17 through 18.

Isaiah 65:17–18

This is why the consolation in chapter 25 is call, is a call for rejoicing among the faithful.

God's consolation is forever.

Forever.

It has come through Christ and it will not go away.

Isaiah's kingdom heralds days where death will be swallowed up, tears wiped away and the reproach sin of God's people removed.

All of these forever.

No turning back.

All of this future glory.

All of this future glory, then, is one coming kingdom vision.

Again, I stress, the one coming kingdom vision.

Though that future, through Isaiah's lens, may be painted in broad brushes, the point is that this future is Christ God's judgment of the world and salvation from that same judgment of his own within the world in Christ.

We should not see this exclusively as an end-time scenario.

So sadly, we rush to the end times and conjure up fantastic stories that terrorize people and miss the cross.

We should not see this as exclusively an end time scenario such that we immediately jump to the book of Revelation.

The end times apocalypse is there in the vision and we cannot exclude it.

We discussed some of it last week in Isaiah 24 and looking at the curse.

That said, that said, isaiah's judgment day and Isaiah's day of salvation, together part of the same coin, truly cover both comings of Christ and not just his final, second coming.

We cannot develop it here, but passages like Luke 10 in the Gospels and Colossians 2 acknowledge the cross, christ's sacrificial death, as God's kingdom triumph over Satan, evil and all earthly rulers and authorities.

Jesus even tells his disciples in Luke that many prophets and kings wish to see the things you see and hear the things you hear, which you hear Luke 10, 24.

But they did not hear them.

Hence the privilege of living today in the church.

Through the church we hear Christ.

We can proclaim Christ, things which in the past, prophets and peoples, the people, wanted to see but could not.

Paul tells the Colossians that Christ has taken the debt of sin we owed out of the way, nailing it to the cross, rescuing us from the authority of darkness to the kingdom of his son.

Colossians 2, 14.

Chapter 1, verse 13.

That day, in other words, is now.

Isaiah's day is now and in the future.

Just as much as today is the day of judgment, today is also, and more so, the day of salvation.

When you hear judgment and greater judgment approaching, as in the curse, you are also hearing salvation, a call to receive God's consolation, now more than other.

So you never leave discouraged, you leave heavy, but so be it, because the heaviness will crush you so that you don't rely on yourself and you turn to Christ.

Our passage moves on.

Our passage moves on.

Isaiah notice picks up the theme of the city, once again in verse 2.

In verse 2.

In 2410, we heard about the city of chaos.

Chapter 24, verse 10.

It is mentioned in the context of the manner in which God's curse devours the earth.

We looked at this last week In other words, destruction of life and the dwelling places where life happens, such as in a city, is how the curse curses the earth and its inhabitants.

Whether it was already known as a city of chaos, signifying debauchery, whether it was already known as a city of chaos signifying debauchery, or whether it becomes chaos after the curse runs through, it is not clear.

Both ideas could be included in the main point, which is to say that, under the curse, cities return to the rubble they're made of.

God humbles the pride of the proud which the example of the city represents.

Do you recall the Tower of Babel?

At the Tower of Babel, the whole earth gathers and says come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11, 4.

Observe the level of destruction after God is through with the city.

Again, verse 2 in our passage.

Verse 2 speaks of a city being made into a heap rocks, a fortified town into a ruin, a palace that is no more Strangers, referring to peoples that oppose God, pagans estranged to a relationship with him.

A city, in the end, that will never be rebuilt.

In other words, when this judgment happens, the wicked Are cursed to eternity and the consoled rejoice because death has been forever removed.

The strong negation to never building again at the end of verse 2 speaks to how definite the desolation will be.

Just looking ahead for a moment to verses 7 and 8 of our passage, isaiah gives us a glimpse of what is intended here in verse 2.

By the definitive devastation God will unleash upon the city, death will be swallowed up forever.

In other words, where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever.

Where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever.

Where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever.

Consolation, as witnessed in the praise of the individual, is communicated through the metaphor of a city, of the city.

The once and for all destruction of the city means the once and for all destruction of death from the earth.

Verses three to five continue the humbling that is anticipated from the city.

The thought of the passage moves to the people.

Verses three through five the inhabitants of the city are brought low, just as the city itself.

Like the city, the people who dwell in it are humbled.

These city dwellers are the strong and ruthless.

Verse 3.

Therefore, a strong people will glorify you.

Ruthless nations will fear you.

Their knees will be bent.

Please observe the depth of the consolation expected, the depth of the consolation you who today suffer at the hands of unrighteousness, injustice, will not be forgotten.

Though the proud are brought down, god does not forget the weak who are subject to the evil committed against them by the strong.

Verses four and five close off this first section of consolation with images of persecutors brought to glorifying and fearing God, while their victims are given refuge in shade.

All will be righted on that day.

The consolation will right.

It, make it right.

Paul tells the Romans remember, in chapter 12, do not seek your own vengeance, beloved.

What is the point of that?

Seek your own vengeance, beloved.

What is the point of that?

This, this, there will be a right established on that day like never before.

In that day, many will be lowered, in other words, and the remaining will be lifted up.

Simeon's prophecy do you recall Simeon's prophecy before the child Jesus, as Luke recounts in his gospel?

Luke, chapter 2, verse 34,?

Luke 2:34

Simeon declares Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed.

This prospect and current reality, already realized, but awaiting its final consummation, again helps us love our enemies and bless those who curse us today.

Verse 5, quickly, simply in passing, mentions the song of the ruthless, the song of the ruthless.

End of verse five.

Please notice that the song of the ruthless God subdues the rumbling of strangers and the song of the ruthless is silenced again.

End of verse five.

This is once again a metaphor for the humbling of the proud of those cursed under the curse.

The song, however, the song is very striking.

Striking in its connotation, in its significance to Old Testament victory songs.

Old Testament victory songs.

Interesting wording In Exodus 15, for instance, moses and the sons of Israel sing songs to Yahweh.

The song, interestingly enough for us, given our passage, begins with the words I will sing to Yahweh, for he is highly exalted.

Exodus 15.1,.

Yahweh is a warrior, god is his name.

Exodus 15.3,.

The Egyptians thought they could pursue and overtake the Israelites and divide their spoil, but they sank like lead in the mighty waters of the sea.

Yahweh is thereby praised for being fearsome in praises, working wonders, working wonders.

In Deuteronomy 32, moses sings once again a song before all Israel exalting God.

He is the God who will avenge his people from the injustices brought on by their enemies.

The people, his people, are to shout for joy, for Yahweh will atone for his land and his people.

Notice the sense of the cleansing here.

The joys of the people are based on the salvation of the people through the atonement of their Christ.

Your joy is so linked to Christ and your salvation Absolutely linked.

Consolation to the individual moves then to consolation to the community of the faithful, consolation as expressed from the community's praise.

Chapter 25, verses 6 through 12, as we move our way towards the close of our passage.

Verses 6 through 12 conclude our passage, chapter 25.

Notice, from the individual eye, exalting eye in God, as we saw in verses 1 through 5, to now the plural we, we.

This movement comes throughout.

This last section Emphasis on the community rather than the individual.

We move from the individual to the community.

In other words, praise to greater praise, praise to greater praise.

Beginning in verse 6, god prepares a banquet for all peoples.

In verse 7, the covering will be swallowed up, that is, over all peoples and veils stretched out over all nations, peoples and nations.

In verse 8, his people are mentioned once more.

Verse 9 brings out multiple we's and us's.

We have hoped that he would save us.

Let us rejoice.

Verses 10 through 12.

Finally, though no longer mentioning the community, do focus on a people, moab.

Moab, who is moab, representative of the pagan peoples, of all the pagan peoples opposed to God, that God will crush on that day.

Bringing Moab down because of its pride still leaves the focus on the plural rather than the singular individual, the point being that, though God has in mind the individual, it is to the universal, the universal please listen that God's judgments and promises of salvation go to.

It is always about the people's plural than the people's singular, though the people's singular are also special.

It is to the nations that we're called, and the rejoicing, in other words, even brings upon us a joy to tell it to the nations, a responsibility to tell it to the nations.

The community praises God for his consolation.

Notice from the mountain, the mountain, verse six.

On the mountain of victory, god prepares a banquet, a lavish one.

This is a lavish banquet aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine, evidence of how incredibly rich this feast will be.

So much more can be said here, because the imagery is simply monumental.

The old covenant with Moses and Israel was confirmed with a banquet.

Exodus 24, 11.

Exodus 24, 11 tells of how Moses, aaron, nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up to the mountain of God to worship, beholding God and eating and drinking Exodus 24, 11.

And yet, do you remember what was different about that group with respect to us as a community?

That group was to remain at a distance, with the exception of Moses.

Yahweh promised to come down to the mountain in the sight of all people below, but, as you recall, the people were not allowed to go up to the mountain, not allowed to touch the mountain.

Should they touch it, they would surely die.

Exodus 19, 11 through 13,.

Bounds were placed all around to prevent them from touching it lest they die.

The author, the author of Hebrews in the New Testament, contrasts the Sinai mountain with the new covenant mountain.

The new covenant mountain of God.

Behold, behold, the new Mount Zion in heavily.

Jerusalem is the city of the living God, the present location for a festal gathering of all the righteous both in heaven and on earth, with God and Jesus, the mediator of this new promise, whose blood is better than the blood sprinkled, the sprinkled blood of the old covenant.

Hebrews 12, 18 through 24,.

Verse 7 continues this theme, notice building up to Christ, and the better promise in Christ, the better and grander joy.

More of the meaning of the mountain is given to us in verse 7.

What does the mountain stand for?

What will take place on this mountain besides the rich banquet?

Well, verse 7 emphasizes notice, swallow up.

Swallow up is emphasized with much intensity.

God will devour, in other words destroy, the covering which is over all peoples.

The covering is a veil stretched out over the nations.

It is all the same word.

It all means covering.

In Hebrew, repeated four times in the verse, covering speaks to weeping because of the reproach and shame over one's head.

It is to bear the weight or the contempt of the curse, in other words, divine curse for divine disobedience and sin.

This is law.

This is law Implied here.

There is a heavy burden on the peoples of the world.

To this day, they live bent over, if you will metaphorically, they walk as hunchbacks.

Life is burdensome because of the curse, living under the curse of God.

The curse, in the form of covering, is so thick the fourfold repetition in verse 7, that no human can remove it.

In other words, it is a covering so solid that by yourself you cannot, please, listen, deliver yourself.

You cannot deliver yourself.

No good works, no self-improvement, no, nothing, no, nothing.

No human can remove nor eliminate it.

You are simply cursed.

Herein, however, lies the gospel.

From the law we move to the gospel.

God, from Isaiah's point of view, will not only remove it but here again, he will destroy it.

He will destroy it.

We read passages so beautifully this morning from the resurrection and the victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15.

Verse 8, what will he destroy?

We've just said it.

Verse 8, god will destroy death.

God will destroy death, amen.

Verse 8 brings incredible consolation and comfort.

Notice again the same expression as in verse 7, swallow up.

Just in case you did not get it the first time.

It is said.

Again the same expression as in verse 7.

Swallow up, just in case you did not get it the first time.

It is said with the same intense manner.

This time, however, it is more explicit than in verse 7.

Covering and veil is actually death.

What is the curse?

It is death.

If you are under the curse, you are dead, actually dead, and on your way to eternal death, both spiritually and physically, forever.

Notice the absolute promise for all time, god will destroy death.

For all time For the consoled, for those who have been removed from the curse because of their refuge in the Messiah, the cursed one.

God tells them, just like he tells the prophet Daniel Do you remember what he tells Daniel?

Go to, for we'll see you again at the end of days.

You will rise again.

There is hope, there is victory.

Oh death, where is your sting Now?

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Consolation means resurrection For those who were previously cursed but now consoled.

The destruction of death means the end of tears wiped away by God from all faces and the removal of the reproach from all the earth.

Trials ended fully.

The emphasis on death and its removal, destruction, is so strong.

We must take this to heart.

This is the hope we have.

It is the hope we have.

It speaks to what Paul tells the Romans in Romans 8.

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Verses 9 through conclude our passage.

They look at the latter days.

In that day, verse 9, once again, the prophecy brings us to the big picture, the big picture set before us.

Salvation has come back to the forefront and there is great rejoicing.

The expressions of joy in verse 9 are hope that we would have, hope that he would save us, deliverance, hope again.

Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.

There is in the words, a sense of patient trust.

That is what you who have hope in Christ are now doing and living.

This is how you are living.

You are living patiently, trusting in the fulfillment of the hope you already have because of Christ, patiently trusting, waiting on the fulfillment of his promises.

This from the Old Testament perspective of Isaiah.

The New Testament magnifies this theme even more.

Hence, this patient trust is all the more magnified, raised up, it magnifies this theme of patient suffering.

Hebrews again speaks of the one who was made for a little while lower than angels, subjected to death, who, because of the suffering of death, was crowned with glory and honor so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

Hebrews 2.9,.

That again was read so wonderfully this morning to bring many sons to glory.

Notice what Isaiah is referring to in his exaltation of God.

Both the individual and the community are, in other words, exalting who.

They are exalting Christ.

It is Christ, in other words, who is representing the individual in the community, who is actually exalting God for having given him the privilege of being the author of salvation, the bearing and the patiently bearing we don't do alone, but in Christ, because all has been defeated.

Our hope of deliverance, in other words, has been realized in Jesus Christ, the deliverer.

He is the new and living way.

Notice the implications this has for our passage.

The community is rejoicing in Christ.

The people are not praising God, as though his salvation and deliverance has come solely between them and God.

Much to the contrary, the one truly praising God is the one sent to accomplish his salvation on behalf of the individual in the community.

Again, that is Jesus Christ.

Salvation on behalf of the individual in the community.

Again, that is Jesus Christ.

This allows them to know God as really their God.

You know God as you turn to Christ.

In other words, verse 10 provides a striking finality Verses 10 through 12.

It is gruesome in its presentation, though still focused on the mountain of God.

One commentator talks about God resting on his mountain and with his foot placed upon Moab.

Crushing.

Crushing the cursed Verse 10,.

The picture is apt and brutal, for the cursed Moab again standing for all the nations and people's curse will be laid low like the feet of those trotting manure.

Hence the disgusting part.

Notice how the debauchery of the cursed and the life of the cursed is described the feet of those trotting manure in a pool of manure and water.

The picture gets all the more pathetic, if not gruesome.

In spite of the desperate condition of the proud life in the manure pile, they will try to rescue themselves by stretching out their hands, symbolic of self-reliance, trying to swim in the manure pile reliance trying to swim in the manure pile.

No matter the desperation we see people in, they continue stubborn hearted and hard-headed to live in their desperation, thinking things will change.

In verse 11 and 12, the scene is but total dissent for the curse.

The phrase lay low is repeated.

God will do this.

Those under the curse will become dust dust After Adam and Eve sin.

The curse upon them will mean suffering, thorns and thistles in this life and dust.

They shall both return, suggesting eternal death for all.

We sing this morning because of Christ.

We rejoice in God's consolation in Christ.

If you are without Christ this morning, then our prayer is that you would turn to him in hope this is a message of hope and that in him you may find your curse destroyed and your joy fulfilled.

Curse destroyed and your joy fulfilled, and that those who know him and have this joy may be moved, moved to rejoicing and moved to bring that salvation here and to the ends of the earth.

Let's pray, father.

We thank you so much for your word.

We are overwhelmed with the joy of your salvation.

We are overwhelmed with Christ.

Our hearts burn, knowing that this is beyond us, and yet we come by your mercies, through grace, praising you and worshiping you In Jesus' name, amen.