Isaiah, Chapters 24-25

proceeding into this study of Isaiah chapters 24 and 25. And just to get oriented, last week we told you you were here. And this is at the completion of God's warnings to Judah's neighbors. Today, we're proceeding on to the next part here, God's warnings to all nations. And there's a reason for the chomping dentures there.

We'll get to it. OK. We're going to be chewing our way through Isaiah 24 and 25. As we typically do, we start off by summarizing the chapters before we zero in on the focal point passage. And so Isaiah 24 describes in sweeping terms, and that's not being too literal, in sweeping terms judgments upon all the nations. And this is in the Greek Old Testament, ethnos. We mentioned previously, that's where we get our word ethnic from that same Greek word. These are judgments still yet to come. They have not taken place yet, but will happen in the future.

These are awful times that are described here, known as the tribulation period, lasting seven years, as indicated by the book of Daniel and in the book of Revelation. Chapter 24, however, ends on a positive note, and chapter 25 continues with that positive description. It describes God's gracious dealing with the nations and the restoration in the times to follow after this awful tribulation period for those who are saved around to enjoy it. Here's how the timeline looks. Isaiah 24, 1 through 22 is this tribulation period just before the second coming of Christ. This is the time we mentioned is a seven-year length. Isaiah 24, the last part of it there, starting in verse 23, in through 25.9 is about this time of restoration, and we'll be looking at a portion of that here this morning. There are actually a few more verses after that that I haven't referenced, a kind of a look back and yes, Moab will be taken care of too.

All right. Now, there's this pattern here that you see and you also have this on your handout. And the reason I bring this pattern up is that it's a pattern that stretches for four chapters, but what it actually turns out to be is kind of a mirror image in written form.

We've all seen mirror image kinds of pictures. And of course, some of the most lovely ones of those have things like a mountain scene or a forest scene with a very glass-like lake to show the mirror image. And here would be one, I think that's in Yosemite. Nice place to visit if you can just handle the crowds. Here's another one. And seeing the sky and the mountains and the forest and then the mirrored image down below. Here's another one here with some snowy mountains in the background, some not so snowy mountains in the front, and then the reflection in the lake.

Now, some of these mirror images I'm not so sure about. You have to wonder. And one of the things that makes me wonder about some of them is things like this. This is just real questionable. But the passage is not questionable. What is it? It's a literary mirror image.

The first portion of this section, which is the two chapters we're looking at here, centered on this passage that we're studying this morning, is the beginning part, the top part of this mirror image, the turning point, is the bottom part, and we'll be getting to that next week.

It is called a chiasm, writing in that way, and sometimes we'll find various Bible authors, Paul even used some of these chiasm patterns, Various Bible authors would write in small segments, just a few verses, a chiasm. In this case, it is an entire several chapters that are a chiasm. The book of Esther, for example, the whole book is a chiasm. So you'll find small and large scale. Here, it's four chapters.

We're going to be looking at these to give you an idea of how this pattern is carried out. Here is A at the top. having this idea of harvest of a remnant from a destroyed world, and then A prime, that's what that says there, harvest of a remnant from a destroyed people. So a similar message, and you can track each one. B, the song of the world remnant, or B prime at the bottom, the song of the remnant of the people. Similar kind of pattern as you go through.

Again, it's a mirror image pattern, and we'll be looking at the middle of that mirror image. Studying the first half today, second half next week. All right, now, here's the focal point passage we're looking at here. Now, before we dig into the details, there are six alls in this passage, particularly in verses six through eight.

This is not this all the stuff you wash the clothes with. This isn't the all y'alls. It's six times, okay? Not that. That's how they would have read that in Texas. But no, this is all peoples, okay? All nations, all faces, all the earth, etc. And so let's itemize those. All the people, all those who are saved, which would include also all faces and all nations. There is also all the earth, which is all the earth geographically. The entire globe is involved here.

And finally, all time. Death finally and forever put in the past. We'll take a look at that certainly in further detail here. But one of the things we see in this passage is it's universal. Everybody's included. It's not zeroing in on just this specific nation or that group, as we've seen in the previous chapters. Here he's talking, boy, this is global. This is around the whole world.

Now, here's the passage here, Isaiah 25, 6-9. We're going to divide it up this way. We'll start off first with the first verse, then two verses in the middle, and then the last verse, verse 9, separately. So we'll take a look at it that way. And as we look at this, it says, the Lord 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. So, starts off with the Lord of hosts. This is a phrase that we see often in Isaiah. He seems to like this.

It could be translated Lord of armies or Lord of multitudes. And we'll see why it has particular meaning here. The Lord had certainly innumerable angels, Plus, the saved Gentiles, Jews, and the Church, coming with the Lord in His second coming, will also be included in these armies, the Lord of hosts, at the start of the millennium, and you see that in Revelation 19, 14, and 19. Plus, at this time, will also be the saved, who are saved in the millennium period as well, those who survived the tribulation. Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord of Armies, and that's the description that we see in Revelation verses 14 and 19 of chapter 19.

Then it says all peoples. When we studied Isaiah 2, 1 through 4, or 2 through 4, we showed that many peoples was a term for all the nations. This is the Gentiles, or the ethnos, the ethnic groups in the Greek Old Testament. Here, Isaiah widens the understanding of peoples to all peoples. He's trying to get the idea across. Remember the six alls? Everybody is included in this. He's making it very wide, very broad. He's not wanting to exclude, but make sure it's understood. This is inclusive.

We're going to see this emphasis repeated in verse 7. Now, on this mountain, again, when we studied in chapter 2, those first several verses there, In chapter 11, verse 9, we saw that a mountain was not just this big Mount Everest idea or some of these mountains here. A mountain was a Jewish picture, a Jewish symbol for something of massive spiritual significance, huge spiritual magnitude. That's the emphasis here.

The Lord's righteous reign upon the earth will be seen as a spiritual mountain, very significant, massive, very visible. on this mountain. Now, if you look at Jerusalem and they've got this kind of little rise, this isn't Mount Everest, is it? The mountain is not because of the physical massiveness, but because of the spiritual significance, momentous spiritual significance of the Lord's gathering in his presence there in Jerusalem. This is Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount, which is currently the place where the Dome of the Rock is located. So what's all this mention at the last part of the verse here about a banquet? What's this about the Lord preparing a banquet? What's that all about? Ah, I know. The Lord's going to have a catering business. That's what it is.

You can just imagine there will be huge opportunities in this new millennium for a massive catering business. I mean, the magnitude will be unimaginable. Just think of the business opportunity. That's probably not right, is it? Let's find out what it is.

What is behind this banquet announcement? Now, in both the Jewish and Gentile cultures, when a new king would come into the throne, they would have a massive coronation banquet. That's what he's talking about here. This would be expected. There would be all kinds of the finest food at this coronation banquet, and the invitation list would be far and wide. great many would be invited to this great banquet. And so, when Christ the Lord, who will be the newly installed King of Kings and Lord of Lords, comes to reign upon the earth, the Jews and the Gentiles reading this and the description of it, they would expect, of course, I know what that means. We're talking about a great coronation banquet because the Lord Himself is coming to reign.

That's what it's talking about. Of course, that makes perfect sense. Now, the next part, the next two verses, 7 and 8, on this mountain, he will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples. Now, that's a little odd. What's that about? Let's take a look. No more death. Death is swallowed up. What does he mean? Okay, let's take a look.

First of all, we have the repetition of the phrase, on this mountain. So again, the focus, this is a massive and momentous and pivotal spiritual presence. not just a huge physical mountain. Now, we have this Hebrew poetic pattern. You know what that means.

But I was thinking, maybe the howl, fill, fill thing that we had there isn't quite right. I need to adjust it. How about a howl in that Presbyterian place? Would that help? HPP? Yeah, there we go. That'll work. Especially if you're going to spend three months there. Anyway, we'll think about that.

Anyway, we've got this Hebrew poetic pattern. Now, this Hebrew poetic pattern, here's the pattern that you see. He's on this mountain, and then he will swallow up the covering, which is over all the peoples, even the veil, and then, which is stretched over the nations, that being parallel, which is over all the peoples, and then he will swallow up, notice the parallel, he will swallow up the covering, and then below that, he will swallow up death. Between them is the veil. So we find those three phrases, These are all equal. These are all saying the same thing in restatement. The covering, the veil, death. Those are all to be swallowed up. These are all the same.

What's that talking about? In biblical times, and this goes on not only from the time of Isaiah, but into the time of the New Testament, they would wrap people in a shroud. And so Isaiah was writing metaphorically about this shroud. that would be wrapped upon a body, and he pictures it instead wrapped upon this shroud of death, wrapped around the whole, all the nations would be taken away.

The death that involves and encompasses and impacts everyone on the planet, he says, that's going to be gone. Now, so here is this statement, he will swallow up the covering, the veil, death. the one that's over everybody, the shroud wrapped around all the nations. Everyone's included in this sad, sad outcome.

Then we have there, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth. Another Hebrew poetic pattern will let you decide whether that's a howl, fill, fill, or a howl in that Presbyterian place. But the Lord has spoken here, And he will wipe away tears from all faces, wipe away the reproach of his people. And remember, the Jews are his people. He said, Egypt my people, Assyria, the work of my hands. So this is a wide term, not a narrow one.

Here's the reference in Revelation 21, which is these are the last two chapters of the Bible, last two chapters that we studied when we went through Revelation several years ago. And he's describing the new heavens and the new earth. And notice the repetition of the phrase, his people. And notice also a restatement of what Isaiah just told us. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death, and there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, for the first things have passed away. This is the new heavens and the new earth.

In Isaiah 25, 7 and 8, on this mountain, and here's what we want to take a look at here. He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over the nations. He will swallow up death for all time." Same thing that Revelation restates and repeats, isn't it? What's this about God swallowing up death? Why use that analogy? He keeps going after it. Why? Let's take a look. Is He just using a very graphic figure of speech to catch people, or is there more to it? What I'd suggest to you is there's more to it.

In the northern part of the land of Phoenicia, remember not too many weeks back, a couple weeks back here, we talked about Tyre, and we asked you not to get tired of hearing about it, okay? North of there, there was this city named Ugarit, and this is the ancient city of Ugarit. It's a Canaanite city. It's the northern section of the Canaanite culture. And so here's this city from there down to Tyre.

There was a religion of the people at the time, the Canaanite religion, that included a pagan pantheon, much like a lot of the other cultures of the time. El, Baal, Astarte, and other deities were involved. And we find various writings from that time written in a language on clay tablets called cuneiform. Here's a Canaanite temple from the time. And this temple was actually built in several segments. The last one was built about 200 years before Isaiah was around. So it was a well-established pagan religion. I agree with that comment, by the way.

One of the Canaanite deities was called Mot, the god of death. Mot was the pagan god of death and the master of the realm of the underworld. In the pagan myths, God Moth, the god of death, defeated his enemies and other deities by swallowing them. The god of death defeated his enemies by swallowing them.

Very interesting. So Moth swallowing the other deities was also part of the explanation that they gave because he would swallow and then re-swallow and then re-swallow annually. That was the explanation they gave for the annual cycle of seasons. And so the myths limited Mott's power. They continued to give Mott credit for a part of the annual seasonal cycle, even though it was never ultimately defeated. The Jews didn't adopt, of course, this pagan deity, but they did adopt this figure of speech that swallowing something up was a picture of great death and destruction.

We have this example here from Lamentations 2.16 written by Jeremiah. a little after the time of Isaiah, all your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you.

They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, We have swallowed her up." Great destruction. Great death. You can also look at these other references here in Numbers and Hosea. What does this passage in Isaiah 25-78 do? It turns the pagan myth on its head. Twice.

Here's what it does. says, and he, that is God, will swallow up the covering which is over all the peoples. What is the covering? It's the death shroud. He will swallow up that death shroud which is over the nations, stretched over them all, and swallow up death for all time. It's turning this picture.

Here the people had the Canaanite deity telling them, oh, Moth defeats the enemies by swallowing them. He, the God of death. How does the Lord defeat death? wallows death for all time. Not only is death swallowed up, a reversal of Mott's role as the God of Death. The God of Death, who defeated by swallowing, is defeated by swallowing.

But instead of death and swallowing as part of an annual cycle, death is swallowed up for all time. All time. No longer having any power over the seasons. The God Mott is mocked. Can you handle that? That's not too bad of a tongue twister. The God Mott is mocked. Alright.

The death of death is what Isaiah is describing here. So here's Isaiah 25.9, the last verse we'll be looking at.

And it will be said in that day, Behold, this our God for whom we have waited, that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in salvation. So here we see a summary statement of the Lord's coming, as is described more fully in Revelation 19, 20, and 21. Here again is a Hebrew poetic pattern, and it will be said, in that day, when we've noted before, in that day as a future time, the actual time determined by context. This is our God for whom we have waited that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited.

Again, restatement. Just the Hebrew poetic pattern there. Hal in that Presbyterian place. That'll help us remember. OK. Rejoice and be glad. This is also a pattern. It's a Hebrew expression used with variation dozens of times in scripture, and particularly in the Old Testament. So Isaiah uses it here. Rejoice and be glad. They're paired up.

It's to communicate the full sense of rejoicing and gladness. No shortage here. This isn't any nominal rejoicing and gladness. This is the fullness of rejoicing and being glad. So what kind of salvation is he talking about? That's, after all, what he's written about. But what does he mean? He's writing here primarily about the Gentiles, the nations, the ethnos, who will come to the Lord through Israel. So the focus is with each group, the Gentiles and Israel, and their earthly blessings.

All who are saved are saved by faith. That's the characteristic of all salvation. All who are saved, of all time, are saved by faith. But the character of the salvation is different. That's to be understood and noticed. It's not the same for the Gentiles, it's not the same for Israel, and it's not the same for the Church. Each of those, all saved by faith, but saved with a different character to their salvation. The Gentiles, Israel, and the church, though not having identical salvation, are all glad for it. I think that's something important to recognize.

The Gentiles, during this time, will not be saying, ah, this is all right, but man, I sure wish I was part of the church because they really got it cool. No, they're going to be glad for it. Israel will not be saying, oh, man, how come I had to be part of Israel instead of the church? No. All will be glad for it.

And this verse right here underscores it. They said, ah, this is the Lord! This is the salvation we wanted! This is great! They will be excited about it. Just as we will be excited about it, the Lord has given a different character to what the salvation looks like with each of the three groups. All three groups are just happy as can be about what that looks like. even though the Lord has expressed that salvation differently in each one.

Now, land the plane, Vern. This picture, by the way, is especially for Jack. Jack, I want to know, did they have anything in the manual? What do you do when you have a boy sitting in front of the windshield? Is that in the manual? Probably not, right? Anyway, we're going to try to land the plane here.

What do I mean by that? What does this mean to us? That's great for the Gentiles in Israel and years from now and all that. What does this mean to us? This was nice for the Gentiles and the Jews, and it's good for them to be able to look forward to. Certainly in the Tribulation period, if you're a Jew or a Gentile and you're looking at the description of the Tribulation, it's nice to look forward to something really good just a few years away. So these are some good things. But what does that have to do with us right now in the Church? We're living in the time we are now.

We're not saved identically. So what does this mean? What do I do with this when I'm doing regular everyday things like changing the diapers, even if it's a little accidental in the way things turn out, driving to work, getting too many phone calls, waiting for one that you're going nuts because it hasn't come, washing dishes or cleaning up after the one that just broke? What does it mean in the middle of those kinds of things? We will be at the coronation banquet. You'll be there. You won't be seated among the Gentiles or among the Jews. You will be seated as part of the royal household.

Ephesians 2.19. Different.

It will follow the marriage supper of the Lamb. So get ready to eat a lot, but not gain weight. How about that? Okay? So this will be a banquet following a banquet we've already had. Furthermore, Neither the coronation banquet of Isaiah 25, nor the marriage supper of the Lamb, are for right now. No, that's not what's going on right now. There's a different feeding and eating going on right now, isn't there? Right now, Lord, there's a different food program going on among us.

And I'm not talking about the stuff that we put in our mouths downstairs. No, it's the stuff that goes on in various places around here and elsewhere. We have, and you have this on page three of your handout, I believe, what spiritual growth looks like. Scripture uses four stages of spiritual growth, the newborn, the infant, the youth, and the mature, and gives one or more passages to each of those stages of spiritual growth. Notice at the bottom there is also a different kind of food. There is a food appropriate to each stage. So there is a different feeding going on. Notice that the feeding at the banquet that Isaiah has just described is a feeding of celebration.

This is a feeding of spiritual growth that we're talking about here. So we have a feeding of growth prior to this feeding of and banquet of coronation and celebration. There is the milk. feeding that's going on, what a believer should be having when they first come to know the Lord and shortly thereafter. There is a meat and solid food stage that the believer should have after that period of time that is appropriate for the growth that they have gone through. We put the title here, growing is what he has going. Right now, that's the stage. We're not at the banquet stage. Sorry, gotta wait. It'll be good, but you gotta wait. but there's a feeding that goes on.

The Lord would provide all the gourmet food at that banquet celebration. The Lord, however, has provided food for us to eat, and part of that's going on right now. Spiritual growth from the Lord's food provision is exactly and precisely what the Lord has in mind right now. He wants us to be growing.

The apostles and the prophets brought it, initially, Ephesians 4.11, the first half of the verse.

Paul says in Ephesians 2.20 that the apostles and prophets were the foundation. Pastors and teachers are given to serve it. Now, here is an example of individual spiritual growth from that feeding.

We proclaim him and admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man, by the way those are anthropos, all humans, Complete, mature in Christ is the idea there. There is an individual growth that is to take place in each and every Christian.

And by the way, look at that. See that verse? How many people here, if you're a believer here this morning, how many people are not included in this? No. If you're a believer here this morning, you're included. Every, every, every. He keeps focusing on that.

How about the body growth? pastors and teachers given for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ as a whole. For what? For the work of service, for the equipping, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man as a body. So there's individual growth, there's body growth, both.

So who's responsible to serve this kind of food, spiritual food? Who's responsible? You have pastors and teachers. And here, think about it, there's actually quite a few in this church that are involved in this process. Of course, those who are elders, we have a number of people teaching electives. We also have midweek studies of different kinds taking place. Tuesday night we have the ladies study, and a few different ladies are taking turns teaching in that. We have teaching going on right now with your kids. So there's various kinds of involvement with that, isn't there? Fathers, as we noted in our study of Ephesians not quite a year ago, have been given the primary responsibility with their own children. Let me say that again.

Fathers have been given the primary responsibility with their own children. Giving them a Bible for their birthday or Christmas is not considered adequate. Bringing them to church is not considered adequate. That's a good start. Fathers have been given that responsibility. Husbands have been given the responsibility to express Christ's unconditional love by conveying God's truth The husband has a principal and primary responsibility for the spiritual growth and feeding of his wife.

It's not transferable. You can't get out of it by bringing her here and saying, that's good enough. You can't bring her here and say, that's good enough. You can't bring her here and say, that's good enough. just say, well, I gave her a Bible for Christmas. No. The husband must speak to her. Alright.

What about this death swallowing part? You know, that's kind of an interesting thing. Death having been swallowed up in Isaiah 20, 25, 6, applies to the Gentiles and to Israel, and will take place in the new heavens and the new earth. We get that out of Revelation 21, the verses that we saw there. For the church, death is swallowed up at the rapture. Nobody in the church dies after the rapture.

Done deal. Complete. And I'm not just cooking that up. 1 Corinthians 15, 20-26. And Christians are right to hope for His coming. There's even a crown of reward promised for Christians to look for His coming. A rapture lover's crown, I've called it in brief. Looking for his coming, the Lord says, yep, I'll reward that. You know where it comes from? The life of Christ in the believer. That's where it comes from. The life of Christ in the believer creates a longing for his coming.

Paul used this graphic imagery, and notice how he uses, once in each of the letters to the church at Corinth, he uses this death swallowed up. 1 Corinthians 15-54, death is swallowed up in victory. At the end of 2 Corinthians 5-4, which was studied here in one of the electives not too long ago, what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. So Paul does not leave that image from Isaiah, he instead uses it twice.

Something else is to take comfort. We have instructions from Paul Forever we'll be with the Lord. When death is swallowed up for the church, never to take place again. And by the way, that could happen before I'm done here this morning. When death is swallowed up, the church, those of us in the church, will never be impacted by death again. Never. Done deal. All over. At that moment, those who are alive in the Lord and those who have died in Christ will be joined together with Him Death will be swallowed up for us, never show up again. We will be with Christ, in Him, who is the beginning of the new creation. We will be like Him, and we will see Him just as He is.

Some time back, there was a fellow talking to John Walvoord, who had gone home to be with the Lord, just a couple of years back here. And he was talking about the Lord's second coming. And at one point he said, he was talking about the Lord's coming and he said, I hope it's today. And he looked out the window and his eyes got kind of wistful. But that longing, that hoping, that looking for the Lord's coming, Looking for it any day is just great.

That's exactly what he has in mind. We'll be like him. We'll see him as he is. It's not death and, oh, this shadowy, dark thing beyond it. No. That is our certain hope. That's not an, oh, no, death has come. It's, oh, praise the Lord. I get to see him face to face. We have a firm and certain hope. We can trust the Lord in this area. We can take comfort and comfort one another with these words. I'm not talking about being trite. I'm not talking about being superficial.

Death can hurt, but having a certain hope helps a lot. And that's why Paul makes the distinction that we do not grieve as the unbelievers do. Do we grieve? Yeah, there's a grief. Have you missed somebody? I have. But we don't grieve like the unbelievers do because there is a certain hope. There's a fixed hope. It's not this shadowy fear. It's not this wondering, what is it like? It's a knowing. We'll see them face to face. Then there's that wiping away every tear that Isaiah describes and we also saw in Revelation 21.

Some of us have been through some pretty great agonies. Some of us might be going through them right now. We could be right in the middle of them. Some of these have to do with things that have happened to us. And as I say this, if you've been through this, you know what I'm talking about. There's probably one or maybe even a list of things that come to mind. Oh, yeah, I know what you mean, Vern.

For others, it may be even a pain that we cause somebody else, something we did or said, something we didn't do or say. None of these pains is without purpose, and that's wonderful. Does it mean it's not painful? Oh, no, not really. But none of it is without purpose, and that's huge. They all have a part in fulfilling God's eternal purpose.

Every pain and every heartache will come to a time when it's passed. Every agony gone when we see the Lord face to face, that certain hope that we have. The very best times that this world can offer, you can think about those too, what would you say are your best times? What were some of the best times you've ever had? Those will be but a faded memory. They'll be overshadowed by the Lord's glory.

I've even talked with Nancy about, you know, I just love being married to Nancy. I've said it before and some folks have even teased me about it. I'm bonkers about her. But when we go to see the Lord face to face, we won't be saying, oh, gee, it's really great to be here, but I sure miss being married back there. It won't be a missing what we had here. Things that are the very best that are brought forward into the Lord's presence will simply be overshadowed. Overshadowed by the marvelous and glorious character.

Untarnished and unstained. No regrets. No looking back and no wincing. Saying, oh man, I wish I hadn't done that. Boy, I sure wish that hadn't happened. All gone. When the tears and pains and concerns, all the things that grab us, some of them sharp and quick, some of them long and drawn out, they melt away. They will never again return. They won't return to our hearts, they won't return to our minds, and thank the Lord, they won't return to these things either, this body. Ever have a body that doesn't cooperate? You could probably easily come up with a list of that too, right? Gee, this thing sure doesn't do everything I'd like it to. And there's a few things it does I'd rather it didn't.

But the pain won't last, but the purpose will. That's key. That's pivotal. And that's wonderful, isn't it? The pain won't last, but the purpose will. And that is a wonderful thing. the time perspective on the things that we go through, pains of heart, pains of body, pains that are short and sharp, pains that are long and drawn out, all those will be far outdone by the eternal purpose the Lord has in mind. God's own character is infinite justice. We'll be entering A new heavens and a new earth. And there won't be any injustice left unsettled. Nothing that you say, Lord, this is really great here, but what about that that happened back there? No, it will all be addressed.

Every bit of it. The stuff that really got you mad. The stuff that made you really ticked off. The stuff that you thought, boy, I don't know how I'm going to deal with this bitterness. It will be gone. And it won't be because the Lord just reformatted the hard drive. It'll be because every injustice will have been dealt with. And there can be lots of them here on this planet, lots of them, but they'll all be dealt with, every single one. It'll become very clear to us there that all the aches and pains, the heartaches and the agonies, will have been turned into something far, far greater. We'll walk through heaven's gates and we'll say, oh, well of course!

Why was I so concerned about that back then? Now I know what this means. I was so troubled by this repeatedly. I couldn't sleep. I had horrible nights and horrible days and this thing bothered me and now I know why. It's turned into something else far greater, far better. The agony will be gone for good, and it'll be gone for good, for a good purpose.

Isaiah 25.9 fits in with the understanding that's critical. God is the source of our salvation, and He's personally connected to it.

Notice that in Isaiah 25.9, they're not just saying, isn't this great, but it's focused upon a salvation that is in the Lord. The Lord is central to it, not incidental.

Salvation is never our own accomplishment, that's for sure. We can't punch a time clock and earn it. Salvation, which was and remains God's accomplishment through Christ, places us in eternal relationship with Him by design. That's God's intent. Salvation isn't just an impersonal, get-out-of-hell-free card. We're not playing Monopoly here.

Salvation, as God designed it, before creation was ever brought into being, before the universe was ever brought into existence, was never about just saving us from something. Oh good, I'm not going to burn in hell. Oh good, I'm not going to suffer eternal damnation. It was never that impersonal. It was never just that. Does it include that? Oh yes, most certainly. But God doesn't stop there. Salvation as God designed it was always with the intent that we be in direct relationship with Him for eternity.

The Gentiles, the Jews, and the Church, all three groups. Salvation will express itself differently, but all three groups will look upon the Lord as the focal point of their salvation. And for the church, we can begin now to claim those blessings, because we've been blessed already in the heavenly places in Christ. Notice when Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, chapter 3, verses 7 through 11 there, twice he puts the emphasis on, it's not just, oh good, I'm saved from the flames of hell. Oh good, I'm saved from a really bad time for a long time.

But in knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, it's personal with Him. We're in verse 10, that I may know Him. It's about Him. It's not just about doctrine. It's not just about coming to this little piece of real estate and checking off, I went to church this week. But it's about knowing Him personally.

Forever that will be the principal and primary issue, never to be set aside or put on second shelf, knowing Him eternally. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at these things, how wonderful to be able to look at this verse and recognize that it's been revealed to us that we will be there at that coronation banquet. But along with the Gentiles and the Jews, we will say, yes, it is all about Him. It is all about our Lord. It's all about the One with whom we're seated. What a wondrous, eternally wondrous thing. In Jesus' name, Amen.