Isaiah 25-27

Isaiah 25

- Isaiah is praising God for the things that God has made happen: for keeping His promises, for God’s faithfulness on delivering the things God has promised. God weakens the proud and strengthens the humble who steadfastly follow God. God protects His people and shelters them from harm. God is the ultimate refuge, and in God, we can truly trust.

- Isaiah 25:6, on this mountain, the Lord will prepare a great feast, the Lord will eradicate death all together, removing al tears and disgrace from His people. The people will thus praise God for this peace and joy, saying “We trusted in Him, and He saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in Him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

For me, this is a very inspiring quote. It reminds us that faith is not just blind belief. Faith is trusting that God will deliver. These Biblical events are evidence of how God delivers on His promises. God has never broken His promises, and He never will. This is why despite all hardship, our best place of comfort is in the Lord. He is the ONLY being in the world who has not once disappointed His children. Even when we, His children, boldly defy Him, He continues to hold out His arms and urge us to come Home to Him (i.e., God’s salvation for human kind). To be offered a safe place to call Home despite all our imperfections, yes, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation!

- God will bring down the pride of cleverness in the Moab.

Isaiah 26:1–6

- The city is a strong city, a city of the righteous and a nation that remains faithful. The people are peaceful, their minds steadfast and their hearts loyal to the Lord. The people place their trust steadily in the Lord, for they know the Lord is their Rock.

- According to Merriam and Webster, steadfast is defined as “immovable; not subject to change; firm in belief, determination, or adherence.” And so, a steadfast mind would be a mental state that will not alter easily due to outside influences or, shall we say, satanic/demonic temptations. The benefits of having a steadfast mind allow us to focus on our trust, our faith in God to resist evil forces that are trying to lure our souls.

There is a fierce war for our souls on Earth. Satan wants our souls for power, and God is offering us protection. All we have to do is choose to go Home and place our trust in Him.  And thus, our absolute faith in God is our only infallible weapon and armor against Satan. (See Ephesians 6:10-18 for a detailed description of the Armor of God.)

- Philippians 4:6-8, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

This passage encourages us to not be anxious about anything because of our steadfast trust in the Lord, that if we ever worry about anything, we communicate with God through thankful prayers. Despite human advances in technology, we are NOT omniscient, and we will NEVER be. We thus cannot always understand why things happen or why they don’t. And so, especially during such uncertain times, we should always remember back to God, our Rock, who has never once broken His promises, and rest assured knowing that He will continue to keep His promises with us. Prayer is the best communication. It is the most direct line of communication with God. Pray and He will answer. He always does.

- God will judge the lofty city by humbling them, by leveling it to the ground and casting it down to the dust.

Isaiah 26:7–21 and Psalm 1

- The righteous walks a path that is level and smooth, because the righteous follows the way of God’s laws. The righteous recognizes that everything they have accomplished, it is due to the Lord’s blessing. The righteous will be forever prosperous and will never wither. The righteous will be the ones who receive God’s salvation. These people will be sheltered when God punishes the people for their sins.

The wicked, on the other hand, ignores the path of the righteous even when shown grace. They continue to do evil things, disregarding God’s warnings. They are proud and believe they can outsmart God or that they do not need God to succeed or that every success that they have built was built purely by their own hands and without the blessing of the Lord. The wicked thus are weak and can be easily blown away. They will not stand judgment and will perish. The wicked will thus be punished for their sins and feel the whole of God’s wrath.

- Isaiah 26:12–18, it is wise to trust the Lord above all others (including ourselves), because the world that we live in is ESTABLISHED by God. The only reason we have any kind of peace and joy in this world today is because of God’s protection. Any other ruler, they come and go. They make mistakes. They become proud and arrogant as they gain more power, more wealth, more success. And so, they perish, and they die. Worse, they break promises when their lives/status are on the line.

God has the ultimate power, and no living thing can contest against it. But, God has no reason to be proud, because He is the maker of us all. He can eradicate us as easy as us snapping our fingers. However, He is loving, and His love is eternal. Trusting the Lord above all others is the only logical choice, really.

- Isaiah 26:19–21, This passage speaks of the hope that the wicked will be punished and the righteous will be saved. Those who died in Christ will also rise and witness the glory of God.

- Job 19:25–27

The great promise of God is that God lives and in the end will stand above all. Despite death of the flesh, we will see God with our own eyes.

- John 5:24–29

The great promise of God is that those who hear God’s Word and choose to follow God will not be condemned. These people will be saved and be granted eternal life. Those who hear God’s voice will rise, even those who have physically died in Christ. A time is coming in which all followers of Christ will rise and be granted eternal life.

- John 11:25–26

The great promise of God is that those who believe in Jesus will be granted eternal life. Those who believe in Jesus will never die.

- John 17:3

The great promise of God is that those who believe in God will be granted eternal life.

As important as the above message is, I’m always queasy when I hear people saying we should all be Christians because we get eternal life, as if believing in Christ is a form of insurance or something.

To me, choosing to follow Christ ought not to be an act of such cowardice thinking! We ought to choose to follow Christ, because we want to fight Satan. We need to realize that at the end of times, we will all be fighting a God vs. Satan war. It’s not about the want/greed to live forever or the fear of death. It’s about choosing which side we want to fight for. So what are we going to fight for? Eternal life with God or eternal death with Satan?

Isaiah 27

Revelation 12:3; 20:2–3, 10

- At the end of times, God will punish with His sword, slaying Satan.

Isaiah 5:1–6 and 27:2–6

- Israel will ultimately become a fruitful vineyard. It used to be fruitless and a worthless wilderness, because the people chose to betray God and needed to be humbled. However, God continuously watches over it, constantly watering it and guarding it. He will weed out the wicked, but at the end of the day, He is always waiting for His people to make peace with Him.

- As a people without understanding, God will show no compassion and no favor. God will strike them down.

I think “without understanding” means those who CHOOSE not to hear the Word of God. Matthew 11:15, Mark 4:9, Revelation 3:22, these scriptures all speak of “He who has ears, let him hear.” This is an extremely powerful message (One that gives me goosebumps!). It means, if we are stubborn and choose to close off our hearts and our ears to Christ, then we will never “hear” His Word, i.e., we will never be able to understand God’s message. That is, the choice of hearing God is in our own hands. If we want to hear, then we will hear.

- The purpose behind God’s judgment is to be rid of the people who have chosen to stand against Him.

- Exodus 19:10–13

The trumpets are used to let people know when they may go up to the mountain (because when God is still up that mountain, the people cannot go up because they will die).

- Leviticus 25:8–10

The trumpets are used to notify the Year of Jubilee.

- Matthew 24:30–31

The trumpets are used by Jesus to call for His angels.

- 1 Corinthians 15:52

The trumpets are used to signal the quick change from limited mortality to immortality. Those who died in Christ will be raised. Those who are alive and live in Christ will go immediately from a mortal state to an eternal state.

- 1 Thessalonians 4:16

Similar to the previous passage, the trumpets are used to signal the second coming of Jesus, and upon the sound of this trumpet, the dead will rise and the living will ascend to Heaven with Christ.

- As Christians, the trumpet sounds mentioned in 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians are exciting times to come. The moment we hear it, we will be transformed instantaneously to Heaven and into immortal beings. This is an event known as the Rapture. We will be “caught away” by Christ to avoid God’s “cleansing” of the Earth of Satan and his followers, which is defined as the time of the Tribulation. And again, those with ears, let them hear… it suggests only Christian will be able to hear the sound of these trumpets, and thus, only Christians will be able to be protected from God’s wrath during this period of time.