Isaiah 25:1-9 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 25:1-9 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 25O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. Verse 2For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the palace of aliens is a city no more, it will never be rebuilt. Verse 3Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. Verse 4For you have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress, a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat. When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm, Verse 5the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place, you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds; the song of the ruthless was stilled.
Verse 6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. Verse 7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Verse 8Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Verse 9It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Devotion
God will have death for lunch. God will gulp down all the “little deaths” of pain, sickness, injury, poverty, injustice, oppression, bankruptcy of spirit or treasure, failures, losses and disasters of every taste and texture. God will take into Godself even the “big death” that seems to separate us permanently from those we love and who love us.
In return, God will serve God’s people a tasty, sumptuous, gut-and-spirit-filling feast beyond anything we can imagine. That’s God’s plan “formed of old, faithful and sure.” We have a foretaste of that feast to come every time we celebrate the Lord’s presence with us in the sacrament of his supper.
Isaiah does not mean to minimize our grief or to make fun of our suffering. Rather, he means to assure us that God has the power – and the intent – to overcome any power or experience that threatens to separate us from God’s loving presence.
Prayer
Lord, you have promised that nothing can happen to me that you can’t handle. Make me hungry for your company, confident in your care and bold enough to walk the path you have set before me today. Amen.