Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, March 31. Easter Sunday comes from Isaiah chapter 25, verses six through nine. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts who will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine, of rich food, full of marrow of aged wine, well refined, and He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations, He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be sad on that day, behold, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Here ends the reading. This is one of my favorite passages from Isaiah. And one of the passages that I frequently choose when I'm preaching on it in a funeral, because of the beautiful message, the Easter message that it gives. Let's dig in. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wine of rich food full of marrow of aged wine well refined. I think the first question that it will that we ask is Which mountain? On what mountain is he talking about. And while the immediate context of Isaiah 25 doesn't really talk about a particular mountain, I think it often is referring to the mountain of Jerusalem. This is a mountain, Mount Zion, that is a part of God's promises. We see throughout the Old Testament ideas about Mount Zion, becoming the tallest of them all mountains are the greatest of all mountains. And now it is the site of this feast that God is going to make for all people. And so this feast is held by the Lord of hosts, the Lord of Armies, and so God with all his might, and power is going to hold a feast and for who, for all peoples. Now, this is an interesting thing. The word peoples in the Bible is often confusing. I once had a group of fourth graders that I told ya, people can also be plural peoples and they got no there's no way people is already blurry. You've got one person, two people, right? And I got no people can also refer to an identity group, like a nation. And so there's the American people and the English people. And when you have the when you're talking about bringing together the American people in English people, you are suddenly having a meeting of two different peoples. And so what God is saying here, Isaiah is telling us that there will be a feast for all peoples, every group, every nation, every people under the sun will be gathered together on Mount Sinai for this rich food. Well, aged wine, rich food full of marrow of aged wine, well refined. Now, I don't know if you've ever had marrow like bone marrow that's well prepared. It is amazing. Just outstanding, buttery, rich, yummy. God is giving an image of a celebration, good wine, good food. And what are we celebrating? This is what it is. He will swallow up on this mountain, the covering that is cast over all peoples the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. So it's funny that at the feast, God is going to swallow not the rich food, not the food full of marrow or aged one Ain't well refined, the feasts that God is throwing is where he will swallow up death forever. And what Isaiah describes it is, is a wheat a covering of Dale that sits on the shoulders of everyone. It's the covering that is weighing down and oppressing and cast and holding down all the peoples, the veil that that is over our eyes and covers us up and makes it so that we can't do anything without seeing it. It's death. At this feast, God is going to take away the one thing that unites every human being that has ever lived. The one thing that weighs down every human being that has ever come into existence, he is going to swallow up death forever. As well as they are is predicting. And when we look at Easter, we see a mountain where God did just that. He swallowed up death on Mount Zion, the city of Jerusalem, by sending His Son Jesus Christ to the place of the skull, a hill outside of Jerusalem, where he died, and was placed in a tomb and then rose from the dead. Death is swallowed up. That is the power of Easter. Easter isn't about taking a new look at life or the renewal of spring or the anything that is is sort of like day to day. Easter is about destroying the only true problem that every human being faces, death itself. And then Isaiah has us look past the cross and the resurrection to the day of Christ's return. He says, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. So now he's looking forward not to the day of the resurrection when death was swallowed up forever. But the day of Christ's return, when he returns to wipe away every tear from every eye. The apostle John borrows some of this language from Revelation. And he says something very similar towards the end, that God will make all things new, He will wipe away every tear from every eye, and the reproach, the bad reputation, the sadness, the pain, the hurt, that death causes us all. It will be taken away. And the key here is for the Lord has spoken. He's given us His promise, a promise through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that He will come. Isaiah continues, it will be sad on that day, behold, this is our God, we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. One of the great, faithful responses to the problems in the world, especially in the Psalms, but in many places throughout the Old Testament is this phrase, wait for the Lord, be strong, let your heart take courage wait for the Lord is in Assam, my soul waits for you, oh God, as it is somewhere else. And the idea here is that the faithful, the faithful people of Israel and the faithful Christian, we know that the enemy is truly bigger than us. The enemy death is bigger than anything we could ever face. No human being can take it down. And so what we do is we wait for God to save us. That's our only hope. We can't fight it. We can't destroy it. We can't push at it. We can't do anything. All we can do is wait. And then finally, on the day of Christ's return. When he calls us up from our graves and we see Him face to face we will turn to him and say, Behold, this is our God we have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And that's what we're all waiting for. The gift that Christ one for us when He died on the cross and rose from the dead when he swallowed up death by dying himself and breaking free from the grave.
The promise he gave us there is the gift we're waiting for when Jesus returns to make us alive, and wipe away every tear from every eye, and make all things new. That's all we have for this Resurrection Sunday. Join us on Easter Sunday. It's going to be wonderful 830 and 11. Join us for worship at first Lutheran church and hear a sermon on this topic. That's it. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai