Death Will Be Swallowed Up Isaiah 25
Today is Palm Sunday when we recognise and celebrate the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. They shouted Hosanna – “Oh Save!” Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord and Hosanna to the Son of David. They did not doubt that Jesus came from the line of David and accepted Him as the Messiah – at least at this point. But how would Jesus save? This is the question. So, on this Palm Sunday leading into Easter this next week, what should we consider? Isaiah’s words speak into this salvation.
Some background: Hezekiah was the King of Judah, and Jerusalem was the main crown. The Assyrians were coming. Death was on its way; it was coming in the form of the Assyrians: Sennacherib the King of the world Superpower. He was on his way westward, but was coming down through Samaria and then into Judah. The Assyrians had a scorched earth policy – you leave nothing standing, you take prisoners and then repopulate the area with foreigners.
And that’s what they did. In 722BC, Samaria fell. The Assyrians repopulated the area with foreigners and they filled the land with people who were not pure Jews. As such, even at the time of Jesus, it was an insult to Him when they said, ‘Are we not right in saying you are a Samaritan?’ Your mum was pregnant before marriage; who knows who your dad was; you’re most likely a Samaritan. The Assyrians knew that if you repopulated the land with people who didn’t have a passion or an affiliation with the land, they were easier to keep as a vassal state because there was no nationalistic pride or patriotism. Sennacherib the Assyrian was coming.
Death was coming. Hezekiah the King of Judah knew this. What do you do, when you know death is on its way? Not a rhetorical question. If you have a terminal disease, or you’re aged and on your death bed, or perhaps even something more immediate: you see a car heading straight for you, what is your natural response? You naturally and instinctively avoid it. You do everything in your power to avoid disaster. You see a doctor, you get your affairs in order, you turn the steering wheel to get out of the way. Hezekiah did the same with respect to Sennacherib and the Assyrians. He tried to avoid obvious death, but death is relentless. Like the Assyrians in Hezekiah’s time, death will eventually come back for you. Even if you manage to avoid it for a season or have a few close calls, death comes for us all. Death is described as part of a blanket or covering over humanity. Everyone acknowledges – something’s broken.
Isaiah, in this passage today, spoke of the final triumph. “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.” (Isaiah 25:6, 7) The joy of peace and eating and drinking well aged wine – the best wine, in abundance is described here. Jesus in representing this marriage to us His bride – His first miracle in Cana, John 2 – a wedding, what did He do? Turned water into wine: well-aged and running over. The best came out last.
The Apostle John recorded that we will partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb right before the Lord’s return in Revelation 19. Jesus spoke of looking forward to this banquet. He said to His disciples at the Last Supper, “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29) That is still future from this point.
Isaiah explained it in Isaiah 25:7. It is a covering that “is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.” Isaiah said everyone is affected by this thing, of which death is a part. Everyone knows it’s true, but most in our world struggle to name it or deal with it. Paul, of course, told us in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.” This is the problem. That’s why we die. It wasn’t meant to be, death wasn’t part of the original plan, it came as a result of rebellion to the plan: death and everything associated with it disease, pain, tears, fear. Like Hezekiah, our natural instinct is to deal with the effects of it in our own strength, but this won’t do. The Lord alone achieves this.
Look at Isaiah 25 again; rest of verse 8: “the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”
The irony is how death would be defeated.
Jesus defeated sin and death by dying on the cross. The payment for rebellion and sin was taken by Him on the cross. He confirmed this truth by defeating death and rising from the grave.
This is our hope, folks. This is the God we serve. That’s Isaiah’s conclusion as well. (Isaiah 25:9) “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."
We wait for His salvation and we know the ultimate as the Apostle John told us and confirmed Isaiah’s words in Revelation 21:4. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." How does this happen? How is it possible in our lives?
Like we will see next week with Hezekiah, we have got to be at the end of ourselves. We can’t build walls of protection, wells of hope against the inevitable. The arm of flesh will fail us. Sin, death, disease, pain, tears and fears are all part of our present reality, but they won’t remain so, because we are told that there is a hope and a trust that comes through the power of the cross, the Holy Spirit is given to us as a deposit, a guarantee that death will have no hold. Paul, as he spoke about the resurrection and new life in Christ, quoted the prophet Hosea in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 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.”
So, what about you? Do you think about death? We’ll do so in the light that we have a Spirit of life. Death has been defeated. We are not given a spirit of fear. We follow the One who is Life. We have living water that flows up from within us. While we look forward to this Easter week, we say on this Palm Sunday: we follow the Messiah, the Author of Life. As they laid down Palm branches representing respect and reverence, so we lay down our lives as we follow the living Saviour. Let’s recommit that pledge to our God again this morning.