The Swallowing Of Death

Isaiah’s Judgment and Salvation in Context

Amen. Well, please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 25. We're going to be looking particularly at verses 7 and 8 in Isaiah 25. The previous chapter I have spoken of the judgment of God. This chapter is much about the salvation of God.

In particular, it's going to be talking about how God has taken care of death. How He has conquered death. Death is the great enemy that He has conquered. And we have in Jesus Christ's eternal life. Please stand when you have Isaiah 25 and we'll begin reading it at verse 6.

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. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.

And He will spread out His hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads His hands out to swim. But the Lord will lay low His pompous pride together with the skill of His hands, and the high fortifications of His walls He will bring down, lay low, cast to the ground, to the dust.

Death as the Veil Over All Peoples

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, what a glorious salvation You have provided in Your Son, and what a beautiful picture of it here we have of death being swallowed up. God, I pray that as we consider this, that we would think rightly of the great threat of death, and rightly of Your wonderful conquering of it.

And God, I pray that this hope would fill our souls, that we would be overflowing with it, overflowing with joy, and overflowing with praise, speaking of You to ourselves, to each other, and to the world of Your goodness.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, as I said, the previous chapter spoke much of the judgment of God. This chapter speaks much of the salvation of God. In verse 6, we saw how the Lord gives joy to His people, speaks of Him making a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, and here it talks about what He has conquered.

So He's given them joy, He has positively provided them with something, and then He has taken this other thing away. He has taken away death. Death is the great enemy in the distance. And for some people, it's closer than for others, and some people do not realize how close death is.

Many people ignore death, they pretend that it's not an issue, but death is the great enemy of humanity. Many people think of death as being normal, that it's just part of life. Death is further away from life than light is from darkness.

Death and life are total opposites. One is not part of the other. So as we look at this, I want us to see that veil of death, and see that God has conquered it, and this is something He has accomplished for all peoples.

It is something He has accomplished on this mountain, on Zion. We've talked about Zion much on previous occasions. It is something that He has certainly accomplished, for He has spoken it. So beginning just to think of this veil, verse 7 says, 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. What is this veil that He speaks of? It makes it very clear in speaking later, using the same phrase, swallow up, that that veil is death. He says He swallows up the covering, He swallows up the veil, and that says He swallows up death.

That covering, that veil, is death. Death is this darkness that is cast over the whole earth. When Adam sinned, this darkness came into the world that covers everything, that overcasts everything, and frames all things.

All things are marked by death. All things are imperfect and corruptible, and subject to rust and moth, a phrase the Bible uses. All things are subject to some kind of death, to some kind of corruption, and human beings, most of all, subject to death.

And what is that death? Primarily, other than a separation from God. If you think about why this is called a veil, what is a veil? It's typically something that separates someone from the outside world.

You know, the veil, this veil separates creation from the perfect favor of its creator. This veil that has covered the world has not only it's not just some, without reference to the relation of God, some kind of evil that has covered the world, but it is a lack of God's favor.

Another thing I think the term veil refers to is blindness. Veils blind, they make things difficult to see. Because of death, because of the problem of death in the world, we are blind. Why did Jesus have so many, why did Jesus have this miracle of opening a man's eyes?

The Bible says that was reserved particularly for him. There were many people who had raised the dead in the Old Testament, many people had done all kinds of extraordinary miracles, miracles you might even think of as greater than opening eyes, like raising the dead.

Yet God had reserved for Jesus Christ this miracle of opening eyes because there is something particular about death that blinds the world so that they cannot see the truth. It deadens the soul so it's not sensible to the things it should be sensible to, and where it is perhaps sensible to the things it should be sensible to, because that problem of death is so overwhelming, people intentionally suppress whatever sensibilities they have so that they don't have to contend with them.

Another thing that's implied by this notion of a veil is sadness. There's a great sadness and darkness that has covered the earth. Why do people generally wear veils? Often it's because they are mourning.

There's a great mourning that's covered the world. There's a great hopelessness. People because of death, they have no hope. Now people can go about their lives pretending that there's nothing wrong, pretending that there's no great enemy on the horizon, but death is certain, and when people encounter that, when people encounter it up close, when they lose loved ones or they just are honest with themselves and contemplate, they often enter deep depressions, deep periods of hopelessness because they realize that they have no hope, and that those times when they thought they had hope, they were really just engaging in an act of self-delusion.

This is the veil that has covered the world. It's a great sadness. Consider how cabin fever, this phenomenon where you're in a cabin in a valley, and during winter the sun isn't out for much, and if you're in a valley, the sun's even out for less, and that darkness that just pervades your life so that there's so little light, it often leads people to feeling deep, sinking periods of depression.

That is the experience of the world apart from Jesus Christ, apart from the salvation that God has in Him. But it speaks of the swallowing up of these things. He swallows up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

He swallows up death forever. God has swallowed it up, so it is no more. This is a wonderful, incredible truth, and it connects to earlier in the chapter, and I'd like you to see this. If you look at verse 4, it says,.

Christ’s Shade, the Temple Veil, and Access to God

So several times here it speaks of God as being a shade, as being a cloud, this cloud that covers the earth. Do you see that in just the past couple of verses? It was talking about God being this cloud that covers the earth and protects from this harsh sun that beats down.

And here, here in verse 7 and 8, it speaks of death as being this cloud, this veil that covers the world and protects from the light of God. Now, God is this one shade protecting from this one evil sun.

You have death as this other shade protecting from this good sun. And God is a greater shade that swallows up this other shade, that swallows up the veil of death. And how has he accomplished this? He has accomplished it in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ that veil is taken away so that death no longer has its sting, it no longer has its power. Now, people in this world still die, even Christians, even those who have placed their hope in Christ still die a physical death.

But when death is considered as a veil that separates one from the favor of God, the believer is never, never experiences that kind of death. They do not experience separation from the favor of God. One who is found in Jesus Christ has the same favor that God has placed on Jesus Christ.

If we are in him, then we have that status. In that one son of God, we become sons of God. We become ones whom the Father loves. Not that the Father didn't, out of his love for us, send his son, but that status we have in Christ grants us access to that special favor of God so that we might never experience the death that is described by that veil even if we experience physical suffering and physical death in this life.

We will be raised from the dead eternally. Consider that, consider what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Now, I just described what Jesus accomplished on the cross, but consider particularly the narrative, that incident where in the temple, the veil was torn.

You know, that word veil is used there in a lot of translations. What is the veil? Hebrews 9, 1 through 9, explains that that veil separated people away from God. It separated people away from the Holy of Holies where God would dwell.

And now he does not dwell in a particular location, but he dwells in all those who trust in Jesus Christ through the power of his spirit. Now, as God is dwelling in man, and that veil has been torn, it signifies that Christ has swallowed up this veil that's described here in this verse.

It signifies that he has swallowed up that which separates us from the favor of God. That which separates us from the life that God provides. Of course he has done this, but then he decided to in God's infinite wisdom, the Holy Spirit designed it so that there would be a temple that would have a veil that would be torn on the night when Christ was crucified.

It's an incredible illustration of what has been accomplished in him. And with that, sadness is taken away. Once again, not as though we will never experience sadness in this life, but the fruit of the spirit is joy.

And as long as we have the spirit, we can have joy. The Bible says that we do not mourn as others mourn. We do not grieve as others grieve. Because we have this joy. It says here that he takes away, he will wipe away tears from all faces.

You know, this is something that it says multiple times in Revelation, Revelation 7, Revelation 21, I believe it is. It's because of God wiping away the tears from all people. There will be a great and glorious day where this is fully manifest and there will be zero sadness.

But today, we can even enjoy the joy that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the great comfort that we have at all times in God through the salvation of Jesus Christ. And it also speaks of taking away the reproach of his people.

Reproach, Confession, and the Gospel to All Nations

God has taken away the reproach of sin. You know, sin is not just this foreign afflictor that oppresses us and we're undeserving of it, but rather it has come about because of sin. It has come about because of our own sin that death is on us.

And so just like someone might hide some kind of scar that speaks shamefully of something they've done, this experience of death and corruption hangs over us as a reproach. You know, why is it that people often hide their age and lie about it, right?

Because they're getting further to death. There's something that's generally shameful about corruption, something generally shameful about death. People are often ashamed of various deformities that they were either born with or that they come across later in life.

There's a reason that there's sort of a shame that is associated with these things. Not that these people necessarily did anything wrong to incur such things, but God has arranged creation so that it is understood that there is something very wrong about such corruptions of the body.

It is an illustration to show us that death is not just something that is this external oppressor, but something associated with shame. There's a shame of the sin that brings on death. And if you consider that, and you consider what God has done in taking away that reproach so that it is no more, it's really a wonderful, beautiful thing.

Consider who it is that would boast in sin. There are many people in the world that boast in sin, and what are they doing when they're talking about, ha, I did this thing and I got away with it. They are trying to pretend as though it's not shameful, as though it's something to be proud of.

Now consider also that Christians often boast about their sin. They talk about how they were once engaged in all kinds of evil activity that God has saved them out of. Why is the Christian so willing to talk about their past sins, these things that are so shameful that they have come to see in the light and recognize how shameful they are?

It is because God has taken away that reproach. It is because that reproach is something that now, instead of reflecting on them and being taken away by Jesus Christ, it now shows the mercy and the grace and the goodness of God in having saved them from this thing.

That's a wonderful, wonderful truth. James 5, 16 says, Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is a great power as it is working.

The Christian should be willing to confess his sins to one another because he, one, recognizes that great healing comes from that, and two, that he recognizes that in Jesus Christ he has a forgiveness that takes away that reproach.

We should be very eager to tell people of what God has saved us from, to confess our sins to one another, knowing that that reproach that we experience is taken away by Jesus Christ and the great forgiveness that we have.

Now, it continues here, and it speaks of the covering of this cast over all peoples, all nations. You know, we've seen many times throughout this book these sort of hints, sometimes bigger hints than others, but these hints that the gospel is going to go out to all the nations.

This is not something merely for Israel, but something for all peoples. This is a veil that covers the whole world. It didn't just cover the land of Israel. Now, you know, interestingly, if you think about the curses that happened in the land of Egypt, one of them was darkness, right?

And darkness was everywhere except for in the ocean, right? Darkness was everywhere except for where Israel was. And it was taken away, that darkness. Israel was protected from that darkness, but that darkness lied over all the earth still.

And Jesus Christ has taken away for all peoples. That's a very beautiful thing, and something that, as a practical application, something that we should consider, is if God has taken this away from all peoples, so that anyone from any nation may be saved, then how eager should we be to share the gospel, knowing that there's a guarantee that God desires to save people from every nation?

If He desires to save people from every nation, then there is some guarantee of success. Now, it doesn't mean that everyone you share this truth with will believe, but it does mean that there will be many people who do believe this truth, and if that's the case, the harvest is white.

The nets, there are many fish to fill the nets. This is an exciting truth, and what's moreover, we talked about the darkness, this veil representing a blindness, this blindness that's over the whole world.

Revelation 23 speaks of Satan being bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations. That blindness can be taken away, and Jesus Christ. It is not just something where, I know that as a Christian, it can often feel like, you can see this and nobody else can, and boy, it's just like talking to a wall sometimes to get people to see this truth.

But this is a veil that has been taken away so that even those who do not currently see the truth may see the truth, because God is wonderfully merciful, and His mercy spreads across all the earth. So He speaks about this being taken away from all peoples, and He talks about this happening on this mountain.

Zion, Present Eternal Life, and the Hope We Have Now

Now, I feel like it's almost every single passage in Isaiah where I bring up Hebrews 12, 22. It says, For you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels, covered in festal gathering.

So the Bible, the New Testament, interprets many of these statements about Zion as referring to the church. This is something that happens in the church. Now, in literal Jerusalem, Jesus Christ was crucified, and so from that origin you have this swallowing up of death around the whole world, but moreover, this is the destination.

It's not even the origin of salvation, but this destination for the saved. The saved return, or they come to Zion for salvation. You know, the one who would who would separate himself from that city, there's no salvation outside of God's people.

They come here, they gather around the Word, and they hear the great truths, and they're encouraged and strengthened. It is important to gather, it is important to be strengthened by the Word, and also remember that we have a great salvation to be sharing with the world.

If it is happening on this mountain, on this mountain of Zion, where we have gathered, then how excited should we be to share that with others and to call others to come to this mountain as well? You know, just one thing that comes to mind at the moment, I think it was just yesterday, in our family worship we were reading Proverbs 18, and it says, Proverbs 18 .1, whoever isolates himself, seeks his own desire, he breaks out against all sound judgment.

You know, there's no the one who has gathered together in the city with strong, fortified walls, they have a great protection. The one who strays away from that leaves himself open to the attack of the enemy.

You know, I might preach on this verse sometime in the future, because it really struck me. Whoever isolates himself, seeks his own desire, he breaks out against all sound judgment. And then, this verse finishes, it says, in the reproach of his people, he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

The Lord has spoken this. This is a thing that has been accomplished of a certainty. From Isaiah's perspective, it's a thing that will be accomplished as of a certainty. And I know that many people looking at this, especially, for example, verses that are quoted in Revelation 7 and 21, they talk about him taking tears away from all faces.

It's easy to look at this and think that this is just something for later. This is not something that's enjoyable now. But let me reassure you that it is something that's enjoyable now. We have come to Mount Zion.

That veil has been torn so that death has been conquered and dealt with. Death has been swallowed up forever. We have a great comfort, we have a great joy through the Holy Spirit, and that reproach has been taken away.

Now, maybe we have not been vindicated in the eyes of the world just yet, but that reproach is taken away so that we do not have to feel those pains of guilt, so that we can come before God without shame, knowing him as our loving Father.

All these things are things that are enjoyable now, even if they will be more enjoyed and more manifest on that great day. This is not something that's just speaking of a time for later. But as Scripture says, all of Scripture is provided for edification and for rebuke, etc.

Part of what that entails is that far more of it is applicable to right now in our experience than many people generally conceive. Many people flip this off to something that's just valuable for us later.

No, this is valuable for us now. This is the experience now that we need to embrace in the great hope we need to enjoy as something we already have. It speaks of death being taken away forever. Consider that the Scripture says that if you trust in Jesus Christ, you have eternal life.

Not you will have eternal life. You have presently eternal life, that death that has been taken away forever. Think about that. What is death taken away forever? Death taken away forever is eternal life.

If you have eternal life, you have been gathered to this mountain with a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine. You have been gathered to this place of joy. If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, you don't have access to any of these things.

You're still sitting under that veil of death. And as it's being taken away from the whole world, you're still in those pockets where it still has some power. But Christ has taken its power away so that you may be saved.

You may come in faith. You may come to Jesus Christ in whom you would have status as a son of God, in whom you have the Father's full love as a son being adopted. And that veil being torn, you would have no separation between you and the favor of God.

Death has been swallowed up forever. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful promise, for this wonderful truth that we have in Jesus Christ, that death is swallowed up, that we have presently eternal life, that you comfort us and that you give us joy by your Spirit, and that you have taken away reproach so that we may speak openly and honestly about sin, coming into the light, being healed, confessing our sins to one another.

God, I pray that we would fully embrace this and that we would enjoy fully that life that you have given in Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.