Isaiah 25:8-9

Main Thought: What a marvelous and wondrous truth that we have spoken and displayed here by Isaiah that speaks of the salvation and the deliverance of God’s people. Isaiah speaks of our God being “a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat” (Isa. 25:4) earlier in this chapter in verse 4 in that current day, but it is obvious here that Isaiah is writing of a future time, a time when death, disease, and all suffering will be no more for the people of God. This is seen in Revelation 21:4 when John writes, following the appearance of the new heaven, new earth, and the new Jerusalem, that “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.” This is a great promise that we have, that no matter what kind of suffering and sorrow we have here, it will be taken away by Christ and will be nothing even to be thought of or be a memory in our eternal home. What was it Paul said in Romans 8:18?  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” In the salvation that the Lord has given to His people, Isaiah says their reproach, or shame, is taken away meaning that Christ takes away the shamefulness of their sin. His shed blood has cleansed away their sin and shame (Isa. 1:18) forever, never to be seen or remembered again. In Isaiah 25:9, we see the anticipation of the people of God awaiting the consummation, the completion of that salvation, for they say “We have waited for him, that he might save us.” This phrase does not mean that we are not saved now or know that we possess salvation now. We can know that we have been saved from the penalty of our sins, for in Ephesians 1:7 the apostle Paul says “In Him, we have [present tense] redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses…” We can also know from the authority of the Scriptures we have been saved from the power of sin over us because it is written “that our old self [our old man] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing [done away with], so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Rom. 6:6). But here he is speaking of the future promise of the completion of our salvation, our glorification when He returns and “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). What a marvelous consolation and promise these verses present, and may we like the saints before us “rejoice in His salvation.”