Old Testament - Isaiah 24 & 25 - September 13, 2022

 9/13/2022 – Isaiah 24-25

Isaiah 24 is the record of a prophecy of the destruction of the wicked at the time of the Second Coming. 

Isaiah 25 is a poetic way of celebrating the blessings that the Lord will give to the righteous at that time.

The synopsis of chapter 24 reads: “Men shall transgress the law and break the everlasting covenant—At the second coming they shall be burned, the earth shall reel, and the sun be ashamed—Then shall the Lord reign in Zion and in Jerusalem.”

V 1 tells us what the Lord is doing at this point: “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the in habitants thereof.” It’s as if the Lord wants to clear the earth of all the evil so many people have fallen into. In fact He confirms the reasons for this destruction in v’s 5-6: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.”

V 10 tells us a bit more: “The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up that no man may come in.” It sounds to me that those who have survived the destruction will lock themselves up against the evil that still exists. V’s 11-12: “There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation…”

Isaiah goes on to tell us that everyone shall fear and shake, but they will also “lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud…”(v 14). And then the Lord tells us what we should do: “Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the Isles of the sea.” (v 15)

V’s 19-20 tell us that the earth will be “utterly broken down” and the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard”. And the earth will lose the light of the moon and the sun. (v 23)

Fortunately, the Lord continued on in chapter 25. This synopsis tells us “In mount Zion the Lord shall prepare a gospel feast of fat things—He shall swallow up death in victory—it shall be said: Lo, this is our God.”  And our reactions should be as v 1 “O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name: for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” Even in all this destruction we will need to recognize that the Lord has and will be “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” (v4)

V 6 speaks of the feast that people of all nations will be invited to, and that feast represents the blessings that people who accept the gospel can receive. Some of those blessings come to us through our knowledge of what the Lord has wanted us to accomplish during our time on earth. Our knowledge of the scriptures and our closeness to the Lord will give us the eternal viewpoint.

V 8 tells us that the Lord “will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces…”. He will bring joy once again.

V 9 tells us how those who continue to follow the Lord will feel: “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God: we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” During those last days we will not be able to rely on worldly protection, but that our strength will be found in relying on the Lord, His teachings, and His prophecies. This verse tells us that we must wait for the Lord, always remembering that His timeline can be much different than how we would want our timeline—but if we wait for the Lord, then we can, and will receive His salvation and rejoice that our time here was the proper schooling for our eternal growth.

Elder Robert D. Hales said: “In the scriptures, the word wait means to hope, to anticipate, and to trust. To hope and trust in the Lord requires faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments, and enduring to the end” (“Waiting upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done,” Ensign, Nov. 2011, 72).


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