Rev. David Holwick ZO Book of Isaiah series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
December 5, 1993
Isaiah 25:1-9
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I. Will you avoid overdoing it this month?
A. How many will lose weight this month?
1) December is reason we have January resolutions.
2) We groan in anticipation, but we love the parties and feasts.
B. God's kingdom is a lot like December.
1) He is preparing a sumptuous feast for us.
2) He will provide us with the best of the best, in his time.
3) Prophet Isaiah provides one of the most vivid views of this.
II. God deserves praise. 25:1
A. God/down or man/up?
1) Prophets usually speak as God, Isaiah often speaks as a man.
2) He includes more praise of God than any other prophet.
3) He displays a sense of personal relationship with God. 25:1
B. God announces what he will do, and does what he says. 25:1
1) This passage looks beyond troubled present to a glorious
future.
2) God hasn't done everything yet. Second Coming still future.
a) Very appropriate at Christmas season.
b) We focus on prophesied troubles, Antichrist, etc...
c) Prophets focus on God as King, redemption, peace.
III. Sometimes you have to be broken before you can be built up. 25:2-3
A. Pagan cities will be devastated. 25:2
1) Comforting to the Jews, who were underdogs.
2) And yet later broken cities will honor God. 25:3
B. God's goal is always reconciliation, not devastation.
1) Often he has to break us before he can reach us.
2) "The destruction of every hope in man makes way for
contrite hope in God." (Grogan)
3) Many people are too proud to come to God directly.
a) It takes a tragedy or failure to open their eyes.
b) It isn't required, but it's typical.
IV. The best is yet to come. 25:6-7
A. Feasts are common theme in prophets, symbolizing salvation.
1) Jesus refers to it often in parables, and image is behind
Last Supper and Communion.
2) Communion is a taste of God's table.
a) We celebrate fellowship with each other, and God.
b) "Places in the Heart" and symbolic communion of enemies.
B. Feast is on a mountain. 25:6
1) Mountains often a symbol of nations, or power.
a) "This" mountain means Jerusalem.
1> Theme came to be applied to all nations.
2> They are always jockeying to see who is highest.
3> God's mountain (not even Jerusalem) is the highest.
b) Revelation 21:10 and Holy City on mountain. Rev. 21:10
1> Salvation is reaching God's mountain.
2) Mountains also symbolize difficulties which must be scaled.
One August Myrtle Harris and her husband were hiking 2« miles up
a mountain to a small log teahouse.
For most people it would be an easy stroll, but for Myrtle it
was a hike of faith.
She had cancer.
Surgery had removed the tumor, but she was still weak.
Everyday tasks were completed with great difficulty, and they
sapped all of her strength.
Her strength was returning but ever so slowly.
Hiking the mountain was tough for her.
Just past the half-way point they stopped to rest beside a lake.
Two young people greeted them.
The younger couple advised them to turn around and go back down
the mountain.
They would never make it to the top.
The path was too difficult.
Myrtle and her husband decided to rest for awhile and then
continue up the mountain.
Breathing heavily, they climbed slowly upward.
Young hikers swung past them as if it were nothing.
"Pausing frequently and praying silently," Myrtle said, "we
reached the teahouse at last."
The view from the top of the mountain was marvelous.
Lakes, trees, rocks, waterfalls, and cloud-caressed mountaintops
set their souls singing with praise and thanksgiving.
Myrtle says, "There are many kinds of mountains we must climb
during a lifetime.
"Our faith in a caring God will encourage us to take that first
step and all the other steps after that."
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C. It's worth it at the top.
1) People often give less than the best.
Eric S. Ritz tells a story about a beloved old doctor who was
retiring in a small French village.
He had labored among them for decades in their humble village,
birthing and blessing them.
It was a poor village, so the mayor proposed that the folks set
up a keg in the village square.
Everyone was to bring a pitcher of wine from their own cellar
to pour into the keg.
Then they would present the keg to the doctor as an expression
of their love for all he had shared with them.
On the appointed day, there was a steady stream of folks
bringing a pitcher of wine to pour into the keg.
That evening a presentation was made to the good doctor and the
keg was taken home.
The next evening as he sat around his fireplace, he decided to
have a glass of wine.
He drew himself a glass from the keg and took a sip.
He couldn't believe it; he drew another glass.
The same awful taste -- water!
The old doctor returned the keg back to the townspeople.
The mayor was angry and he called for a town meeting to see what
was wrong.
Much to his disgust and the town's embarrassment, it was
discovered that every family and person had brought water to
pour into the keg thinking it would never be noticed,
since everyone else was bringing wine.
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2) God doesn't give like we give.
a) Hallmark Cards: "God cared enough to send the very best."
b) Jesus: "I came that you might have life, abundantly."
V. For dessert, resurrection. 25:8a
A. Resurrection not common in Old Testament, but present in Isaiah.
1) Paul quotes 25:8a in 1 Cor. 15:54 and applies to the
"rapture," or resurrection.
2) Isaiah also speaks of it in 26:19.
B. No more death and tears. 25:8
1) We hide death (covered gurneys in hospital) but it will
visit each of us.
2) One day, there will be no more pain or suffering. Rev. 21:4
3) Only in Jesus is there escape from death.
4) Just as we swallow feast, he swallows death.
C. Is this your God? 25:9
1) Not enough to give assent, but requires trust.
2) The evidence of joy, mark of a true Christian.
3) When God's promises are really believed, they make a
difference in your life.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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