For the Lord has Spoken

8 He will swallow up death forever. The LORD God will wipe tears from every face; he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth, for the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8 CEB)

This passage comes from the Old Testament Lectionary reading for this week. During the tumultuous days we find ourselves in, this verse stands as a good reminder of God’s role and promises in the big picture.

First God “will swallow up death forever.” Modern culture has sometimes been called a culture of death. God in Christ has defeated death once and for all. We are called to live into the new life made available to each of us.

Next, “God will wipe tears from every face.” So many in the world around us are unable to experience the joy of living. This is sometimes due to personal circumstances and suffering, other times it is due to spiritual blindness that keeps us from seeing God at work in the world. Either way, there are valid reasons for tears. God in Christ puts in motion a plan which will lead to a time when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4).

Finally, God removes “people’s disgrace.” What that disgrace might be is different for each person. But each of us has “fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We each need a saving work in our lives. We need to come to the place where we acknowledge that without a supernatural work of God, our efforts to “be good” are never enough. Thanks be to God for this promise to remove our disgrace “from off the whole earth.”

The passage concludes “for the LORD has spoken.” I love this affirmation that seems to say, “so you can count on it, it will happen, it is done.”

Will you pray with me?

Lord thank you! Thank you for the promises in scripture that affirm no matter how bad things may get, you have already defeated death and are working to wipe away every tear and remove our disgrace. Help us to be the people who live in this reality. Amen

Pastor Shawn