Isaiah chapter 25

CHAPTER XXV

FALL OF THE GREAT CITY, RISE OF ZION IN DEATHLESS GLORY. 

IN view of the reign of the Lord of Hosts in Mount Zion, before His ancients gloriously, Isaiah is moved to break forth in praise : " 0 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." There must be a reason for praise, and the praise of God is as much founded on reason as the praise of man, and a thousand times more so. Men universally and unhesitatingly praise in men the qualities and accomplishments they admire, as knowledge, wisdom, power, skill, foresight, courage, and what not. What is there lacking in God of that which is thus admired in man ? Truly nothing. But human attainments are humanly discernible with ease. Not so the divine thoughts and ways and works. These are high as heaven above man (Isa. lv. 9) ; and thus, being discerned only by those who are taught of God, are praised only by the prophets and their uninspired " brethren," who, by their spirit-moved word, are enabled to see clearly and to rejoice in the things that moved them to praise and thanksgiving. Unfinished work, human or divine, is not that upon which to pronounce admiration or the reverse: "In all things consider the end." The established Kingdom of God will bring praise to God at last from all mankind. Meanwhile, the vision of it moves " the wise" to praise and rejoicing beforehand. The particular reason of Isaiah's exultation in this place, he defines to be the vindication of Zion against a rival city; concerning which, as concerning Zion in this aspect of things, we shall find ourselves compelled to take enlarged views. In this particular vision of chapters xxiv.-xxvii., Jerusalem and the unnamed rival city appear as the capitals of two antagonistic worlds which are alternately in the ascendant or in chaos, until at last the Jerusalem-world triumphs and the serpentworld is destroyed. The right apprehension of the word of God by the prophet in this place, demands a broad view of the whole purpose of God with the earth during the appointed course of the age of sin and death. The very earliest divine transaction was the dividing of humanity into two seeds (Gen. iii.)—the seed of: the serpent and the seed of the woman. Later, a distinction is visible between the Cainites and the Sethites (Gen. iv., v., vi.) ; and later still, between the drowned world and the Noah-remnant (Gen. vii.-viii.). Then came the division between Shem the blessed and Ham and Japheth. Out of Ham came the first GREAT ANTAGONISTIC CITY of the kingdom of men, whose name runs through the entire Scriptures as the symbol of the metropolis of the serpent-seed, BABEL, Oonfusion; so called because there Yahweh confounded human speech, as we find to our inconvenience to this day. Babel in the land of Shinar, Babylon of Isaiah's time and onwards, and " Great Babylon" of our days, even seven-hilled Rome on the Tiber (Rev. xvii.), are all comprehended in Isaiah's ministrations in the passage under consideration. The tower of Babel has been a heap for ages ; Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar's glory has been a ruin for many centuries, as God declared it should be, and explorers are now digging up his palaces. But mystical Babylon remains in all its meretricious glory, and is " the city of the terrible nations" which, saith the prophet, "shall fear thee." Looking back to Babel, we trace the rise of God's city. SHEM, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg: such was the line from the Deluge to Babel. Peleg, whose name means Division, marks the scattering at Babel B.C. 2300, or thereabouts. What was to become of the scattered Babel-builders? God alone could say. His answer is before us in the history of Abraham. He called him out of Ur of the Chaldees into the land of Canaan, and promised it to him and to his seed, the Christ (Gal. iii.), for an everlasting possession. He looked over the city of SALEM, where reigned " Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the most High God " (Gen. xiv.), and was assured that he should possess it for ever with the Promised Seed (Gen. xiii. 15). "He looked for A CITY which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. xi.). Here, then, was a rival city to Babel, predetermined of God as an everlasting city for His King. Salem means Peace (Heb. vii.). There is no peace in Babel: Confusion and Peace are mutually exclusive terms. So the metropolitan ascendancy of Babylon and Jerusalem cannot co-exist. One or the other must perish, and the purpose of God is that Babylon is the doomed. It is unnecessary for present purposes to trace the history of Jerusalem to see how at last David conquered the city, and God appointed the site of the temple which was afterwards built by Solomon, and consecrated with great solemnity and rejoicing in the midst of the manifest tokens of the presence of God. But the whole history of the city must be borne in mind, down to the very latest phase which marks it as the Jewish objective in the current ZIONIST MOVEMENT, if we would thoroughly apprehend the things that Isaiah has written for us. And not only so, but by the light of the truth the true relationship between " the children of the desolate" Jerusalem (Isa. liv.; Gal. iv. 27-28), and the children of prosperous Babylon which is to be destroyed (Psa. cxxxvii.; Rev. xviii.), must be discerned and maintained. There is nothing good in store for "the great city which, spiritually, is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified" (Rev. xi. 8). There is nothing but destruction and death in the citizenship and worship of " Babylon the Great" (Rev. xiv. 8, 12). In plain language, it is confusion, destruction, and death to be found in the fellowship of the State Churches of Christendom. It does not look like it to the " worshippers of the beast," but it is true, nevertheless. It is not without the deepest reason that it is written in the passage last quoted : " Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." A testimony that unchurches " the strong people" of the earth, and that, consequently, brings down upon the witnesses their potent hatred, is a thing demanding patience, faith, and obedience to maintain it. Isaiah, in his day, knew this experimentally, and spoke by the Spirit of the coming vindication of Yahweh's " poor and needy." " Thou hast been 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. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers as the heat in a dry place, even the heat with the shadow of a cloud ; the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low." From this, as from the words of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Lord Jesus, we understand that in the time of the end there will be a gathering of " terrible nations " against Jerusalem as a storm (compare Ezek. xxxviii., xxxix. ; Dan. xi.; Zech. xiv.; Rev. xix., &c). The reason of their coming thus " like a storm, like a cloud to cover the land," is because the rise of Jerusalem threatens the extinction of Babylon. Out of the current Zionist movement comes a Zionistic development long on record by the Spirit, but now scarcely finding credence in the earth. Yahweh sets His King upon the holy hill of Zion (Psa. ii.) and "the terrible nations" rage against him, and the peoples imagine a vain thing, even the breaking of his dominion. They are given a chance, and even permitted in the first stage of the movement to take the city and divide the spoil. But "then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle " (Zech. xiv. 3). So says Zechariah. " The day of battle" referred to is the day in which the Lord fought for Joshua against the Kings in the same places ages before. " And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel " (Josh. x. 14). A comparison of the history of this typical overthrow of " terrible ones" with the language of Ezekiel and Daniel will give a true idea of what the Lord will do for Jesus in the crisis that is coming. When the Assyrian host was destroyed by the angel in Hezekiah's days, it had been prophetically alluded to beforehand by Isaiah saying, " The Lord, the Lord of hosts shall lop the bough with terror"" (Isa. x. 33). Again, in the vision of " evening-tide trouble" the prophet had seen the reaping of the vine of the earth: " He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks and take away and cut down the branches" (Isa. xviii. 5). These figures, which we have already studied, are equivalent to the branch of the terrible ones being brought low, of which we read in ch. xxv. 5. The vine of the earth is cut down that God's " true vine" may be planted in the earth. It is rooted in Jesus spiritually and nationally ; that is, Jesus and his brethren will constitute an immortal hierarchy over Israel restored, and will bless all nations with their righteous reign. "And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined." The supremacy of Zion having been divinely established in the fall of Babylon and the destruction of her " terrible ones," the mountain of the Lord's house is established in the top of the mountains and exalted above the hills, and all nations flow unto it (ch. ii.). What is this feast of fat things to which they are graciously invited by Yahweh ? Something more than mere " creature - comforts." Of those "the peoples" partook, often unwisely, in " the great city." This is a feast that the Lord makes, and cannot be eaten elsewhere than in His house, upon His holy mountain. That it will embrace the partaking of bread, flesh, and wine is certain, for the Lord said that he would partake again of bread and wine with his disciples in the kingdom (Luke xxii. 16-18, 30). And Ezekiel, in vision, sees the flesh of the offerings ready on the tables (ch. xl. 43), and that THE PRINCE eats bread before the Lord (xliv. 3), and keeps the passover (xlv. 22). But man doth not live by bread alone, but by all that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, as the heavenly manna, the word of Christ. It is this that is the subject, in a thousand beautiful ways, of the prophet's allusion to the feast of fat things. " The great city" is famine-stricken for lack of knowledge, and even in Israel, in Isaiah's times, it was not much better. The divine contrast brought out in the invitation of chapter lv. helps our understanding here. " Ho, every one that thirsteth,. come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is NOT BREAD? and your labour for that which satisfieth not ? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." Here "waters," "wine," "milk," "good things," and "fatness" stand for " the sure mercies of David" denned in " the everlasting covenant" and amplified in " THE WORD " generally. Israel's leaders in Isaiah's day, and unnumbered thousands since, went off after mere husks in the worship of Baal, Moloch, and what not. They spent liberally for that which was not bread. They dreamed of souls living apart from hearing the word at allf thus giving God the lie. They refused to hearken to the prophets, and laboured and were not satisfied. At last, in incipient fulfilment of the everlasting covenant, God sent forth " the son of David" promised, who declared himself to be the true meat and drink, of which, if a man partake, he shall be satisfied and live for ever (John vi.). He said he was the "living bread which came down from heaven," antitypical of the manna, of which, said he, "your fathers ate, and are dead." He further declared that the bread that he would give for the life of the world was his flesh, and the drink his blood. And when the Jews murmured, he added, solemnly and emphatically: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.'1 Even the disciples found this " a hard saying; " but he gently rebuked them, and pointed them to his approaching ascension to heaven as a coming proof of his heavenly origin, and added: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth (or maketh alive); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." So then the Christ-doctrine concerning himself is the true meat and drink to be assimilated if men would live for ever. 

But this is exceedingly distasteful to the men of " the great city." In vain does Wisdom divine spread her table for these (Prov. ix.); her invitation is unheeded, and husks preferred. What would become of the philosophers and " great souls" if Christ's dictum should be accepted ? It would debar them from life, and that Babylon will not have at any price. But when Isaiah xxv. is fulfilled, all this will be changed ; the nations will go up to Jerusalem with the contrite confession, " Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit" (Jer. xvi.). Pastors according to God's own heart shall feed the people with knowledge and understanding (Jer. iii. 15). A feast of fat things will succeed the husks of this famine-stricken time, in which " the faith" is scarcely to be found on earth. The highest aspect of the feast of fat things is the presence of the Lord, and those with him who have eaten and live for ever. " To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God " (Rev. ii. 7). " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna" (v. 17). These, his promises, are fulfilled then, when, as the reward of their living on his spirit and life words in the days of their flesh, he transforms them by his almighty power into the divine nature, so that they can " hunger no more neither thirst any more." These are the chief of the " pastors" according to God's own heart, who feed the people with knowledge and understanding. " They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures; for with thee is fountain of life." Thus spoke one of them in the days of his unsatisfied longings (Psa. xxxvi. 8, 9; xlii. 1). Under the regal and priestly ministrations of such "pastors," " all peoples" are properly nourished. The law goes forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and the purified remnant that remains after the judgments of God, goes up annually to Jerusalem to keep the appointed feasts and learn of God's ways in heart-building meditation on the glories there revealed. This is concealed under the very term translated " wines on the lees." It is sh'mahreem, literally " preserved things" or "residues." " Wines on the lees" is well enough if we have our eyes upon the substance meant by the figure; but because vast multitudes of " the great city" are wont to slay themselves with wine or other alcoholic liquor, the text has been tortured by others who very properly object to the madness of their waysin this particular. They have insisted on " preserves," but what sort of " preserves" they have not told us. We must help ourselves. The word in question comes from the verb shamar, to keep, watch, guard ; or as a secondary meaning, to keep, observe, mark. Hence, of the feast of the Passover and night of the Exodus it is said : " It is a night of observances (shimooreem) unto Yahweh" (Ex. xii. 42). Here, the " preserved things" were the families of Israel by the blood of the Passover, and the " observances" the ritual of the feast of the Passover. The verb occurs likewise in the same chapter, verses 17, 24, 25, with reference to the same things, and is translated "observe" and " keep." All " the fatness of Yahweh's house" is centred in Christ,, the substance of all the shadows of the law, the Passover included (1 Cor. v. 7). He is not less " the bread of life," but more so, when he returns. He is " the hidden manna 'r that has been "laid up before the Lord" for centuries. He has been " preserved " from corruption, and will be so for ever ; and his sacrifice will be the kernel of all the "observances" throughout the Millennium. He will "bring forth bread and wine " just as literally as did Melchizedek before him, and " all peoples" will be refreshed in the natural man by the feasts provided ; but the substance in the highest is Christ and his brethren, who, " being many, are one bread " ; and to eat of whom, in the obedience to their inspired guidance, will be to live for ever. The connection between this " feast of fat things" and the next mentioned divine work, is obvious and beautiful : " And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all peoples, and the vail that is spread over all nations." So then, according to the word of God, THERE IS SUCH A UNIVERSAL, VAIL το BE TAKEN AWAY. Nothing is more unendurable to " the  great city " than this testimony, which is entirely unheard among her citizens. For " in so saying thou condemnest us." This is the sentiment, and it is true. " By thy sorceries (0, Babylon the Great) were all nations deceived" (Rev. xviii. 23). It is indisputable that the Babylon of this passage is Rome; and the contention of Catholic writers that it is Pagan Rome, will not stand. Pagan Rome had not " seven heads and ten horns." Pagan Rome was not related to " the last plagues " of the vials. t Pagan Rome has never made war with the Lamb, and been overcome by him since A.D. 96. Pagan Rome's " sorceries " were small, both in nature, extent, duration, and culpability, by comparison with those of Papal Babylon. To appreciate the matter as it truly stands, we must " see the glory of the Lord." "Moses put a vail over his face, {allegorically signifying) that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in reading of the old covenant, which is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." So says Paul in 2 Cor. iii. 13-16, and the vail of the covering that was upon the hearts of his brethren according to the flesh is still upon Christendom, though in different form. The Jews of Paul's day boasted in Moses, and looked for the restoration of Israel in the hands of a son of David ; but did not recognise that Messiah should at the same time be Son of God, and first be manifested as a sufferer; and that Jesus was the Messiah. Besides, " their minds were blinded " by pagan notions borrowed from the surrounding nations, as the immortality of the soul, the fabulous heaven and hell, and intermediate state invented by the wisdom of the Egyptians, Canaanites, Assyrians, Persians, and so forth. With all this nonsense on the brain, and with the hatred of Jesus begotten of his scathing rebukes of their hypocrisy, it is not to be wondered at that the writings of Moses were unintelligible to them. 

So it is to this day. The truth was first corrupted by the Judaising apostacy, whose footsteps we trace in the Acts of the Apostles, and the polemics of the epistles of Paul. Evil men and seducers waxed worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived ; till at last the Lord's own prophetic picture has come to be realised—u all nations deceived." Individually, when a man's heart turns to the Lord, " the vail is taken away." A more beautiful and apposite description of the mental and moral effect of the entry of the Word could not be conceived. A good and honest heart is pointed to Christ's saying: " If ye believe not Mosesy writings, how shall ye believe my words ? " He is convicted of gross ignorance of Moses' writings. He studies them, and discovers man's true estate, and God's promises to the fathers concerning Christ. The vail is gradually " taken away." He ceases dreaming of phantoms, and shades, and realms of bliss beyond the skies, and regions of woe beneath the earth, presided over by an almighty fiend he once called the Devil. " With open face" he beholds in Jesus the reflection of the glory of the Lord. The existence of evil—the reign of sin and death, is satisfactorily explained to him, both as to nature, cause and duration. God is justified, and His mercy magnified; and "the barque of human progress" is seen to have God for its pilot, and His Kingdom for its port of destiny. He takes his stand thankfully among the ranks of the witnesses; but what can he do ? Only his duty, like his Lord, and be prevailed against, as he was. To God alone, by His almighty power, belongs the taking away of the vail from the face of the nations. Argument is powerless. Judgment must and will do it. And at Jerusalem it is to be done. There will be seen the terrible opening manifestation of divine wrath that will first convince the world that God hath not forsaken the earth. Thence will emanate the first divine proclamation to the nations to " fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come." And thence afterwards will " go forth the law," as thence already has come forth the word of life. And thither, as the needle to the pole, turn the faces of the brethren of the prophets, cheered by the word of their ancient ministry, and by the unmistakable signs of its speedy fulfilment. " He will swallow up death in victory." It is no longer merely a promise; but a promise partly fulfilled, for he hath swallowed up death in victory in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore it is only for the completion of the work that his people wait. The Revised Version would make this read: " He hath swallowed up death for ever." But this, though, in a sense, philologically admissible, is doctrinally excluded. The Revisers should have rested content, as did their predecessors of King James' day, with Paul's inspired paraphrase and exposition in 1 Cor. xv. : " Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written : Death is swallowed up in victory." That is, at Christ's coming. But death is not swallowed up " for ever" then, but continues for a thousand years longer, and then, at length, in the same place, is indeed " swallowed up for ever," as the Lord reveals in Rev. xx.-xxi. Meanwhile, death reigns and tears flow; and the rebuke of Yahweh's people is still current in the earth. There is no more certain disgrace than in professing and maintaining the truth of God revealed in the Bible. And because the enduring of it perpetually is irksome and intolerable to the flesh, the temptation is great to compromise, and forbear with current " lies and vanity." Against this universal tendency, we are steeled by " the ministry of the prophets," who were " the rebuked" of leaders and people in their day and generation. 

WAITING FOR CHRIST. 

Taking our standpoint on Paul's application in 1 Cor. xv. of the words of the prophet in this place, we have no difficulty in rightly understanding the language of the context. It is at Christ's coming that death is to be swallowed up in victory; at that time, therefore, is the day contemplated in Isa. xxv. 9: " 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." This brings before us the Lord Jesus in the manifestation at last of the Memorial Name of the Father, at the resurrection of the firstfruits. " This is our Elohim," and " this is Yahweh," indicates the presence of One who shall be the head of the mighty ones of Israel, and surrounded in glory by those who have waited for him. The truth honours us in our acceptance of the gospel call, by prospective inclusion in these ranks of the redeemed. It was not alone from the generations of Israel after the flesh that God proposed to take out a people who should wait for the manifestation of the Name, and rejoice at last in its accomplishment. The prophet Isaiah himself testified more than once of the call of the Gentiles; and Paul, writing to some of these at Thessalonica, spoke of them as being in the attitude here defined by the prophet. " Our Gospel," says he, " came not unto you by word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. i. 5). These Gentile brethren became examples in turn in their faithful proclamation of the Word of the Lord. " These things," said Paul, " show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and the true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." He comforted these waiting brethren concerning their bereavements by death, with reference to the death and resurrection of the Lord, and to the day of his coming, of which Isaiah in this place speaks. We of this late time, standing in the same position, are not the less able to "comfort one another with these words." One of the reasons of the rejoicing of God's people in that day is the down-treading of Moab by the Lord, " as straw is trodden down for the dunghill." This, of course, necessitates the contemporary existence of a power called Moab to be trodden down at that time. We have seen in chapter xvi., when considering "the burden of Moab," of which the prophet speaks in chapter xvi. of his prophecy, that our own nation corresponds to the Moab of the latter days. Britain is providentially brought into occupation of Edom and Moab in the great crisis of the latter days, in which she is expelled from Egypt by the Russian King of the North, preparatory to the breaking of his power by divine judgment on the mountains of Israel. In Isaiah, chapter xvi., the fate of Moab is unmistakably associated with the re-establishment of the throne and kingdom of David in the hands of the Lord Jesus, who is " the Heir" thereof, and who will at that time deliver Israel from the hand of the " spoiler." Bearing this in mind, the connection in Isaiah xxv. between Christ's coming and the fate of Moab does not appear difficult to perceive, although the subject is so apparently abruptly introduced. Movements so deeply affecting Jerusalem and Palestine must, of course, affect the adjoining countries, just as did the kingdoms of David and Solomon of old. David conquered Moab of old, and the Greater Son of David is to do the same in the future. He will subdue British power, at that time located in that country, and in angry opposition to the Russian " spoiler" of the North (Ezek. xxviii. ; Dan. xi.). A preliminary down-treading and humbling is very necessary before the Lord can make any use of the latter-day Moab as the scriptures have foretold he will. By the destruction of the Mediterranean fleet, and overthrow of the land forces, British power will be brought to recognise the fact that there is a power in the earth mightier than itself or any earthly rival, and whose rule of the waves is mightier than that of proud Britannia. Under another aspect (that of the latter-day Tyre), we saw in ch. xxiii. that it was the purpose of God to stain the pride of British, as of " all glory" (v. 9), reducing the Tyrian power to the position of a subordinate ally, after the pattern of Hiram of old. Thus, "he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim, and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoil of their hands. And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust."