He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
Parallel Translations
-
He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
-
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
-
He will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of His people will He take away from off all the earth; for the LORD hath spoken it.
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to Isaiah 25:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
- Revelation 7:17 for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:54 But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
- Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- 1 Corinthians 15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
- Isaiah 35:10 Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
- Revelation 20:14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
- 2 Timothy 1:10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News.
- Isaiah 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with.
- Malachi 3:17-18 They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.
- Isaiah 54:4 “Don’t be afraid, for you will not be ashamed. Don’t be confounded, for you will not be disappointed. For you will forget the shame of your youth. You will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more.
- Isaiah 65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more.
- Isaiah 30:19 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you.
- Isaiah 51:11 Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
- Isaiah 60:15 “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.
- Hebrews 2:14-15 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
- Psalms 69:9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
- Isaiah 61:7 Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them.
- Isaiah 66:5 Hear Yahweh’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed.
- 1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.
- Psalms 89:50-51 Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples, With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.
- Isaiah 37:3 They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth.
- Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He will take away all occasions of sorrow and…
He will take away all occasions of sorrow and fill his with perfect joy, Rev. 7:17 and 21:4.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory;…
Isa 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken [it].
Ver. 8. He will swallow up death in victory.] As the fire swalloweth the fuel, or as Moses’ serpent swallowed up the sorcerers’ serpents. The kisses of Christ’s mouth have sucked out the sting of death from a justified believer; so that his heart doth live for ever, {as Psa 22:6} and if so, then in death itself; which made Cyprian receive the sentence of death with a Deo gratias; as did also Bradford, and many more martyrs; accounting the days of their death their birthdays, and welcoming them accordingly. Jerome insults over death as disarmed and devoured: Illius morte tu mortua es: devorasti, et devorata es, &c. Ever since death ran through the veins of Jesus Christ, who is life essential, it is destroyed or swallowed up; like as the bee dieth when she hath left her sting in the wound. {a} Hence St Paul doth so crow over death, and, as it were, called it craven. {1Co 15:55-57}
Read full note →
And the Lord God will wipe away.] A metaphor from a mother.
And the rebuke of his people.] Or, The reproach, their afflictions and persecutions, for which the world reproacheth them.
{a} Animasque in valnere ponunt. - Virg.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain He, the Lord, expressed both in the foregoing and…
He, the Lord, expressed both in the foregoing and following words, even the Messiah, who is God and man, will swallow up death; shall by his death destroy the power of death, as is said, Heb 2:14; take away the sting of the first death, and prevent the second death, and give eternal life to the world, even to all that believe in him.
In victory, Heb. unto victory, i.e. so as to overcome it perfectly; which complete victory Christ hath already purchased for, and will in due time actually confer upon, his people.
Read full note →
Will wipe away tears; will take away from his people all sufferings and sorrows, and all the causes of them; which is begun here, and perfected in heaven.
The rebuke of his people; the reproach and contempt which was daily cast upon his faithful people by the ungodly world, and, among others, by the apostate and unbelieving Jews, who accounted the Christians to be the scum and offscouring of all things.
From off all the earth; or, from off all this land, i.e. from all the church and people of God, wheresoever they shall be, from all their faces, as was said in the foregoing clause.
The Lord hath spoken it; therefore doubt not of it, though it seem incredible to you.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He will swallow up death in victory,.... Or, "for…
He will swallow up death in victory,.... Or, "for ever" (g). This is to be understood, not of a spiritual death, which is swallowed up in conversion, and of which those that are quickened shall never die more; nor of the conversion of the Jews, which will be as life from the dead; nor of the civil death of the witnesses, and of their rising, who afterwards will never die more, in that sense; but of a corporeal death: this Christ has swallowed up in victory, by dying on the cross, both with respect to himself, who will never die more, and with respect to his people, from whom he has abolished it as a penal evil; but it chiefly respects the resurrection state, or the personal coming of Christ, when the dead in him shall rise first, and shall never die more, there will be no more death, neither corporeal, spiritual, nor eternal to them; on them death shall have no power, in any shape: and then will this saying be brought about or fulfilled, as the apostle has interpreted it, Co1 15:54 so the Jews (h) interpret it of the future state, when those that live again shall die no more, and there will be no death; and of the days of the Messiah, when the dead will be raised (i):
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; there are many things now that cause tears to fall from the saints, as their own sins, indwelling sin, unbelief, carnality, leanness, backslidings, &c. and the sins of others, the temptations of Satan, the hiding of God's face, afflictions of various sorts, and the persecutions of men; but these will be no more in the New Jerusalem state; and therefore God is said to wipe them away, having removed the cause of them, Rev 7:17, Rev 21:4 the allusion is to a tender parent, that takes a handkerchief, and wipes the face of its child, when it has been crying, and quiets and comforts it:
Read full note →
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; all the reproaches and calumnies which have been cast upon them, and all misrepresentations of them, shall be taken away from them everywhere, and they will no longer lie under them, but stand clear of all false charges and accusations: or all persecution shall now cease; there shall be none to hurt them in all the holy mountain, Isa 11:9,
for the Lord hath spoken it; and it shall be done. The Targum is,
"for by the word of the Lord it is so decreed.''
(g) "in sempiternum", Munster, Pagninus, Montanus; "in aeternum", Piscator. (h) Gloss. in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. Misna, Moed Katon, c. 3. sect. 9. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 61. 2. (i) Zohar in Gen. fol. 73. 1. Shemot Rabba, sect. 20. fol. 131. 4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain He - Christ will by his death destroy the…
He - Christ will by his death destroy the power of death, take away the sting of the first death, and prevent the second. In victory - Hebrew. unto victory; so as to overcome it perfectly; which complete victory Christ hath already purchased for, and will in due time actually confer upon his people. Rebuke - The reproach and contempt cast upon his faithful people by the ungodly world.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. He will swallow up death] He, by…
Verse 8. He will swallow up death] He, by the grace of God, will taste death for every man. Heb 2:9. Probably, swallow up death, and taste death, in both these verses, refer to the same thing: Jesus dying instead of a guilty world. These forms of speech may refer to the punishment of certain criminals; they were obliged to drink a cup of poison. That cup which every criminal in the world must have drunk, Jesus Christ drank for them; and thus he swallowed up death: but as he rose again from the dead, complete victory was gained.
From these three verses we learn: -
Read full note →
I. That the Gospel is a plenteous provision: "I will make a feast for all people."
II. That it is a source of light and salvation: "I will destroy the veil. I will abolish death. and bring life and immortality to light."
III. That it is a source of comfort and happiness: "I will wipe away all tears from off all faces."
As in the Arabic countries a covering was put over the face of him who was condemned to suffer death, it is probable that the words in Isa 25:7 may refer to this. The whole world was condemned to death, and about to be led out to execution, when the gracious Lord interposed, and, by a glorious sacrifice, procured a general pardon.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 25:8. He — The Lord, expressed both in…
Isa 25:8. He — The Lord, expressed both in the foregoing and following words, even the Messiah, who is both God and man; will swallow up death — Shall, by his death, destroy the power of death, (Heb 2:14,) take away the sting of the first death, and prevent the second death, and give eternal life to all that truly believe in him. In victory — Hebrew, לנצח, unto victory, that is, so as to overcome it perfectly; which complete victory Christ hath already purchased for, and will, in due time, actually confer upon his people. And will wipe away tears — Will take away from his people all sufferings and sorrows, with all the causes of them, which deliverance is begun here and perfected in heaven. The rebuke of his people — The reproach and contempt cast upon his faithful people by the ungodly world; shall he take, &c. — From all the church and people of God, wheresoever they shall be. For the Lord hath spoken it — Therefore doubt it not, though it seem incredible to you.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain He will swallow up - This image is probably…
He will swallow up - This image is probably taken from a whirlpool or maelstrom in the ocean that absorbs all that comes near it. It is, therefore, equivalent to saying he will destroy or remove Isa 25:7. In this place it means that be will abolish death; that is, he will cause it to cease from its ravages and triumphs. This passage is quoted by Paul in his argument respecting the resurrection of the dead 1Co 15:54. He does not, however, quote directly from the Hebrew, or from the Septuagint, but gives the substance of the passage. His quoting it is sufficient proof that it refers to the resurrection, and float its primary design is to set forth the achievements of the gospel - achievements that will be fully realized only when death shall cease its dominion, and when its reign shall be forever at an end.
Death - Vitringa supposes that by ‘death’ here is meant the wars and calamities with which the nation had been visited, and which would cease under the Messiah. In this interpretation Rosenmuller concurs. It is possible that the word may have this meaning in some instances; and it is possible that the calamities of the Jews may have suggested this to the prophet, but the primary sense of the word here, I think, is death in its proper signification, and the reference is to the triumphs of God through the Messiah in completely abolishing its reign, and introducing eternal life. This was designed, doubtless, to comfort the hearts of the Jews, by presenting in a single graphic description the gospel as adapted to overcome all evils, and even to remove the greatest calamity under which the race groans - death.
Read full note →
In victory - Hebrew, לנצח lānetsach. Paul, in 1Co 15:54, has translated this, Εἰς νῖκος Eis nikos - ‘Unto victory.’ The word νῖκος nikos (victory) is often the translation of the word (see 2Sa 2:26; Job 36:7; Lam: Lam 3:18; Amo 1:2; Amo 8:7); though here the Septuagint has rendered it ‘strong (or prevailing) death shall be swallowed up.’ The word may be derived from the Chaldee verb נצח netsach, to conquer, surpass; and then may denote victory. It often, however, has the sense of permanency, duration, completness, eternity; and may mean for ever, and then entirely or completely. This sense is not materially different from that of Paul, ‘unto victory.’ Death shall be completely, permanently, destroyed; that is, a complete victory shall be gained over it. The Syriac unites the two ideas of victory and perpetuity. ‘Death shall be swallowed up in victory forever.’ This will take place under the reign of the Messiah, and shall be completed only in the morning of the resurrection, when the power of death over the people of God shall be completely and forever subdued.
Will wipe away tears from off all faces - This is quoted in Rev 21:4, as applicable to the gospel. The sense is, that Yahweh would devise a plan that would be suited to furnish perfect consolation to the afflicted; to comfort the broken-hearted; and that would in its final triumphs remove calamity and sorrow from people forever. The fullness of this plan will be seen only in heaven. In anticipation of heaven, however, the gospel now does much to alleviate human woes, and to wipe away tears from the mourner’s eyes. This passage is exquisitely beautiful. The poet Burns once said that he could never read it without being affected to tears. It may be added that nothing but the gospel will do this. No other religion can furnish such consolation; and no other religion is, therefore, adapted to man.
And the rebuke of his people - The reproach; the contempt; the opposition to them. This refers to some future period when the church shall be at peace, and when pure religion shall everywhere prevail. Hitherto the people of God have been scorned and persecuted, but the time will come when persecution shall cease, the true religion shall everywhere prevail, the church shall have rest, and its triumphs shall spread everywhere on the earth.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Ever. Hebrew, "he shall swallow up death in victory,"…
Ever. Hebrew, "he shall swallow up death in victory," 1 Corinthians xv. 54. Christ, by dying, conquered death, and rescued us from its power, if we do not voluntarily subject ourselves to it again. This was faintly represented by the liberation of the captives.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Quoted in Co1 15:54, in support of the resurrection.
Quoted in Co1 15:54, in support of the resurrection.
swallow up . . . in victory--completely and permanently "abolish" (Ti2 1:10; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:4; compare Gen 2:17; Gen 3:22).
Read full note →
rebuke--(Compare Mar 8:38; Heb 11:26).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Swallow up death — Death, here, comprehends the…
8. Swallow up death — Death, here, comprehends the various ills of this life, or sin and its consequences. These become, under gospel influences, of the smallest account in comparison with the glory that is, and is to be, revealed.
In victory — This means glory, brightness, and the like, in the original; and it is to be eternal, as most versions render the word — a brightness that never ends.
Read full note →
Will wipe away tears — Exegetical of the phrase preceding. (Note the comment thereon.)
Rebuke of his people — Not rebuke deserved, but reproach undeserved, which the world casts on God’s people. In the fulness of gospel times the tables shall be turned. To the saints of the Most High all that can possibly be contained in the idea of death shall be utterly done away.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. He will swallow up … victory] Rather: He…
8. He will swallow up … victory] Rather: He hath abolished death for ever. Cf. 2Ti_1:10. The A.V. follows the rendering of St Paul in 1Co_15:54 (κατεπόθη ὁ θάνατος εἰς νῖκος), but “swallow up” is needlessly literal, and “in victory” comes from the apostle’s familiarity with Aramaic. The sense, of course, is correctly given. The words contain the clearest expression of the hope of immortality to be found in the prophetic writings. The special contribution of prophecy to that doctrine is reached through the conception of the abolition of death as a hindrance to the perfect blessedness of the Messianic age. Although the prophets rarely touch on this theme, we can see that it was only by degrees and at a late period that the idea of immortal life became an element in their conception of the kingdom of God. The first step towards it was the anticipation of a great extension of human life, as in Zec_8:4; Isa_65:20; Isa_65:22. From this to the belief in an absolute annihilation of death is no doubt a great advance, but the advance is made in the passage before us. It might be questioned if the resurrection of those who had fallen asleep before the advent of the Messianic kingdom is here contemplated; but since that doctrine is clearly taught in the next chapter (Isa_26:19), the question has little importance.
and the Lord God will wipe away tears …]—the traces of past sorrow. “When Jehovah removes the veil he sees the tears and wipes them away” (Duhm). Perhaps no words that ever were uttered have sunk deeper into the aching heart of humanity than this exquisite image of the Divine tenderness; cf. Rev_21:4.
Read full note →
the rebuke (render, reproach) of his people … earth] a reversal of the doom pronounced in Deu_28:37. The later Jews keenly felt their accumulated national misfortunes as a religious disgrace, a reflection on the power of their God; Joe_2:17; Psa_44:14 ff; Psa_79:10, &c. Comp. with this passage, Zep_3:18 ff.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) He will swallow up . . .—The verb…
(8) He will swallow up . . .—The verb is the same as the “destroy” of Isa_25:7. The words are an echo of the earlier promise of Hos_13:14. They are, in their turn, re-echoed in the triumph-anthem of St. Paul in 1Co_15:54. The clause, “the Lord God shall wipe away tears,” is in like manner reproduced in Rev_7:17; Rev_21:4.
The rebuke of his people . . .—The taunt to which they were exposed in the time of their affliction, when the heathen took up their proverb of reproach and asked, “Where is now their God?” (Psa_79:10).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain He will swallow up death in victory; rather, he…
He will swallow up death in victory; rather, he will abolish death forever. Hosea, a contemporary, was inspired to write! "Will ransom Israel from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction"; (Hos_13:14) but otherwise this was the first announcement that death was to disappear and to cease to be a possibility. It was an enormous advance on the dim and vague conceptions of a future life hitherto current (Job_19:25, 27 Psa_17:15) to have such an announcement made as this. Hitherto men had been "through fear of death all their life subject to bondage". (Heb_2:15) Now they were taught that, in the resurrection-life, there would be no tear, no possibility of death. The joyous outburst of the apostle, when he quotes the present passage, (2Co 15:5) is the natural thanksgiving song of reassured humanity, on recognizing its final deliverance from the unspeakable terror of death and annihilation. The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. A recent commentator asks, "What place is left for tears?" But surely death is not the only cause of human mourning. Our own sins, the sins and sufferings of our dear ones, are the main provocatives of our tears. When it is promised, as here and in Rev_7:17 and Rev_21:4, that "there shall be no more pain, neither sorrow nor crying," the revelation is made that there shall be no more sin; for where sin is, sorrow must be. The rebuke of his people shall he take away. It will be among the lesser satisfactions of the final condition of the saved that they are no longer subject to reproach. In this life they have to endure continually reproach, rebuke, contumely. (Psa_74:10 Psa_89:50, Psa_89:51, etc.) In the resurrection-life they will be exempt from any such annoyance. The Lord hath spoken it. God"s word has gone forth. There can be no retractation. The blessings promised are certain to be obtained.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM Ver. 8. Christ"s conquest of death.
Read full note →
"He will swallow up death in victory." Here the fullness of Isaiah"s evangelical prophecy begins to break forth. In the fourth verse he has described Jehovah as "a Strength to the poor, a Strength to the needy in his distress, a Refuge from the storm, a Shadow from the heat;" and all this, he says, God has been. Human history will endorse the record. But he will be more to men than all this! Death, that dogs men"s footsteps and darkens even their days with fear; death, that breaks in upon all dreams of perfect friendship and permanent joy; death, which, as invisible monarch, holds empire in so many breasts; death itself shall be destroyed.
I THE VICTORY CAME. It was not then. But the prophecy was fulfilled. Death had to bring its sacred spoils and to lay them at the feet of Christ during his earthly ministry. And when men wondered at his mighty power, Christ said, "Marvel not at this, for all... that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth.
II THE VICTORY WAS COMPLETE. Death was swallowed up in victory. No province was left undisturbed. No delay intervened. No conflict occurred. Death knew its own Lord and King, and gave back at once its spoils. Thus we understand the words, "He led captivity captive." The very powers that once had held empire over men he now despoiled. And as in the Roman processions, the princes who once had spoiled others were now led captive at the chariot-wheels of a greater victor than themselves, so death was led captive at the chariot-wheels of Christ.
III THE VICTORY WAS PERMANENT. "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him." Now that Christ has risen from the dead, he has become the Firstfruits of all that sleep. The triumph of the Savior over the grave was designed to give great rest and gladness of heart. "And the Lord God will wipe away tears from Off all faces." It is immortal life that not only gives preciousness to friendship, but that gives relief from overwhelming tribulation. We sorrow, indeed, still; the hot rain of tears falls from the aching brain; but we sorrow not as those without hope. We comfort our hearts with these words of Jesus: "Let not your hearts be troubled.... In my Father"s house are many mansions. W.M.S.
Vers. 8, 9. The evening of expectation.
Of this passage we may look at
I ITS PRIMARY HISTORICAL APPLICATION. (See Exposition.)
II ITS APPLICATION TO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. The Church of Christ is "the Israel of God," and we may expect much of the language first used in reference to the Jewish nation to be appropriate to it and even intended for its service. Like ancient Israel, the Church has found itself in great humiliation and distress, and has been in sore need of Divine comfort in its dark days. At many stages in its history the Church has felt itself oppressed with heavy burdens, beset with serious difficulties, threatened with great calamities; and then the blessed promise of deliverance has dawned, and its heart has been elated, and such words of joyful praise as these in the text have been upon its lips. Even when there are no signs of the coming of Christ in delivering and reviving power, the Church may "take heart of grace" if it be
(1) faithful in word and in deed to its Master"s charge;
(2) prayerfully and patiently expectant, waiting on him in reverent confidence; mindful of the fact that our ways are not always his ways, nor our chosen times his times.
This holy and rightful attitude will turn the night of sorrow into the evening of expectation; and in due time will come the morning of deliverance; this will include
(1) the removal of reproach rebuke of his people will he take away;
(2) the cessation of spiritual distress he "will wipe away tears," etc., the tears of a Christ-like sympathy and regret; (see Psa_119:136 Jer_9:1 Luk_19:41)
(3) a joyous participation in the exaltation of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom in his salvation.
III ITS APPLICATION TO INDIVIDUAL SOULS. Our Christian life presents various aspects according to the path by which our Lord leads us home. The life of some may be characterized as that of abounding privilege, of others as that of multiplied mercies, of others as that of honorable and useful activity; in these cases the heavenly kingdom may appear to be a continued though an exalted experience in another sphere. But in other instances human life is one of unflagging toil, or of unceasing struggle, or of oppressive care, or of crushing sorrow: the night for which weeping endures (Psa_30:5) is all but lifelong. It is in such cases as these that we are "saved by hope." Hope is the morning star which is a blessed promise of an eternal day. It turns the night of weary trouble into the evening of holy expectation; it puts a song of joy even into the lips of suffering; it calmly but eagerly "prevents" the approaching morning; it anticipates the hour when the tears of sorrow will be wiped away from eyes that will weep no more forever, when every burden will fall from every heavy-laden shoulder, when the heart will be "exceeding glad" in the joy of God"s great salvation. Let the children of affliction comfort themselves with these words of the prophet; but let them
(1) be well assured that they are the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, and that their title is good to the heavenly heritage;
(2) wait patiently for Christ"s appearing. If they would say, "We will be glad... in his salvation," they must be able to say, "We have waited for him. C.
The supreme victory.
"He will swallow up death in victory." The terms of the text are not satisfied by anything less than the gospel of the grace of God; that, and that alone, can be truly said to swallow up death. It is only Jesus Christ who can be said to have "abolished death". (2Ti_1:10) This is the supreme victory. Great conquests have been gained in other fields: in geographical research discovery of America, penetration of Africa, etc.; in the useful arts printing, telegraphy, steam-power, etc.; in mathematical science; in historical exploration, etc. These things, and such things as these, have conferred dignity on our nature and. enlargement on our life. But there is one victory compared with which even these are small the triumph over death. Death has been thought of and written about everywhere as the great conqueror, before whose prevailing arm all human forces go down vanquished to the dust. It has been acknowledged to be the master of our humanity. But in the gospel of Jesus Christ death is defied, is met face to face, is overcome, is so utterly subdued and routed that we can truly say that it is "swallowed up in victory." In Christ there is a double defeat of its power; for in him is
I ABUNDANT SPIRITUAL LIFE HERE. Sin has led man down to moral and spiritual death; they that live apart from God are "dead while they live," for they move on toward the grave, missing all those things which give nobility, excellency, beauty, real and lasting joy to human life. But to know God in Christ Jesus is life. (Joh_17:3) And whoso enters into all the fullness of the life which is in Christ has that life more abundantly ". (Joh_10:10) Spiritual death is lost in largeness and fullness of spiritual life life in God, with God, for God; it is swallowed up in victory.
II IMMORTAL LIFE IN THE HEAVENLY WORLD. Here we have the significance of the words of the text. Other faiths beside that of Jesus Christ have included a promise of life in the future; but the hopes they have held out have been uncertain, vague, illusory; the life they have promised has been shadowy, unreal, unattractive. Their disciples must have felt that in its contest with death the faith has met its match, and, if it has not been actually worsted, it has failed to triumph. In the gospel of Christ we have a decided and delightful contrast to this. There the victory is complete. We pass away, indeed, from earth, from its scenes, its engagements, its friendships, its joys; but we pass into a state and a world where everything is immeasurably better than the present.
1. We are unclothed in body, but we are clothed upon with a house which is from heaven. (2Co_5:4)
2. The ignorance of earthly twilight we exchange for the full knowledge of the celestial day. (1Co_13:12)
3. From the broken delights and the fatiguing toils of time we pass to the tearless happiness and to the untiring activities of eternity.
4. The sorrowful separations of the present will make more blessed the union where we "clasp inseparable hands" in unfading friendship.
5. The apparent absence of the heavenly Father will be lost in the conscious nearness which will make us to dwell continually in his holy presence, God with us and we with him forever. Death will be "swallowed up in victory.
(1) It will be long before we shall meet with a faith which will offer us greater things than these.
(2) How sad, how foolish, how guilty, to remain spiritually, and therefore essentially, apart from him in the knowledge and service of whom stands eternal life! C.
Triumph over death.
There is a first reference here to the restoration of Judah from its death-state of captivity, and to the wiping away of the tears the captives shed when they hung their harps upon the willows. But we cannot forget that St. Paul and St. John have put the richest Christian meanings into these beautiful and pathetic words. (1Co_4:5 Rev_7:17 Rev_21:4) And life for a nation out of the death-state of captivity may well be taken as a type of the sublime resurrection of humanity from the grasp of physical death. Our triumph over death is assured; and foretaste of it is given in the conquest of the Lord Jesus over the grave. He is our Conqueror of death, and in him the prophecy of this text will have its large and blessed fulfillment. We read the prophecy in the light of Christ and of his work. And Scripture teaches us to regard the resurrection of Christ as a final conquest of death for us. (Act_2:24 1Co_4:21 Eph_4:8 2Ti_1:10 Heb_2:14 Rev_1:18)
I CHRIST IS THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH ITSELF. It was not the design of Christ to destroy death altogether, and withdraw its commission to the human race. He left it still to bite, but plucked away its sting, the venom of its hopelessness, and the bitterness of its connection with human sin. We shall die, though Christ has conquered death; but death is now only the messenger that calls us home he is no longer the jailer that drags us to our doom. Dissolution, or translation, such as we have hints of in the cases of Enoch and Elijah, may be the Divine idea for unfallen created beings; but certainly death, as we know it, with all its attendant circumstances of evil, is the immediate result of human sin. Change of state, and change of worlds, may be death in an abstract sense; but death in fear, and amid sufferings, and under disease, and involving agonizing separations, and terrible with the black shadows of an unknown future; this death and this is the death with which we have to do is the penalty of transgression. "The sting of death is sin." Lord Bacon, in his essay on death, almost makes too much of the material accompaniments of it, and under estimates the moral feeling in relation to it. He says, "Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear of death; and therefore death is no such terrible enemy when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat for him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief fleeth to it; and lear preoccupieth it." But this is only true for certain individuals, and under various pressures of excitement. To most of us, and especially to those who are thoughtful, and oppressed with the burdens of humanity, death has aspects of great bitterness. Then in what sense can we think of Christ as the present Conqueror of death? The answer is this He has conquered the death-dread in us, both concerning ourselves and concerning those who are dear to us. He has "delivered those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." And he has conquered it by fixing its connections with the body alone, and severing it, once and forever, from all relation to the renewed and redeemed soul. "He that liveth and believeth on me shall never die." In Christ death is compelled to take rank with disease and pain, as the servants of God. Its masterfulness is destroyed; its dart lies broken on the ground.
II THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH OUGHT TO RULE IN ITS STEAD. In Christ life rules, hope rules, goodness rules, eternity rules. Man may despairingly look upon his partially raised schemes, and say, Alas! I shall die." But the Christian man builds on bravely and hopefully. He knows that beneath all the outward show he is raising a structure of character on which death has no power, and he says, "I shall never die." The difference that is made by our letting death rule our thoughts and hopes and endeavors, and letting Christ rule them, may be illustrated by the change wrought in the land of Persia, when Zoroaster proclaimed that Ormuzd, the Good, was the real ruler of humanity. When Zoroaster came, the religious instincts of the people were debased, the divinity worshipped was malevolent, the moral tone was low, the social habits were vicious, the land of Iran was overgrown with thorns and weeds; men were idle, negligent, like the surfeited inhabitants of Sodom, given up to sensuality; they thought of their divine ruler as evil, malicious, cruel; they had the crushing, despairing, disheartening sentiments which always follow the belief that death, the representative of evil, rules. Zoroaster brought back the old and lost truth that God rules not evil, not death. Evil is subject to God. The good God is the God of life, and life is mightier than death; of light, and light triumphs over darkness. Ormuzd was the god of production, and if they would sow and plant and weed, they would be sure to win, under his benediction, a glorious triumph over waste and barrenness and death. We are not yet free as we should be from the notion that death still reigns. We have not yet opened our hearts fully to the glorious truth that Jesus, the conqueror of death, now reigns. Above everything else our age wants to yield its allegiance to Christ, ruling in morals, in education, in literature, in science, in politics, in commerce, and in society; triumphing now over all the forms of evil that death can symbolize. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain He will swallow up death in victory
Isa_25:8
He will swallow up death in victory
Read full note →
Death swallowed up in victory
I.
THE TEXT SETS CHRIST BEFORE US IN THE ATTITUDE OF A CONQUEROR OVER DEATH. He shall swallow up death in victory, it is said, and again in Hosea, O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction; whilst still more strikingly in Timothy, we read, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. But what is the kind of death of which the advent of Christ was to be the swallowing up? Not spiritual death, for how many are lying under its power now--many who have seen the day of Christ--but who yet have neither rejoiced in its light, nor yielded to its power! Neither does it ever attain to His covenant undertakings to swallow up death eternal. This too has its permitted victims, as well as the death spiritual, the one being, in fact, both the sequence and the penalty of the other. It is manifest, therefore, that the expression is to be limited to the death of the body--that death, which on account of the first transgression, was to pass upon all men, the penalty and the fruit of sin. Now this death is to be swallowed up--quenched, absorbed, as the original word implies--just as somethingwhich the sea might bury in its depths, or the fire decompose into its elemental forms.
II. BUT HOW IS THIS SWALLOWING UP OF DEATH BY CHRIST EFFECTED? To this we have a full answer returned by the apostle Paul. The sting of death, he says, is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is first assumed that death has a sting, that there is a pungency of dread and horror arising from the contemplation of death, merely as a penalty, as something indissolubly linked with evil beyond itself, and a sense of the deserved frown of God. Hence, in order to show that Christ had made a conquest over death, we must show that He was victorious over the sting of death, and hath swallowed up sin in victory.
1. And this He did in His life. In this way did Christ obtain His victory over sin--obtained it too, not by the putting forth of the hidden powers of Godhead, not by any invoked succours which would be given at His bidding from the angelic world, but by means within the reach of the humblest of His followers to command. Thus, in the destroyed sting of death, was laid the foundation for its final abolition. Mortality was no longer the terrible thing to look upon it once was. Believers are bound up in the Saviours conquests. Because I live, ye shall live also; because I have overcome, ye shall overcome also: sin shall have no dominion over you, because I withstood its power in the wilderness, because death and the sting of death have been swallowed up in victory.
2. Again, Christ is said to swallow up death, because He has discharged the obligations of that law to which death owes all its authority. As death could have had no sting if it had not been for sin, so sin could have had no existence, if it had not been for the law. The law is the strength of sin, says the Word. Why? Because where no law is, there is no transgression. The law entered that the offence might abound. And this law never relaxes, never can relax. Holy, it can endure no blemish; just, it can tolerate no remission of penalties; good, it will not encourage disobedience in the many by misplaced compassions to the few; and they who are under this law must be eternally under it. Hope for us there is none, nor yet help, unless we can be redeemed from its curse, released from its thrall, discharged from its obligations by One who shall both magnify its claims and make it honourable; and Christ has done all this, and in doing it, He swallows up death, at least death as death, for the strength of this last enemy is now departed from him. The law which was Satans only title deed thereto, is nailed to the Cross. It is all Emmanuels land now--earth and paradise, seen and unseen, life and immortality. He hath swallowed up death in victory.
3. And then, once more, we must include the grave as part of the conquered things spoken of in the text. Like death it has its victory--an all but universal victory. Distinctions it knows not, age it regards not: it is the house appointed for all living. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him. O grave! says the apostle, where is thy victory! Where, when thy keys are in the hands of the Saviour, when thy dust is a guarded deposit, when the bodies of the faithful committed unto thee are century by century throwing off their gross materialism, in order that in the regeneration of a glorified and spiritual body they may stand at the latter day upon the earth? For, that the prophets ken looked thus far, is evident from what he says a little further on in the next chapter, Thy dead men, Isa_26:19). Thus shall Christ swallow up death in victory; and it is added, the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces. The same forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into our world, brought therewith all our woe. If we had not known death, we had not known tears. The whole body of sin will be destroyed; the glorified spirit can neither falter nor fall again: all corrective discipline will be over: there will be neither lessons to learn, nor infirmities to subdue, nor murmurings to keep down, nor mistaken attachments to correct. No erring spirit will ever seek to escape from those holy mansions, neither can any graces languish which are fed from that eternal spring, but the whole company of the redeemed, sanctified throughout by the power of an Almighty Spirit, and made one with Christ through thee blood of the everlasting covenant, shall wait in devout ministrations on the King of saints in a service that shall know no weariness, and in a kingdom that shall know no end. He shall swallow up death in victory, and wipe away all tears from off all faces.
And now let us glance at one or two practical conclusions to be derived from our subject.
1. Thus, one effect of it should be to fortify us against the fear of death. This fear, I have said is an instinct with us--is incorporated as it were upon our lapsed and fallen nature; it is not necessarily connected with any anticipation of what is to follow, but springs from an apparently universal feeling that death is a punishment for sin; that originally man was not made to die, that some wrong has been done to the beneficent purposes of the Creator of which our dying is the bitter fruit. Then it is a part of Christs victory to have the rule not only over death, but over all that region of the invisible to which death leads.
2. Again, our subject should suggest to us the wisdom of instant submission to the Saviours authority. A two-fold end would seem to be contemplated in giving this absolute dominion over death, namely, that He should be omnipotent to conquer as well as mighty to save--a terror to His enemies as well as a protector to His friends, and one or other of these we all are. The whole world of responsible beings is divided into those who are under the sceptre, and those who are under the rod. But why should we make a foe of Him who hath assumed universal empire only that He might be our friend, only that nothing might be wanting to the completeness of His own work?
3. Is it needful that I should remind you that this blessed promise we have been considering, like all our Advent promises, belongs to believers, and to believers only! As there is a death which Christ has not swallowed up, so there are tears which the Lord God has not promised to wipe away, but which in righteous displeasure at His despised compassions, He will leave to flow on forever. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Victory in death
I. He who hath swallowed up death in victory is THE LORD GOD.
II. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PROMISE. But for Gods eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, every son and daughter of Adam must have drunk forever of the cup of wrath which is without mixture, as a just reward for their enmity to God.
III. THE PERSONS AND THEIR CHARACTERS or descriptions that shall say, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us, etc. (F. Silver.)
Light in darkness
I. THE TRUTH ASSERTED. He will swallow up death in victory. The redemption of Jesus Christ deals with both parts of mans nature, his soul and his body. But the application of redemption to the body is as yet deferred. There is--
1. The removal of all sorrow. The Lord God shall wipe away, etc.
2. There shall be the removal of the rebuke of Gods people; by which I would understand death, which surely is the greatest reproach which Gods people now lie under.
II. THE HYMN OF TRIUMPH which is sung by the risen saints at the time referred to in our text. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us, etc. It is impossible for us fully to enter into the triumphant feeling contained in this verse, whilst we are ourselves in the valley of humiliation and woe. The language is the language of victory, and that we have not yet received. There are parts, however, in this hymn which we may already join in. The language of our text is the language of present realisation of expected triumph. Lo, this is our God. There is the manifestation of Jehovah. We have waited for Him. In times past we have waited for Him. In sorrow, in distress, in agony of spirit, we have waited for Him. When death has entered our family, and when bitter grief has entered our hearts, we have waited for Him. And the darkness, the mist, and the cloud have all cleared away. We have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. The double truth, then, presented to us in our text is the assertion of coming victory and the assurance of the joy which shall be ours when that victory is achieved. (E. Bailey, M. A.)
Death swallowed up
How can those who are in the mountain banquet house be happy while death is ravaging down below? The Lord says in reference to that, that He will swallow up death in victory. We must not amend that expression--swallow up. There is a sound in it which is equal to an annotation. We hear a splash in the infinite Atlantic, and the thing that is sunk has gone forever. It was but a stone. Death is to be not mitigated, relieved, thrown into perspective which the mind can gaze upon without agony; it is to be swallowed up. Let it go! Death has no friends. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The graciousness of death
Yet in another aspect how gracious has death been in human history! What pain he has relieved; what injuries he has thrust into the silent tomb; what tumult and controversy he has ended. Men have found an altar at the tomb, a house of reconciliation in the graveyard, music for the heart in the toll and throb of the last knell. Even death must have his tribute. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Victory over death
There are four degrees of this victory.
I. THE FIRST WAS OBTAINED BY CHRIST IN HIS OWN PERSON, in single combat with death and hell. Christ taking upon Himself our sins, death assaults Him with all his strength and terror, and appears, at first, to get the better. It kills Him and lays Him in the grave. But as Samson arose by night, and carried away the gates of Gaza, bars and all, so Christ, though shut up in the grave, and a great stone rolled upon it, arose in the night, and carried away the gates and bars of death and the grave, and bare them to the top of Mount Zion, to be His footstool in heaven.
II. The second degree of this victory is THE ALTERING OF ITS NATURE TO ALL GODS PEOPLE. Before, it was a passage into prison; now, it is a passage out of prison. It was the way to darkness, misery, despair, and torment; now, it is the way to light, peace, triumph, and immortal joy. Before, it was loss, as he who died lost all his possessions; now, it is gain.
III. The third degree is THE ALTERING OF OUR JUDGMENTS, AFFECTIONS, AND APPREHENSIONS CONCERNING DEATH, which is often strikingly seen in the dying experience of believers.
IV. The last is in THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. (The Evangelist.)
Christs victory
I. THE HOLY AND HONOURABLE VICTOR. He, the King of glory; He, the Lord Christ; He, the Fathers co-equal and co-eternal Son; He, who is called in the 6 th verse, the Lord of hosts; He, who, though He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, that He might obtain the victory over death specified in the text.
1. The victories of His life and death in His own person.
(1) His single-handed combat with the tempter.
(2) We find Him attacked by the devils sharpshooters--the Sadducees, the scribes, and the Pharisees.
(3) Our glorious Victor now enters the very territory of the king of terrors, that He may vanquish him in his own dominions.
(4) Let us advance from this point, just to mark His victorious proceedings in the invincible operations of His grace; for, you must know, when He comes down on earth to carry on the triumphs of His redemption, He finds all the persons for whom He shed His precious blood, dead in trespasses and sins; and He will swallow up that death in victory.
(5) This glorious Victor will carry on a civil war in the hearts of His people.
II. THE INTERESTS SECURED BY THESE VICTORIES.
1. The interests of the tribes of Israel, and we may just write upon these interests one sweet passage of Scripture: So all Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.
2. Moreover, the official character of Christ is herein honoured, and that is an interest peculiarly His own.
3. While the honour of Christ is to be maintained by His victory, and emblazoned before all worlds, the relationship existing between Him and His Church is dear to His heart.
III. THE SACRED, THE SWEET PEACE, EVERLASTINGLY SETTLED BY THE VICTORIES OF OUR GLORIOUS VICTOR. Sovereigns generally profess that the object of their fighting is to settle peace upon honourable terms, so that it shall not be easily disturbed; and they do not care for proclaiming peace until it has been settled upon such terms that it is not likely again to be easily broken. Now, our glorious Conqueror has settled peace for His whole Church; nay, He Himself has become her peace. (J. Irons.)
The progressive march of death a Conqueror
In nature God is constantly swallowing up death in victory. In spring He opens a million graves and floods the world with life. Indeed everywhere He makes death the minister of life. Death generates, nurtures, and develops life. But the text points us to His victory over the mortality of man, and let us trace the march of the triumphant Conqueror in this direction.
I. WE SEE HIS FIRST CONQUEST IN THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. The strongest victim death ever had was Christ. The Jewish Sanhedrim cooperated with the Roman power and did all they could to keep his Victim in the grave. But the Conqueror of death appeared, invaded the territory of mortality, broke open the prison doors, snapped the fetters, and led the prisoner out into a new and triumphant life.
II. WE SEE HIS NEXT CONQUEST IN DESTROYING IN HUMANITY THE FEAR CF DEATH. The essence, the sting, the power of death, are not in the mere article of dissolution of soul and body, but in the thoughts and feelings of men regarding the event. To overcome, therefore, in the human mind all terrible thoughts and apprehensive feelings concerning death, is the most effective way to triumph over it.
III. WE SEE HIS CROWNING CONQUEST IN THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.
1. There is nothing incredible in the general resurrection.
2. There are circumstances that render the event exceedingly probable.
3. The declarations of God render it absolutely certain. (Homilist.)
Death
I. THE ENEMY is so formidable that he is justly termed the king of terrors. The conquerors of the earth have themselves been conquered by this universal destroyer. Though he is natures destruction, and consequently natures aversion, nature knows no method of resisting his violence. You cannot avoid the approaches of this enemy; but you may prevent them from issuing in your destruction.
II. THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH. The dignity of His person, and the greatness of His power capacitate Him for this conquest. The Prince of life, who had life in Himself; who had power to lay down His life, and power to take it up again; He, and He alone, could conquer death.
III. THE WONDERS OF THIS CONQUEST. That our Lord might fairly and in the open field encounter the king of terrors, He came into the first Adams world, where this formidable foe had carried his conquests far and near, and where none was found able to withstand him. He came into it an infant of days. This gave death and hell a strange, though but seeming, advantage over Him. They flattered themselves that they should be able to destroy Him, while a helpless infant. They attempted it. They murdered all the other infants in Bethlehem, from two years old and under. The Child Jesus alone, who came to fight with death, and triumph over hell and the grave, escaped their hands. Death and hell, though foiled in their first onset, do not despair. He appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh. Hence, they flattered themselves that, though they had not destroyed Him, when an infant, by the sword of Herod, they might destroy Him, when become a man, by enticing Him into sin, which gives to death its destroying power. The prince of this world tempts Him to despair, to presumption, to self-murder, to worship the devil. But, though he set upon Him with all his power and policy, he could find no corruption in Him, to kindle by his temptation. Had He appeared, which He one day will do, as the brightness of the Fathers glory, and the express image of His person, death and hell would have fled from Him. But He came to this world, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. The powers of darkness hoped that the toils, the anguish and perplexity which He endured, would sink and discourage Him, or would lead Him to leave His work unfinished. Here again they are disappointed. What occasioned the most exquisite anguish, did not occasion one irregular desire, or one repining thought. By a few years obedience, performed in such trying circumstances, He brought in an everlasting righteousness, and accomplished what all the angels of heaven could not have done in millions of ages. God made Him sin for us (2Co_5:21). The Prince of life is laid in a grave. There His enemies hope to detain Him. But the joy of the wicked was short. He, who, by dying, had fully paid our debts, in being raised from the dead receives a public and ample discharge. Such was the wonderful victory obtained by Jesus. For believers is this victory obtained.
IV. THE COMPLETENESS OF CHRISTS CONQUEST OVER DEATH.
1. The great things which He accomplished on earth.
(1) There was not one criminal action, one sinful word, one irregular thought or desire, of which His people were guilty, which He did not expiate.
(2) Jesus hath not left one precept, one jot or tittle of the law unfulfilled. The law is friendly to the believer, for the believers best Friend and Head has done it infinite honour.
(3) Christ hath redeemed His people from every part of the curse.
(4) The devil hath the power of death; and there is not one devil who was not overcome and led in triumph by Christ on the Cross, where the powers of darkness certainly thought to have triumphed over Him (Heb_2:14).
(5) Christ, by His righteousness, hath obtained the power to overrule death and the grave, with all that precedes, accompanies, or follows them, for the spiritual and everlasting good of His people, in a blessed subordination to His own glory.
2. The completeness of Christs conquest over death, as demonstrated by His exaltation and His glory. He was raised from the dead by His God and Father, as a just God and a Saviour. God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name. The height of His exaltation speaks the greatness of His victory. Had it been otherwise, He would not have been invested with a full authority, and a sufficient power to raise from the dead, in glory, all the bodies of His saints, wheresoever they have died, or how long soever they have been buried in the grave; and to change their bodies also, who shall be found alive, at His second coming. The second coming of Christ will be the fullest demonstration that He hath completely conquered death. (J. Erskine, D. D.)
Victory over death
I. I propose to make SOME REMARKS ON THIS SINGULAR EXPRESSION,--He will swallow up death in victory. The very sound of the words conveys the idea of a terrible conflict. A poor expiring worm of the dust is the occasion and subject of the contest. But, while we awaken and humble ourselves by just views of the formidable nature of death, let us rise to confidence by observing how the expression of the text brings into this conflict the infinite zeal of Deity. The effect, in the experience of dying Christians, must be an abundant sensation of victory.
II. Let us inquire BY WHAT METHODS THE WISE AND MERCIFUL GOD RAISES HIS PEOPLE TO THE POSSESSION OF VICTORY OVER DEATH.
1. This is done by a clear and powerful revelation of the glory of God.
2. By a powerful application of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to the conscience. Such has been the uniform experience of Christian martyrs, grappling with Satan, and with death in every terrific form (Rev 1Co_15:55-57).
3. The heavens are opened over every dying believer. Your God swallows up death in victory by showing you the fair fields, rivers, fruits, of His paradise in the heavens.
4. He discovers to you the vanity of all earthly objects, He impresses you with the unavoidable imperfection and misery of your sojourning condition. In that new birth, which brings the sinner near to God through Christ, the soul rises into a new world, and is no longer capable of grossly idolising earthly objects, as it once did. At the same time, the true enjoyment of lawful, created things commences.
5. In order to the final triumph, the Lord grants to His people a blessed finishing of their sanctified desires, respecting objects within time. This fulfilment of desires within time, relates either to particular points of inward, spiritual attainment, or to subjects of special concern respecting the cause and kingdom of Christ upon earth; and, in some cases, to blessings and deliverances, bestowed in reference to individuals with whom the Christian is peculiarly connected.
6. That this work of God may become perfect, the soul is raised up above the pains of the body.
7. The uncouth strangeness of the world of spirits is taken off, by faiths piercing views of the invisible God; the Mediator reigning in human flesh; the character of redeemed spirits; and of spotless angelic beings, with whom the Christian, about to be unloosed from earth, feels a kindred alliance.
III. THE DIFFERENT PERIODS AND SITUATIONS IN WHICH VICTORY OVER DEATH IS ENJOYED BY THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH.
1. This blessed victory is enjoyed, by a gradual anticipation, from the day of their effectual calling and conversion to God.
2. This anticipated enjoyment of victory tenderly and powerfully impressed on the Christian soul by sympathy with his dying friends and brethren.
3. At length the solemn, appointed period arrives. It is the happiness of the established Christian to know that no new, untried course is now to be sought for. He has only to go over his old exercises of faith, resignation, patience, and spiritual desire.
4. This victory over death is enjoyed by the soul during the period of its separation from the body.
5. We now advance to that scene of victory, which the tongues of men and of angels cannot describe (1Jn_3:2). Application:--From this subject various duties open to view, which peculiarly bind those who are in any degree assured that they are in the way towards such victory (2Pe_3:14). (J. Love, D. D.)
Victory over death
I. CONSIDER THE VICTORY BY WHICH DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP. The words refer to that encounter which the Redeemer had with the king of terrors, when He suffered in the room of sinners. Here, among other things, the following, in an especial manner, deserve our attention.
1. His exhausting the power of death by submitting to its stroke. When He died, it was under the pressure of Divine wrath; but that sacrifice was sufficient, and no more can be demanded. The stroke by which the Redeemer fell left no remaining strength in His enemy.
2. His manifesting, by His resurrection, that He was completely delivered from its dominion.
3. His enabling His people to overcome the fear of death.
4. His preserving His people safe in death, so that they are not hurt by its sting when their bodies must submit to its power.
5. His delivering His people completely from every remains of its power, by the resurrection of their bodies at the last day.
II. THE HAPPY CONSEQUENCE of this victory in the swallowing up of death. The phrase swallowing up is expressive of the most complete destruction.
1. Death is swallowed up in the victory of Christ, so as that it can never appear as an enemy to hurt Himself. The guilt with which He was charged as the surety of sinners gave death all its power over the Redeemer. By expiating that guilt, however, the power of death is taken away.
2. Death is swallowed up in the victory of Christ, inasmuch as it is by this victory deprived of all power to hurt any of His people. There is now no death of which the people of God have cause to be afraid.
(1) Death cannot separate believers from God.
(2) Death cannot deprive believers of the society of their brethren in Christ.
(3) Death cannot rob the children of God of their spiritual privileges.
(4) Death cannot prevent believers from the full enjoyment of that happiness and glory which Christ hath put chased and prepared for them in the heavenly state. (G. Campbell.)
Jesus victorious over death
I. THE COMBATANTS; the two mightiest that ever encountered. Upon the one hand is death, with his devouring mouth, a champion who never yet could find his match among the children of men, till the great HE, in the text, entered the lists against him, even Jesus Christ, who being man, was capable of feeling the force of death; but being the Lord of hosts also (Isa_25:6), could not but be conqueror at length.
II. THE ENCOUNTER OF THE COMBATANTS, implied in these words, He will swallow up death in victory. Though death could not then reach Him the deadly blow, it pursued Him, shot out its poisonous arrows against Him all along, till they came to a close engagement on the Cross, where it wrestled Him down even into the grave, the proper place of its dominion. So the Mediator got the first fall.
III. THE ISSUE OF THE BATTLE. Death, who in all other battles wins whatever party loses, loses the day here; the victory is on the side of the slain Mediator. The slain Saviour again revives, gets up upon death, stands conqueror over it, even in its own territories, breaks the bars of the grave, takes away the sting it fought with against Him, and puts it and all its forces to the rout; so that it can never show its face against Him any more Rom_6:9).
IV. THE MEDIATORS PURSUIT OF THE VICTORY, till it be complete for those that are His, as well as for Himself. The vanquished enemy has yet many strongholds in his hand, and he keeps many of the redeemed ones as prisoners, that they cannot stir; others of them though they can stir, yet can go nowhere, but they must drag the bands of death after them. But the Mediator will pursue the victory till He totally abolish it out of His kingdom, that there shall no more of it be seen there forever, as a thing that is swallowed up is seen no more at all. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Jesus victorious over death
I. THE BATTLE.
1. Under what character has the Lord of life fought this battle?
(1) As the Head and Representative of the elect world.
(2) As their Redeemer and Deliverer (Hos_13:14). The prey could not be taken from the Mighty One, without both price and power.
(3) An a Captain or General at the head of His people (Heb_2:10).
2. The attack made upon Him by death.
(1) Death brings up its strength against Him, i.e., the law.
(2) Meanwhile he that has the power of death (Heb_2:14) advances against Him; Satan sets upon Him in the wilderness with most grievous temptations.
(3) The congregation of men dead in trespasses and sins stir up them selves against Him (Isa_53:3). Judas betrays Him, the Jews gape onHim like a lion, crying, Crucify Him; Pilate condemns Him; He is scourged, crowned with thorns, smitten on the crowned head; His body, racked till it was all out of joint, nailed to the Cross, hangs there mocked, and pierced with a spear.
(4) Death comes with its sting upon Him, and pierces Him to the heart, and casts Him down dead.
II. THE VICTORY CHRIST OBTAINED.
1. How it was obtained.
(1) By His death. This was the decisive stroke. That through death He might destroy death, and him that had the power of death. It was such a victory as Samsons last victory over the Philistines, when he pulled down the house, and died himself with the Philistines in the fall of it; and therefore He cried upon the Cross, It is finished.
(2) By His resurrection.
2. What sort of victory it is Jesus hath obtained over death.
(1) A dear bought victory; it cost the glorious Conqueror His precious life.
(2) A complete victory in respect of Himself, though not yet in respect of His members (Rom_6:9).
(3) A glorious victory, saints and angels singing the triumphant song.
(4) An everlasting victory. Deaths power is irrecoverably broken.
III. THE PURSUIT.
1. Christ looses the bands of spiritual death.
2. He looses the band of legal death.
3. He destroys the body of death in the believer.
(1) It is crucified, and its destruction is ensured in the conversion of the soul to God (Rom_6:6; Gal_5:24).
(2) It is weakened and mortified more and more, in the gradual advances of sanctification (Rom_8:13).
(3) At the death of the body, the body of death is utterly destroyed.
4. He dries up all the sorrows of death.
5. He brings all His people safe through the valley of the shadow of death.
6. Now, death has nothing of Christs but the bodies of the saints, not a foot of ground in His kingdom but the grave; and these He will also wrest out of his hand at the resurrection.
7. In consequence of the absolute victory over death, it shall be shut up, and confined for the ages of eternity to the lower regions (Rev_20:14).
IV. PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT.
1. Be lively Christians, as those that are alive from the dead through Jesus Christ.
2. Join issue with the Conqueror in pursuing the victory in your own souls.
3. Join issue with the Conqueror in pursuing the victory in the world, especially in the places where ye live.
4. Believe this truth with application in all your endeavours after holiness.
5. Be weaned from the world, and long for the day when death shall be swallowed up in victory. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Death abolished
We shall have no more to do with death than we have with the cloak room at a governors or presidents levee. We stop at such cloak room, and leave in charge of a servant our overcoat, our overshoes, our outward apparel, that we may not be impeded in the brilliant round of the drawing room. Well, when we go out of this world we are going to a Kings banquet, and to a reception of monarchs, and at the door of the tomb we leave the cloak of flesh, and the wrappings with which we meet the storms of this world. At the close of an earthly reception, under the brush and broom of the porter, the coat or hat may be handed to us better than when we resigned it, and the cloak of humanity will finally be returned to us improved, and brightened, and purified, and glorified. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
The resurrection of the dead
The far-up cloud, higher than the hawk flies, higher than the eagle flies, what is it made of? Drops of water from the Hudson, other drops from the East River, other drops from a stagnant pool out on Newark flats--up yonder there, embodied in a cloud, and the sun kindles it. If God can make such a lustrous cloud out of water drops, many of them soiled and impure and fetched from miles away, can He not transport the fragments of a human body from the earth, and out of them build a radiant body? (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
The Messiah the Victor over death
What is very curious is that most of the Hebrew seers saw in their Messiah the Victor over death. And what makes it curious is that the Jews did not, as a rule, look forward to a life beyond the grave. The life eternal, the life which, as a mere incident in its career, can match itself against death and conquer it, was unknown to them; they were not conscious of it even when they possessed it. To only a few rare souls was this great truth, this great hope revealed, and that only in their rarest and most exalted moments. To obey the commandments of God, to render the service He demanded of them, and to enjoy His favour here and now was enough for them. Even the prophets themselves were mainly taken up either with this present life, with its urgent tasks and duties; or, if they travelled beyond it, it was the future life of the nation on earth on which they speculated, and on the discipline by which it was to be purified and broadened till it embraced the whole family of man. But when they looked forward to the advent of the Messiah, all the horizons of their thought were enlarged. Whatever might change and perish, He must remain, to be forever the Lord and Friend of men. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The Jewish prevision of immortality
And this prevision of immortality does not seem to have been a mere inspiration, a secret revealed to them by the Spirit of all wisdom and knowledge. Apparently, it was also the result of a logical process, an inference from moral facts with which they were familiar. For all the prophets held that the Messiah would come to redeem men--first the Jew, but also the Gentile--from their sins, to establish them in the service and to draw them into the family of God. But death is simply the wage and fruit of sin. To redeem from sin is, therefore, to abolish death, to pluck it up by the root, to cut it off at the fountainhead. This appears, so far as we can trace it, to have been the foundation of their hope in the Christ as the Conqueror of death. And hence, in proportion as they were sure that He would save men from their sins, they were the more fully persuaded that, in overcoming sin, He would also overcome and annihilate death. No one of the goodly fellowship has given a nobler utterance to this animating and sustaining hope than the prophet Isaiah in the words, And He shall destroy in this mountain, etc. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The veil and web of death destroyed by Christ
The prophet speaks of death as a veil which dims the perceptions of men, or even blinds their eyes to facts which it is essential to their welfare that they should know; and as a web in which their active powers are entangled and paralysed; and he declares that in the day on which God, instead of asking feasts and sacrifices of men, shall Himself provide a sacrifice and feast for the world, this blinding veil, this fettering and thwarting net, shall be finally and utterly destroyed. He shall destroy death forever. How true these figurative descriptions of death are to human experience, what a fine poetic insight and firm imaginative grasp they disclose--as of one with both eye and hand on the fact--is obvious at a glance, and becomes the more obvious the more we meditate upon them. Always the veil which darkens the eyes is also a web which entangles the feet, as we have only to watch the motions of any blind man to know. Failing sight and impaired activity go together of necessity; while blindness involves, at least, a partial paralysis of all the active powers. As to be without God is to be without hope, so to be without the hope of immortality is to suffer a mental eclipse which cannot fail to limit our scope and impair our moral energies. We have only to consider the moral conditions, the moral collapse of men and nations, from whom the future life has been hidden, or over whom it had no practical power, to learn how terribly, in the absence of this hope, the moral ideal is degraded and the moral energies enfeebled. I am far from denying that even men to whom this life is all have risen, by a marvellous and most admirable feat of wisdom and natural goodness, into the conviction that to be wise is better than to be rich, to be good better than to be wise, to live for others better than to live for ones self. But not only are such men as these rare and heroic exceptions to the general strain, but even they themselves, admirable as their spirit may be, can know no settled cheerfulness, no abiding peace. Human life is and must be full of injustice, as well as misery, to those who do not believe in a hereafter in which all wrongs are to be righted, all sorrows turned into joy, all loss into gain. And when they bury their dead out of their sight, with what bitter and hopeless pangs must their hearts be torn! how horrible must be the darkness, unbroken and unrelieved, which settles down upon them! (S. Cox, D. D.)
Imperfect conceptions of Christs victory over death their effect on practical life
Nor even now that Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light, is there any misconception of this Divine achievement into which we fall that does not become a veil, dimming our eyes, and a web, entangling our feet.
1. Those, for instance, who while professing to entertain this great hope, practically put it away from them, and who therefore sacrifice the future to the present;--is not the veil still on their hearts, the web about their feet?
2. So, again, in a less but sufficiently obvious degree with those who so misconceive of life and death as to sacrifice the present to the future; who miss or forego all the sweet and wholesome uses of the world because they have not learned, what yet the Gospel plainly teaches, that wisely to use and enjoy this present world is the best of all preparations for the world to come.
3. And even those who, despite the Gospel teaching, will think of dissolution as death rather than as victory over death, or as separating and alienating them from the dear ones of whom they have lost sight, rather than as bringing their lost ones nearer to their true life and binding them to them by closer because by invisible and spiritual ties,--even these have their eyes still dimmed by the veil which Christ came to lift, and their feet still entangled in the net from Which He came to deliver their feet. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Has Christ destroyed death?
Death, as a mere phenomenon, was in the world before sin; and therefore, as a mere phenomenon, it may and does remain in the world after sin has been taken away. But are we, who have discourse of reason, even if we have not the more piercing insight of faith, such victims of the visible and the apparent that we cannot distinguish between substance and phenomena, between the mere act of dissolution, which seems to be the inevitable condition of higher spiritual development, and all that makes death really death to us? (S. Cox, D. D.)
Christs victory over death
Of this victory over all that is worthy to be called death Christ has given us two proofs on which our faith may lean; one in His transfiguration, and the other in His resurrection from the dead. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Victory over death and sorrow
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces--a passage of which the poet Burns said that he could never read it without weeping.
I. THE PROMISE OF SWALLOWING UP DEATH IN VICTORY. This promise, as well as that which follows it, may have a primary allusion to the resuscitation of the Jewish people after their captivity, but this is only an allusion, as in Hos_13:14. What the ultimate meaning is we learn from the glowing words of St. Paul: So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, etc. It was a glorious promise when first given, but its full meaning was not known, nor will it be completely understood till it shall be actually fulfilled. Yet the revelations of the Gospel enable us to form an enlarged idea of what that fulfilment will be.
1. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ, as an expiation for sin and a homage to the claims of law, has removed, to His people, that which chiefly makes death terrible. That with man, the lord of the inferior creatures, the body should die just as they do, is sufficiently humbling. Yet, serious as this is, it is not the most solemn feature of the case. After death the judgment, and, to a godless soul, how terrible that audit! But to a believer sin is forgiven. The strength of sin in the law. But the law is satisfied, yea, magnified by the Redeemers expiatory work. Peace may now, therefore, take the place of that apprehension which before was the only alternative to senseless unconcern.
2. As the Saviours death not only obtains deliverance for believers from guilt and condemnation, but is the channel by which grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life, death becomes to them the gateway of life and the passage to Heaven. Here God educates them by the discipline of life, and often of the chamber of sickness, for His kingdom and the receiving of the promise. Then He calls them home to the possession of it, and it is death which brings the summons.
3. Still the earthly house lies in ruins. Death seems as yet to triumph there. But even those ruins are to be built again.
II. THE WIPING AWAY THE TEARS OF SORROW. The two things are intimately related, and the second springs out of the first. Death is one of the prolific causes of sorrow. Whilst unreconciled to God, the thought of mortality, if a man thinks seriously of the great problems of his being at all, casts a dark shadow over his anticipations of the future. And even among Christians the separations which death occasions are a frequent cause of sadness. (E. T. Prust.)
Christ the Conqueror of death
Tennyson tells, in the Idylls of the King, of a knight who fought with death. And when he had overcome him and pierced through his ghastly trappings, there issued the bright face of a blooming boy. So Christ has conquered death for us, and, penetrating its terror, has brought, not death, but life and immortality to light. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
Fear of death removed
Whitfield, the prince of sacred orators, was preaching to a crowd concerning the love of God: its height, its breadth, its infinity. A poor, ignorant, neglected child heard him, and drank in all he said with open eyes and open heart. Some little time afterwards the poor girl was smitten with a deadly disease. A Christian visited her bed of straw.
Child, said he, are you afraid to die? No, she replied, I am not afraid to die, I want to go to Mr. Whitfields God. (P. Norton.)
D.L. Moody on death
Mr. Moody once said, Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Dont you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; gone out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal, a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body like unto His own glorious body. Robert Halls death:--Mrs. Hall, observing a change on the countenance of her husband, became alarmed, and exclaimed. This cannot be dying! He replied, It is death; it is death--death! Mrs. Hall then asked him, Are you comfortable in your mind? He immediately answered, Very comfortable--very comfortable! And exclaimed, Come, Lord Jesus, come-- He hesitated, as if incapable of bringing out the last word. One of his daughters anticipated him by saying Quickly, on which her departing father gave her a look expressive of the most complacent delight. (Kings Highway.)
The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces
The lake of tears
It would be a sum for an arithmetician to tell the size of the lake that all the tears shed by humanity would have made.
I. Let us notice THE TEARS ON SOME FACES.
1. How many little children weep when they might have been made to rejoice! We often expect more from children than they have either wisdom or strength to perform. Many a child weeps himself to sleep when he might have sung had he been rightly treated.
2. There have been rivers of tears upon the faces of the wives of our country.
3. There are many tears shed by widows.
4. There are the tears of the bereaved.
5. Then there are the tears of that class of people that the world does not like to talk of--the unfortunate.
6. And then there are many who were once members of our Churches, who have wandered out of the way; and there has been no kind hand to fetch them back.
7. Remember the tears caused by the crushing weight of the mountain of poverty. Charity organisations are excellent systems, but it is unwise to overdo it. Because there are so many deceivers, it does not prove that there are not some who suffer. Let us be just to the poor.
8. There are many tears shed by women whose faces are very plain. They are passed by in favour of those who have better figures and prettier faces.
9. A large proportion also of those about us are crippled, and they often are neglected.
II. THE TEARS OF THE WORLD HAVE NOT BEEN SHED IN VAIN. The tears of slavery have brought about freedom; the tears of ignorance have been the cause of education being placed within the reach of every healthy child in our land; the tears caused by pestilence have compelled us to cleanse our towns and villages; and the tears shed under the scourge of oppression have given to us freedom of conscience. The tears of poverty have given to us the desire to alleviate it. The tears of pain and sickness have brought about our splendid medical system--the hospitals and dispensaries of our country. Tears often lead to joy. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy often cometh to us in the morning.
III. THE TEARS OF AFFLICTION AND TRIAL ARE NEEDFUL. If affliction had not been necessary, Christ would have borne it upon His own head. Afflictions are to us like sandpaper, to make us smooth and polished to take our place in the society of Heaven. Trials are to us in the testing of iron. A heavier weight is placed upon the iron in the workshop than it has to bear in its service outside; and so a heavy weight is placed upon you here.
IV. THE TENDER HAND. It is the hand of a Father, of a Lover, of a Saviour, of a Friend; it is the hand of the Lord God! (W. Birch.)
Man born to trouble
There is a fable that when Affliction was listening to the roar of the sea, she stretched out a willow branch and brought to the shore a beautiful body. As it lay upon the sand, Jupiter passed by, and, entranced with its beauty, he breathed into the body life and motion, and called it man. There was very soon a discussion as to whom this man should, belong. Affliction said, I am the cause of his creation; Earth answered, I furnished the materials; and Jupiter urged, I gave him animation. The gods assembled in solemn council, and it was decided that Affliction should possess the man whilst he lived; that Death should then receive his body, and Jupiter possess his spirit. This is the fable--pretty well-nigh true. (W. Birch.)
Gods power to wipe away tears
Of all the qualities we assign to the Author and Director of nature, by far the most enviable is to be able to wipe away all tears from all eyes. (Robert Burns.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Isa 25:6 - Isa 25:8.
Isaiah
‘IN THIS MOUNTAIN’
Read full note →
Isa 25:6 - Isa 25:8.
A poet’s imagination and a prophet’s clear vision of the goal to which God will lead humanity are both at their highest in this great song of the future, whose winged words make music even in a translation. No doubt it starts from the comparatively small fact of the restoration of the exiled nation to its own land. But it soars far beyond that. It sees all mankind associated with them in sharing their blessings. It is the vision of God’s ideal for humanity. That makes it the more remarkable that the prophet, with this wide outlook, should insist with such emphasis on the fact that it has a local centre. That phrase ‘in this mountain’ is three times repeated in the hymn; two of the instances occurring in the verses of my text have lying side by side with them the expressions ‘all people’ and ‘all nations,’ as if to bring together the local origin, and the universal extent, of the blessings promised.
The sweet waters that are to pour through the world well up from a spring opened ‘in this mountain.’ The beams that are to lighten every land stream out from a light blazing there. The world’s hopes for that golden age which poets have sung, and towards which earnest social reformers have worked, and of the coming of which this prophet was sure, rest on a definite fact, done in a definite place, at a definite time. Isaiah knew the place, but what was to be done, or when it was to be done, he knew not. You and I ought to be wiser. History has taught us that Jesus Christ fulfils the visioned good that inspired the prophet’s brilliant words. We might say, with allowable licence, that ‘this mountain,’ in which the Lord does the great things that this song magnifies, is not so much Zion as Calvary.
Brethren, in these days, when so many voices are proclaiming so many short cuts to the Millennium, this clear declaration of the source of the world’s hope is worth pondering. For us all, individually, this localisation of the origin of the universal good of mankind is an offer of blessings to us if we will go thither, where the provision for the world’s good is stored-’In this mountain’; therefore, to seek it anywhere else is to seek it in vain.
Now, I wish, under the impression of that conviction, to put before you just these three thoughts: where the world’s food comes from; where the unveiling which gives light to the world comes from; and where the life which destroys death for the world comes from-’In this mountain.’
I. Where does the world’s food come from?
Physiologists can tell, by studying the dentition-the system of the teeth-and the digestive apparatus of an animal, what it is meant to live upon, whether vegetables or flesh, or a mingled diet of both. And you can tell, if you will, by studying yourself, what, or whom, you are meant to live upon. The poet said, ‘We live by admiration, hope, and love.’ But he did not say on what these faculties, which truly nourish man’s spirit, are to fix and fasten. He tells of the appetites; he does not tell of their food. My text does: ‘In this mountain shall the Lord make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the less well refined.’ Friends, look at these hearts of yours with their yearnings, with their passionate desires, with their clamant needs. Will any human love-the purest, the sweetest, the most unselfish, the most utter in its surrender-satisfy the heart-hunger of the poorest of us? No! Look at the capacities of grasping thought and truth in our spirits, which are ever seek, seek, seeking for absolutely certain foundations on which we may build the whole structure of our beliefs. You have to go deeper down than the sand of man’s thinkings and teachings before you can reach what will bear without shifting the foundations of a life’s credence and confidence. Look at these tumultuous wills of ours that fancy they crave to be independent, and really crave an absolute master whom it is blessedness to obey. You will find none such beneath the stars. The very elements of our being, our heart, will, mind, desires, passions, longings, all with one voice proclaim that the only food for a man is God.
Jesus Christ brings the food that we need. Remember His own adaptation of this great vision of my text in more than one parable; such as the supper that was provided, and to which all men were invited, and, ‘with one consent,’ declined the invitation. Remember His own utterance,’ I am the Bread of God which came down from heaven to give life to the world.’ Remembering such words, let me plead with you to listen to the voice of warning as well as of invitation, which sounds from Cradle and Cross and Throne. ‘Why will ye spend your money for that which is not bread’-you know it is not-’and your labour for that which satisfieth not?’-you know it does not. Turn to Him, ‘eat, and your souls shall live.’ ‘In this mountain is prepared a feast. . . for all nations.’
Notice that although it does not appear on the surface, and to English readers, this world’s festival, in which every want is met, and every appetite satisfied, is a feast on a sacrifice. That touches the deepest need, about which I shall have a word or two to say presently. But in the meantime let me just press this upon you, that the Christ who died on the Cross is to be lived on by us; and that it is His sacrifice that is to be the nourishment of our spirits.
Would that the earnest men, who are trying to cure the world’s evils and to still the world’s wants, and are leaving Jesus Christ and His religion out of their programme, would take thought and ask themselves whether there is not something more in the hunger of humanity than their ovens can ever bake bread for! They are spinning ropes of sand, if they are trying to lift the world clear of its miseries and of its hunger, and are not presenting Jesus Christ. I hope I am no bigot; I know that I sympathise earnestly with all these other schemes for helping mankind, but this I am bound to say here-all of them put together will not reach the need of the case, unless they start from, and are subsidiary to, and develop out of, the presenting of the primal supply for the universal want, Christ, who alone is able to still the hunger of men’s hearts. Education will do much, but university degrees and the highest culture will not satisfy a hungry heart. Fitting environment, as it is fashionable to call it, will do a great deal, but nothing outside of a man will staunch his evils or still the hunger that coils and grips in his heart. Competent wealth is a good-there is no need to say that in Manchester-but millionaires have been known to be miserable. A heart at rest in the love of husband, wife, parent, child, is a blessing earnestly to be sought and thankfully to be treasured by us all; but there is more than that wanted. Put a man in the most favourable circumstances; give him competent worldly means; do all that modern philosophers who leave religion out of the question are trying to do; put in practice your most advanced Socialistic schemes, and you will still have a man with a hungry heart. He may not know what he wants; very often he will entirely mistake what that is, but he will be restless for want of an unknown good. Here is the only thing that will still his heart: ‘The bread which I give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’
Brother and sister, this is not a matter only for social reformers, and to be dealt with as bearing upon wide movements that influence multitudes. It comes home to you and me. Some of you do not in the least degree know what I am talking about when I speak of the hunger of men’s hearts; for you have lost your appetites, as children that eat too many sweets have no desire for their wholesome meals. You have lost your appetite by feeding upon garbage, and you say you are quite content. Yes, at present; but deep down there lies in your hearts a need which will awake and speak out some day; and you will find that the husks which the swine did eat are scarcely wholesome nutriment for a man. And there are some of you that turn away with disgust, and I am glad of it, from these low, gross, sensuous delights; and are trying to satisfy yourselves with education, culture, refinement, art, science, domestic love, wealth, gratified ambition, or the like. There are tribes of degraded Indians that in times of famine eat clay. There is a little nourishment in it, and it distends their stomachs, and gives them the feeling of having had a meal. And that is like what some of you do. Dear friends, will you listen to this?-’Why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread?’ Will you listen to this?-’I am the Bread of Life,’ Will you listen to this?-’In this mountain will the Lord make unto all people a feast of fat things.’
II. Where does the unveiling that gives light to the world come from?
My text, as I have already remarked, emphatically repeats ‘in this mountain’ in its next clause. ‘He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.’
Now, of course, the pathetic picture that is implied here, of a dark pall that lies over the whole world, suggests the idea of mourning, but still more emphatically, I think, that of obscuration and gloom. The veil prevents vision and shuts out light, and that is the picture of humanity as it presents itself before this prophet-a world of men entangled in the folds of a dark pall that lay over their heads, and swathed them round about, and prevented them from seeing; shut them up in darkness and entangled their feet, so that they stumbled in the gloom. It is a pathetic picture, but it does not go beyond the realities of the case. For, with all our light on other matters, with all our freedom of action, with all our frequent forgetfulness of the fact that we are thus encompassed, it remains true that, apart from the emancipation and illumination that are effected by Jesus Christ, this is the picture of mankind as they are. And you are beneath that veil, and swathed, obstructively as regards light and liberty, by its heavy folds, unless Christ has freed you.
But we must go a step further than that, I think; and although one does not wish to force too much meaning on to a poetic metaphor, still I cannot help supposing that that universal pall, as I called it, which is cast over all nations, has a very definite and a very tragic meaning. There is a universal fact of human experience which answers to the figure, and that is sin. That is the black thing whose ebon folds hamper us, and darken us, and shut out the visions of God and blessedness, and all the glorious blue above us. The heavy, dark mist settles down on the plains, though the sky above is undimmed by it, and the sun is blazing in the zenith. Not one beam can penetrate through the wet, chill obstruction, and men stumble about in the fog with lamps and torches, and all the while a hundred feet up it is brightness and day. Or, if at some points the obstruction is thinned and the sun does come through, it is shorn of all its gracious beams and power to warm and cheer, and looks but like a copper-coloured, livid, angry ball. So the ‘veil that is spread over all nations, ‘that awful fact of universal sinfulness, shuts out God-who is our light and our joy-from us, and no other lights or joys are more than twinkling tapers in the mist. Or it makes us see Him as men in a fog see the sun-shorn of His graciousness, threatening, wrathful, unlovely.
Brethren, the fact of universal sinfulness is the outstanding fact of humanity. Jesus Christ deals with it by His death, which is God’s sacrifice and the world’s atonement. That Lamb of God has borne away the world’s sins, and my sins and thy sins are there. By the fact of His death He has rent the veil from the top to the bottom, and the light comes in, unhindered by the terrible solemn fact that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. By His life He communicates to each of us, if we will trust our poor sinful souls to Him, a new power of living which is triumphant over temptation, and gives the victory over sin if we will be true to Him. And so the last shreds of the veil, like the torn clouds of a spent thunderstorm, are parted into filmy rags and float away below the horizon, leaving the untarnished heavens and the flaming sunshine; and ‘we with unveiled faces’ can lift them up to be irradiated by the light. ‘In this mountain will the Lord destroy the covering that is spread over all nations.’
The weak point of all these schemes and methods to which I have already referred for helping humanity out of the slough, and making men happier, is that they underestimate the fact of sin. If a man comes to them and says, ‘I have broken God’s law. What am I to do? I have a power within me that impels me now to evil. How am I to get rid of it?’ they have no adequate answer. There is only one remedy that deals radically with the fact of human transgression; only one power that will deliver each of us, if we will, from the penalty, the guilt, the power of sin; and that is the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and its result, the inspiration of the spirit of life that was in Jesus Christ, breathed into us from the Throne itself. Thus, and thus only, is the veil done away in Christ.
III. Lastly, where does the life that destroys death come from?
‘He will swallow up death in victory,’ or, as probably the word more correctly means, ‘He will swallow up death for ever.’ None of the other panaceas for the world’s evils that I have been speaking of even attempt to deal with that ‘Shadow feared of Man’ that sits at the end of all our paths. Jesus Christ has dealt with it. Like the warrior of Judah who went down into a pit and slew a lion, He has gone down into the lair of the dreadful thing, and has come up leaving Death dead on the threshold.
By His death Christ has so altered that grim fact, which awaits us all, that to those who will trust their souls to Him it ceases to be death, even though the physical fact remains unaltered. For what is death? Is it simply the separation of soul from body, the cessation of corporeal existence? Surely not. We have to add to that all the spiritual tremors, all the dreads of passing into the unknown, and leaving this familiar order of things, and all the other reluctances and half-conscious feelings which make the difference between the death of a man and the death of a dog. And all these are swept clean away, if we believe that Jesus died, and died as our Redeemer and our Saviour. So, unconsciously and instinctively, the New Testament writers will seldom condescend to call the physical fact by the ugly old name. It has changed its character; it is ‘a sleep’ now; it is ‘an exodus,’ a ‘going out’ from the land of Egypt into a land of peace. It is a plucking up of the tent-pegs, according to another of the words which the writers employ for death, in preparation for entering, when the ‘tabernacle is dissolved,’ into ‘a house not made with hands,’ a statelier edifice, ‘eternal in the heavens.’ To die in Christ is not to die, but becomes a mere change of condition and of place, to be with Him, which is far ‘better.’ So an Apostle who was coming within measurable distance of his own martyrdom, even whilst the headsman’s block was all but in his sight, said: ‘He hath abolished death,’ the physical fact remaining still.
By His resurrection Jesus Christ has established immortality as a certainty for men. I can understand a man, who has persuaded himself that when he dies he is done with, dressing his limbs to die without dread if without hope. But that is a poor victory over death, which, even in the act of getting rid of the fear of it, invests it with supreme and ultimate power over humanity. Surely, surely, to believe that the grave is a blind alley, with no exit at the other end,-to believe that, however it may minister to a quiet departure, is no victory over the grave. But to die believing, on the other hand, that it is only a short tunnel through which we pass, and come out into fairer lands on the other side of the mountains, is to conquer that last foe even while it seems to conquer us.
Jesus Christ, who died that we might never die, lives that we may always live. For His immortal life will give to each of us, if we join ourselves to Him by simple faith and lowly obedience, an immortal life that shall persist through, and be increased by, the article of bodily death. And when we pass into the higher realm of fulness of joy, then- as Paul quotes the words of my text-’shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.’
Dear brethren, gather all these thoughts together. Do they not plead with you to cast yourselves on Jesus Christ, and to turn to Him alone? He will give you the food of your souls; if you will not sit at His table you will starve. He will strip you of the covering that is cast over you, as over us all; if you will not let Him unwind its folds from your limbs, then like the clothes of a drowning man, they will sink you. He will give you immortal life, which laughs at death, and you will be able to take up the great song, ‘O Death, where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy victory?. . . Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory.’ ‘In this mountain’ and in this mountain only, are the food, the illumination, the life of the world. I beseech you, do not turn away from them, lest you stumble on the dark mountains, where are starvation and gloom and death, but rather join that happy company of pilgrims who sing as they march, ‘Come! let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 25:8 He will swallow up death forever: Isaiah’s hope…
25:8 He will swallow up death forever: Isaiah’s hope was God’s power over sin and sin’s devastating results. In the New Testament this promise is realized in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:54). • The Lord’s presence will be a source of eternal comfort; he will wipe away all tears (see Rev 21:4).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.