Sunday of the Resurrection: Old Testament, Isaiah 25:6-9      

Isaiah 25:6-9

The title above seems almost trivial. It’s not that some of the things for which we wait are not significant. They may be. And it’s not that some of us haven’t waited for large amounts of time for answers to prayer, dreams to be fulfilled, or plans coming to fruition. The wait may have been long. But the prophet Isaiah is showing forth the ultimate contrast in today’s reading. The transitory and worldly Babylon with Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

Babylon and the God of the Bible just don’t see eye to eye. On anything. In fact, Babylon becomes a symbol for all things evil and all things opposing God because that’s the type of place it was. From the construction of the great tower (Genesis 11), to the seat of the great Nubuchadnezzar, it was a city rife with rebellion and always finding ways other than the Lord’s.

But the God of the Bible does have the final word: “For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt” ( Isaiah 25:1). So just before our reading begins we find that a once grand city has been taken to the ground and in contrast, Isaiah focuses the hope of God’s people on the city sporting God’s throne. Isaiah declares, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine …” (Isaiah 25:6a). And with all the glorious feasting and celebration, it’s the putting away of death that is their cause: “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces …” (v. 8a). 

God is life. God brings life. And as John the apostle writes, “ .... and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11). God’s life is shown to the world of rebels, be they Babylonians, Jews or twenty-first century Americans. In Isaiah’s day it was appropriate to contrast death and life, the evil one and God by pointing to cities that “housed” them. And with Zion a reality in their midst, the people of God waited still for a Deliverer who would not only dwell in a city on a hill, but would be the light of the eternal city, His nation, His Kingdom. And on the day when that Deliverer finally takes the throne in presence of all His redeemed ones, they will cry, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9). His name is Jesus.

Nothing trivial here. He’s worth the wait.