Today’s musicians are known for putting together music and lyrics in a poetic way. Successful songs tell a story that touch the hearts and minds of thousands even millions. King David wrote lyrics and music which are contained in the Psalms.
His Words, however, are God breathed, since it was not exclusively David’s writing, but God’s Spirit who moved him through his personality to compose and record God’s Word in the Psalms. The same is true for Moses, Isaiah, and all the 40 authors of Scripture.
As we consider Isaiah 25 today, we will see that this is a song sung on the other side of judgment. In chapters 1–24, Isaiah called out man’s pride, nations will be brought low, and the world itself will be shaken, this chapter lifts our eyes to what God has been moving toward all along.
Judgment is not the final word. But it is the necessary clearing away of the city of man so that the kingdom of God may be revealed.
In Isaiah in 24 describes a city of chaos, a picture of human civilization organized apart from God and collapsing under its own rebellion. Isaiah 25 answers the question left because of that devastation. When all else collapses, only the Lord remains sovereign. He steadfastly keeps His promises, exercises justice in His rulings, and shows kindness to those who are humble.
The fall of human systems gives way to the establishment of God’s rule, pictured poetically as a feast on His holy mountain, the removal of the veil from the nations, and the swallowing up of death itself.
This chapter shows us the destination of history. God is not merely judging the world. He is redeeming it. The end of pride is praise. The end of death is life. The end of chaos is the reign of God.
Isaiah 25 teaches God’s people how to live when the world around them is shaking. It calls us to worship God not only after deliverance but in the confidence that His purposes are sure even in judgment. The faithful are called to wait, trust, and find shelter in the Lord while man’s systems fail.
God has not lost control. He is bringing history where it must go. Judgment does not contradict His goodness. It confirms His faithfulness. And beyond the shaking stands a table prepared by God Himself, where sorrow and tears are removed, death is defeated, and the redeemed rejoice in the God they have waited for.
This chapter reminds us that hope is not found in preserving the city of man but in abiding and walking in the kingdom of God which is now but not yet. The proper response is not fear but faith, not despair but praise, not frantic action but patient trust in the Lord who rules and reigns even in and through the ungodly.
V 1 begins with praise after judgment – Isaiah opens with worship. It rises directly from the judgments described in chapters 1–24. God’s plans are described as wonderful and faithful. The word faithful stresses that God’s judgment is an expression of His covenant faithfulness.
The destruction of the nations was was planned in advance, starting with Genesis 3 and even extending back to eternity past, outside the bounds of time. Eph 1:11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.
God warned His people and the nations of impending Judgment in Chapters 1-23. In chapter 24 God acts. In this chapter 25 the prophet acknowledges that the Lord has done exactly what He promised. This is an ongoing motif throughout Scripture.
We see it in the flood in Noah’s day, the judgment of the tower of Babel, the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. The rise and fall of the nations described in the Book of Daniel.
This teaches us that biblical worship flows from the truth, revealed in Scripture not circumstances. Praise flows when we recognize that God is righteous in all His works, even when those works involve judgment. It is this kind of worldview that can give us peace in this troubled world. That God is sovereign over all.
V 2-3 reveal The fall of the city of man – The city’s destruction in v 2 echoes Isaiah 24, representing culture built on pride and self-reliance rather than submission to God. Throughout Isaiah, this city takes various forms; including Babylon, Tyre, Moab, Assyria, and even Jerusalem, and in chapter 24 it becomes the city of chaos, illustrating mankind’s rebellion and resultant disorder.
Now Isaiah declares that God has decisively and permanently acted to bring it down. Powerful people now honor the Lord, and even the most ungodly of nations come to revere Him. Judgment is never an end. It exposes God’s absolute supremacy over the nations, when their governments and armies collapse, and in their brokenness, they become open to the revelation of God and His righteous rule.
25:4–5 Refuge for the faithful Isaiah –Throughout chapters 1 to 24, Isaiah consistently draws a distinction between the proud and the remnant. In this passage, the difference is made clear: as the city built by man is laid waste, God remains a haven for those who are poor and in need. The storm that devastates the city also shields those who trust in Him.
This repeats Isaiah’s earlier promises that God will always preserve a remnant. Judgment does not eliminate God’s people; instead, it sets them apart. The Lord quiets the cruel and shields the humble. True security has never been found in cities, alliances, or wealth but by abiding in the presence of the Lord. This is all informed by God’s Word.
V 6 reveals the mountain of the Lord – The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.
The scene now shifts from the ruined cities. Isaiah lifts his eyes to a mountain. This mountain anticipates what later prophets will call Mount Zion, a poetic word used for Jerusalem, which will be exalted over all other cities on earth. To be a Zionist is to believe in the future reign of the King and Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Nothing will stop God’s ultimate will for the world with His rule over the nations from Jerusalem.
The banquet prepared there is for all who will come. This is crucial. The judgments of chapters 13–23 fell on the nations, yet the goal was never exclusion of them. God judged the nations to redeem people from all the nations. The rich food and aged wine speak of abundance, joy, and covenant fellowship. After the stripping away of superficial glory in chapters 1–24. God offers true glory in His presence.
25:7 Removal of the veil – And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
The veil covering all peoples connects directly to the spiritual blindness described throughout Isaiah 1–24. Nations walked in pride and ignorance. Israel herself often shared that blindness as Paul writes in Romans 11. God promises to remove the shroud that separates sinful men from truth and life. We are all are dead in sin until the Spirit of God brings life opening our eyes. He enables us to understand what Yeshua did on our behalf and we repent and receive His atonement.
This also anticipates the return of the Lord to Jerusalem and the revelation of God’s glory when God’s Spirit falls on those chosen by Him. What judgment exposed negatively redemption and salvation will resolve positively. The nations will finally see and understand that Yeshua is Lord and King.
25:8 Death defeated – He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken.
Here Isaiah reaches the deepest theological resolution of chapters 1 through 24. Humanity’s rebellion against God and His Spirit brought death and judgment upon cities, nations, and even the earth itself. In response, the Lord promises to swallow up death forever. This victory over death unfolds in stages. Isaiah’s vision looks beyond the Messianic reign of the King from Jerusalem during the thousand years, when death is restrained but not yet abolished, to its final and complete defeat at the close of that reign. After a final rebellion and the removal of Satan and his demonic hosts, God brings death to an end altogether and ushers in the new heaven and the new earth, where judgment is finished and life reigns without end.
The ultimate enemy revealed by human rebellion is not merely political collapse but mortality itself. This comes to each of us as we enter The Lord’s presence at physical death, but foreshadows the return of Yeshua to the earth, first in the millennium then in the new heavens and earth. During that time men will die from disease but only by accidents or violence from those who rebel against the Lord and His Spirit as Isaiah prophecies in 65:20 “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed. Rev. 20:5-6
The removal of tears and reproach shows that judgment has given way to restoration. What sin unleashed God Himself reverses. This verse stands as one of the clearest promises in the Hebrew Scriptures of resurrection hope and final victory over death.
25:9 The confession of the redeemed – And it will be said in that day,“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
Waiting has been a dominant theme throughout Isaiah 1–24. The faithful often appeared weak while the arrogant prospered. Chapter 25 supports patience and trust. Salvation comes from God according to His timing, not because people try to hurry it along.
V 10–12 The Lord’s Hand, Pride’s Fall, and Joy Fulfilled. “For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.” The mountain is the same mountain introduced in verse 6, Zion, the place of God’s rule and universal blessing.
The Lord’s hand represents lasting stability and authority. Unlike the cities toppled in chapters 1–24, this mountain stands firm by God’s establishment. His rule is now uncontested and what was expected earlier is fulfilled. The hand that once struck the nations in judgment now rests in sovereign peace. This is established rule by God’s Holy Spirit or the personal reign of Yeshua on His throne in Jerusalem, not inactivity.
Then we see pride fall “And Moab will be trodden down in his place as straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.”
Moab represents human pride and self-reliance. Earlier in Isaiah it embodies arrogance, false security, and resistance to the Lord. Its mention here is deliberate. Though the nations are invited to God’s mountain feast, pride is not. Salvation leaves no room for self-exaltation.
The imagery is deliberately humiliating. Moab stretches out his hands to save himself, yet his efforts are as hopeless and degrading as swimming in excrement. Human strength, ingenuity, and resistance fail before the Lord. This echoes the repeated theme of Isaiah: salvation cannot be gained by human effort. Pride must be broken before real life and joy can be experienced.
V 12 speaks of the final leveling of man’s fortresses: The unassailable fortifications of your walls He will bring down, lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust. This verse ties the chapter directly back to Isaiah 24 and the earlier oracles against the nations. Walls, fortresses, and defenses symbolize every system that men trust apart from God. What was described earlier as collapsing cities is now finally finished. There will be no rebuilding of the city of man. This chapter ends with the reminder to all mankind that God alone reigns. His mountain stands secure. Every competing structure is reduced to dust.
For God’s people these verses bring comfort and clarity. Comfort because the Lord’s kingdom is secure and unshakable. Clarity because pride has no place in it. We are not called to save ourselves but to lay down our defenses and trust the Lord who reigns.
Isaiah 25 closes by reminding us that the God who prepares the feast also clears the clutter so we will be able to enjoy the banquet in His presence. Only when the city of man falls will the joy of God’s rule and reign be fully experienced.
