Isaiah 25:6-9 ESV
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’”
The Bread of Life
If we go back and read Isaiah 2, we read there about this
mountain of the house of the Lord, which is not a physical mountain, but which
is a reference to Jesus Christ, and then to his church. For it says there, in
reference to this mountain, that HE may teach us HIS ways and that we may walk
in HIS paths. And the only ways and the only paths that we are to walk in are
the ways and the paths of our Lord.
And what feast of rich food and what wine well refined did
our Lord make for all peoples on that mountain? He provided Jesus’ body (his
flesh) on that cross for our sins, and his blood was shed for us on that cross.
And his body (his flesh) is our living bread which we are to partake of in a
spiritual and not in a physical sense. And his blood, which is represented by
wine, we symbolically are to drink of. In other words Jesus died on that cross
that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.
The Veil that is
Spread
And how did he
swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the
veil that is spread over all nations? Well, for one, when Jesus died on that
cross for our sins the veil that hung in front of the Holy of Holies was torn
in two which then made it possible for all of us now who put our faith and
trust in Jesus Christ with our lives to enter into God’s holy presence. We are
now kingdom priests. We can come directly to God.
A veil in that case
was something that separated us from God and his holy presence, and so that
veil symbolizes our sins which are what stand between us and a relationship (fellowship)
with God. Via Jesus’ death on that cross he made the way for us to be delivered
from our sins, not just in the sense of having them forgiven, but by faith in
him we are set free from our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we can now be
slaves to God’s righteousness.
When we then put
our faith in our Lord Jesus, and we die with him to sin, and we are raised with
him to walk in newness of life in him, that veil that stood between us and God
is swallowed up. It is removed. That is what being delivered from our slavery
to sin is all about. Now we can see with spiritual eyes and not just with
physical eyes (for the sighted). Now those sins that weighed us down are lifted
from our shoulders.
And now we can walk
in newness of life in our Lord Jesus, free from the control of sin and of Satan
and of the flesh. Now we are empowered of God to walk (in conduct, in practice)
no longer according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit. It doesn’t
mean we will never be tempted to sin, though, or that we are no longer capable
of sin. We will be and we are. But Jesus set us free from that control of sin
so we can obey him in his power, and so we have to now yield to his control and
serve him with our lives.
[Lu
9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1
Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15,21; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Rom
12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet 1:1; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13;
Col 1:21-23; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13]
Our Tears He
will Wipe Away
And then one day,
at the end of our lives on this earth, or when Jesus returns to take his bride
to be with him forever, death for us will be swallowed up forever, and the Lord
will wipe away the tears from our eyes (from our faces), and all pain and
sorrow and suffering will be no more. We will no longer be hated and mistreated
and rejected and abandoned and spoken evil against, and we will no longer have
physical ailments. They will all be gone, and we will be at complete peace.
And when the Lord
Jesus returns for his bride, and those of us who have followed him in obedience
go to be with him forever, then our salvation will be complete and our marriage
to Christ will be consummated. For our salvation is not finished. We who
believe in Jesus are “being saved,” and we “will be saved” when Jesus comes and
takes us home, but provided that we continue steadfast until the end in walks
of obedience to our Lord and that we do not go back to living lives of
deliberate and habitual sin.
But not everyone
who professes faith in Jesus Christ is going to go with the Lord when he
returns. For many call him “Lord” but do not honor him as Lord for they do not
obey him. They do not do what God says to do, but they continue living in their
sin doing what their wicked hearts desire. And so he is going to tell them that
he never knew them and that they are to depart from him because they are
workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:21-23).
So, make sure you are ready to meet the Lord Jesus. Surrender
your lives to Jesus Christ and make him Lord (Owner-Master) of your lives. Die
with him to sin, not just once, but daily, and follow him in obedience to his
commands, in practice, and do not any longer make sin your practice. For if sin
is your practice, and if righteousness and obedience to the Lord are not what
you practice, then you will not have eternal life with God unless you turn from
your sins and you now walk in obedience to his commands.
The Eastern Gate
By Isaiah G. Martin, 1905
I will meet you in the morning,
Just inside the Eastern Gate;
Then be ready, faithful pilgrim,
Lest with you it be too late.
If you hasten off to glory,
Linger near the Eastern Gate,
For I’m coming in the morning;
So you’ll not have long to wait.
Keep your lamps all trimmed and burning;
For the Bridegroom watch and wait;
He’ll be with us at the meeting
Just inside the Eastern Gate.
Oh, the joys of that glad meeting
With the saints who for us wait!
What a blessed, happy meeting
Just inside the Eastern Gate!
I will meet you, I will meet you
Just inside the Eastern Gate over there;
I will meet you, I will meet you,
I will meet you in the morning over there.
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