September 24, 2020 – Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings

Aaron White and Ben Jennings dive deep into Isaiah 25, talking about what our future salvation will look like.

Notice 4 of God’s future actions that help us to realize what our future salvation will look like:

1. Receiving Praise. v.1-3

2. Providing Refuge. v. 4-5

3. Defeating Death. v.6-8

4. Dwelling Together. 9-10

Isaiah 25:1-10
(1) O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
(2) For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
(3) Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
(4) For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
(5) Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
(6) And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
(7) And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
(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.
(9) And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
(10) For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
Isaiah 23:15-16

Explanation:
Isaiah describes the time after the end of downfall and judgement of Tyre. He says “that Tyre would be forgotten 70 years.” For 70 years, Tyre will be a shadow of its former self. The picture offered for this is a vivid one. Tyre will be like a harlot who has been aged and used up by the consequences of her profession. She returns by finding a way to get a hearing and provide a service for her former clientele that they will want.

She is commended to “Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten.” Instead of offering her body she is now offering her voice and song. Why? The purpose is “that thou mayest be remembered.”

We are seeing here God setting up Tyre to be used to bring Him honor. We’ll see that in the coming verses. He can do this because He is sovereign.

Application:
During this time people thought of deities as being tied to peoples and nations. The further you got from the peoples and nations the less powerful the deities would be. In this text we see Jehovah God being different than those other “gods.” Of course we know that He is different because He is the One and True God. But He is also contrasted here because He is equally omnipotent everywhere. He is both omnipresent and omnipotent. He is orchestrating history to bring about His purposes and His plans, and all the nations of the earth are accountable to Him, not just Israel. Tyre, like all cities and nations, is accountable to Jehovah God. The same is true of our country. We must pray for our nation to Honor God.

Response:
• Are you honoring God individually and in your family? If our families do not honor God then our nation will not honor him.
• Take some time today to pray that our country would honor God and that those far from Him would return to Him.