Advent Day 13: Victory Feast (Isaiah 25:6-9)

Isaiah 25 - Nathan Shields (lyrics at the bottom of the post)

Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
  a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
  the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy
  the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
  from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
  from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
9 In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
  we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
  let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

God is going to prepare an incredible banquet.  It is a victory celebration.  The time of fear is gone.  Rejoice!  The great king has defeated the last enemy.

Who is this enemy?  Who causes all people to live in fear?  None other than death, himself.

While living in Port Elizabeth, South Africa my wife and I were riding in a taxi (a VW minibus) that was filled with 14 other passengers.  The taxis would stop a many different points along a fixed route picking people up and dropping people off.

This particular day we were crammed into the back of the taxi and they made a stop at a familiar street corner.  But that day there was a big commotion.  A man was yelling at a woman on the other side of the street.  Everyone was watching them and all the drivers stopped their cars to watch as the man began to hit and kick the woman.  We finally realized that he was trying to rip a baby out of her arms.

Why didn't anyone stop him?  Why didn't anyone step in and end the physical and verbal abuse?  Why didn't anyone protect that woman?

Fear.  Fear of being hurt.  Possibly even dying.

Of course many of us were in shock at what we were watching, but we were also afraid that what was happening to her was going to happen to us.  That not only might we get hurt, but what if he had a gun or a knife?!  That was a legitimate fear in that neighborhood.

I share that with fear now, too, because the temptation is to trivialize that moment as something that happened far away in a place that so many of us in the U.S.A. know very little about.  My fear is that often miss the physical, verbal and emotional abuse that is happening in our own homes, our own neighborhoods, and in our own cities?  Are we standing against it?  Why not?  Are we afraid?

Christmas is the promise that God is battling the forces of sin, death and the devil.  That God is fighting for us.  As the great hymn by Martin Luther says, "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.  Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing."

God lays the victory feast because God wins the war against death.  God wipes away those bitter tears of mourning and suffering.

This passages finishes by saying, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us."

In Advent we wait for that day of feasting.  We wait with expectation for the day with no more violence and no more fear.  We wait with expectation for the day of the great victory when death is swallowed up.  And we know our king is powerful to win the war because he has already defeated death in his own body.  Jesus has done that no one else could do: rise again.  Death has no power over him.  That not only gives us hope, but it helps us to begin to stand up and fight back because we know that our destiny is that feast and that not even death can keep us from sharing in the glory of that day.

Lord of all life, we rejoice in your victory over death and praise you for the salvation that you offer to us.  Give us faith to trust that you will continue to conquer death in us and help us to stand against the suffering and evil of this world.  We pray this in the name of Jesus, our victorious king.  Amen.


Isaiah 25 - Nathan Shields

Oh my God

I will praise your perfect name

You forethought

of the world with perfect aim

Shelter me from the heat

you provide what I need

you’re my comfort in the storm

I hear the song of the ruthless

finally losing form

on this mountain top

we will be made new

he’ll lift the veil of

shadow that’s over you

death is only a curse

it’s a gift from the earth

He will take it from your hands

He will swallow it up

with his terrible love

I’ve no claim

to the cleansing of my own hands

I’ve been saved

by a God who became a man

and he has set out a feast

from the West to the East

made for any who would eat

He will wipe every tear
Our Salvation is here

(You can also listen via soundcloud by following this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-277881011/isaiah-25)