Isaiah 25:1 - Meaning and Application

At the end of the previous chapter, the Lord of hosts was said to reign in glory. Now the prophet answers that thought by praising the glorious majesty of God’s kingdom (Psalm 145:12). He gives God the honor for it. This prophecy may have had a near fulfillment in Babylon’s fall and in the Jews’ release from exile there, but it also points beyond that. It looks ahead to the praise the gospel church would offer for Christ’s victories over our spiritual enemies and for the comfort he gives all believers.

The prophet first chooses to praise God himself, because anyone who wants to urge others to praise must begin there. “O Lord, you are my God,” he says, meaning a God who has made covenant with him. When God is judging the kings of the earth and making them tremble, a humble prophet can still say, “You are my God, and so I will praise your name.” Those who have the Lord as their God are bound to praise him, because he chose us to be his people so that we would bring him honor and praise (Jeremiah 13:11). When we praise God, we exalt him, not by making him greater than he is, but by making his greatness clearer to ourselves and to others, as in Exodus 15:2.

The prophet also looks ahead to a time when others will be brought to praise God too (Isaiah 25:3). Because of the desolations God has brought on the earth by his providence (Psalm 46:8), and because of the just judgment he has carried out on his enemies and his church’s enemies, strong peoples will glorify him together. Even the city, the great center, of the fearsome nations will fear him. This can mean people who once were strong against God. Those who fought against his kingdom with power and terror will either be converted and join his worship, or at least be forced to admit they have been defeated. It can also mean people whom God makes strong for himself, though they were once weak and trampled down. God will appear so clearly for those who fear him that all will recognize them as a strong people and stand in awe of them. There was a time when many in the land became Jews, because the fear of the Jews fell on them (Esther 8:17), and when those who knew their God were strong and did great things (Daniel 11:32), and this brought glory to God.

The matter of this praise is clear. We and others must exalt God because he has done wonderful things, according to the plan of his own will (Isaiah 25:1). We honor him by admiring what he has done as truly marvelous, beyond any creature’s power and beyond what sinners like us could expect. These wonders are new and surprising to us, but they were long ago planned by his wisdom for his own glory and for his people’s good. All God’s works of providence follow his eternal plan, and that plan is faithful and true. Everything he does fits with his own nature, agrees with everything else he does, and will surely be carried out at the right time.

He has also humbled the pride and broken the power of the mighty on earth (Isaiah 25:2). Many a city has been turned into a heap of ruins. A fortified city, which thought itself safe because of its walls, its skill, and the strength of its defenders, has been made a wreck. No created strength can stand against almighty power. Many cities were so richly built they might have been called palaces, and so full of visitors from every direction they might have been called palaces of strangers. Yet God has brought them down so low that they are no longer cities at all. They have been leveled, with not one stone left upon another, and they will not be rebuilt. This has happened to many cities in many places, and even in our own land. Some cities that once flourished have faded away and been lost, and now we hardly know where they stood, except for urns or coins dug out of the earth. Many cities of Israel have long been heaps and ruins too. God teaches us through this that we have no lasting city here, and so we must seek the one to come, which will never decay or fall.

God has also given timely help to his needy and distressed people (Isaiah 25:4). He has been strength to the poor and strength to the needy. Just as he weakens proud and secure people who trust in themselves, so he strengthens the humble and serious who lean on him. More than that, he is their strength himself. They draw strength from him, and his favor is the strength of their hearts. He is a strength to the needy in trouble, when they have no strength of their own and their distress drives them to him. He strengthens them against inward weakness, and he also protects them from outward attacks. He is a shelter from storm, rain, or hail, and a shadow from the burning heat of the summer sun. God is a full protection for his people in every season, in heat and cold, in wet weather and dry. The armor of righteousness serves both for defense and for attack (2 Corinthians 6:7). Whatever dangers or troubles come to God’s people, they will not suffer real harm. When danger is most loud and threatening, then God appears for their safety. The blast of the terrible ones may come like a storm against a wall, making much noise, but it cannot bring the wall down. The enemies of God’s poor try hard to seem terrible to them. Their rage is like a strong wind, loud and fierce, but it remains under God’s restraint. He holds the winds in his hand, and he will be such a shelter that his people can stand firm, keep their ground, and remain faithful and at peace. A storm that beats on a ship tosses it around, but one that beats on a wall cannot move it (Psalm 76:10; Psalm 138:7).

God will also protect those who trust in him from the arrogance of their proud oppressors (Isaiah 25:5). He will bring down the noise of strangers, or he does bring it down, and calm it the way a cloud eases the heat in a dry place. The branch, that is, the proud triumph of the terrible ones, will be brought low, and they will be made to lower their voice.

The oppressors of God’s people are called strangers, because they forget that those they hurt are made of the same kind and share the same blood. They are also called terrible ones, because they try to make themselves feared instead of loved. Their power is loud and harsh, but it is only the noise of strangers who think they can win by bullying and bragging.

Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a noise (Jeremiah 46:17). His fury is like the burning heat of the sun at midday, but what becomes of it when the sun goes down? In the same way, the proud noise, heat, and triumph of God’s enemies will be humbled and brought low when their plans fail and their honor is thrown into the dust.

The branches, even the highest branches, of these terrible ones will be broken off and thrown away like refuse. If the workers in God’s vineyard must bear the burden and heat of the day, God will find a way to refresh them. He will shade them, as with a cloud, so they are not crushed beyond what they can bear.