Hope Past Hope's Conceiving - Day 2

Isaiah 25:6-10a

6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
    of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
    the sheet that is spread over all nations;
8     he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
    and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
    for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
    Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
    This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.

When the Biblical writers want to paint a picture of hope it frequently includes a banquet. The great banquet pictured here is one to which “all peoples” are invited. A banquet that God is carefully preparing, with rich food and good drink. Nothing is being held back to make this a great banquet of celebration.

The celebration is because God will bring an end to death. Vs. 7 plays with the idea that death casts a shadow over life. The shroud or sheet that is placed over dead bodies in fact covers, shadows, all of life. Death will be no more. Humanity’s enemy will be defeated. For death is the enemy that wrecks havoc on us and on all human beings. Death’s threat and power will be broken. Grief will be no more as God wipes the tears from all faces. The fear of death which holds humanity enslaved has been broken. The comfort and salvation offered at this banquet make it worthy of a great celebration.

Vs. 9 reminds us we are waiting for this banquet to begin – the invitations have been issued. We know we have been invited. But we wait – wait with eager expectation for the banquet to start. The banquet is for all who want to accept the invitation to attend, but not everyone knows they have been invited. We, as Troeger’s hymn suggests, are to be those who lift people’s attention above the fear of death to see beyond death to the banquet that awaits, to the hope that God alone can and will bring. For Jesus Christ who rose from the dead will come again and death will be no more. In that hope we live, towards that hope we direct our lives.   

PRAYER:

Lord God, in Jesus Christ you have broken the power of sin and death and hell. The final enemy has been defeated. Lift us and all humanity above the fear of death, that we might live in the hope of the resurrection and in the promise that Christ will come again. In Jesus’ name. Amen.