No wonder therefore that chapter 25 opens with a note of praise. The Lord will then have visibly done wonderful things, and His counsels of old will have been fulfilled in faithfulness and truth. When these things come to pass it will be easy to sing the note of praise, but it is our privilege as Christians to praise before they have come to pass: to—
“Sing— till heaven and earth surprising,
Reigns the Nazarene alone.”
When the glad millennial day dawns it will mean the overthrow of man’s strong cities and of the terrible nations that built them. It will also mean the shelter and uplifting of the godly remnant, as indicated in verse 4. Jehovah will prove Himself to be for them “a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat.” We turn to chapter 32:2 and we find that the same two things are to be found in a Man: truly an extraordinary statement, for an ordinary man in a tornado is but the sport of the elements and no refuge at all. In very deed, the MAN of chapter 32 is no ordinary man, but to be identified with the Jehovah of our chapter. We know Him as the Lord Jesus Christ.
The power of the great adversary, and of the nations who have become his tools, having been disposed of, full earthly blessing will be brought to pass, described as a feast of fat things and of old, well-matured wine. It may have been to this that our Lord referred, when He uttered the words recorded in Matthew 26:29. The day of earthly joy is coming, and it will extend to “all peoples,” for the word there is in the plural. Yet the center of it will be “this mountain,” referring to mount Zion, mentioned in the last verse of the previous chapter. Jerusalem doubtless is indicated, but mentioned in such a way as to emphasize that the blessing will be given as an act of mercy and not as the reward of merit.
Moreover, there will be a work divinely wrought in the hearts of all who enter that glad age. The power of the adversary has cast a covering, or a veil over all the peoples, and it will be completely removed. The Apostle Paul uses a similar figure in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4, only applying it more particularly to Israel, based upon the veil that Moses wore. Yet he makes it more general in chapter 4, when he claimed that he put no veil on the Gospel he preached, and that any veil that existed had its seat in those that were lost. When today the veil is lifted from a sinner’s eyes, and he discovers his Saviour, it is the gracious work of the Spirit of God. Today it is an individual matter. In that day it will be on a world-wide scale, and it will result in the discovery that is brought before us in verse 9.
But we must not overlook the great statements of verse 8, particularly the one that Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15:54 as finding fulfillment in the day of resurrection. Whether the saints who lived before Christ came discerned the resurrection in these glorious words may be open to question, but we now know what they infer, and in the faith of them the victory enters our hearts, and we have it before the actual day of resurrection dawns. Death being removed, the tears, that by reason of it have been on innumerable faces, will be wiped away forever, and the “rebuke,” or “reproach,” of His people will be gone forever too. Primarily no doubt, His “people” here refers to the redeemed and born-again Israel, who will enter the millennial age.
But it will be true for all saints those who by resurrection enter the heavenly world, as well as those blessed upon the earth. Through all the ages God’s saints have walked in reproach. Enoch must have looked odd in his day, and certainly Abraham in his. From a worldly standpoint how foolish of Moses to leave the splendid place he had in the court of Pharaoh! And so we might continue till we come to Paul and his associates who were “fools for Christ’s sake.” What are we who profess the name of Christ? Have we so accommodated ourselves to the spirit of the age that reproach for Christ is hardly known by us? If so, we shall miss in large measure the thrill of that hour, which will surely come, for “the Lord hath spoken it.”
The salvation which will reach Israel in that day will be wholly and obviously of the Lord, and publicly owned as such. The godly, who will enjoy the salvation, will be those who have ceased from their own efforts and have waited for Him to intervene on their behalf, just as today the sinner who receives the salvation of his soul does so when he learns to condemn himself, ends his strivings, and trusts in the Saviour. Then too he gets deliverance from his spiritual foes, just as Israel will get deliverance from Moab and other enemies, as the closing verses of our chapter show. In that day they will exclaim as they see the glorified Jesus, “Lo, this is our God.”
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