Reading

• Isa. 24:1-23; 25:1-9; 26:1-27:1; 32:1-8; 35:1-10

Devotional

In today’s reading Isaiah foretells of the destruction that GOD is bringing upon the peoples of the earth for their wickedness, and the coming salvation which He will bring for His people with the Messiah.

⁴ The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. ⁵ The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.
(Isa. 24:4-6 NIV)

¹⁴ They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the LORD’s majesty. ¹⁵ Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; exalt the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. ¹⁶ From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.”
(Isa. 25:14-16 NIV)

Isaiah praises GOD for the salvation He brings.

¹ LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. ² You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. ³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you. ⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall ⁵ and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

⁶ 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.”
(Isa. 25:1-9 NIV)

GOD reveals the coming destruction of the wicked and the resurrection of the righteous.

¹⁴ They are dead, they will not live; They are deceased, they will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And made all their memory to perish. ¹⁵ You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation; You are glorified; You have expanded all the borders of the land. ¹⁶ LORD, in trouble they have visited You, They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them. ¹⁷ As a woman with child Is in pain and cries out in her pangs, When she draws near the time of her delivery, So have we been in Your sight, O LORD. ¹⁸ We have been with child, we have been in pain; We have, as it were, brought forth wind; We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth, Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen. ¹⁹ Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead.
(Isa. 26:14-19 NKJV)