Isaiah 25:1

Isaiah 25 is, believe it or not, a passage of praise to God. It still has a little bit of the customary ‘trampling down’ (of Moab – vs. 10), but overall it is a passage exalting God. The reasons for the praise are summed up in the first verse, and then expanded within the rest of the chapter.

‘O LORD, You are my God.
I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
For You have done wonderful things;
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth’ (Isaiah 25:1)

This should be read directly in context of the previous chapter. The previous chapter of course was about the judgment of the earth in the last days. A judgment that shook the earth and made it desolate. Directly after this, Isaiah says ‘I will praise Your name, For You have done wonderful things’. So Isaiah sees this destruction of the earth as a wonderful thing. That seems a little sadistic, so we must ask ourselves the question: why?

‘Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth’. This basically means that whatever God says about the future is true and will definitely happen. You see, Isaiah is looking past the worldly view of the terror of judgment and is looking at the awesomeness of God. He is seeing God’s wonderful attributes instead of worldly pain.

Do we have this problem today? I would say that it is one of our biggest problems. There are so many Christians out there who are more focused on their jobs, possessions, family, hobbies or whatever else than God. This doesn’t just happen out of nowhere, it comes from a point of view that misses God’s great character and looks to worldly things.

Further, there are a whole bunch of Christians that are more focused on people than God. I am not saying we are not to love people and reach out to them. In no way at all would I say that. But I am saying, many Christians today think that reaching out to people is our number one priority (because Jesus did, didn’t He?). But again, this view is missing God’s great attributes, it is missing the essence of God, and looking through worldly glasses. God must be our number one focus. According to Isaiah, it is better that the whole earth should perish than that God be unfaithful or untrue! He is focused on God.

Let us today all come back to God. Focus on Him. Praise Him, worship Him, exalt Him, understand Him, trust Him, serve Him, love Him. And only then will our view of the world be the right one.