The Daily Devotional Podcast

The Day Death Dies | Isaiah 25

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This reflection shows that Scripture does not normalize death but reveals it as an enemy that God promises to ultimately destroy, with Jesus’ raising of Lazarus pointing forward to that greater victory. It invites us to anchor our hope not in temporary comfort, but in the risen Christ who has begun the defeat of death itself.

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Today's passage is Isaiah twenty five. O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things, you planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them. You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. Cities with strong walls are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces and distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt. Therefore strong nations will declare your glory, ruthless nations will fear you. But you are a tower of refuge to the poor, O Lord, a tower of refuge to the needy in distress. You are a refuge from the storm and a shelter from the heat. For the oppressive acts of ruthless people are like a storm beating against a wall, or like the relentless heat of the desert. But you silence the roar of foreign nations, as the shade of a cloud cools relentless heat, so the boastful songs of ruthless people are stilled. In Jerusalem the Lord of Heaven's armies will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well aged wine and choice meat. There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears, he will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and his people. The Lord has spoken. In that day the people will proclaim, This is our God. We trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings. For the Lord's hand of blessing will rest on Jerusalem, but Moab will be crushed. It will be like straw trampled down and left to rot. God will push down Moab's people as a swimmer pushes down water with his hands. He will end their pride and all their evil works. The high walls of Moab will be demolished, it will be brought down to the ground, down into the dust.

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Have you noticed how much our culture wrestles with death?

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We soften the language, we build traditions around mourning, we look for ways to cope with the loss. But beneath all of it is the same quiet recognition, death does not feel right. Scripture never treats death as a normal part of the world, it treats death as an enemy. That's why the moment we saw in John eleven matters so much. When Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, he was not only comforting one grieving family, he was revealing something larger. Centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah spoke about a day that was coming. In Jerusalem, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast for all peoples, he'll swallow up death forever, the sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will swallow up death, not manage it, not soften it, not delay it, destroy it. Isaiah describes a future where grief itself is undone. Tears are wiped away, shame is removed, death no longer has the final word. And the people of God will say, Surely this is our God, we trusted in him and he saved us. When Jesus raised Lazarus, he was offering a glimpse of that future. A preview that the promise of Isaiah was not only poetic language, it was reality that was drawing near. But Lazarus did not remain alive forever. One day he would die again. That means the miracle in John 11 was pointing beyond itself. It was pointing to the moment where Jesus himself would walk out of a tomb. Not as a preview, but as a victory. Isaiah reminds us that the hope of Christian faith is not merely comfort in the face of loss. It's a defeat of death itself. When Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life, he's not offering a metaphor. He is announcing the future.

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And through his resurrection, that future has already begun. Before I close in prayer, here's a question to wrestle with. Do I see resurrection as a distant hope, or as the future that Jesus has already begun? Lord, thank you that death is not the end of the story.

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Help me to live with the hope that you are making all things new. Strengthen my faith in the life that you promise through Jesus.