Monday, December 22, 2008

The Rebuke of His people

Isaiah 25 is full of promise.

In verse 4, it says that God is a strength to the poor; a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade in the heat;..
In verse 5, it says that the song of the terrible ones will be diminished or humbled. You know what that song sounds like..."You're not going to make it...What are you going to do?...God cares for others, not you..You are left out...You're going to die...What you've done will ruin everything...Shame on you...You're losing your mind..."
In verse 6, on this mountain, Mount Zion, The Lord of Hosts will make a great feast for all people and He will destroy the surface of the covering that is veiled over all peoples (Could this be the "through a glass darkly" veil, or the veil of oppression?) and He will swallow up death forever and wipe away all tears from all faces.

And this is what gets me~vs.8~"The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth"...What is the rebuke of His people?
Does anyone have any ideas?
Is it hypocrisy? Unbelief? Fear of man? Anything the world can rightly point a finger at in our lives?

In vs. 10, it says that the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab will be trampled under Him. Do you know where the Moabites came from? They came from Lot's daughters' grand idea to get their father drunk so they could get pregnant from him. The first daughter had a son and called him Moab and he is the father of the Moabites today. The youngest daughter had a son, Ben-Ammi, and he is the father of the Ammonites. The Moabites caused alot of carnal seduction in Israel's history, according to my Bible notes. No wonder. And the Ammonites were responsible for human sacrifice to the god of Molech.
It is no small thing when we are told that God is going to trample down Moab under Him. I think Moab may mean anything unholy in our lives.

I've always been taught that Mt. Zion is the church. I am sure it is a physical place as well, so we get some idea that this is going to take place where we are and some where else, too.
God is going to make things right.
He is going to destroy those things that cause shame and pain in our lives.
He is going to wipe away tears. He is going to open our eyes so we can see Him clearly.
And He is going to remove the rebuke of His people.
I am looking forward to this.
I am sure that I didn't get everything about this passage nearly right. But I am also sure that I got this part right.
He is coming.
He will fix things.
Because He wins, I will too.
And, I will feel His gentle, mighty hands wiping tears from my face some day very soon.

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