Then there was Joe, who in this early days of being a Witness, would decline vacations, saying he as awaiting the Big Vacation.
This is plainly what Isaiah 25 is: the big vacation. After that formidable banquet of all the choicest dishes, the real treats roll out
“On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 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. (25:7-8)
Death, the great swallower, that swallows us all, is itself swallowed and becomes no more. Despite all the clerical representations that it is somehow a friend, since (if you’re good) it means promotion to the heavenly choir—and especially if a baby dies and the preacher says it is God picking flowers for his most beautiful garden that is only lacking one: yours! then, you can believe that death is always presented as a friend.
But even for regular people, it is as overenthusiastic Don would say: “Now, weren’t we always told that there are more bad people than good people? That the world is the way it is because bad people ruin it , but, not to worry: they will all get their comeuppance in hell? Weren’t we always told that?” And, when I would at last admit yes because it was the only way to stop him, he’d go on: “When was the last time you ever saw a preacher pack someone off to hell?!” Death, in clerical terms, is always a friend.
But, in the Bible, it is an enemy—the very last enemy, which is swallowed up forever. “Next, the end, when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father, when he has brought to nothing all government and all authority and power. For he must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy, death, is to be brought to nothing,” says 1 Corinthians 15:24-26. It is, at long last, “swallowed up forever.” (verse 54)
It’s not just death, though, but it includes all that leads to it, in verse seven called a ‘shroud that enfolds all peoples.” It represents mourning, separation, or the pall of death covering humanity. But, it is also the sin inherited from Adam is itself, a shroud that muddles our paths through life. All must come to grips with a vague sense of unease that invariably accompanies this sin. Everyone identifies at some level with a Kafkaesque trial in which guilt is assumed—there would not be a trial, otherwise, but the charges are never laid out, and the fact that one may think themselves innocent is irrelevant.
This shroud that enfolds all peoples is destroyed. It is through jesus, who dies to offset the condemnation to sin brought about through Adam’s rebellion against God. Put faith in that arrangement, do nothing to sabotage it, and you’re golden. It is —again, from 1 Corinthians 15–“The first man Adam became a living person.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (verse 45)
John echoes it in Revelation 7:17 and 21:4 (God wiping away tears in the new heaven and earth).
This death to be swallowed up is not limited to death from war, sickness, or violence (though those are included as causes of death); it encompasses death in its totality—the cessation of physical life due to the curse of sin, from Genesis 3.
Isaiah 26 continues along the same line, but with an addition: “But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.”* (verse 19)
Of course. It’s all very nice for death to be swallowed up, but that does nothing for those who have already died. So, to complete the picture, there has to be a provision for those people, too, and here it is found in the resurrection. The verse is widely regarded as one of the clearest Old Testament references to bodily resurrection.
When the boss realizes he has signed off on your vacation, he begins to regret letting his people go. He tries to walk back the action. Maybe he can make you do work through emails or teleconferencing. However, your answer to him can be the same as that from Isaiah, who observes that “the blast of the tyrants is like a rainstorm against a wall.” (25:4)
****** The bookstore
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