Isaiah 25:8 (ESV) -- He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.

Death is an enemy. It’s okay to hate it. I stood in a hospital room recently with a young married couple whose premature baby had medical complications and had hours to live. They held their little girl, her body shutting down. Nothing could be done. No medical interventions could save her. They simply faced the death of their daughter with tears streaming from their eyes. 

Our passage today reminds us that those kinds of days are going to be no more one day. We read in Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”

The prophet shows us a day that is coming. This passage was written 700 years before the arrival of Christ. Jesus’ finished work at the cross and resurrection from the grave purchased this anticipated future. And it is Jesus’ return to the world that will inaugurate its coming. But the prophet gives us the promise. He will swallow up death forever. Death has an expiration date. The clock ticks each day marking the eventual end of this foe. Jesus’ return will defeat death once and for all.

What happens then? God will wipe away tears from all faces. The days of toil, grief, and loss will end. God will eliminate the reproach His people often face in the world for following Him. The LORD has spoken. These things are certain. He has fixed a day and time for the coming of the Son. We will rejoice in the victory of God for eternity. 

Families like the one I mentioned at the beginning of this devotional, and families like my own, have tasted the sting of death. Many others have too. It hurts. We long for the day the promise of this text will be fulfilled. Our hopes in this promise are wrapped up completely in Jesus. He is the promise. Cling to Him in the waiting. As our enemy continues to operate in this world, remember that it is borrowed time. Jesus is coming to crush death to death once and for all.

Take heart! One day grief, tears, and loss will end. Jesus is coming to crush death once and for all.
Cling to Him in the waiting! 
We will rejoice in the victory of God for eternity. 

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Reflection & Journal:
- Why is death called and considered an enemy in Scripture? Why that language?
- What does the passage today promise us about what is coming in this world?
- How does Jesus secure this promise that we have in the passage?

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