#DailyDevotion He Has Swallowed Up Death Forever

Thursday of Easter 1

Isaiah 25:7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples,        the veil that is spread over all nations. 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. 9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

 

.On this mountain, what mountain is that? Golgatha, Calvary, the mountains of Moriah is what Isaiah is seeing. There he, Jesus, swallowed up the covering, the veil, that is spread over all the nations. That covering is death. It is the slavery to the fear of death that causes men to act in the evil ways it does.  Every twist and turn of iniquity in our minds is caused by this fear of death. The fear of death makes us think he if we don’t get what we want now then we may never get it. The fear of death makes us think if we don’t do what we’re thinking of doing, we may die over it. And rightly so, the natural man should fear death but not for the reasons we do. We should fear death because in death we face the judgment for everything we think, say and do.

 

But Jesus has swallowed up death forever by his death and resurrection. In his death, Jesus has died our death, what we deserve because of our sins. His resurrection is the proclamation of this defeat of death. Jesus promises us if we put our trust in him we will possess eternal life in ourselves this very moment and death cannot touch our souls, only our bodies in this life. But Jesus also promises by the power of his resurrection he is going to raise us immortal from the grave even as he rose on Easter morning, on the Last Day.

 

The day Jesus died and rose again we are able to point to him and say, this is our God. We have waited for him and he saved us. By the death and resurrection of Jesus are all our tears wiped from our faces. The reproach that was ours because of our trespasses is taken away. It was nailed to the cross in Christ’s body and buried in the tomb. But when Christ arose, he left our iniquities in the tomb never to be recounted against us again.

 

So when our consciences accuse us, let us be glad and rejoice in this salvation won for us by Jesus. Jesus is the Lord, YHWH in our flesh. He is our God who has saved us. He redeemed us from the grave by the spilling of his blood and by dying our death.  When the thought comes to mind if we are saved or not; when the fear of death rears its ugly head; look at a tree or two intersecting lines and remember and believe that on the cross your death has taken care of by the Lord Jesus Christ. You are free. Death has no claim on you.

 

Heavenly Father, grant us faith to hear, believe and remember the death of your Son Jesus Christ that our tears may be wiped away and our fears be removed knowing that our sins, our death and our judgment has been taken care of by him. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.