PRAISE FOR DELIVERANCE
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE:
ISAIAH 25:1-12
Key Verse
“Now the Lord of armies will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And aged wine”.
Isaiah 25: 6
INTRODUCTION
When a person is in a difficult position they long to be free of whatever is hurting them. The nation of Israel had been in difficult situations for much of their history. They had been made slaves in Egypt after living trouble free lives for many years. When they cried out to God for help God sent Moses to organize freedom for them and finally they were allowed to leave after 10 plagues hit the rulers and people of Egypt.
Then after travelling through the desert they finally reached the land of Canaan, a land God had promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had a difficult time conquering the people in the Land for they disobeyed God’s instructions on how to do that. After many years God sent King David to organize the nation and he did just that conquering all their enemies. Then David’s son Solomon came to the throne and Israel developed into a rich and famous nation. But he and the people continued to disobey God’s commandments and eventually the nation quarrelled among themselves, split up, and Ten of the 12 tribes went their own way into disaster. They were completely disobedient, worshipped false pagan gods, and eventually they were captured, their land and property taken away. They went into exile.
The other 2 tribes called the Southern kingdom did a little better that the Ten tribes called the Northern Kingdom, but they too ignored the warning of the prophets who pointed out their bad behaviour and their idolatry and their serving false pagan gods. They too were captured and taken itno exile. They lost everything.
The prophet Isaiah in our Lesson gave strong words condemning their behaviour, but he also reminded them that God had promised their forefathers to save the nation. The Messiah, the lord Jesus Christ would come, destroy their enemies and establish the kingdom of God under His rule. Then God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who are all called God would have a great feast of celebration attended by all those who belonged to God. Since God created everything His feast would have unlimited amounts of expensive and most desired meat and other foods. It would have expensive and the greatest quality wine and drinks. The feast would last a long time. Jesus would be right there at this great party on Mount Zion. The only people there would be people of God, for all the enemies of Israel like the people of Moab and the enemies of the people of God, as well as their enemy Satan and his demons would have been rounded up by the angels of God and locked away in jail called the abyss.
God would remove death (the prophet Isaiah said God would swallow up death), and so there would be no more suffering, fear of death, fear of anything that could hurt. God would remove all the covering over the eyes of the people so that they would see the glory of Jesus in its powerful form. God would wipe away all tears from the eyes of His people. Only obedient persons who loved and served God would be there for all the evil people who had abused, hurt, damaged, stolen from, and killed people would be taken away.
We therefore thank God for the information the prophet Isaiah told us about. We wish Jesus would come quickly and have us enjoy this feast with Him. But we know we will have to be patient and to wait for not everyone who will accept Jesus through the preaching of the Gospel have up to now accepted Him as their Saviour. We will have to continue working and do our job to tell everyone about Jesus and His salvation, and we pray that the Holy Spirit will change their minds and their behaviour away from evil. So let us thank and praise God for His deliverance from the evils of the world and the Devil.