The last enemy to be destroyed

Isaiah 25

Isaiah 25 begins in this manner; “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your 

name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”  In the next 

six verses following verse 25 we have a reminder of what God has done, and then we get to 

verse eight.  “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.”           

We live in a world full of tears, and it hits all these groups; little children, teenagers, college 

students, married couples, single people, homeless people, the sick, the rich, the poor and 

the outcast.  I hope we did not leave anyone out, but tears are the focus of disappointment, 

rejection, broken promises, misunderstanding, and often are the byproduct of sin, but not 

always.  Will you let your mind explore a world without tears, without death?

The LORD is showing Isaiah a time, in what you and I call future, where death will be no 

more and there will be no more tears.  When studying the Scripture, it is important to see if 

the subject matter is addressed more than once, and if more than twice, it’s time to pay very 

close attention and ponder on what God has spoken.  The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 

addresses the resurrection of both Christ and the dead, and yet some people were teaching 

there was no resurrection of the dead; we would refer to them today as atheist, for if there is 

no God, how could you have a life after death?  “And if Christ has not been raised, then our 

preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, 

because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that 

the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And 

if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”   

(1 Corinthians 15:14-17 ESV)

Without death being conquered, we who follow Christ are misplacing our hope, but the 

apostle Paul is not finished, he shares these truths; “For as by a man came death, by a 

man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ 

shall all be made alive.”  (1 Corinthians 15:21-22 ESV)  Note: (No death before the fall of 

man, and when sin entered into the man, spiritual death happened at that moment, and later 

came the curse of physical death.)  You recall Isaiah was referring to a time in the future, and 

now Paul is also addressing events in the future, but first comes the events in verses 24-26,  

“Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every 

rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under 

his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”  (1 Corinthians 15:24-26 ESV)

You will also want to read 1 Corinthians 15:54, and also 2 Timothy 1:10, and let me close 

this paper with what God showed the apostle John, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne 

saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will 

be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear 

from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor 

pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”  (Revelation 21:3-4 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice