Paul continues to express to his listeners the events of Christ’s return. Here he references a passage from Isaiah 25. He says that death will be “swallowed up.” What an appropriate end for Death! Death swallows up all its victims. People waste away in the throes of cancer and disease as death just consumes them. To know that one day, death itself will be swallowed up brings hope to the believer. In the glorious world Paul talks about, the power of the grave will be no more. Death will take no more loved ones. We won’t have to watch anyone else we love to die. God will wipe away the tears we’ve shed over what death has stolen from us and put an end to death once and for all.
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.
The Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:8
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. Isaiah 26:19
“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction? Hosea 13:14
It is shared in the Word, Amen.
And we pray:
Father, I look forward to the day when death will die. You will swallow it up and eliminate its power. No more tears will I ever have to shed because Death has stolen someone I love. You have assured me of that and I praise You for it. Amen.