Our hope

I love this passage. God is in control and we know that one day there will be no more death, all the tears will be wiped away, disgrace removed and all that call on the Lord - the poor, the needy, the least of these will be guests at the banquet of the Lord. "The world isn't out of control, and the future isn't in our hands. Sorrow, injustice, and death itself will one day end. The future is portrayed as a holy feast, with people from all the nations gathered at the banquet of the Lamb of God."

Isaiah 25

New International Version (NIV)

Isaiah 25

Praise to the LORD

 ¹ LORD, you are my God;
   I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
   you have done wonderful things,
   things planned long ago.
² You have made the city a heap of rubble,
   the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more;
   it will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
   cities of ruthless nations will revere you.
⁴ You have been a refuge for the poor,
   a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
   and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless
   is like a storm driving against a wall
 ⁵ and like the heat of the desert.
You silence the uproar of foreigners;
   as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
   so the song of the ruthless is stilled. ⁶ On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare
   a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
   the best of meats and the finest of wines.
⁷ On this mountain he will destroy
   the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
 ⁸ 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.
 ⁹ In that day they will say,
   “Surely this is our God;
   we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
   let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
 ¹⁰ The hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain;
   but Moab will be trampled in their land
   as straw is trampled down in the manure.
¹¹ They will stretch out their hands in it,
   as swimmers stretch out their hands to swim.
God will bring down their pride
   despite the cleverness^[a] of their hands.
¹² He will bring down your high fortified walls
   and lay them low;
he will bring them down to the ground,
   to the very dust.