The big picture
Isaiah 25 answers the collapse of the previous chapter with praise rooted in the LORD's faithful purpose. A fortified city becomes a ruin, but the poor and needy discover strength as refuge rather than domination. The mountain of the LORD then becomes the setting for a feast whose richness is deliberately excessive: abundant food and refined wine for all peoples. Yet the meal is only the beginning. The covering over the nations is removed, tears are wiped away, and death, the great consumer, becomes the thing swallowed in victory. Waiting ends in recognition and rejoicing: "this is our God." The chapter does not let that universal horizon turn pride into something harmless. Moab is still brought low, and its lofty fortification descends all the way to dust. The secure mountain is secure because the LORD's hand rests there, not because height itself can save.
Central truth
Isaiah 24:1–27:13 moves from an earth disordered under transgression to the LORD reigning in Zion, preparing a feast for peoples, swallowing up death, preserving his vineyard, and gathering his people one by one.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Isaiah 25:1: “O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”
Slow down at the turning point
Isaiah 25:3: “Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.”
Keep this word trail visible
LORD, city, people, hands, heat, mountain
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Isaiah 24:1-13
The earth turned upside down
Begin by telling the class that chapters 24-27 widen the lens from named nations to the whole earth. Some call these chapters the Isaiah Apocalypse. Readers differ on when they were given: some hold them to be Isaiah’s own, others date them later; mention this in a sentence without choosing. Then read 24:1-3 and the levelling pairs. Explain 24:5: the earth is defiled because people have “broken the everlasting covenant”, which most readers connect with the covenant with Noah in Genesis 9. Read 24:7-12, where every song stops. Teach this first so the class feels a world under the weight of its own transgression.
Isaiah 24:14-23
Songs at the edges and the Lord reigning
Show the surprise of 24:14-16: from the sea and the ends of the earth come songs of glory. Then Isaiah says he cannot sing yet, because treachery continues. Read 24:17-20 for the pit and the snare and the earth reeling like a drunkard. Explain that 24:21-22 extends judgment to “the host of the high ones that are on high”, powers above as well as kings below. End on 24:23. The sun and moon are ashamed when the Lord reigns in Zion, because his glory outshines them. Place this step here so the class sees that judgment ends in the Lord’s reign.
Isaiah 25:1-12
A feast on the mountain
Begin with the hymn of 25:1-5: the Lord has been “a strength to the poor” and “a refuge from the storm”. Then read 25:6-9 slowly. Explain wines on the lees as aged, rich wine, the best a host could serve. The covering over all nations is the mourning veil. Death is swallowed up, which Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15:54, and tears are wiped away, which Revelation 21:4 takes up. Spend real time here; this is the centre of the unit. Close with 25:10-12, where Moab, a proud neighbour, stands for pride brought down. Keep that in the ancient world.
Isaiah 26:1-15
A strong city and perfect peace
Read the song of 26:1-4. The city’s walls are salvation itself. Explain that 26:3 in Hebrew says peace, peace, the doubled word giving the sense of perfect peace, and that it belongs to the one whose mind is “stayed on thee”. Read 26:7-9 as a prayer of longing in the night, and point out the hard truth of 26:10: the wicked do not learn righteousness from favour alone. Then 26:13-14: other lords ruled over us, but they are dead and shall not rise. This sets up the contrast of verse 19, so teach it just before.
Isaiah 26:16-21
Labour that brought forth wind, and the dead who rise
Read 26:16-18 with its image of a woman in labour who gives birth to nothing but wind. Explain that the people confess they have not brought salvation to the earth. Then read 26:19. Set out the readings fairly. Many hear in it a promise of bodily resurrection, and Daniel 12:2 develops the same hope; others read it as a picture of the nation restored, as in Ezekiel 37, and some see both. Do not choose for the class. Then read 26:20-21, where God’s people hide for a little moment until the wrath passes, as Israel sheltered behind its doors at the Passover.
Isaiah 27:1-13
Leviathan, the vineyard and the trumpet
Explain leviathan in 27:1 as the sea serpent of ancient poetry, a picture of chaos and of the powers that oppose God; Psalm 74:13-14 and Job 41 use it too. Do not attach it to any present power. Then sing the new vineyard song of 27:2-6 and compare it with chapter 5. Treat 27:7-11 briefly: God’s discipline of Jacob is measured, and its aim is to purge idolatry. End with 27:12-13. Explain the great trumpet as the signal for gathering, and point the class to the image of grain gathered one by one. Close the unit with worship in the holy mount.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
“These chapters give us a timetable of the end of the world.”
The chapters describe the Lord’s judgment and reign in pictures: an earth reeling like a drunkard (24:20), a feast on a mountain (25:6), a dragon slain (27:1), a trumpet blown (27:13). They do not give dates or a sequence to chart. Readers place their fulfilment in different ways, and the lesson should leave that open. What the text makes certain is the outcome: “the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion” (24:23) and death will be swallowed up (25:8).
“Isaiah 25:8 is only poetry; it does not really mean death will end.”
It is poetry, and it means something. Paul quotes it in 1 Corinthians 15:54 at the climax of his teaching on resurrection: “Death is swallowed up in victory”. Revelation 21:4 also takes up the promise of wiped-away tears. The verse says the Lord God will do it “for the LORD hath spoken it.” Traditions differ on many details of the last things, but the hope that death will not have the final word is shared across them.
“When things go well, wicked people will learn to be good.”
Verse 26:10 says the opposite: “Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly”. Verse 9 adds that “when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” The passage is sober about human nature. Kindness is right, but it does not change a heart by itself; the Lord’s judgments and presence do.
“Leviathan is a real sea monster God will fight, or a code name for a modern enemy.”
Leviathan in 27:1 is the language of ancient poetry for chaos and the powers that rise against God, used also in Psalm 74:13-14 and Job 41. Isaiah uses it to say that every power hostile to God, however monstrous, will be defeated. Do not turn it into a cryptogram for a present nation or leader, and do not make it a lesson on zoology. Keep the class on the promise that the Lord’s sword prevails.
Learning objectives
- Identify the universal scope of Isaiah 24 by tracing its repeated references to the earth, its inhabitants, kings, and the ends of the earth.
- Explain the contrast between the ruined city of Isaiah 24 and the feast on 'this mountain' in Isaiah 25:6–9.
- Show how Isaiah 25:8 joins the defeat of death with the removal of tears and reproach.
- Compare the failed labor image in Isaiah 26:17–18 with the resurrection language of 26:19.
- Describe the change from the disappointing vineyard song of Isaiah 5 to the guarded, fruitful vineyard of Isaiah 27:2–6.
- Trace the closing gathering imagery in Isaiah 27:12–13 and explain why 'one by one' matters after the unit's vast cosmic scale.
Teacher preparation
- Read Isaiah 24–27 as one movement before separating the chapters.
- Prepare the phrase 'city of confusion' in 24:10 without forcing an identification the passage does not supply.
- Mark Isaiah 25:6–9 for a slower reading.
- Review Isaiah 26:19 and be ready to distinguish its explicit resurrection language from attempts to build a complete doctrine of resurrection from this verse alone.
- Note the difficult symbolic material in 27:1, including leviathan, the piercing and crooked serpent, and the dragon in the sea.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Isaiah 24:5 says the earth is defiled because inhabitants transgress laws, change ordinance, and break the everlasting covenant.
Scripture-supported
Paul's use of Isaiah 25:8 in 1 Corinthians 15:54 supports reading the swallowing of death within resurrection victory, while Revelation 21:4 takes up the removal of tears in the setting of God's renewed creation.
Strong inference
The repeated move from worldwide collapse to songs from the earth's edges, then to a feast for all peoples, strongly suggests that judgment is not the unit's final horizon.
Possible or traditional reading
Many readers call Isaiah 24–27 an 'Isaiah apocalypse' because of its cosmic imagery and movement toward final judgment and restoration.
Limit
Do not identify the 'city of confusion' in 24:10 with certainty, and do not make leviathan in 27:1 carry more detail than the verse provides.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. Isaiah 24:1–13 repeatedly levels social distinctions. Which pairs of people are treated alike, and what does that accomplish?
What a good answer contains
Verse 2 sets six pairs side by side: “as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower”, and the one who takes interest with the one who pays it. Judgment ignores rank, wealth and office. A good answer says that the levelling shows nobody can buy or bargain their way out, and that verse 3 grounds it, “for the LORD hath spoken this word.”
Show teacher guidance
Use verses 2–3.
2. What interrupts the desolation of Isaiah 24:14–16, and why is the interruption important?
What a good answer contains
Singing. In the middle of an emptied earth, voices “lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea” (24:14), and songs are heard “From the uttermost part of the earth” (24:16). The interruption matters because it shows that judgment is not the last sound; even now some praise the Lord’s majesty. A strong answer adds that Isaiah himself cannot yet join in: he cries “My leanness, my leanness” because treachery continues.
Show teacher guidance
Voices sing for the majesty of the LORD from the sea and uttermost earth.
3. In Isaiah 25:6–9, what happens to the feast, the covering, death, tears, and reproach?
What a good answer contains
The feast is spread for “all people”, with rich food and the best wine (25:6). The covering and the veil “spread over all nations” are destroyed (25:7), which most readers take as the shroud of mourning or death. Death itself is swallowed: “He will swallow up death in victory” (25:8). Tears are wiped “from off all faces”, and the reproach of his people is removed. A good answer takes each noun in turn and notices the word all repeated, and that death, which swallows everyone, is itself swallowed.
Show teacher guidance
Take the nouns one by one.
4. Isaiah 26:17–19 moves from labor that produces 'wind' to dead people living. What reversal is being announced?
What a good answer contains
Human effort has produced nothing. The people say “we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth” (26:18). Then God answers: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust” (26:19). The labour that gave birth to wind is answered by the earth giving birth to the dead. A good answer contrasts 26:14, where the oppressors “shall not rise”, with 26:19, where God’s people do.
Show teacher guidance
Verses 17–18 confess failed human deliverance.
5. How is the vineyard of Isaiah 27:2–6 different from the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1–7?
What a good answer contains
In chapter 5 the owner looked for grapes and got wild grapes, so he removed the hedge and commanded the clouds not to rain (5:5-6). In 27:2-6 the Lord sings over “A vineyard of red wine”: “I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment” and guards it “night and day” (27:3). He says “Fury is not in me” (27:4). The result is that “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit” (27:6). A good answer sees the song reversed: the vineyard is now kept, watered and fruitful.
Show teacher guidance
In Isaiah 5 the vineyard yields wild grapes and faces judgment.
6. Why does the unit end with a trumpet and people gathered 'one by one' in Isaiah 27:12–13?
What a good answer contains
After visions as large as the whole earth, the ending turns personal. The Lord threshes from the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt and gathers his people “one by one” (27:12). Then “the great trumpet shall be blown”, and those “ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt” come to “worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (27:13). A good answer notices the scale change: a cosmic judgment ends with individuals gathered by name, like grain picked up by hand.
Show teacher guidance
Notice the scale change.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Have learners compare two forms of waiting in the unit: helpless human striving in 26:17–18 and waiting for the LORD in 25:9 and 26:8.
Relationships and community
Present a community divided by status and influence.
Set the table after the shaking
Draw a simple arc from emptied earth, to reigning LORD, to feast, to death defeated, to vineyard, to gathering.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
The whole earth
Explain that the lens has widened from nations to the earth. Read 24:1-6 and take question one.
Songs and reign
Read 24:14-16 and 24:21-23. Take question two and confusion one.
The feast
Read 25:6-9 aloud twice. Take question three and confusion two, reading 1 Corinthians 15:54 and Revelation 21:4.
Perfect peace and rising dead
Read 26:3-4 and 26:16-19. Take question four and set out the readings of 26:19 briefly.
The vineyard and the trumpet
Read 27:2-6 and 27:12-13. Take questions five and six.
Response
Give out the handout, read 25:8 together and pray for those who grieve.
90 minutes
The best meal
Ask each person to describe the best meal they have ever been at and who was there. Keep the answers for 25:6.
An earth under curse
Read 24:1-13 and Genesis 9:8-17. Take question one and explain the everlasting covenant.
From the ends of the earth
Read 24:14-23 and take question two. Explain the high ones on high and the shamed sun and moon, and take confusion one.
The feast of fat things
Read chapter 25. Take question three and confusion two, returning to the opening meals. Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-57.
The strong city
Read 26:1-21. Take question four and confusion three. Set out the readings of 26:19 with Daniel 12:2 and Ezekiel 37:11-14.
Leviathan and the vineyard
Read 27:1-13 and 5:1-7. Take questions five and six and confusion four.
Application
Work one application in pairs, with special attention to 26:3 for anyone anxious.
Key verse and prayer
Read 25:8 together, give out the handout and pray, naming people the group has lost.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Set a table with a cloth and invite the children to imagine the best party ever, with people from every country. Read 25:6 and 25:8 in simple words: God will wipe away every tear. Ask them to wipe an imaginary tear from a friend’s face. Then sing or say 26:3 together. Leave out the drunken earth, the pit and leviathan; children who have lost someone may need a quiet word afterwards.
Youth
Ask what they think the world will be like at the end and where those ideas come from. Then read 25:6-9 and compare. Let them find the word all in chapter 25 and count it. Spend time on 26:3 for anxious minds, which many teenagers know well. Be honest that Christians read the details of the last things differently, and keep the focus on the Lord’s reign and the end of death.
Adults
Give an overview of the four chapters and then spend time on 25:6-9 and 26:19. Set out the readings of 26:19 and the question of when these chapters were given without choosing. Many adults have buried parents, spouses or children; let 25:8 be read slowly and give room for silence. Discourage charts and timetables and return the group to the hope the text makes plain.
One to one
Ask the person whom they miss most among the dead. Read 25:8 and 26:19 together and let them sit with the words. If anxiety is their burden, read 26:3-4 and talk about what it means for a mind to be stayed on God. Pray with them, and if grief is fresh, offer to come back or to sit with them again soon.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Isaiah 24:1–27:13
The passage in brief
Isaiah 24-27 looks at the whole earth. Because people have broken God’s covenant, the earth is emptied and turned upside down, and rich and poor, priest and people are judged alike. But songs are heard from the ends of the earth, and the Lord reigns in Zion. On his mountain he prepares a feast for all peoples, swallows up death forever and wipes away tears from every face. His people sing of a strong city and perfect peace, and the dead will rise. God keeps his vineyard and makes it fruitful, and a great trumpet gathers his people home one by one.
A verse to keep
He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah 25:8 · King James Version
Questions to take home
Why are rich and poor, priest and people treated alike in 24:2?
What does God do at the feast in 25:6-8?
What does 26:3 promise to the person who trusts God?
This week
Memorise 26:3 this week and say it whenever worry starts to take hold of your mind.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
