Isaiah 25:8. He will swallow up death forever. He follows Hosea’s word (Hos. 13:14): “O Death, I will be your plagues. O Sheol, I will be your destruction.” For He says that He will soon extinguish death, but that he will always swallow it up little by little, just as our old man day by day ought to swallow up death through the Spirit. So also Christ destroys death. As a plague consumes the body little by little, so Christ is the pestilence of our death and of our old Adam.

And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, that is, from all faces, miseries, disasters, griefs, and tears Christ frees us and consoles us in our spirit.

And the reproach of His people He will take away. Since the godly are nothing but the cast-offs and offscourings and the reproach of the whole world who are rejected by all, so that nothing remains for them but sufferings without and within inflicted by the devil, O that these consolations of Christ may by all means find a place in us, so that He can console us in our wretchedness and affliction and we may daily come to a better knowledge of Him. Our King, Christ, who has such an afflicted people, is such that He always comforts them.

9. It will be said on that day: Lo, this is our God. This is the preaching concerning Christ, and he is describing the worship of the New Testament, because the prophets always distinguish between the worship of the New Testament and that of the Old Testament. The worship of the New Testament is to believe, to trust, to hope in God’s mercy. No one has this kind of faith and hope except those who have been thoroughly afflicted both inwardly and outwardly. The prophet says not only that He will save us, but he adds:

Let us be glad and rejoice, that is, let us give thanks to God in various forms of praise even in all afflictions, for if we have been set free from one evil, we arrive at another one. This is the exercise of the godly and the worship of the New Testament” (Luther’s Works, v. 16, p. 197-198).

Isaiah 25:6. The Lord of hosts will make a feast. Here the prophet is speaking of the abundance of the Gospel. This is Martin Luther’s thought: In that time when the Gospel will be preached, God will prepare a feast of fat things; that is, Jerusalem, fat with great and many people, will be laid waste, and God will prepare this feast, namely, of the rich and powerful Jews. For all peoples, for the Romans and others. A feast of lees, not of grapes. He says that it will be a fat feast. All the fat animals will be devoured, and all the wine must be drawn out down to the lees. This means that this people of Judea is to be altogether exhausted and destroyed.

A feast of fat things full of marrow. He repeats what he has already said above. The inner and choicest part of the barley is called marrow; it is also called fat. He has fed them with the fat of the grain. Thus among this people He has oppressed princes, kings, and nobles, not just the common people.

Wine on the lees well refined for “grapes squeezed out.” This means that everything is devoured and drained to the last dregs and remnants. Thus by this comparison he most aptly pictures the total reduction of Judea.

7. And He will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all the peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He wants to say: “This will be the fruit of the Gospel, that He will remove from us every appearance of chains. And we rise with Christ. ‘We have passed out of death into life’ ” (1 John 3:14). But he speaks of death and the things that pertain to death figuratively.

The appearance of coverings, which means that all nations are wrapped up in death. From this appearance of death and from death itself and from all evils we are set free by faith in the Word and through the Spirit. “The appearance of the covering” refers to death and all its evils. However, he calls it “the appearance of the covering” and shows that its appearance and bonds have easily been made subject to Christ” (Luther’s Works, v. 16, p. 196-197).

Isaiah 55:1. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money.

This is an exhortation for Christians in the midst of their trials, lest disgust take control of all of them. This is a most destructive pestilence in the church. We must be acutely on guard and alert, although we dwell in the sluggish flesh, and be militant in the exercise of the Word. No matter how  much the secure flesh sleeps, as in the case of those who are seized by the pestilence, we must nevertheless persevere against this temptation and overcome it. Let no one seem to himself to have accomplished much in Scripture and to have heard many things, since in spite of that he loses the knowledge of the Word in forgetfulness day by day. From there let the mind be restored and recleansed as from a fog of ignorance, so that the heat and fervor in the Word may increase against the gates of death. Where people have been especially trained in the Word, there they are most negligent. This is a common complaint of preachers. Such exhortation is therefore especially necessary, lest they fall into contempt and loathing of the Word.

Everyone who thirsts, etc. The church is the assembly that clings to the Word, an assembly that is in need, in hunger and thirst. Therefore it attracts those who seek and love the Word and deals with them, lest they be slothful or give up. It is as if he were saying: “Embrace this holy teaching which is applied and offered to you free of charge.” Since it is a free gift, it is not to be acquired by one’s own payment, something that only the godly souls understand. The ungodly world wants to be deceived. It does not receive things offered free of charge but spurns them as worthless. Yet it embraces the precious papistic things and does so even at a high price. Formerly the pope gnawed so much wealth away from Germany, and yet the Germans most vehemently strove to obtain his wares. At length so much was expended and set forth for those magnificent cloisters, and they were therefore regarded with the highest reverence. All things that are free are accounted worthless. Thus the Gospel, offered to the world free of charge, is not accepted. Only the simple and unlettered pay attention to it, receive it, and embrace it zealously, something that we scarcely achieve by supreme vigils, frequent readings, and sermons”  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 249).

Isaiah 52:13. Behold, ⁷ My Servant shall prosper, He shall be exalted and lifted up. We have understood this chapter to show the manner in which that king would set us free. Behold, My Servant shall prosper. Here we begin chapter 53. Until now you have heard Christ’s kingdom depicted in the cross and that it is carried forward by faith and the Word alone. Yet that leading of faith, the Word, and the cross is not without deliverance and protection. In this chapter the prophet speaks primarily of the Head of the Kingdom as he treats of the person of the King and the manner of His deliverance. This is the foremost passage on the suffering and resurrection of Christ, and there is hardly another like it. Therefore we must memorize this passage, for it certainly drives out the stubbornness of the Jews. The Jews cannot deny that this passage speaks of Christ. They indeed grant the glories of Christ in this chapter, but they are unwilling to grant His cross and sufferings. Yet this is what the text says: This King will be glorious, but after His death. This indicates that this King is different from an ordinary one, since He will begin His reign after death. Behold, My Servant shall prosper. He calls Him Servant as He did above (42:1 f.): “He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street.” There He is not just called Servant, as the monastics think, but He is a servant, that is, a minister of the Word, an apostle and an ambassador. What will this Servant do? He shall prosper. The Hebrew word יַשְׂכִּיל⁸ means to act wisely, to be able to deal circumspectly with a matter. They are said to act wisely who carry an important and extremely dangerous matter through to its conclusion in such a way that they nowhere do violence to it. The political ruler needs this wisdom to take note of all dangers, beware of all snares, and bring everything to a successful conclusion. So Matt. 10:16 reads: “Be wise as serpents.” Now, the serpent is a shrewd animal, involving itself in violence and craftiness. Summary: It is incumbent upon the wise man not to rule by violence, not to ram his head through, but in the midst of an even desperate situation to see it through gently and bring everything to an orderly conclusion. Thus Christ will find an exceedingly involved situation. This affair will be imposed on Him in a way to make His task seem entirely impossible, and yet He will handle the matter so successfully that He will dispose of it without force and without danger. He has accomplished it wisely and without noise. This is the meaning of My Servant shall prosper. Before this no such person was found, although David is called a שֵׂכֶל, that is, a man wise in the Scriptures (1 Chron. 22:12). Summary: “My Servant will not be turbulent, as you hitherto acted under the Law with violence, but His ministry is supremely pleasant and joyful, and He handles everything in the gentlest manner, offending and hurting no one. Such sagacity is the very opposite of every kind of force and tyranny on the part of authorities. Then, when His first office and ministry have been accomplished, He will be in glory. He will bring it about that even in this life He will arrive at glory after many people have been gathered to Him.” But I understand it simply in this way: Here, in the time of his earthly life, He will be Servant. After death He will be Lord. In His life He will be the most prudent Servant”  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 215-216).

“Isaiah 63:9. In His love He carried them. Here belong all the stories of Exodus, the Judges, etc., where because of His mercy God carried them and consoled them in every difficulty.

10. They, however, provoked Him to wrath. The most ungrateful men have always embittered Him in response to His great blessings. Thus they murmured at the Red Sea, they murmured that they did not have food and water, they were always ungrateful to God. Thus the flesh does nothing good unless it is compelled. Therefore evil conditions of slavery are necessary in the world, and for that reason He always harassed them through the Amorites, etc. Yet always He remembered the days of old, the days of Abraham, Moses, and David, to whom He had given the promise that they should not perish but have peace and a perpetual kingdom. Thence He is moved not so much by our cries as by our reminders of His covenant and His promises. Therefore what He demanded of us is in place, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble” (Ps. 50:15). Hence Scripture always says “for My sake,” in order to exclude boasting. He comes to our aid because of His promise in order to crush our pride.

Since, however, He has heard so many times before, however much they were sinners and embittered Him, yet He always pardons and hears, if only they will acknowledge themselves sinners against their conscience. Then He consoles us that He will come also to our rescue in afflictions, and when we are oppressed, we must cry. But this calls for Christians who must continue to pray for God’s help beyond their sins by which they have angered God. Therefore He urges and places His person in the midst of the Babylonian captivity, where because of their distress people may cry to the Lord for help. But sin contradicts and tries to stop the mouth. However, one must break through beyond the consciousness of sin to implore God for His help, though the Holy Spirit is not with us or, if He is, He is present in secret. So much skill it takes to approach the Lord”  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 358).