1. Why does Isaiah have appreciation for Jehovah?

ISAIAH has deep love for Jehovah and delights in praising him. He cries out: “O Jehovah, you are my God. I exalt you, I laud your name.” What helps the prophet to have such fine appreciation for his Creator? A major factor is his knowledge of Jehovah and of his activities. Isaiah’s next words reveal this knowledge: “For you have done wonderful things, counsels from early times, in faithfulness, in trustworthiness.” (Isaiah 25:1) Like Joshua before him, Isaiah knows that Jehovah is faithful and trustworthy and that all his “counsels”​—the things he purposes—​come true.​—Joshua 23:14.

2. What counsel of Jehovah does Isaiah now pronounce, and what may be the object of this counsel?

² The counsels of Jehovah include his judgment declarations against Israel’s enemies. Isaiah now pronounces one of these: “You have made a city a pile of stones, a fortified town a crumbling ruin, a dwelling tower of strangers to be no city, which will not be rebuilt even to time indefinite.” (Isaiah 25:2) What is this unnamed city? Isaiah may be referring to Ar of Moab​—Moab has long been at enmity with God’s people.a Or he may be referring to another, stronger city​—Babylon.​—Isaiah 15:1; Zephaniah 2:8, 9

3. In what way do Jehovah’s enemies glorify him?

³ How will Jehovah’s enemies react when his counsel against their strong city comes true? “Those who are a strong people will glorify you; the town of the tyrannical nations, they will fear you.” (Isaiah 25:3) It is understandable that the enemies of the almighty God will fear him. How, though, do they glorify him? Will they abandon their false gods and adopt pure worship? Hardly! Rather, like Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, they glorify Jehovah when they are compelled to recognize his overwhelming superiority.​—Exodus 10:16, 17; 12:30-33; Daniel 4:37.

4. What “town of the tyrannical nations” exists today, and how does even she have to glorify Jehovah?

⁴ Today “the town of the tyrannical nations” is “the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth,” namely, “Babylon the Great,” the world empire of false religion. (Revelation 17:5, 18) The principal part of this empire is Christendom. How do the religious leaders of Christendom glorify Jehovah? By bitterly conceding the wonderful things he has accomplished in behalf of his Witnesses. Particularly in 1919 when Jehovah restored his servants to dynamic activity after their release from spiritual captivity to Babylon the Great, these leaders “became frightened and gave glory to the God of heaven.”​—Revelation 11:13.b

5. How does Jehovah protect those who have absolute confidence in him?

⁵ Although fearsome when viewed by his enemies, Jehovah is a refuge to the meek and humble who want to serve him. Religious and political tyrants may try everything to break the faith of true worshipers, but they fail because these have absolute confidence in Jehovah. Eventually, he easily silences his opposers, doing so as if he were covering the burning desert sun with a cloud or blocking the force of a rainstorm with a wall.​—Read Isaiah 25:4, 5.

‘A Banquet for All the Peoples’

6, 7. (a) What kind of feast does Jehovah spread, and for whom? (b) What does the banquet prophesied by Isaiah foreshadow?

⁶ Like a loving father, Jehovah not only protects but also feeds his children, especially in a spiritual way. After liberating his people in 1919, he set before them a victory banquet, an abundant supply of spiritual food: “Jehovah of armies will certainly make for all the peoples, in this mountain, a banquet of well-oiled dishes, a banquet of wine kept on the dregs, of well-oiled dishes filled with marrow, of wine kept on the dregs, filtered.”​—Isaiah 25:6.

⁷ The banquet is spread in Jehovah’s “mountain.” What is this mountain? It is “the mountain of the house of Jehovah” to which all nations stream “in the final part of the days.” It is Jehovah’s “holy mountain,” where his faithful worshipers do no harm and cause no ruin. (Isaiah 2:2; 11:9) In this elevated place of worship, Jehovah spreads his lush banquet for faithful ones. And the spiritual good things now supplied so generously foreshadow the physical good things that will be provided when God’s Kingdom becomes the sole government of mankind. Then hunger will be no more. “There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth; on the top of the mountains there will be an overflow.”​—Psalm 72:8, 16.

8, 9. (a) What two great enemies of mankind will be removed? Explain. (b) What will God do to remove the reproach of his people?

⁸ Those who now partake of the divinely provided spiritual feast have glorious prospects. Listen to Isaiah’s next words. Comparing sin and death to a suffocating “woven work,” or “envelopment,” he says: “In this mountain [Jehovah] will certainly swallow up the face of the envelopment that is enveloping over all the peoples, and the woven work that is interwoven upon all the nations. He will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces.”​—Isaiah 25:7, 8a.

⁹ Yes, no more sin and death! (Revelation 21:3, 4) Moreover, the lying reproach that Jehovah’s servants have endured for thousands of years will also be done away with. “The reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Jehovah himself has spoken it.” (Isaiah 25:8b) How will this happen? Jehovah will remove the source of that reproach, Satan and his seed. (Revelation 20:1-3) Little wonder that God’s people will be moved to exclaim: “Look! This is our God. We have hoped in him, and he will save us. This is Jehovah. We have hoped in him. Let us be joyful and rejoice in the salvation by him.”​—Isaiah 25:9.

The Haughty Are Abased

10, 11. What harsh treatment does Jehovah reserve for Moab?

¹⁰ Jehovah saves those of his people who manifest humility. However, Israel’s neighbor Moab is proud, and Jehovah detests pride. (Proverbs 16:18) Moab, therefore, is slated for humiliation. “The hand of Jehovah will settle down on this mountain, and Moab must be trodden down in its place as when a straw heap is trodden down in a manure place. And he must slap out his hands in the midst of it as when a swimmer slaps them out to swim, and he must abase its haughtiness with the tricky movements of his hands. And the fortified city, with your high walls of security, he must lay low; he must abase it, bring it into contact with the earth, to the dust.”​—Isaiah 25:10-12.

¹¹ Jehovah’s hand will “settle down” protectively on his holy mountain. However, haughty Moab is to be slapped and trodden down as “in a manure place.” In Isaiah’s time, straw is trampled into piles of dung to make fertilizer; so Isaiah foretells humiliation for Moab, despite her high, seemingly secure walls.

12. Why is Moab singled out for Jehovah’s judgment declaration?

¹² Why does Jehovah single out Moab for such harsh counsel? The Moabites are descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham and a worshiper of Jehovah. Thus, they are not only neighbors of God’s covenant nation but also relatives. Despite this, they have adopted false gods and manifested hard-set enmity toward Israel. They deserve their fate. In this, Moab is like the enemies of Jehovah’s servants today. She is especially like Christendom, which claims to have roots in the first-century Christian congregation but which, as seen earlier, is the principal part of Babylon the Great.

[Pictures on page 275]

“A banquet of well-oiled dishes”