Truth Encounter

Dave’s Devo: Death’s Shroud Isaiah 25:1-8

“Dave, I need your help. Could you come down to the funeral home? I’ve done all I can especially in the facial area to the make the body presentable, but this was a bad crash. I’d like your input before I have the family come for the viewing.”

The horrible wreck happened at the worst time, during the Christmas/New Year break near the DFW airport, and the deadly result of the crash left a young widow and her little girls devastated. When I entered the embalming area, my mortician friend asked if I was ready and then pulled back the sheet. The powerful sledgehammer of death never loses its strength. I still cringe remembering such a blow to this young family.

Will there ever be a time when morticians will not pull back the sheet because the shroud of death is gone forever?

“O LORD, you are my God! I will raise you high: I will praise your name!
For you work wonders, plans made long before, plans that are substantive and dependable. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin.
The foreigner’s impregnable town and castle is a city no longer; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore even powerful people will have to treat you with importance.
The city of the nations that struck terror will have to fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold for the needy in pressured times, a shelter from the driving rains and a shade from the heat; for the terrifying breath of the ruthless is like tempest ponding against a wall, like heat in a drought. The roar of the invading foreigners you subdued. The war song of the ruthless will be put down, silenced.
On this mountain the LORD of Armies will make for all the people a banquet of rich food, of aged fine wine, refined and purified. And he will swallow up on this mountain the facial covering laid over the face of all the people, the shroud spread over all the nations. He, the LORD, will swallow up death forever; and the Master, the LORD will wipe the tears away from all the faces. He will remove the taunts of his people’s enemies from all the earth. Count on it because the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 25:1-8

Isaiah’ prophetic vision looks into the future. He sees a time when powerful, ruthless generals will no longer be able to crush people and cities, when the weak and vulnerable won’t be devastated by partial judges where justice is dispensed based on the money you can pay.

In Jerusalem, God’s Holy Mountain, now the capital of his kingdom, the Sovereign Almighty I AM will take away that shroud that none of us is strong enough to remove. Death will be eternally destroyed.

When Mary and I enjoy rich prime rib with precious friends, I know that it is only a taste of the banquets my Heavenly Father will forever invite us to enjoy because of Jesus.

LORD, continue to be a husband and father to that family who faced such devastating loss so many years ago. Thanks that the Apostle John tells us even more about your heavenly city that comes down to a new earth, a place where you will tenderly wipe the tears from our eyes and banish death forever. The shroud will be gone and laid aside just as your Son laid aside the covering over his face when he rose.

Of course, Jesus teaches us to put family first or does he? "Father Abraham Had Many Sons" this week on

Truth Encounter with Dave Wyrtzen Combining pastoral ministry with college and seminary teaching, Dave Wyrtzen, through Truth Encounter, challenges you weekly to understand Gods redemptive story

Who actually created families and what does he reveal about what their purpose should be? "The Tale Of Two Sons" today on www.truthencounter.com.