No covenants with deathThe people ignored Isaiah's warnings. Worse, they mocked him. "Who is he trying to teach?" they asked. "Little babies? Do this! Do that! Here a little, there a little." They trusted their priests, the drunks! And their false prophets who preached peace when there was no peace. Assyrians? What Assyrians? They trusted their "covenant with death." This phrase probably refers to a treaty Judah had just struck with Egypt. Why does Isaiah call Egypt "death"? Perhaps because of how preoccupied the Egyptians were with death Long ago the events of Isaiah 28 played out, vindicating Isaiah and punishing his detractors. What difference does it make to us in modern times? Don't we in our self-confidence make covenants with death? We consult actuarial tables or calculate the longevity of our forebears and conclude we have 10, 20, or 50 years left. We quickly mute the news reports of children drowning in the lake, or teens killed in a crash, or a young father cut down by a heart attack. We assume that our covenant with death will be honored, that we will do it all before we pass away "well advanced in years and full of days." One evangelist keeps a scrapbook of death notices, classified according to age. At just the right moment, this man opens the scrapbook, begins leafing through it, and asks his student, "Now, how old did you say you are?" Then he lets the sinner read about the death of someone his or her own age. Death is the great interrupter, the great spoiler of those whose plans do not include God. God Himself will annul whatever covenant with death we think we have. Only Jesus can remove the sting of death and vanquish the last Enemy. |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?Paul uses the Greek noun kentron "sting, goad" when he lays out the relationship between the law, sin, and death: "Now the sting of death is sin, but the power of sin is the law" (1 Cor. 15:56). In only three other verses of the New Testament does this word occur. In Acts 26:14, Paul reports how in a vision Christ confronted him, telling him, "It is hard for you to kick against the goad." Christ was suggesting Saul of Tarsus, the anti-Christian persecutor, that he was a stubborn ox that refused to go the way his owner would have guided him. When an ox does this, the owner jabs it on its flanks with a sharp stick--he "stings" it. A vision in Revelation pictures locusts swarming in and torturing people because they have stingers like scorpions (Rev. 9:10). The only other use of kentron is 1 Cor. 15:55, the verse immediately before the "sting of death is sin" verse, which itself is a quotation from the Old Testament: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (from Hosea 13:14). Paul answers these two questions, first by identifying sin as the sting of death and the "power" of sin, or what makes the sting deadly--its poison--is the law. The law is what brings sinners into confrontation with the God of holiness and estranges them, alienates them, makes them God's enemies, subject to His wrath. But Paul does not stop there, because he goes on to speak of the victory: :But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57). Sin, empowered by the law, kills. But the victory does not belong to death. That same verse in Hosea says, "I [the LORD] will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death." Paul saw this as a messianic prophecy, speaking of Christ, our ransom and our redeemer. We sin, yes. We suffer death's sting. But death does not conquer us who commit our lives to following Jesus. He gives us the victory. He snatches us from the jaws of defeat.
Andrew Murray. The Blood of Christ (new ed., 2001). What do the old hymns mean when they speak of power? Join beloved author Andrew Murray as he examines what it represents in the life of every believer. With his classic, devotional style he'll take you step by step through Scripture to discover the powerful promises God offers in this awe-inspiring doctrine. Featuring updated language for modern readers, this volume contains "The Power of the Blood of Jesus" and "The Blood of the Cross." Recommended for online reading: Edward Thompson. "1 Cor. 15:55: 'O death, where is thy victory?'" sermon 7 (116-138) in his Sermons for the Use of Families (1838). |
and the afterlife. Perhaps Egypt boasted her army meant death for all opponents. Perhaps Isaiah was ironic, exposing their hope for salvation as really their doom. Isaiah predicted that God would annul their "covenant with death," and leave them as helpless before the Assyrians as wheat before a thresher.
