Unblinded

     Salvation is what Christians await! The Hebrew people did as well; not many, but at least the patriarchs who understood the Messiah much better than we do. Has God spoken to you? Maybe through Divine Inspiration, but certainly not aloud. Prophecy in the Old Testament was a foretelling of future events. Modern-day prophecy is revealing what has already been foretold. Today, we examine Isaiah's prophecy of salvation:

And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. 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. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. (Isa 25:7-9)

     Firstly, God will destroy the vail that has spread over all the nations.  "Vail" is a woven covering which will be lowered. Where have we read that before? "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom..." (Mat 27:51). The "vail" and the "veil" were the same thing!  That was the veil of the temple which was torn (Mark 15:38). The veil of the temple was the second curtain which covered the Most Holy Place (Heb 9:3).
     In the Old Testament only the ritually clean High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies to offer the annual sacrifice. It was believed to be beneath what is now the Dome of the Rock. Therein was a veil held by four pillars covering the Ark of the Covenant whereon God's presence was between two cherubim. Note that cherubim guarded God just as in Genesis 3:24 so that the "undeserving" could not enter in. Of course no one deserves God, but there is a password to God's presence - the Name Jesus. Not just the Name but Jesus's purpose. Matthew 27:51 was when Jesus's death tore down that veil and anyone, even without a priest, could see and commune with God.
     Isaiah saw God's death on the cross. He saw the vail/veil torn down. Isaiah knew Jesus before Jesus was ever born because he saw his death. It seemed that the vail was to conceal God's presence but it was really a cover to blind the nations.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (Cor 4:4).

     God's Shekinah was on the Ark of the Covenant. That is His Light or Presence. God had blinded the nations with that vail. They did not see Christ as Isaiah did. God shined His presence on Isaiah, and he (Isaiah) became one of the lively stones of the foundation on which the Church was built with Jesus the Cornerstone: "And are built (fellow citizens) upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephes 2:20).
     In Isaiah's vision, the vail was lowered so that everyone could see the Messiah. I like sacred literature. Isaiah had "bright eyes" because he saw through the vail. Those with bright eyes have "bright natures" because they know and trust Jesus first hand. Isaiah was revealing the source of Light which all men could someday see. Can you imagine how skeptical people interpreted this prophecy? They thought it meant the nation Israel but Isaiah was speaking to all the nations!
     Then Isaiah revealed why the veil was rent in two.  That will be examined tomorrow.