Isaiah 25:6-9 - Hope Vindicated

In the Bible, sometimes heaven is referred to as a mountain, Mount Zion.

One prophecy describes what it will be like:

"6 The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain*; [NASB95] It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. 7 There he will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. 8 He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken!" (Isaiah 25:6-8, New Living Translation, 2015)  *Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem)

Just a few verses before, Isaiah had described how God had already rescued his people from evil and from evil people. But justice is not yet complete. Heaven is yet to come.

The very next verse makes this clear:

"IN THAT DAY [of heaven fully revealed] the people will proclaim, 'This is our God! We trusted in him, and he saved us! This is the Lord, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation he brings!'" (Isaiah 25:9, NLT) 

For millennia, people of God have waited all their lives for this. Yet in the end, they won't reproach God that it took so long for them to see heaven.* Rather, they'll rejoice. Their faith will be vindicated because the faithfulness of God will be vindicated. 

So as the prophet prayed,
"Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Lord, We have waited for You eagerly; Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls." And since we "hope for what we do not see," give us the "perseverance [to] wait eagerly for it." (Isaiah 26:8; Romans 8:25, NASB95) Amen.

* PS - There is an exception--or rather a clarification--to this patient waiting. See "Revelation 6:9-11 - Avengeance."