22 This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“See, I will beckon to the nations,
    I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms
    and carry your daughters on their hips.
23 Kings will be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;
    they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

24 Can plunder be taken from warriors,
    or captives be rescued from the fierce?

25 But this is what the Lord says:

“Yes, captives will be taken from warriors,
    and plunder retrieved from the fierce;
I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and your children I will save.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
    they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.
Then all mankind will know
    that I, the Lord, am your Saviour,
    your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

There will be a day when the whole world will bow with reverence before the God of Israel, who is also the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil.2:5-11). They will also have an appropriate respect for God’s people. For ourselves, we need to know that the Lord is infinitely trustworthy (23b) and He will bring all of this about in His own way and time. As the hymn says, ‘He is not a disappointment.’ He does not disappoint those who look to Him in faith.

Looking back to the preceding verses (14-21), Barry Webb says, ”This, of course, means that the rest of the world has a decision to make. They can co-operate with God by blessing his people (22-23), or they can defy him by continuing to persecute them (24-26). They can share in the blessing God intends to bestow on his people, or they can entirely cut themselves off from it. But they cannot claim any relationship with God that bypasses identification with his people. Saul of Tarsus, centuries later, was to have this truth impressed on him directly by the risen Jesus. His response was to lay down his arms and become the servant of those he had laboured so determinedly to destroy – and be blessed along with them!’ (Isaiah, p.197).

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40).