Isaiah 26:12-21
Isa 26:12
LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast
wrought all our works in us.
One of the greatest gifts which comes with salvation is
the fact that when a person becomes saved they are no longer an enemy of God but
are now at peace with him.
Therefore being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)
As a result of having peace with God we also are given the peace of God
which rules in our hearts and brings stability to the Christian walk and we are
able to have peace in the most dire circumstances.
And the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) It has
been reported by some of the Roman historians and Emperors that when the
Christians were being torn apart in the Coliseum, they were not looking at the
lions but were looking up as if they were seeing something.
Could they have been seeing the Lord Jesus Christ as Stephen did?
The works could be of two possibilities, the first one is the works which
the true believers did back in ancient Israel or the works which God did among
the nation of Israel when he freed them from Egypt and prospered them in the
land of Canaan.
Isa 26:13
O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had
dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
Isaiah then brings to mind that at various times in the
history of ancient Israel they have been ruled over by various lords which would
include Pharaoh, Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian kings, Philistines,
Edomites, etc. but all these ruled over them because they were given into their
hands by God in response to their sinful lives.
They departed from the true God and took up the worship of the false gods
and God judged them accordingly.
Then it is only through the true spiritual indwelling of the true believer that
they will be able to mention the name of the LORD.
The unbeliever will never mention the name of the LORD in a good light
but will always speak in a condemning tone but only those who are truly saved
will speak kindly of the LORD.
Isa 26:14
They are dead, they shall not live; they are
deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them,
and made all their memory to perish.
Now Isaiah gives the reality of the present state of
those evil lords who took Israel into captivity and caused them much grief by
invading their lands and pillaging it.
Each one of them are deceased and will never rise again to cause Israel
such problems. God has visited them
and destroyed them along with their ungodly kingdoms.
For the living know that they
shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward;
for the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
The memories of them have perished because evil people are never
remembered in a good way and therefore the people rejoice when the wicked cease
to be. Then on the last day the
ultimate evil ruler will be destroyed and never to rise again and that will be
Satan who did nothing but attack and harass the children of God on earth but
will be remembered no more.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a
new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. (Isaiah
65:17)
Isa 26:15
Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast
increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far
unto all the ends of the earth.
Then Isaiah gives a history of Israel in Egypt.
They had started out with seventy going to Egypt with Jacob and when they
were freed from bondage, they were about two million.
God increased their number exponentially.
Now the other great nation which has grown greatly over the years is the
true church of God. It started with
twelve disciples that the Lord had chosen when he was here and now God has
increased it to millions as it continued to grow all over the earth.
Keep in mind there were many saved before the time of the cross such as
David and Abraham and others but Pentecost was the beginning of the final
evangelization of the world. It was
to the glory of God that the church increased because the Holy Spirit indwells
every true believer and now every true believer is a witness to the world and
the glories that stream from God.
But ye
are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
light: (1 Peter 2:9)
Isa 26:16
LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out
a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Whenever Israel was in trouble whether owing to their own
sins or just an enemy who wanted to conquer them, they would turn to the LORD.
This was explicitly shown in the book of Judges when they would play the
harlot with false religions and then when God gave them into the hands of their
enemies, they would cry out to him and he would deliver them.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times they were chastised, they never
learned to be obedient on a permanent basis.
They got comfortable and started their sinful cycle all over again.
God chastened them but did not make a full end to them because they still
had a purpose to bring forth the Messiah in about 700 years.
Isa 26:17
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the
time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we
been in thy sight, O LORD.
As a woman who gives birth will be in extreme pain to the
point that she will physically yell out is compared to what Judah has and will
experience if they continue to walk opposite of the LORD and depart from him
which they eventually did. They
would cry out for deliverance because they were in the pain of oppression and
God would deliver them and bring them back again until the next time they would
sin against him in a national way, which is country wide.
Isa 26:18
We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as
it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth;
neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Here Isaiah is telling what Judah has done.
They were with child and brought forth the child but the problem is that
there was no child only wind. In
other words, all their hopes and expectations would be nothing more than the
wind because they sought deliverance and prosperity by their hands apart from
the LORD. They were unable to
deliver themselves because the LORD had to do it.
The LORD allowed them to go into captivity or be attacked by the enemy
such as the Assyrian invasion in 701 B.C.
They could not muster any deliverance as they were too weak to fight but
only gained deliverance through the LORD.
Judah was to face some more of the world’s evil men before the Messiah
would be born as Satan’s attempt to keep him from being born into this world.
God would protect the royal line from which Christ would be born.
At this time the Assyrians had not yet been conquered by the Babylonians.
Isa 26:19
Thy dead men shall live, together with my
dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew
is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
The dead men who live are those who became saved.
They go from a point of being spiritually dead to being made spiritually
alive.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses; (Colossians 2:13)
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
(Romans 6:13)
Then we factor in the second part of that phrase “together
with my dead body shall they arise” we can see the guarantee of the
resurrection of the believers on the last day when our souls will be reunited
with our bodies that will be made anew so we can be in the presence of God and
not be consumed. Daniel confirms
this teaching.
And many of them that sleep in the dust
of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt.
(Daniel 12:2) All the true
believers will be resurrected on the last day and as the dew falls on the herbs
that refreshes and revives them, so will the believer be resurrected to a new
life upon a new earth where righteousness dwells.
There will be no more death because the earth will give up all the dead
and death will not be a part of the new creation.
Isa 26:20
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut
thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the
indignation be overpast.
Until the time of the resurrection of all the believers
on the last day, the true believers are counseled to enter into their chambers
and shut the doors behind them.
This would indicate that they are to remove themselves from all evil influences
and to insulate themselves from the wicked systems of the world which could
cause them to stray. They are to
hide themselves, that is, to quarantine themselves from the sickness of sin
which infects the entire world.
Those who have been delivered from sin should not seek to go back into it.
The indignation will be past when the last named one is saved and then
the end shall come for this world and Satan’s kingdom.
Little children, it is the last
time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many
antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18)
John speaks about the whole New Testament period as the last time.
The word “time” may also be understood as “hour.”
This is why Isaiah calls it a “little moment.”
From God’s point of view it is over already.
And hath raised
us up together, and made
us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus:
(Ephesians 2:6)
Isa 26:21
For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish
the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose
her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.