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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Isaiah 26 A
Song Of Praise (ch. 26:1 - 21)
Verse 1 begins with
"in that day". The
obvious question is, "what day is Isaiah talking about"?
I believe there can only be one of two answers.
"That day" either refers to the day when Jesus returns to
earth and rules for a thousand years, or, it refers to the time at the end
of the book of Revelation where we see the new heaven and new earth.
If I am going to be consistent with what I've been saying in the
last few chapters, I would have to say this concerns the new earth. "In that day a song
will be sung in Judah".
If this is the time of
the new earth, then the strong city spoken of here would be the New
Jerusalem. If you feel Isaiah
is speaking of the thousand year rule of Christ, the city would be present
day Jerusalem. Verse 2 talks about the
gates of the city not being shut so righteous nations could enter. If you
read Revelation 21:23 to 25 you will see these same words.
Thus, another reason why I believe this passage speaks of the New
Jerusalem on the new earth. Verse 3 is a real
Biblical truth. If we keep our
minds on Jesus, He will keep us in perfect inner peace.
We will not always have outer peace as we live in this world, but
there is a good measure of inner peace available in Jesus.
Note that the Apostle Paul quotes this verse in Philippians 4:5 and
6. In verse 4 Isaiah is
speaking directly to those this prophecy was meant for.
He tells them, and us, to trust in the Lord because He is an
eternal Rock. This means that
God is steadfast, faithful, strong, and will fulfill all that Isaiah is
speaking of. In light of all these
good things to come Isaiah continues his admonition in verse 5 to be
humble, for those who aren't humble will be struck down to the ground.
They and the nations they live in will be crushed by the very
people who ruthless nations oppress. So,
the oppressive nations we see in the world will have their day of
judgment. You can count on
that. The upright One in verse
7 would have been understood as Yahweh to Isaiah, but today, we can better
understand Him to be the Lord Jesus Christ, Yahweh in human glorified
flesh. I say "glorified flesh" because Jesus isn't God in
"human flesh" as He was when He walked this earth.
He now exists in a glorified resurrected body. Isaiah says that the Lord
makes the "way of the righteous smooth".
When reading about the first century Christians in the New
Testament you might wonder what this really means. "Was Paul's life
smooth"? I say it was
pretty rough. That being said,
in the end of all things, the upright One will make all things smooth as
seen in the new earth, the context these words are written in.
This passage in Isaiah,
like other parts of his prophetic writing, reads very much like the
Psalms. This chapter is one of
those chapters that reads like the Psalms and it's seen in the next few
verses, as well as the last few verses.
Verses 8 and 9 look very similar to Psalm 63. Waiting for the Lord and
what He has planned with the new heaven and new earth is the desire of
Isaiah's heart. It should be
the desire of our hearts. The
problem emerges in our lives when we love the ways of this world more than
the ways of God. When we love
this world, we don't have this desire in our hearts as Isaiah has here.
Verse 9 is almost exactly
as David says in Psalm 63:1 and 2. Isaiah's
heart and soul yearns for his Lord. It's
my thinking that which is called church in the western world is so far
removed from God and His ways that what we think we have is what God wants
for us. That is far from the
truth as can be. Because we do
not yearn for the Lord we can't see that which is called church isn't the
church that Jesus wants. In
simple terms, we cannot love the Lord when we're in love with the world. Some might think the last
part of verse 9 speaks of the time when Jesus rules from We often hear the phrase
"do unto others as you would have them do unto you" in the hopes
that because of your kindness towards them they will be kind towards you.
This is always the outcome of us being kind to others.
Just because you are nice to others doesn't mean others will be
nice to you. This is what
Isaiah is getting at in verse 10. He
says that God shows the wicked grace but they don't learn to be righteous.
They don't regard the Lord. The
greatest demonstration of love seen by humanity is the cross of Christ and
it is defamed on a daily basis around the world.
In verse 11 when Isaiah
says that God's hand is lifted high, I understand this to speak of God's
judgment. His hand his lifted
high and ready to strike the wicked, but then Isaiah says that the wicked
don't see it. How true.
I believe God's hand is lifted high today but few actually see it.
Obviously the secular, even pagan, world around us doesn't see it. You can see Isaiah's zeal
in the last half of verse 11. He
really wants God's zeal concerning judgment to be seen by the world and he
desperately wants the wicked to burn on fire, a mentality that is quite
unacceptable in today's so-called tolerant world. In
verse 12 Isaiah acknowledges that fact that true peace is only found in
the Lord God of the Bible. Peace
is available to us, but not apart from the Lord. It might be hard to say
who the pronoun "us" refers to in verse 13.
It could well refer to Verse 14 is often quoted
in support of the annihilation of humanity, which means the wicked only
are in the Depending on how you view
this chapter will determine what nation is being talked about here.
It's either the nation of Throughout the Bible
giving birth is used idiomatically concerning end time events.
In Matthew 24 Jesus speaks of "birth pangs" as this
present age comes to an end. It's
used in this context in verses 17 and 18.
Again, I'm not sure who
the pronoun "we" refers to in verse 18.
Is it Israel
or is it the people of God in general in this present age?
Whatever the case, it appears that God's people have failed to give
birth to the community of God as was expected.
This was clearly true of Verse 19 clearly speaks
of the resurrection of the righteous when it says the "your
dead"; that's God's dead, will rise. Many prophetic futurists
see a pre-trib rapture in verse 20. God
tells His people to "go, and enter your room and shut the doors
behind you". Some
translations don't use the word "go" but "come", as in
"come up here in the room I've provided for you".
The room spoken of here would be the room Jesus spoke of in John
14:1. In that verse Jesus
speaks of preparing a place for His people in heaven and at some future
place He would return to bring them to the place He has prepared.
Many prophetic futurists see John 14:1 speaking of a pre-trib
rapture as well. I can see how people can
see this as a pre-trib rapture. Once
the people of God are in their rooms, with their doors shut up tight, God
says to stay there for a little while until His wrath passes.
The wrath spoken of here would be the wrath of God on an ungodly
world as seen in the Great Tribulation that ends this age.
Verse 21 goes right along
with this when Isaiah says, "see, the Lord is coming out of His
dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins".
This time of punishment is commonly called the Great Tribulation. I believe the last two
phrases that ends this chapter speak to the people of the earth no longer
hiding their evil deeds. All
will be exposed and judged.
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