Isaiah

Isaiah 26

• Isaiah 26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
• 2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
• 3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

These prophetic words refer to the reign of Christ upon the earth. God Himself will provide safety around Jerusalem. The gates will be open to all the righteous nations that keep truth. This is the goal, the final dawn, the great day and time of TRUE peace on the earth.

Verse three is a comfort to all believers. We will be kept in perfect peace when we trust the Lord and when our minds are kept upon the Lord continually. Whether we are living in good times or times of trouble and persecution, we can have perfect peace if we put our deepest trust in the Lord.

Living for God is not a one-time event. It is a continual fellowship and walk with Him. If we forsake the worship of God and stop seeking Him, then the promises of perfect peace and stability are not automatically ours. It is ours only if our minds is stayed on Him and trust in Him.

• Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
• 5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

Those that are persecuted for trusting in God can take comfort because in the end the proud that rises against the people of God will be laid to the ground. They will not prevail.

No evil purposes will prevail. Anything that is against the Word of God will come to nothing. Only His word will stand and those that believe in His word shall stand also. Eternal life and living in the eternal kingdom of God comes only to believers in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God coming in the flesh to show mankind the way of salvation. Only by faith in Him can we possibly have that salvation. It is the plan of God to redeem mankind from the fall. All mankind has fallen into sin. All have sinned. We are all destined to be lost.

We will be lost without the blood of Jesus Christ covering our sins. In order to receive this we must recognize our need to be saved. We must acknowledge that we have sinned and are in need of a savior. When we turn to Jesus Christ, we then become born again by the Spirit. His Holy Spirit is given to us to abide with us continually so that we are not alone. Old things are then passed away and we become a new creature in Christ.

If you see any that return to their old sins and begin to follow in their old ways then they have either fallen away from their first love and calling or else they never really received Christ in their lives to start with.

This is the reason you will see many who claim to know Christ and still be cruel, full of hate, unforgiving, greedy, full of pride, holier than thou, self-righteous etc. Simply because they either were not saved from sin in the first place or else they have left their first love and did not continue in fellowship and worship of the Lord. It is a continual thing, not a one-time event. We cannot eat once and expect it to be sufficient to last all our lives. We must eat good foods continually to live.

To be an effectual believer in the Lord, we must abide with Him continually. His word should be daily studied. Prayer should be the first thing we do in the morning before anything else and the last thing we do before retiring for the night. As we can't expect a marriage to survive without continual fellowship and devotion to one another, we can't expect our relationship to God to continue if we never have anything to do with Him after we are first saved from sin. Faith has to do with our salvation most of all. We believe He is continually with us and not allow unbelief to return. Jesus said that those that believe in Him shall have eternal life.  Keeping believing, stay strong and never stop believing His presence is near.

This does not mean that when we go through times of trial and our faith wavers a little, that we are lost and not saved. We do not want to teach once saved always saved but we don't want to go the opposite extreme and teach that every little mistake can cause us to be lost either.

• Isaiah 26:6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
• 7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
• 8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

In the reign of Christ there will be righteousness. There will be no evil or rebellion. Many of us are waiting for this day to come. This should be our desire continually. To see the Lord's coming.

• Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Our desire should be to seek Him always. To seek His return, to seek His salvation, to seek to be filled with His Spirit, to be filled with His love and to worship Him always. Our love for our neighbors has to come from the Lord. In ourselves we cannot do this. By abiding and yielding to God's Holy Spirit we can become people that love instead of having to battle hate, resentment, lack of forgiveness, harshness and jealousy.

• Isaiah 26:10 Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

There are some wicked who will not receive the Lord and His salvation no matter how kind and good we are to them. They do not fear the Lord and do not want to walk in His ways. Sadly there are those who would rather hold on to their sins and prefer unbelief to righteousness.

• Isaiah 26:11 LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

Their end is destruction and shame and they will be devoured.

• Isaiah 26:12 LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
• 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.

God will be supreme and will not share His glory with another. He will reign supreme.

• Isaiah 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.

Others who claim to be God or who have desired the worship of man; turning man away from the true God, will not live. They are in hell. Idols of course will be destroyed forever. There is only one God. That is God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who will reign forever. Jesus existed before the creation of the world. We see Him in the New Testament born in the flesh by Mary the one chosen of God to bring Jesus into human flesh. He existed with the Father long before that. He is actually God in the flesh. Emmanuel means "God with us." There was no other way for God to reveal Himself to us. He had to come Himself in the flesh and show us the way of salvation.

God gave mankind dominion over the earth. When man sinned he actually gave his dominion over to Satan. Satan became the god of this world. In order to get the dominion of the world back into the hands of man, God had to come in the flesh and become a man Himself thereby being the only natural man to not rebel against God and sin. When Jesus was crucified, He suffered the "wages of sin" death. Since He did not deserve this death because He did not sin, His death could count for all who believe. By faith in Him we can receive what He did for us and receive eternal life.

His death "which He did not deserve," served another purpose. He now had the authority to take back the dominion over the earth and reign continually. This will He do at His second coming. Men have tried to rule the world before Him but they will not prevail, (only temporarily), they will be cut off. Jesus is the only man who has the right to rule and any He appoints to serve with Him. He was the only man that did not sin and disobey God. He is actually the second Adam who came to undo the damage that the first Adam did when he disobeyed God.

• Isaiah 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.
• 16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
• 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.

We return here to the state of the world before the coming of Christ. It is pictured as being similar to a woman who is in labor and struggling to bring forth a newborn baby. The whole earth travails in pain and is reeling in despair. We need our God to save us.

• Isaiah 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.

This further described the state of the earth before the coming of the Lord. A literal mess. But there is hope in Jesus Christ.

• Isaiah 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 .

I love reading the Old Testament descriptions of the resurrection. The dead shall rise again.

Another place is in Daniel 12

• "2 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.
• 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."

This shows that some will be saved and some will be punished in everlasting contempt.

In the New Testament, we see 1000 years separating these two resurrections although in the Old Testament they appear to be one event. We are reminded however that to the prophet they appear to be one event. He does not see the valley of 1000 years separating the two events.

In Revelation we see two events:

• Revelation 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
• 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
• 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
• 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
• 5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
• 6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
• 7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
• 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
• 9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
• 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
• 11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
• 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
• 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

By faith in Christ, we can be part of that First resurrection.

• Isaiah 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.
• 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.

This part will happen before reign of Christ. He will come in judgment and rid the earth of evil. The tribulation period right before His Second coming seems to be indicated here.

We should only fear these events if we are not ready to meet the Lord. We don't have to fear them. We can be ready by receiving Jesus Christ as savior and Lord. Repent and turn from sin and the old nature and be "Born Again" by His Spirit which means regeneration from above by the spirit of God. This offer of salvation is to all who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. DC

Isaiah 27

Isaiah Index