In my last post, we continued exploring The Lord’s Judgment of the Whole Earth ~ Part 4 in Yesha’yahu 26:1-10. In this post, we move on to The Lord’s Judgment of the Whole Earth ~ Part 5 in Yesha’yahu 26:11-21.
11 Adonai, You raised Your hand, but they still didn’t see. Yet with shame, they will see Your zeal for the people. Yes, fire will destroy your enemies.
Adonai’s upraised hand is an image of the imminent judgment against the wicked. Even though people seem to be blind to the grace and goodness of Adonai, Yesha’yahu prophesies that they’ll see. People will see His grace and goodness through their life as we continue to praise Him even while navigating trials and difficulties. The way Adonai strengthens you blesses you and stabilizes you can’t be denied.
12 Adonai, you will grant us peace; because all we have done, You have done for us.
Contrary to the fate of the wicked, Adonai’s righteous people will experience peace, not destruction. While it is hard to pinpoint the exact nature of the prophet’s reference to Adonai’s work, it certainly includes the punishment of the wicked.
When Yeshua declared, It is finished, (John 19:30) we are assured of peace as Believers and paid for it on the Execution Stake at Calvary.
13 Adonai our God, other lords besides you have ruled us, but only You do we invoke by name.
The faithful acknowledge that other lords have ruled over them. For the Isra’eli that would include the Ashurim and eventually the Bavelim and others. For ourselves, that would consist of our elected officials. However, for the faithful, there is only one true ruler – Adonai Himself.
14 The dead will not live again; the ghosts will not rise again; for You punished and destroyed them, wiped out all memory of them.
A contrast exists between this statement and verse 19. In this verse, the wicked dead stay dead. Adonai’s judgment will not be reversed. What separates Yeshua from all other gods? All other gods are dead. The uniqueness of Yeshua is based upon the fact that He’s alive. He verified His deity by His Resurrection. He proved His claims by coming out of the grave.
15 You enlarged the nation, Adonai, You enlarged the nation; and thus You glorified Yourself; You extended all the frontiers of the country.
In contrast to the wicked whom He punishes, Adonai blesses the righteous. In this verse, His blessing takes the form of an expanded land, evoking the memory that Adonai promised Avraham his descendants would become a great nation (Genesis 12:2).
16 Adonai, when they were troubled, they sought You. When you chastened them, they poured out a silent prayer. 17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth cries out and writhes in her labor pains, so we have been at your presence, Adonai – 18 we have been pregnant and been in pain. But we, as it were, have given birth to wind; we have not brought salvation to the land, and those inhabiting the world have not come to life.
Turning from the future back to the present, Adonai’s people experienced suffering similar to the excruciating pain of a woman in labor. A pregnant woman goes through that pain with a positive result at the end – a baby.
It’s when we’re hurting that we most often find ourselves praying. We tend to avoid pain at any price. In reality, our Father usually allows us to go through painful situations because it is in those times that we cry out to Him. Prayerlessness is often the result of painlessness. If we never have pain, we will be hampered in our ability to pray.
However, Adonai’s people went through the pain and simply passed gas (gave birth to wind). There was no deliverance, no victory over enemies.
19 Your dead will live, my corpse will rise; awake, and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the morning dew, and the earth will bring the ghosts to life.
Only in Daniel 12:2 does the Tanakh refer to bodily resurrection. In contrast to the wicked who die and stay dead (v. 14), Adonai’s people will live again. Virtually all scholars say this is a reference to what took place in Matthew 27 when, following the death of Yeshua on the execution stake, graves were opened, and many people in Jerusalem who had previously died were resurrected. It is a beautiful, prophetic picture of what will one day happen to all believers.
The morning dew is an image of freshness and renewal.
20 Come, my people, enter your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past. 21 For see! Adonai emerges from His place to punish those on earth for their sin. Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer conceal its slain. ~ Isaiah 26:11-21 (CJB)
The call to hide during the judgment is reminiscent of the first Passover when Adonai’s people stayed in their homes while Adonai took the lives of the Egyptian firstborn (Exodus 12).
In my next post, we will conclude our exploration of The Lord’s Judgment of the Whole Earth ~ Part 6 in Yesha’yahu 27.
My Heart is for Israel 