Isaiah 26:16
The Bible says in Isaiah 26:16-21, “LORD, in
trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening
was upon them. 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 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. 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. 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. 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.” There are many sources from which
suffering can come. Some people cause their own suffering because of foolish
decisions. Other suffering comes as a consequence to sin. God punishes sin
because He is the Judge of the whole earth. God’s chastisement is something to
avoid because of how painful it can be. His chastisement can be, “like as a
woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain,
and crieth out in her pangs.” There are two ways to avoid such
painful chastisements. The first way and the surest way to avoid God’s
chastisement is to do the right thing. Do right until the stars fall. The Bible
says about Jesus in Psalms 45:7, “Thou lovest righteousness, and
hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” The second way to avoid God’s chastisement is
to truly repent and to quickly confess your sins whenever you have sinned. It
says in First Corinthians 11:31-32, “For
if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned with the world.”
Perhaps the greatest judgment that the
Lord has brought upon the earth to this point in time is the existence of
death. Death is all around us. Everything and everyone dies sooner of later. Of
course, we know why death exists. Death exists because of God’s judgment that
came because of what happened in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says in Genesis
2:16-7, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die.” Death is a terrible thing. Death takes everything down
with it: the rich and the poor alike. Even if you live a wonderful life,
enjoying every success and every benefit that this world can offer, when you die, you lose
it all. The Bible says in First Corinthians 55-56, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”
But there is an answer to the sting of
death and to the victory of the grave over life. The answer is the resurrection
from the dead: life after death. The Bible says in First Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks
be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
By the Holy Spirit Isaiah gave a very clear prophesy of the resurrection from
the dead hundreds of years before Christ. It says in 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.”
In addition to the resurrection Isaiah
chapter 26 also presents a view of the Great Tribulation. It says in Isaiah
26:20-21, “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. 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.” The “indignation” refers to
God’s anger against sin. Thankfully, Jesus is very patient and very merciful,
but eventually He must punish sin. Sometimes He waits hundreds of years, but
eventually judgment must come to those who refuse to believe and who refuse to
repent. One interesting point made in Isaiah chapter 26 is that even when the
wrath of God does come, it is short-lived. The time of judgment is called “a little
moment.” Seven years of tribulation is not very long compared to the
total length of human existence upon the earth. It is important to remember
once again that when we talk about the judgment of God, we are talking about
the judgment that Jesus will bring upon the earth. Jesus came the first time to
save all who would believe, but Jesus will come the second time to judge all
those who will not believe. Speaking of Jesus and the judgment that He will
bring, the Bible says in Revelation 19:11-16, “And I saw heaven opened, and
behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True,
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of
fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man
knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and
his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out
of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his
thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
The Bible says in Isaiah 27:1-6, “In that day
the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the
piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea. In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red
wine. I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I
will keep it night and day. Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and
thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them
together. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me;
and he shall make peace with me. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take
root:
Three things are told to us about
Satan that are very revealing. He is “piercing,” he is “crooked,” and he is “in the sea.” In the
Bible the “sea” is sometimes symbolic of the peoples of the earth. For example,
the Bible says in Revelation 17:1, “And there came one of the seven
angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come
hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth
upon many waters.” The last phrase of Revelation 17:1 is explained in
Revelation 17:15 that says, “And he saith
unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
The devil lives among the peoples of the earth. He hates them. He has departed
from the true ways of God in every sense. The devil is constantly causing
tortuous pain among people wherever he can. Whenever he can he is a destroyer
of those created in God’s image. Of course, it started in the Garden of Eden
when Satan tempted Adam and Eve and caused death to enter into the world. It
continued outside of the Garden of Eden when the first child born into the
world lost his potential to be something for God and became a murderer.
But God has always had a plan to bring
judgment upon Satan, and to give him his reward for the death and suffering
that he has caused the entire human race. The plan of God concerning the
judgment on Satan was first announced to Satan himself in Genesis 3:15. God
said, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The one who will “bruise” the head of Satan is the “seed” of the woman. We know from other revelation in the Word
of God that the “seed” is Christ.
God keeps His promises in His own time
and in His own way. God made a promise in the Garden of Eden concerning
judgment upon Satan. That promise will be kept when Jesus returns. God has also
made other promises, and those promises will also be kept. God made promises to
Abraham about the nation of
The Bible says in Isaiah 27:7-13, “Hath he
smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the
slaughter of them that are slain by him? In measure, when it shooteth forth,
thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east
wind. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all
the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as
chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand
up. Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and
left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down,
and consume the branches thereof. When the boughs thereof are withered, they
shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people
of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them,
and he that formed them will shew them no favour. And it shall come to pass in
that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the
stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown,
and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the
outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at
Jerusalem.” God is not angry forever against His children. The reason
that blessings come from Him even though we deserve chastisement is because of
one very important fact mentioned in these verses: the forgiveness of sins. It
says in Isaiah 27:9, “By this therefore
shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away
his sin.” The most important blessing to
receive from Jesus is the forgiveness of sins. If you have the forgiveness of
sins, then other blessings will follow. If you do not yet have His forgiveness,
fall at the feet of Jesus today and call upon His name in order to be forgiven
of your sins.
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Copyright; 2008 by Charles
F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved