Isaiah 26:1-11
Isa 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.
Chapter 26 is loaded with the salvation of the true,
eternal church of God. Those who
are the saved in Judah will be singing this song as well as all the Elect of God
throughout the ages. Judah will
experience peace once again when she is returned from the Babylonian captivity
when the temple and walls will be rebuilt. There shall be joy in Judah.
However, this verse goes much deeper than a surface song but it springs
from the joy which the LORD implants into his own people.
But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (Galatians 5:22)
Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit which is the bedrock of happiness in
the believers life. The land of
Judah is the body of believers because the Lord Jesus Christ came through the
tribe of Judah and those he had come to save are the true Israel of God.
For we are the circumcision, which
worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)
The strong city we have is the New Jerusalem.
But now they desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly:
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for
them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)
All true believers have entered into the New Jerusalem even if they were
citizens of the old Jerusalem. God
had already prepared a place for the believers when the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross.
In my Father's house are many mansions:
if it were not
so, I would have told you. I go
to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2)
The strength of this city is salvation itself.
The wall does not allow anyone to enter unless they are a child of God
because nothing sinful or unregenerate can ever enter the city.
14 Blessed
are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city. 15 For without
are dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a
lie. (Revelation 22:14-15) A
bulwark is something that is raised for protection, a system of defenses to
defend a city from invaders.
Remember the opening lines in Martin Luther’s Hymn:
A Mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing....
God is the strength of the believer as once we are in the
kingdom of God, no matter what the enemy throws at us, they can never defeat us
nor can they ever pluck us from the Kingdom of God.
28 And I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand.
29 My Father, which gave
them me, is greater than all; and no
man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand.
(John 10:28-29) How can any
mere mortal or fallen angel have strength enough to remove the believer from the
hand of God the Son and God the Father?
Isa 26:2
Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which
keepeth the truth may enter in.
The gates of salvation are open to the righteous as they
enter in through the blood of Christ.
Blessed
are they that do his
commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)
The righteous nation is the body of believers.
Therefore say I unto you, The
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits thereof. (Matthew 21:43)
National Israel had failed to keep the covenant and therefore lost their
standing before God as his unique people.
That privilege was now transferred to the body of believers upon the
death of Christ for his Elect. The
fruits that we bring forth are other Christians when we go out into the world
and evangelize.
Isa 26:3
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
The true believer is given the perfect peace which the
world yearns for but tries to find it in drugs or alcohol, anything to numb the
effects of daily life which can be taxing when living in a world with sinners.
What is in view here is the true believer who has been given the mind of
Christ upon salvation. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Corinthians 2:16) The mind
of Christ or the regenerated mind causes the true believer to filter all earthly
situations through the mind of Christ.
Since there is nothing new under the sun, we can always find similar
situations in the Bible faced by earlier brothers and sisters.
No longer does the Christian have to worry about situations which come
into our life, instead we see things through spiritual eyes and not the
fatalistic eyes of the world. The
Thessalonians had allowed themselves to be shaken or agitated by the teaching
that the Lord had already come back.
That ye be not soon shaken in
mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us,
as that the day of Christ is at hand. (2 Thessalonians 2:2)
The true Christian does not fail to show concern when situations arise
but they refuse to allow their mind to become divided and when we keep our focus
on Christ during tough times, we will have that perfect peace knowing that all
situations are under his control.
When a person becomes saved, they now have the ability to trust Christ in every
situation that arises because there is nothing beyond his capabilities.
And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matthew 28:18)
Isa 26:4
Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH
is everlasting strength:
This message was also given to Judah when they had
departed from the LORD and went after false gods which were no gods.
Basically, Judah had traded worshipping the true God to worshipping
pieces of stone and metal fashioned into the likeness of what they thought a god
should look like. They were to
trust in the LORD for only he has the everlasting strength they needed but this
kind of proclamation would only be heeded by those in Judah and the world who
would become the elect of God. Only
the true believer would trust in the LORD in everything from joyous things to
tragic things. Only the believer
would have an eternal trust in the LORD and not just a temporary belief to get
out of tough situations. The LORD
is the everlasting strength of the true believer.
The rock of our salvation.
The LORD liveth; and blessed be my rock; and
exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation. (2 Samuel 22:47)
He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God,
and the rock of my salvation. (Psalm 89:26)
Since God is eternal and our salvation is everlasting, we
can easily trust in him when he has made so many promises concerning salvation
which can never be taken away from the elect of God.
Isa 26:5
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.
Then Isaiah declares that God will bring down those that
dwell on high which are the ones who lifted themselves up against God.
The lofty city can be referring to Jerusalem which will be brought down
because they forsook the true God and went to commit spiritual fornication with
the false gods which did them no good.
Jerusalem will be destroyed to the point that it will be leveled
including the temple. It will get
to the point that it will look like a plain of dust as Babylon removes
everything from there.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and
lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her
heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 8
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine;
and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who
judgeth her. 9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed
fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for
her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, (Revelation 18:7-9)
Then on a larger scale, this prophecy of Isaiah will be
completed in its finality on the last day when the kingdom of Satan will be
completely destroyed. At present it
exalts itself against the kingdom of God and believes it has the ability to stop
the evangelizing of the world.
There may come a time when that will happen but only after the last name person
is saved.
I beheld, and the same horn made war with
the saints, and prevailed against them; (Daniel 7:21)
And
when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of
the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and
kill them. (Revelation 11:7)
Isa 26:6
The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the
poor, and the steps of the needy.
The people of God will walk in triumph as they will be
given the strength to tread down the city of Satan.
Even today, the poorest believer with a Bible can invade and tear down
the kingdom of Satan one pillar at a time when that poor believer is witnessing
to one of Satan’s unbelievers and they become saved.
They are in essence treading upon the mighty kingdom.
It was Martin Luther who stated “A simple layman armed with Scripture is
greater than the mightiest pope without it.”
That is what is in view when the steps of the needy and the feet of the
poor who lack the substance of the world yet go forth with the substance of the
glory of God.
Isa 26:7
The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most
upright, dost weigh the path of the just.
Here is the way of the true believer.
The word “uprightness” in the Hebrew carries with it the meaning of
“evenness, stability, or consistency.”
In other words, when situations get tough, the believer would act with
the same consistency they would as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
In other words, they will have the same trust in God on a consistent
basis and not allow a situation to determine their actions.
Then Isaiah addresses God as the Upright One who weighs the path of the
just. The words “dost weigh” in the
Hebrew carries with it the meaning of “roll flat.”
So God is the one who prepares the way of the righteous by flattening out
any hills or bumps. Isaiah speaks
of this further in his book.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and
the rough places plain: (Isaiah 40:4)
It was also John the Baptist who proclaimed the same message.
Every valley shall be filled, and
every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made
straight, and the rough ways shall be
made smooth; (Luke 3:5) The
true gospel would be a stabilizing dynamic in the life of every believer.
Isa 26:8
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 time of Judah’s darkest hour when they will be
removed from the land for seventy years, they will still seek the LORD and wait
for the day of his deliverance.
They were to walk in obedience to the LORD even in the midst of his judgments.
Their desire was to be one with the LORD as their souls desired to be
attached to his name once again and as they remembered his past deliverances and
the days he watched over them and brought prosperity to them.
The same way the true believer waits for the LORD even in the midst of
judgments brought on by the wickedness that surrounds them in which many times
the believer has to go through those times of tribulation as the true believers
had to go to Babylon with the rest of Judah.
The true believers must wait for the consummation of the age for the
return of the LORD and our transport to glory forever.
Isa 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.
As Christians continue to go through the time of
tribulation which is the time period between the first and second coming of
Christ, it during this time that is considered night when the true Christian is
susceptible to all kinds of attacks and persecutions.
Notice that there are personal pronouns in this verse which means Isaiah
as a true believer is speaking. As
a believer who has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, he seeks the LORD early and
that does not necessarily mean in the morning but at the beginning of any task
or any persecution.
O God, thou
art my God; early will I seek
thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty
land, where no water is; (Psalm 63:1)
Our souls thirst for the LORD in the dry and thirsty land which is a
description of this world which rejects the LORD and creates a spiritual
wilderness sourced in the kingdom of Satan.
The judgments which God will bring against Judah for their idolatry will
be proper and just to fit their spiritual crimes against the Lord.
For true and righteous
are his judgments: for he hath
judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and
hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. (Revelation 19:2)
This will also apply to the unbelievers who will stand for their sins
against the LORD on Judgment Day.
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness by two ways.
First, they will be brought into line by means of Judgment and will cause
the people who are predestined for salvation to seek the LORD, secondly, through
salvation that will be granted to the Elect.
Isa 26:10
Let favour be shewed 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.
Isaiah describes the plight of many of the wicked people
in the world. Many of them have the
materials of the world, lots of money, cars, big homes, good jobs, and many of
them seem not to have a care in the world yet Isaiah goes on to reveal a stark
reality and that is they are never thankful for what they have and greed and
lust takes over and the fact is that they will never learn they are truly
spiritually bankrupt. As much as
they have, they never thank God for what they do have and will never come to
righteousness which means they will never become saved because they continue
only to look to themselves.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is
righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy
still. (Revelation 22:11) The
reality is that if a person is not the elect of God, they will remain in that
unsaved position for eternity. They
will also deal treacherously with those of less fortune and the only majesty
they will see is their own glory.
They will never see beyond the horizons of this earth as the true believer does.
They will never see the creation as something unique by the hand of God
who created all things and will just believe in lies like evolution.
Isa 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.