Pastor John Mochel

June 19

Reading: Isaiah 26

1   In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

   “We have a strong city;

     he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.

2   Open the gates,

     that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

3   You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you,

     because he trusts in you.

4   Trust in the LORD forever,

     for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

5   For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city.

     He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.

6   The foot tramples it,

     the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”

7   The path of the righteous is level;

     you make level the way of the righteous.

8   In the path of your judgments, O LORD,

     we wait for you;

     your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.

9   My soul yearns for you in the night;

     my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

     For when your judgments are in the earth,

     the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10 If favor is shown to the wicked,

     he does not learn righteousness;

     in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly

     and does not see the majesty of the LORD.

 

11 O LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it.

     Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.

     Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

12 O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,

     for you have indeed done for us all our works.

13 O LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,

     but your name alone we bring to remembrance.

14 They are dead, they will not live;

     they are shades, they will not arise;

     to that end you have visited them with destruction

     and wiped out all remembrance of them.

15 But you have increased the nation, O LORD,

     you have increased the nation; you are glorified;

     you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16 O LORD, in distress they sought you;

     they poured out a whispered prayer

     when your discipline was upon them.

17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out

     in her pangs when she is near to giving birth,

     so were we because of you, O LORD;

18 we were pregnant, we writhed,

     but we have given birth to wind.

     We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,

     and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19 Your dead shall live;

     their bodies shall rise.

     You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

     For your dew is a dew of light,

     and the earth will give birth to the dead.

 

20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,

     and shut your doors behind you;

     hide yourselves for a little while

     until the fury has passed by.

21 For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place

     to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,

     and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,

     and will no more cover its slain.

 

Isaiah 26 is the song of the righteous in the final Day of the Lord.  This chapter is full of promise and hope.  Realize that the hope that we have in the Lord is a different use of the word, hope, than we are used to in modern times.  “Hope” today means something like a wish, as in “I am hoping that it rains.”  But the meaning of our hope in the Bible has much more certainty, as in “I am hoping for spring.”  I know it is coming.  It is just a matter of getting through the time between the now and the not yet.

For you and me, our hope is in the Day of the Lord.

Consider what we learn in this song about that day.

  1. The city of the Lord will be restored and strengthened. (vs. 1)
  2. The righteous and the faithful will enter into it. (vs. 2)
  3. We will have peace and security. (vss. 3-4)
  4. Those who thought they were so great will be trampled by those they afflicted. (vss. 5-6)
  5. Our desire for the Lord and His justice will be satisfied. (vss. 7-8)
  6. All the earth will learn right and wrong from God. (vss. 9-10)
  7. The Lord will establish peace by destroying His enemies. (vss. 11-12)
  8. The Lord will be our good master and ruler. (vs. 13)
  9. All who are the Lord’s will rise from the dead. (vss. 14, 19)
  10. All that we now long for and suffer for will become a reality. (vss. 15-18)

All of this is the future reality that we hope for now.

Verses 20-21 depict for us how we must currently be thinking.  Because the Lord is on His way and is not here yet, we must suffer through the trials and tribulations now.  The world hates those who are different.  The world hates those who look for the Lord’s return.  Because of this, this world will express its hatred by attacking those who look to the Lord.