Isaiah's praise and worship of God continues, mixed with prophetic statements about the Day of the Lord.
In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
Isaiah 26:3-4, Shalom shalom
Isaiah 26:5-6, Humbled
Isaiah 26:7-8, In the night and morning
Isaiah 26:9, In the night and morning
Isaiah 26:10-11, The wicked
Isaiah 26:12-15, An enlarged nation
Isaiah 26:16-18, We writhed in labor
Isaiah 26:19, Resurrection!
Isaiah 26:20, Let the wrath pass by
Isaiah 26:21, YHWH is coming!
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
The praise song exults in the eventual City, a city which opens its gates to invite the righteous in.
You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD himself,
is the Rock eternal.
As his world collapses, Isaiah focuses on YHWH, who is not only unmoved by the chaos, but is, in fact, in charge of the chaos. Motyer says that the imperative "Trust" which begins verse 4 is plural, an instruction to all those entering the city.
The Hebrew translated "perfect peace" is in fact "shalom shalom"; Hebrew loves to make something emphatic by simply repeating it.
He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.
Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.
Humility is valued by YHWH. Those who are proud and lofty will be brought down.
The path of the righteous is level;
you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.
Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
To walk with YHWH is to be righteous, to be upright, following the Upright One, obeying His laws.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.
"I yearn for You", cried Isaiah, echoing David.
But when grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and do not regard the majesty of the LORD.
LORD, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people
and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.
Isaiah digresses to argue that the wicked do not learn from grace and a lack of justice. There is a need for justice, says Isaiah.
YHWH's hand "lifted high" represents judgment and justice. That hand is about to come down with punishment on those who oppose the people of God.
LORD, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.
They are now dead, they live no more;
their spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.
You have enlarged the nation, LORD;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.
Israel has had other rulers. But finally YHWH will be the eternal ruler, long past the time the others are gone. Indeed, the domain of Israel will be enlarged and extended.
LORD, they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.
As a pregnant woman about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, LORD.
We were with child, we writhed in labor,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
and the people of the world have not come to life.
"They could barely whisper a prayer". The people came to God in distress and fatigue, barely able to whisper for help.
Childbirth is often viewed in Scripture as the greatest pain. The pain and suffering of Israel appears to have accomplished nothing. Israel was to be a model for the world, a model inviting all into God's kingdom, recreating Eden, but they failed miserably in this and have merely suffered. Something more will need to be done....
But your dead will live, LORD;
their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.
This is a rare description of resurrection. In this final day, the dead will live, their bodies will "rise" to a fresh new morning, pictured as a beautiful morning with fresh dew on the grass. See Daniel 12:1-4 for another description of this future day, and another rare statement of a physical afterlife.
Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.
Isaiah tells his people to hide from God's wrath, to let it pass over them. The allusion to the ancient Passover in Egypt is obvious.
See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed on it;
the earth will conceal its slain no longer.
That future Day comes with judgment. (This is echoed in Revelation, especially chapter 20.) We continue looking at that future Day in the next chapter.
Some Random Thoughts
Although this blog post is published in December, an early draft was written in July, in Michigan summer mornings, sunlight and dew, dew sparkling on the grass and leaves. These days open with a promise of infinite possibilities, of magnificent explorations and pleasures.
I look forward to a future Day, a resurrection to those infinite possibilities in a genuine eternity.
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