Isaiah 26
Notes
Transcript
Perfect Peace
Perfect Peace
We come to Isaiah 26 tonight and the topic of this chapter is Peace, Perfect peace....
When you hear that phrase, perfect peace it reminds us that we can have confidence in God’s work and His presence in our lives.
Peace is a condition of life that people look for and truly long for, but sadly we put all this effort into us doing it and trying to achieve peace.
But honestly we cannot, our efforts mean that little peace we might experience is fleeting, it doesn’t last.
But God’s peace isn’t dependent on the the events or lack there off in our life. It is solely dependent on Him, we enjoy it be walking and living in relationship with God.
Now this chapter is the third in a series of messages God has given the people in the light of a future coming “day of the Lord.”
Diana is preparing the crafts for VBS. She wants to know what age groups they are divided into and how many to prepare for. She can decide which crafts to do and we will bring all the supplies for them.
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.
In that day reminds us this concerns a future day, a day when the Lord’s reign is over the earth. So again it is prophetic...
A song will be sung, we believe the occasion of this song will be sometime after God humbles the proud, and creates a strong city for his people.
People will naturally rejoice for the Lord is the victor, and they will have peace.
Consider the application of this, for the children of Israel in present day, if we associate this will the Assyrian army trying to take Jerusalem, God will push them back and destroy them.
Thus the city is safe, the people rejoice in this victory. They have been saved...
But if you look at a end times future look, you could still say the people will rejoice as He saves His people from the destruction of the evil one. Listen to the salvation of the Lord from Zec 2:5
5 And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ”
Now when you add verse 2 to look Isa 26:2
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.
With the enemies defeated, the truth remains that the gates can open and the people of God can enter into that place.
Enter into the city they find protection, but the Scripture says He sets up salvation at the end of verse one. He will set up and establish a strong city where the gates can be opened, but people who put their faith in God, will find a city not made hands, no walls or ramparts.. instead his presence is their protection. He is the walls and ramparts himself.
So the gates are opened that all may enter in…the ones who enter in are the righteous, the faithful ones.
No lets look at verses 3-4 Isa 26:3-4
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.
So here in this passage in verses 3-4, we find that those who have peace, literally perfect peace are those who have certain characteristics...
You keep him in perfect peace who -- 1.) whose mind is stayed on you… God is the source of this peace. They have placed their mind upon Him.
The people have depended or leaned on Him knowing He can support them.
Think of this, from the previous chapter we know that God is one who will swallow up death and wipe away every tear. as such, their frame of mind is solely upon Him. Nothing else and no one else can help. They know He is able as the Sovereign God.
And then in verse 4, the Scriptures say they “Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. “
If God is a solid rick, he is eternally stable, un-movable. So those who want peace can put their trust in Him with confidence.
We understand today that we can trust the Lord, He will not abandon or forsake us. How wonderful is it to know that he cares for us.
Now lets look at verses 5-6 Isa 26:5-6
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.”
Again, the people express their confidence in God because of His actions.
He has humbled the people of the heights and the lofty city is laid low, literally cast to the ground.
The inhabitants of the height, the lofty city are people who are proud and self sufficient. He literally casts them down.
But his people will tread the dust left behind in the Lord’s victory.
The world seeks to live without God but God seeks to draw all mankind to him to the banquet table of the Lamb.
There is always a contrast here in the text, the poor and the lofty.
The poor are the one who trust in God and the ones who are lofty, they trust in self.
Now lets look at verses 7-9 Isa 26:7-9
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.
The text here tells us of a divine path. Even though God’s people are already in the Strong city, the righteous are not only waiting for the Lord to act, faith and obedience should mark their lives.
The righteous spoken of in verse 7, are literally those who are right with God, they are on the ground walking in faith, walking in Him, and walking by His power as they follow.
And it says the path they are walking is level. The idea of level is a straight path, smooth and easy to negotiate. I tis easy because it is His path. Those who are his and living in obedience should have no difficulty on it.
The path matches the nature of God, and it is a straight line from conversion to glory.
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
And then following in verses 8 and 9, we see that the righteous accept the ordering of life as from the hand of the Lord, they commit themselves to it, to his pathways in obedience.
Wow, do we ever stop and think that the Lord has ordered our lives, he has mapped it out and know exactly where it is doing and he has planned to help us negotiate it.
His laws and the judgments are the authoritative actions of the hand, and they in turn are righteous because He is righteous.
So the Lord’s people walk in obedience to what the Lord has decided is right and they wait for him, patiently by faith until he strikes the enemies low and raises up the people of God.
Don’t we wait for the day when evil is cancelled completely. Yes, cause on that day sin will be removed. No more death, no more suffering and no more pain.
Their soul yearns for him, they don’t seek a altered path in life they just want him in the pathway they have in this life.
Is that us today???
IN the last part of verse 9, says that when you judgments are on the earth, the world learns your righteousness.
So the judgments could be either the law of God, obeyed by his people or the moral disciplines of God as accepted and endured. But in either case, Obedience is a telling testimony.
Now lets move to verses 10-11 Isa 26:10-11
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.
As we open this first part of verse 10, look at what it says..If favor is shown to the unrighteous....
How does God reveal his favor or displeasure upon his people in this world
God has three ways of showing himself in this world,
First, there is his providing grace,think about in times where he sent rain upon the land or provided a fruitful harvest season.
Secondly there is the granting of favorable circumstances, a land of righteousness or a straight forward land.
And thirdly, signal acts of God, where by he blesses a people or a land or curses them.
But here, Isaiah is telling us that no matter what God does, it is met with people who do not learn from it, they do not comprehend God or his ways.
At times they know but in disobedience the are stubborn and choose not to ack
At other times, they do not see, they are blind spiritually. Think of a person who does not know Jesus, they cannot see or understand spiritual things completely.
Sadly, at times the people or the land has an awakening to spiritual matters, but they do not acknowledge God. They want to give the credit to man or some false god and they miss His blessing in those
So in this we see the contrast, His people and the world’s people or enemies are different. If the enemies or world had seen God, acknowledged God and walked with him, they would have been blessed, they would learn from Him and grow, but sadly they did not..
How sad it is to have the opportunity, but yet you cannot believe.
In the end there are consequences.... fie will consume them.
Now lets look at verse 12 Isa 26:12
12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
He will establish peace. Man Jesus said in John 16:33
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
For him to establish peace refers to him putting it in place. and the Lord has worked on behalf of His people.
Verse 13 Isa 26:13
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
The Lord our God works to bring us into a relationship with him, but he keeps us...
I love Jesus in John 10: 27-30
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Those other gods, including Pharoah in Egypt, the gods of the Canaanites and thus other stuff, none of them are remembered by the people, Only the Lord our God.
There was one faithful God preserving a people to keep his name, the truth of his self-revelation, in remembrance.
Now lets look at verses 14-15 Isa 26:14-15
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.
Those “false gods” the people chased after, they are dead, they never were alive...
But God’s work remains…
Why did the nation increase, was it the work of the false gods, No… in fact they have faded from memory. But the Lord remains, and He is the one who causes the nation to increase.
The blessing of God’s work being seen cause the people to rejoice and give glory and honor to God.
Now verse 16 Isa 26:16
16 O Lord, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
When you look back at the nation of Israel, there were times when the people fell into apostacy. They did not follow the Lord and sinned greatly, but they returned. The Lord chastised them and they returned.
It was sad that it took punishment for them to return, but at least they did return.
Verse 17 Isa 26:17
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;
Isaiah may be thinking of the Assyrian crisis and all the pain and suffering it brought to the nation. The enslavement of Israel, and hardship upon Judah.
It was all like being in agony, like the suffering a mother endures as a child is coming into this world.
The nation suffered because of sin, listen sin has consequences.
Verse 18 Isa 26:18
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.
Suffering in pregnancy brings forth good things, a child but this pain produced nothing.
It was said they have been given birth to wind, it was like all her travail brought was flatulnece
There was no salvation or deliverance produced through the agony, no benefit from all the labor pains
The agony and no relief is the picture of a hopeless military.
There were times that God allowed the wicked to discipline his people, just like Babylon coming into the land and taking over.
The positive outcome here is the people have finally learned they are not the source of their salvation. God is...
Verse 19 Isa 26:19
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.
Now we see a change taking place, no more pain and failure that came about because of discipline
God doesnt shar a word of victory for the military, instead he says your dead shall live , their bodies shall rise.
Isaiah is reminding them that God has the power to restore life to the dead.
Now we can imagine as to the future time the Lord is talking about, some would even think it was the hope of the nation thriving..
But with the mention of the dew is like the refreshments of a new morning, the light and the dew is a blessing.
The dew is heaven’s contribution to the earths well being, it refreshes and stops thrist, The light brings hope and the ability to see in contrast to the hours of darkness before...
Now verses 20-21
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.
here Isaiah calls for them to go and hide, to stay hidden for a short while and wait for the wrath of God to pass.
God’s discipline will pass, they will learn not to trust other nations and their dieties instead of him.
Israel hoped that all this might be fulfilled in Sennacherib’s reign and attack on Jerusalem, but God doesnt say anything that the suffering is short lived...
Suffering for a little while will take place, the only thing they can do is to run and hide
Verse 21 tells us why, their sins, the word there is inquity. The earth will bare witness to the blood shed in this sin,
Do you remember cain and able, God said that Able’s blood cried out to him from the ground…Gen 4:10
10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
The earth will be a witness in regard to thier sin, it can hide it no more.. all sins will have to be dealt withj
Now put this in a future context… Sins were dealt with in the past through the offerins and sacriifces given to God.
But Jesus took our sins, The punshment we deserved he took upon himself
this should cause us to always give him praise and thanksgiving for His great sacrifice.
Give God praise, He loved us.
