Isaiah 26:16-21

3. JUSTICE'S OPERATION

TEXT: Isaiah 26:16-21

16

Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

17

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 before thee, O Jehovah.

18

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.

19

Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

20

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

21

For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth 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.

QUERIES

a.

Why were God's people in such agony? Isaiah 26:16-18

b.

What dead are going to be made to live?

PARAPHRASE

O Jehovah, during their distress and oppression, your faithful remnant visited You, pouring out their hearts in prayer when your correcting discipline was upon them. As a pregnant woman writhes and cries out in her pain as her time to deliver draws near, so were we when we came to You, O Lord, in our prayers for deliverance. We too were in labor; we writhed in pain, but we brought forth windnothing! No deliverance has come from all our pain; no inhabitants of the earth have come to birth through our agony. But, O remnant, those who account themselves dead and cast off will livethey will rise again from oblivion. Those who dwell in dust shall awake and sing, for God's light of life will fall like refreshing dew upon them. Come, my remnant, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the anger of God is satisfied in the captivities. The Lord is going to come down from his place in heaven to punish your captors and those who oppose you because of their rebellions. The earth cannot hide their guilttheir murderous deeds will be revealedand all those they have slain will be accounted for.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 26:16-18 JUSTICE IS SLOW: Batsar is the Hebrew for in trouble and primarily means to bind up, distressed, oppressed. In Isaiah 26:16 also is the Hebrew word musareka, translated chastening, which literally means, correction or discipline. We conclude then that Isaiah 26:16 is speaking of the corrective discipline by which the Lord had oppressed the Israelites in the past and would afflict them with in the future (the Babylonian captivity). This latter affliction is apparent when one compares the term indignation in Isaiah 26:20 with Daniel 8:19; Daniel 11:36, which we shall do later.

These verses represent the prayers of the faithful remnant, in all its history, making known its frustration of looking for justice and deliverance in the midst of its trials and unable to deliver itself. The remnant is driven to hope in God's justice. God's justice seems to walk with leaden feet (cf. Habakkuk 1:1-4; Isaiah 59:14; Ezekiel 9:9; Revelation 6:9-11). So the saints of God cry out, but God is trying them, purging them, building endurance and character, if they will believe and hold fast their hope.

Like a pregnant woman, Israel had endured pain, much anxiety and now, trouble like a woman in the pangs of labor was upon Israel, and she had produced nothing. She knew from her prophets and patriarchs she was to bring to birth a new order, but now all she has is pain and in her anxiety she cries out again. Facing the captivity of the northern kingdom (Israel) and the disintegration of the southern kingdom (Judah) and its inevitable captivity, the faithful remnant (Isaiah, their spokesman) was gripped with frustration and anxiety about its Messianic destiny through which it was to bring deliverance to mankind.

Isaiah 26:18 contains the Hebrew word naphal which means birth, or as Leupold says, is used of beasts dropping their young in birth. A better translation of the phrase, ... neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen would be, ... no inhabitants of the world came to birth through us. This is better word usage and contextual harmony. The remnant's agonized concern was that God's covenant people had experienced nothing but pain and sorrow when their destiny was to produce a Messianic new-world-order. Thus far they had given birth to nothing at all!

Isaiah 26:19-21 JUSTICE IS SURE: But the answer from God through His prophet is, slow as His justice may seem, absolutely and divinely certain. What they think is dead shall live. God's remnant is a living kingdom, not a dead one. There is some disagreement as to whether Isaiah 26:19 refers to personal, individual, physical resurrection from the dead or to a resurrection of the redemptive program of God through the deliverance of the covenant people from the captivities and its subsequent Messianic fulfillment. We tend to accept the latter view. We feel it fits the context more clearly, and such figure is used elsewhere (cf. Hosea 6:1-3; Ezekiel chapter 37; and see our comments, Daniel, College Press, Daniel 12:1 ff). Those who dwell in the dust of death (in captivity) shall awake and sing. English translators translated the Hebrew -oroth as herbs, but it would better be, light. Thus we have paraphrased it: ... for God's light of life will fall like refreshing dew upon them. See Hosea 14:4-7 for the life-giving refreshment of dew.

It is specifically God's people, the remnant, who are promised more than warned to hide themselves for a little while until the indignation is past. God invites them, Come, enter into thy chambers. He will protect them during the indignation. The Hebrew word used here for indignation is zaam and is the same word used in Daniel 8:19; Daniel 11:36; and also Daniel 11:30 where it is translated enraged (RSV). See our comments on Daniel 8:19, Daniel, College Press, pg. 313. The time of the indignation is the same as the troublous time of Daniel 9:24-27the time for God's accomplishing through the Jewish nation all that He is going to accomplish which will come to a culmination at the birth and death of the Messiah. In other words, the faithful remnant is going to have to endure a time of indignation/trouble from the time of the Babylonian captivities, through Persian domination, Greek domination, Seleucid domination, Roman domination until Christ is born. At His birth comes the long sought for deliverance (cf. Luke 1:67-79; Luke 2:25-38). At His birth comes the resurrection of the remnant's Messianic destinyits very life. The indignation, though it will last some 600 years, is only a little while with God. All during that time God is chastening, delivering, preparing them to become a people through which He can bring to birth His new order, His new covenant, the church.

God is going to do it. The guilty world cannot hide itself or its guilt. It cannot forego Jehovah's deliverance of the remnant. God's word is sure!

QUIZ

1.

What kind of trouble were these people suffering?

2.

How intense was their trouble?

3.

Why were they perturbed that they had brought forth nothing?

4.

What did they expect to bring forth?

5.

How will the dead live?

6.

What is the indignation?

7.

What is the message about God's justice here?