Isaiah 26:7-15

2. JUSTICE'S OBJECTIVE

TEXT: Isaiah 26:7-15

7

The way of the just is uprightness: thou that art upright dost direct the path of the just.

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Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah, have we waited for thee; to thy name, even to thy memorial name, is the desire of our soul.

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With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee earnestly: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

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Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of Jehovah.

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Jehovah, thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not: but they shall see thy zeal for the people, and be put to shame; yea, fire shall devour thine adversaries.

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Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for thou hast also wrought all our works for us.

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O Jehovah our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

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They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish.

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Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.

QUERIES

a.

What is the memorial name of Jehovah?

b.

How has Jehovah wrought all their works for them?

c.

Who are the other lords Isaiah 26:13?

PARAPHRASE

The way of the righteous is straight and smooth because the Righteous Jehovah smooths the righteous man's way, Indeed, in Your divine judgments have we waited hopefully to see You. To see Your name glorified in judgment upon Your enemies, as in ages past, is the earnest desire or our soul. With my soul I have longed for You in the night. Indeed, in the depths of my being I am earnestly seeking You because when Your judgments descend upon the earth the world learns what is right. When Your goodness is enjoyed by the wicked man he does not learn to do righthe only keeps on doing wickedness because he does not become aware of the omnipotence of Jehovah. Although You have raised Your hand threatening them, they refused to give heed. Show them Your zealous protection for Your covenant people and they will be humiliated. Indeed, Jehovah, let them be consumed by the fire You reserve for Your enemies. Jehovah, You will establish peace for us. You alone are the source of everything good that has ever come to us. Jehovah, You alone are our God. Other lords we have allowed to have dominion over us, but we acknowledge only Your name as sovereign. Those other lords we served before are dead and shall not come again because they are like the deceased. You came against them and destroyed them, causing us to forget them completely. You have made our nation great, O Jehovah. You, indeed, have made our nation great! You receive the glory for it! You extended the borders of our land by Your judgments!

COMMENTS

Isaiah 26:7-10 GOVERN: The first objective of Jehovah's justice is to govern His creation. He governs the earth and mankind through His providential and revelational manifestations of justice. This passage very evidently relates to all that has been said thus far in Chapter s 24, 25, and 26. Jehovah is going to bring in a new order (the Messianic order) by judging the old order and establishing justice which was so glaringly absent from the covenant people in Isaiah's day. God will reign in justice in His new order, and citizens of His new order will be men of justice. All this will redound to His glory.

The true Israelite will be a man of righteousness and justice. He will long for God's justice to be manifested because that will be his way of life. Changing men into just men is the purpose of God's just judgments. So, God makes the believer's way upright (Hebrew, meyshareem, meaning; even, level, smooth). God's justice works for the good of the believer and makes him the kind of man God can govern in God's new-order-kingdom.

In ages past God showed Himself to be just and the justifier of him who believes. He punished rebels and delivered believers. That was the very essence of His character. He always acted faithfully, consistently and as He said He would, He established a memorial name (reputation) of absolute justice. Memorial is the Hebrew word zekreka. It is translated simply name in Exodus 3:15; Psalms 30:4; Psalms 135:13; Hosea 12:5. It is the same Hebrew word from which the name Zechariah (whom the Lord remembers) comes. The true man of God desires with all his heart to see the God of justice act justly in the affairs of men, not for some selfish end but that all men might learn righteousness and justice.

The true man of God must have a deep and abiding desire to see justice done in order that men might learn righteousness. The true man of God cannot condone lawlessness and injustice in the name of indulgent mercy. Of course, every man of God must learn to be merciful, but he must also learn that justice is often the most merciful thing that can happen to a lawless man. The collapse of justice and punishment for evil was precisely the major cause of the downfall of the Hebrew people in the days of the divided kingdom! (Read Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah.) The man who does not eagerly and passionately search for truth, honesty, justice and fairness is not the kind of man God calls into His kingdom. So, you see, this entire context is related to the new order that is being prophesied, (cf. Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 15:2-4; Revelation 16:4-7; Revelation 19:1-3). God's saints praise Him for His justice and judgment.

If the Lord resorted only to kind treatment of the wicked, indulging them in their self-destructive rebellion, such men would never learn righteousness. Severity and punishment is often times the only warning some men will heed. Even then, some will never repent (cf. Revelation 9:20-21; Revelation 16:9; Revelation 16:11). Pampering and indulging wicked men will only intensify their appetite for wickedness, (cf. Hosea 4:1-3; Hosea 4:12; Hosea 5:3-4; Hosea 7:1-7; Hosea 10:3-4, etc.).

The greatest manifestation of God's hatred for sin and the divine extent to which he would go to judge sin and accomplish divine justice is when He punished man's sin in His Sinless Son. At the cross God was both just and the justifier of Him who believes in Christ (cf. Romans 3:21-26). That tremendous revelation of God's judgment and justice should draw all men to Him, to be governed by Him as He rules their hearts.

Isaiah 26:11-15 GLORIFY: The second important objective of God's judgments is to glorify His name. To exalt the name of Jehovah is the most fundamental need of man! If the name of Jehovah is not supreme, nothing is safe! If God's integrity and faithfulness can be successfully impugned, man is lost! So, all of God's actions are for the sake of His name (cf. Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22; Ezekiel 20:44, etc.). All that man holds to be true, real, valuable, right or wrong, good or bad, depends upon the integrity of God and His Word. If God is not Absolute, everything is false! God's most factual, arresting method of proving His Absoluteness is in His just judgments.

So, the true man of God prays for God's justice to be done. The true man of God waits upon the Lord to carry out His judgments in His own time and in His own way (cf. Romans 12:14-21). And the true man of God does all within his own power to support God's ordained structures of human government through which God executes some of His judgments (cf. Romans 13:1-10).

God's zealous deliverances of His people and His judgments upon His enemies so glorify His name His people are moved to praise His name over and over.

God's people praise Him expressing their absolute faith in Him to establish peace for them. They willingly confess that He has worked all their works for them. They, like David, realize that even their offerings to God came from Him (cf. 1 Chronicles 29:10-19). All the good that any man has done is possible only as that man allows God to work in him and through him.

Isaiah 26:13 is interesting because it contains the three major Hebrew names for God: Yaweh, Elohim, Adonai. In this verse Yaweh and Elohim denote God while Adonai denotes other lords. Adonai is parallel to the Greek word kurios (lord). Whether the other lords are human masters or idol-gods is uncertain. The Israelites allowed both human masters and idols to have dominion over them. When Jehovah has demonstrated once and for all His sovereign majesty in divine judgment and justice, and when He has brought in His new order men will never again call idols or human masters lord. While the church is in the world it will, of course, be subject to every human ordinance (not disobedient to God) for the Lord's sake. But no human or idol will be called Father by a citizen of God's new-order-kingdom.

God purged Israel of its idolatry once and for all through the Babylonian captivity. Israel, so enamored of idolatry during the time of the divided kingdom, was cast into a veritable sea of paganism and idolatry in Babylon and Persia. There they saw the cruelty and corruption that idolatry results in, and they cried out for deliverance. God erased every desire for idolatry from the true heart of the man of God. All over the world in this age when the gospel is preached and men love Christ and obey Him they throw away their false gods. The gospel has power to cast down strongholds and every imagination that exalts itself against God and to bring every thought into captivity to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

God took a comparatively small and disorganized mass of nomadic slaves known as Hebrews, delivered them from the world-powerful hand of the Egyptian emperor, established a beachhead for them in the land of the Canaanites, and enlarged them numerically and geographically at the very center of world commerce and politics until their influence was felt all over the world. Miracles and providence were so evident in all this, the true believer had to acknowledge God's working as the source of it all.
The establishment of God's new-order-kingdom, the church, is even more spectacular and demonstrably divine in origin. One despised Galilean took twelve assorted fishermen and tax-collectors plus a tent-maker and conquered men from every tribe and tongue and nation on the earth.

In the days of Samuel, the people of God cried out for a king like the nations. Many lords came and went, exercising dominion over God's people. For the most part, they led God's people into idolatry and captivity. Through it all the Lord, Jehovah, was seeking to bring His people back to His own dominion over them. After long centuries of troublous times (cf. Daniel 9:24-27, our comments in Daniel, by Paul T. Butler, College Press), God came to earth incarnate in human flesh, in His Son, and re-established His rule and His kingdom among men. So, now, God has increased the nation and enlarged all the borders of the land to include all who have and all who will believe Jesus and obey His commandments. And it all redounds to His glory!

QUIZ

1.

What is the first purpose of God's judgments?

2.

How does this work for the smoothing of the righteous man's way?

3.

Why should the true man of God earnestly desire God to judge in justice?

4.

Where is the apex of God's justice and judgment shown?

5.

How does God work all man's works for him?

6.

How may the release from idolatry and the increasing of the nation have a fulfillment today?