In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah
“We have a strong city;
He sets up walls and ramparts for security.
2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter,
The one that remains faithful.“
In that day, the “day” that the Lord Jesus Christ sets up His Kingdom on earth, a SPECIAL song will be sung in the land of Judah. It’s a song of the REDEEMED. It’s a beautiful and joyous song! It’s even a NEW SONG. The city of Jerusalem in Judah will be a STRONG CITY. She is a STRONG CITY because God Almighty, Jesus Christ, is her King. God sets up walls and ramparts for security and yet He opens the gates for the Righteous Nations. What does this mean? It means that the unrighteous nations, those who wish Israel harm, may NOT enter into the Strong city. In this context, Isaiah is speaking not only of literal Jerusalem in the land of Judea, he’s speaking of the NEW JERUSALEM, Jew and Gentile, the Israel of God. Israel OPENS her gates to Righteous Nations, righteous people. The Hebrew word for nation is gowy, which also means Gentile (non Hebrew descent). Gentiles, are grafted into Israel under the New Covenant and are considered Righteous because we are covered by the blood of Jesus.
A word of caution…A “Righteous Gentile” has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the 7 Noahide laws that the New World Order is now crafting. Keeping Noahide laws cannot make a Gentile (or anybody) righteous! This is a deception at the end of days (“The days of Noah”).
The blood of Jesus Christ, the New Covenant, is the ONLY WAY for anybody (Jew or Gentile) to be made RIGHTEOUS (in right standing with God). There is no other way! Those who are in the New Covenant with Jesus Christ WILL enter the gates of the New Jerusalem (the Bride of Christ), the Strong city. The Goats will not enter in. Contrary to pop culture, a goat is not “greatest of all time”….a goat is an animal that will not yield it’s own will to God’s Will, that REFUSES to accept the blood sacrifice of the Son of God, God’s Messiah…Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus the Christ).
Matthew 25:32: “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
Isaiah 26: 3: “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace,
Because he trusts in You.
4 “Trust in the Lord forever,
For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.
What is “perfect peace”? In the Hebrew, the word for peace is Shalom, and it carries along with it a lot more than just the absence of war. Shalom stands for completeness, wholeness, perfect health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony. The peace offering (Numbers 6:14) is the word shelem which is related to shalom. In the peace offering, restoration of fellowship between God and man, broken by sin, was atoned for by the shed blood of the animal sacrifice.(Lev. 3; Lev 7:11-21). Jesus Christ, the PRINCE OF PEACE, is the ULTIMATE and FINAL peace offering.
How do we find perfect peace (shalom)? It can only be found in Jesus Christ, who shed His Blood to restore Righteousness, and fellowship with God. Perfect peace is the kind of peace we see in Isaiah 26 where the gates can be left open because there is absolutely no concern that anything evil will enter through them. We can have a certain level of peace now, when we close and lock our doors at night. But this is not perfect peace. When we have perfect peace, we do not need to be afraid at all. Heaven is a place of perfect peace. On earth, no matter where one goes, there is always that small threat of danger. When swimming in the ocean, there are sharks…lakes have snakes. There is the threat of “stranger danger” when walking solo in the woods. Or, there may be a bear, a coyote, or some other kind of wild animal that could pounce. Mosquitoes can spoil a beautiful, tropical location, with the threat of mosquito borne illnesses. On earth, even though there is beauty, there is always the possibility of hidden, lurking danger. In Heaven, the Kingdom of God, there is NO danger anywhere. On earth, during this “age of man”, we may be able to achieve some level of peace when we isolate ourselves away from these dangers; however, this peace is not shalom, or “perfect peace”, it is merely the absence of war or violence. But when we isolate ourselves, we miss out on so much! Does God want us to isolate ourselves? No. In John 17, Jesus prayed a very significant prayer for His Disciples. He not only prayed for His Disciples, Jesus also prayed for you and me! He prayed for ALL those who would someday believe in His Name. In this prayer, Jesus asked the Father NOT to take us out of the world, NOT to isolate us, but to keep us from the evil one, to not allow the devil’s schemes to destroy us.
John 17:13: But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one
How can we have shalom on earth? The only way we can have shalom on earth is to cling to, TRUST IN our Savior, Jesus Christ. Peace without Jesus is like barricading oneself into a room and hoping that evil does not break the door down. However, Jesus’ peace, His Shalom, allows us to exit the room, to open ourselves up for love and relationships, and for beauty and exploration, and yet not fear the evil that is all around us because we know, that we know, that we know that Jesus will not allow ANY weapon formed against us to prosper.
John 14:27: Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
John 16:32: Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
The Bible is a tale of two cities, two seeds, two types of people…those who submit to the Will of God, who embrace His Peace offering, and those who do not. Those who accept His Christ, His Messiah as their peace offering understand that they cannot make themselves righteous before a Holy God. It takes humility to understand this about oneself, that no one is right before God, no one is GOOD…not one. Those who are “self-Righteous”, or who do what is right in their own eyes, these do not belong to God, they are not a part of the New Jerusalem, they are a part of “Mystery Babylon”, the “unassailable city”, the whore of Babylon, the Unrighteous city. God will abase the proud and lift up the humble. Those who refuse to humble themselves..God will humble. In that day, as God prepares to bring the New Jerusalem to the earth, mankind fully restored, HE WILL fully destroy “Mystery Babylon”, the “Unassailable city”. God will trample THAT CITY to the dust, He will LAY IT LOW. This is why Revelation says “Come out of her my people, lest ye partake of her plagues”! This city is going to be utterly and completely destroyed. All who refuse God’s Christ, His Messiah..Jesus, who refuse to come out of “that city”…will be thrown down.
Isaiah 26: 5: “For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the UNASSAILABLE CITY; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, HE CASTS IT TO THE DUST. 6 “The foot will trample it, The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless.”
Revelation 18:21: Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.
Revelation 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
https://dyingworld.org/2019/04/05/mystery-babylon-tares-among-the-wheat/
God’s eyes search to and fro over the earth seeking those who want Him, who love Him, who will submit to His Authority.
Isaiah 26: The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
8 Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Lord,
We have waited for You eagerly;Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.
9 At night my soul longs for You,
Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
God’s question to us is not “how good of a person have we been”? God’s question to us is always, always “How much do we want HIM? How desperate are we for HIM ? That is the only gauge that God uses….God judges the heart. Isaiah 26 verses 8-9 read like a LOVE SONG. We should LONG for God. We should DESIRE Him always, in the morning and at night, our desire for God is what matters. God is not looking for perfection. He wants us to SEEK HIM, to WANT HIM, to LOVE HIM…because GOD LOVES US more than any of us are capable of understanding!
Trust in the Lord…go beyond common sense, the human approach. Do not trust in man’s “logic” or philosophy/humanism, which is the equivalent of Israel trusting in Egypt. It is in seeking our Creator that we find Righteousness, we find sound judgment, we find love. To find SHALOM (perfect peace), we need to be in the presence of the Lord, where there is no fear. When it comes to desire for the Lord, there IS no faking it. We can fake charitable works, we can fake giving money to the poor or visiting the sick, we can fake a lot of Church activities. We can’t fake wanting God..We either want Him, or we don’t..and we’re laid bare before Him. There can’t be any pretense because God knows our hearts. God’s scale is based purely on how much we want Him…not on “great works”.
Those in other religions whose hearts are genuinely set on seeking THE TRUE GOD, JESUS will find a way to reach them. He will reach them with the truth. Many former Muslims have seen the “man in white” in their dreams. Jesus has visited them in dreams and visions (Joel 2:28-29). Jesus is searching for hearts. But if a person is seeking glory, significance, or something else, or has a hardened heart, then that is a different matter. God knows when a person is earnestly seeking Him, seeking after THE TRUTH. Jesus Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE.
However, the converse is also true in that even if God were to wave Grace right in front of a person who is not interested in Him..it will not register with them.
Isaiah 26: 9: For when the earth experiences Your judgments
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Though the wicked is shown favor,
He does not learn righteousness;
He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.
Notice the contrast here in Isaiah 26. When judgments come, people learn righteousness, but when Grace is shown to the wicked, when God’s goodness is shown to the wicked..they still reject GOD. Isn’t this just the sad state of man. For many of us, it takes trials, it takes difficulties that we cannot overcome on our own, to CRY OUT to GOD. It is in these desert places in life, where we SEEK and FIND GOD and find Righteousness in Jesus Christ. At the same time, many Righteous people cry out to God about the injustice of the world. Why does it seem like the wicked continue to prosper on this earth? Isaiah 26 is clear that their “prospering” isn’t necessarily a “good thing” because they WILL NOT perceive the majesty of the Lord so as to be SAVED. It seems that God does not bring trials upon the truly wicked because they do not belong to Him. God chastens those whom He loves, His Children who are called by His Name. The wicked will continue to prosper on earth until the day of reckoning.
We can endure through the night, if we have expectation of the dawn. Hidden within all of us is a latent memory of God. It is within all the sons of Adam. There is also the hidden memory of our Hebrew roots…within us. In the book of John, Jesus gave the Disciples a new commandment, and yet it is not new. Something new can evoke hidden memories within us. (Isaiah 64; 4-5)
Isaiah 64:4: For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
5 You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry, for we sinned,
We continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?
God judges His enemies as passionately as He loves those who LOVE HIM. What is God’s judgment? When God is completely finished with someone, He gives them over to that which they think they desire. In so doing, those who do not have God in their lives will DEVOUR one another. They will TURN on each other. Hatred, strife, enmity is there outside of God’s presence. To be separate from God , from the SHALOM of God, is hell on earth. This is why mental problems have become so prevalent in these last days, where God is being pushed out of our schools, our Government, and our military. Sadly, as I write this post, there is ANOTHER school shooting in California and a one in Russia. Several people are dead and more are wounded. We need to pray for all of the families of all involved. Mental problems portend a foretaste of hell, WHERE THERE IS NO PEACE.
Isaiah 26: 11: O Lord, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it.
They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, fire will devour Your enemies.
12 Lord, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
The fire of God’s judgement will devour His enemies. How does God judge His enemies? God doesn’t even need to do anything because His enemies will devour His enemies. As soon as we turn our backs on God and reject His presence, the consequences are there.
Revelation 17:16: And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.
Isaiah 26:13: O Lord our God, OTHER MASTERS BESIDES YOU HAVE RULED US; But through You alone we confess Your name.
14 THE DEAD WILL NOT LIVE, THE DEPARTED SPIRITS WILL NOT RISE;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.
Isaiah knew that Israel had experienced other masters such as Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, and the pagan gods they worshiped. God (YHWH) is the only master who should have dominion over us. The devil knows, if he can cause us to compromise on our beliefs…then he can finish us off. As a Christian, Jesus Christ should be our only LORD. What does it mean to make Jesus Lord? A Lord is someone or something who has power, authority, and influence. When the Christian says that Jesus is Lord, we’re saying “He’s Lord of all the earth”, He’s Lord of the Church, He’s Lord of political powers, and He’s LORD of my life!”. Christians shouldn’t be dancing to the tune of “other masters”. Jesus is Lord. The reason why denomination after denomination after denomination continue to have “conferences” and “global summits” on same sex marriage is because the secular agenda has invaded the church. The Church is bowing to other masters…and it is wreaking HAVOC on the Church! This is part of the Last days apostasy that was prophesied in 2nd Thessalonians. The Archbishop of Canterbury said “We have to reflect the world”. In-fact, many, many Pastors are making this HUGE MISTAKE! By saying the Church has to fit into or REFLECT the world‘s values, they are saying that the Church is a slave to the world. Isaiah 26 shows us that these “other masters” will be DESTROYED, and along with them, those who follow them. Why in the world does the Church desire to go under these “other masters”? We are in the LAST DAYS.
Isaiah 26: 15: You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.16 O Lord, they sought You in distress;
They could only whisper a prayer,
Your chastening was upon them.
17 As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O Lord.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.
The borders of Spiritual Israel have increased as God has brought in more and more Gentiles into the New Covenant. In this, God is GLORIFIED! The Church, like Physical Israel, has been struggling with hypocrisy and apostasy. The Church cries out in pain, as she struggles to deal with the issues of our day. Homosexuality, fornication, abortion, gross materialism, which way is the right way? The Church thinks she can determine what is right through summits, meetings, and the democratic system. But, when the Church “delivers”, she delivers wind. It is a false pregnancy because she has served other masters. Mankind cannot create revival, only God can create revival. The conclusion..”We’ve brought forth wind”…we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth because it is not possible for us to accomplish deliverance. As the Church attempts to unite with the world, walking away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to “grow Christianity”, she finds out that the exact opposite happens, Christianity is shrinking..The church has brought forth WIND because only the Truth of Jesus Christ can bring deliverance and revival. As the Church continues down the road of apostasy and hypocrisy, they watch helplessly as the wicked of the world grow in number and success.
But God’s Promises WILL BE FULFILLED. There is a day of reckoning coming…The Dead in Christ will RISE up out of the dust of the earth, and God’s people will be RESCUED in the Rapture. God is coming out of His Holy Habitation to pour out wrath on an unbelieving world.
Isaiah 26:19: Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.20 Come, my people, ENTER INTO YOUR ROOMS
And CLOSE YOUR DOORS BEHIND YOU;
Hide for a little while
Until indignation runs its course.
GOD GIVES LIFE TO THE DEAD. He created living cells out of dead matter. He’s also able to bring life back to those who are in the dust of the earth. Our bodies are made from the dust of the earth. Our flesh is dead (Romans 8:10), but God’s Spirit gives LIFE to our spirits and will eventually give LIFE to our mortal flesh (Philippians 3:20-21). God reminds His people that at the time of the Tribulation we are to go into our chambers, our prayer closets, and hide ourselves from the world until God’s indignation runs its course. This is a reference to God’s judgement at the end of days, and also to the Rapture, God’s Divine Rescue plan. He tells His people, ABIDE in Jesus, and you will not be harmed at what is going on “out there”. No longer do the wicked get a “free pass”. Judgement always begins with the house of God, but there will come a day of reckoning when God pours out HIS WRATH on an unbelieving and WICKED world.
Isaiah 26:21: For behold, the Lord is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.
Cain thought he was hidden after he had slain Abel, but he was not. The earth will disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain. A day of reckoning IS COMING when the wicked will no longer prosper. It is so much better to be chastened / disciplined by God then to remain prosperous and WICKED until the day of reckoning! Adam and Eve hid. Our instinctive reaction to doing something wrong is to try and hide it..but at the end of days, everything will be exposed. If it were not for God’s Grace and the blood of Jesus covering us, we Christians would also be exposed…but we have an Advocate in Christ Jesus, who COVERS our SINS. Christians do not stand before the Great White throne Judgement and we do not have to ever worry about being ashamed or exposed. Christians are covered by the blood of JESUS!
Our lives are a book. Each day, we live our life, we write another page in our book. Will we write a page for Jesus…or for something else? We get to choose!
