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Isaiah 26 - The Song of Dependence on Yahweh · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Hello and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  I am excited today to be in Isaiah chapter 26.
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  Isaiah 26. We are in what's called the
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  little Apocalypse of Isaiah. If you can think of it this way,
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  it's like the Book of Revelation, but just 4 chapters
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  within the scroll of Isaiah as he reflects on what God has said
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  both to the nation of Israel and and Judah as a whole, and then
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  specifically to Isaiah himself. And so we've seen over the last
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  couple of episodes, Isaiah 24 that deals with the judgment,
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  the justice that will come on all of the nations of the world.
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  And then chapter 25, the future that God has planned, where even
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  death itself is finally destroyed and done away with,
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  and where God has a wonderful feast planned for his people.
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  And that righteousness, goodness will be there.
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  He will wipe away the tears from every face and remove shame.
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  And what a joy that that will be.
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  So then today we are in Charter 26 and it says this.
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  On that day, this song will be sung.
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  In the land of Judah we have a strong city.
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  Salvation is established as walls and ramparts.
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  The thing defending this group of people is not simply some
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  large rocks or concrete or anything like that.
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  Bricks, nothing like that. Salvation, God's rescue, is what
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  defends this people. Verse #2 Open the gates so that
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  a righteous nation can come in, one that remains faithful.
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  We're supposed to be reminded here of chapter 2, where this is
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  God's end game, that currently wicked, evil Jerusalem that was
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  compared to Sodom and Gomorrah in chapter 1.
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  God wants to renew and restore and revitalize his people so
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  that they can be righteous, so that they can have the
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  relationship both with God and with each other that he made
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  them for. And so this is this righteous
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  nation, this good city with walls of salvation.
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  This is what God is building towards.
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  Verse #3 You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in
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  perfect peace, for it is trusting in you.
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  I love this verse. This one is 1.
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  I definitely always heard it bereft of the context of this
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  particular song. But how much more true In light
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  of the millennial reign of Christ, in light of heaven, in
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  light of eternity with God. God keeps us in perfect peace.
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  He says you will keep the mind that is dependent on you in
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  perfect peace, in those moments when we're not dependent on
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  ourselves, but when we are dependent on God and when we
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  recognize God. If I'm going to make it through
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  today in a good way, it's going to be because of you.
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  If I'm going to pass this class, it's going to be because of you.
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  If I'm going to not get fired from my job, or if I'm going to
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  be a good husband today, or if I'm going to do actions that are
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  right in your sight, or if I'm going to say words that are good
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  and build others up and challenge and warn them and
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  encourage them, that will only happen through you.
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  When we are dependent on God and we recognize that we have an
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  intentional reliance on God, it says you will keep the mind that
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  is dependent on you in perfect peace because it is trusting in
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  you. An anxious life, an anxious mind
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  results from us not understanding that God is in
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  control, that God cares about us, He loves us, He is building
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  us and moving in US towards His good goal.
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  That we would be made into the image of Christ.
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  That we would show others what God is like in our words and our
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  attitudes and our actions. That is, if you will, the end
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  game. And so that is where we are
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  headed. Verse #4 trust in Yahweh
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  forever, because in Yahweh, Yahweh Himself is an everlasting
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  rock. We can trust, trust in God,
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  because he is just as firm and stable and unmoving as even the
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  rocks. Verse #5 For he is humbled those
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  who live in lofty places, an inaccessible city.
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  He brings it down, He brings it down to the ground.
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  He throws it to the dust. Feet trample it.
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  The feet of the humble, the steps of the poor.
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  So here is not intended to bring to mind like an invading army
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  that just really destroys everything here.
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  The humble and the poor, they aren't the ones that are able to
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  overthrow high and lofty towers and places that are super
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  inaccessible for invading armies.
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  God brings down the proud and he makes it so that those who had
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  nothing are able to step on good, rich, amazing ground.
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  That we'd be reminded of what Jesus tells us in the Beatitudes
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  in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
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  for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
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  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
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  Those types of thoughts verse #7 the path of the righteous is
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  level. You clear a straight path for
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  the righteous. Yes, Yahweh, we wait for you in
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  the path of your judgments. Our desire is for your name and
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  renown is your hope, your goal, your desire that God would be
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  respected and loved and known by those in your life?
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  Is that your desire Now? You can't make that happen in
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  any other person, but is the way that you're talking, is the way
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  that you are living, are your interactions with other people
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  leading them to come to that conclusion that at least if they
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  don't believe it, if they don't believe God is great, they
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  genuinely believe that you think that?
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  Are you convincing others that you believe that your God is
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  great and worthy of praise and renown?
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  Verse #9 I long for you in the night.
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  Yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks you.
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  For when your judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the
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  world will learn righteousness. When God's Spirit is at work, we
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  learn who we ought to be, how we ought to interact with God and
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  with man. And so that's why I'm so
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  thankful for the Holy Spirit, that His Holy Spirit within me,
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  God's own presence in my life will lead me if I listen to Him,
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  it will lead me in the right way.
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  Verse #10 But if the wicked man is shown favor, he does not
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  learn righteousness in an sorry, he does not learn righteousness
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  in a righteous land. He acts unjustly and does not
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  see the majesty of Yahweh. So both the humble, the poor,
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  the needy, the righteous, these are the ones that God loves.
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  These are the ones that God wants to exalt, those that
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  insist on their own pride, their own wickedness.
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  As those people are lifted up, whether you know, politically,
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  financially and monetarily, those wicked people who are
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  lifted up, they do not become more righteous even when they're
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  around good people. They just continue in their
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  wickedness. So I want to challenge you.
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  Just having more good come into your life does not mean that you
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  would be able to trust or love or worship God more.
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  In fact, for those whose hearts are set against the Lord, the
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  more and more good that God shows them throughout their
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  life, the more and more that they ignore Him and they think
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  that they have put together their life.
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  They are the reason for their successes or their triumphs or
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  their great business deals. But everything that we have
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  comes from the Lord Himself. I'm not sitting in this chair
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  today with my Bible or this microphone or that computer.
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  I am not here because I am some great, intelligent, awesome,
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  diligent person. I'm here by the grace of God.
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  And, you know, seasonal allergy season, the Lord could Take Me
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  Out tomorrow and I can, you know, be dead from a bee sting
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  or something. I, I don't think I'm that
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  allergic to, to bees, but I could pass tomorrow and God
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  would still be just as good and not giving me good things.
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  Or he can give me all of the wonderful things that I have
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  experienced and am experiencing in my life.
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  And so I just need to follow and love the Lord.
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  And I want to encourage you, God's goodness to you is not
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  shown in the abundance of the things that he gives.
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  It is shown to you in the person of Jesus.
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  And if that's enough for you, if Jesus is enough for you, that
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  relationship with God is what you want in life.
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  Wonderful, my friend. You, you are set for this day of
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  that wonderful future. If that's not enough for you, if
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  you say well, yeah, Jesus is great, but what I really want is
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  this laundry list of items in the here and now, my friend,
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  consider the wicked, that even when they are shown favor by
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  God, when He gives grace to them, they do not care.
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  It's not enough. And they will, they will
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  continue living in their wickedness and their
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  unrighteousness. They will not change their ways.
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  Don't be like that person. Be like these righteous, the
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  poor and the needy, those ones who know that they are dependent
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  on God. Verse #11 Yahweh, your hand is
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  lifted up to take action, but they don't see it.
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  Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame.
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  Let fire consume your adversaries.
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  Yahweh, You will establish peace for us, for you have also done
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  all our work for us. Yahweh, our God Lords other than
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  you have owned us, but we remember your name alone.
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  Basically God, you are the one that is truly in charge of us
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  and we have served other masters in our lives.
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  But God, you are the only one that we care about.
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  You are the only one that is ultimately deserving of our
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  obedience and our time and our worship.
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  Verse 14 The dead do not live. Departed spirits don't rise up.
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  Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them.
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  You have wiped out all memory of them.
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  You have added to the nation Yahweh.
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  You've added to the nation. You are honored.
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  You have expanded all the borders of the land, Yahweh.
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  They went to you in their distress.
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  They poured out whispered prayers because your discipline
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  fell on them. As a pregnant woman about to
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  give birth rise and cries out in her veins.
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  So we were before you, Yahweh. We became pregnant, We writhed
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  in pain. We gave birth to wind.
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  That is emptiness, uselessness, futility.
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  We have won no victories on earth and the earth's
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  inhabitants have not fallen. So here number of things are
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  being said. Judgement comes and when the
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  judgement comes, those dead aren't coming back to life to
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  defeat what God has done. So God is winning victories.
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  There are people that are crying out to the Lord that He is
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  caring for. They pray because of the
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  difficulties that God brings in and it turns their hearts to
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  realize that they need Him. All of that has happened and
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  this end section here of verses 17 and 18 talks about Israel
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  needing victory and finding no victory, and so they need the
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  Lord that all of their hardships seem to have been for no
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  ultimate purpose. So that's kind of what we read
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  there verse #19 your dead will live, their bodies will rise.
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  This is the resurrection of the righteous awake and sing, you
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  who dwell in the dust, for you will be covered with the
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  Mountain Dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.
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  Verse #20 Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors
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  behind you. Hide for a little while until
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  the wrath has passed. For look, Yahweh is coming from
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  his place here, God Himself. He's not just in the heavens.
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  There's not just going to be good here on earth.
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  God Himself is coming down. Yahweh is coming from his place
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  to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
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  The earth will reveal the bloodshed on it and will no
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  longer conceal her stain. So we're going to look next
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  episode at a little bit more of what is transpiring there.
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  But I love at the end of there of chapter 26, there is a time
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  for the people of God where they can hide safely away.
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  There would be some things kind of echoed in the same mindset by
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  Christ in Matthew 24 and what's called the all of it discourse
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  that is Jesus talking about the end of days.
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  He uses some language that would be indicative of the destruction
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  of Jerusalem in 8070. So that's partially in view, but
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  also the future judgment that would come in which the people
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  of God would do well to hide themselves away, to sequester
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  away during times of massive global upheaval and violence.
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  A lot of that's talked about in Matthew 24.
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  Mark 13 deals a little bit with that.
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  We did the Tabernacle Talk episode on that one.
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  I've not gone through the whole book of Matthew yet, and so I do
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  not have an episode on Matthew 24, but I think that would be a
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  great study together. So what do we make of this?
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  Number one, God's plans are for the humble, the needy, the
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  righteous, those people that are not insistent on their own way,
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  their own greatness, their own like self dependence.
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  God's plan is for those people who recognize that they need
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  God, the people that believe that they have no use for God,
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  that they are superior to God, that even God's grace and His
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  blessings on their life are simply their own doing.
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  They will live for all of their eternity without God.
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  They will get their ultimate wish.
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  But for those that desperately want and need God, He is always
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  there for us. He does not always change the
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  circumstances of our life as He's there, but He can help our
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  inside our mind experience true peace, tranquility, that Shalom,
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  that calm settledness, even in unsettling and horrific
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  circumstances. One of the things I love
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  especially about the Old Testament it is is that it does
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  not written from the perspective of a bunch of people who were in
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  powerful, comfortable positions just thinking about the future
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  and all the people that they could come down hard on.
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  Instead, the Old Testament here with Isaiah, he is a deeply
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  unpopular person. History or some historians would
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  say that Isaiah ended up losing his life, being cut in half as a
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  result of the hatred of the rulers of Judah for his
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  particular preaching and what he was saying about their wrong
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  actions. So Isaiah, he's not preaching a
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  popular message to people. Instead he is in essence saying
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  we have so butchered God's plan that his promises that he told
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  us at the beginning of the judgement that would come on us
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  that we would be exiled. All of that is going to come to
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  pass now. God in his love, he will bring
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  us back. And there is a grand future that
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  is awaiting the people of God still, but we are going to have
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  to go through hard times. And so recognizing this is the
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  unpopular opinion at the time based on a speaking to the
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  moment and the faults in the moment, I think all of that is
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  tremendously valuable for us that we don't have to come to
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  the Bible and go, well, yeah, that was easy for them to say.
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  These were hard truths then and they're hard truths now, truths
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  now. But the comfort is it is from
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  the Lord, the Word, the things that are being said are the
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  declaration of God. And so because of that, we can
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  go to the bank with it. We can trust entirely in what
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  God has said. I hope that this would be an
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  encouragement to you today. Next episode, there's a really
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  fun section of a fun final picture of that feast that the
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  people of God will go through at the end of time as Yahweh
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  returns, as he makes all things right.
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  We're going to have a meal together.
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  And I love the poetic way that Isaiah puts it.
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  So I'm looking forward to that next episode with you.
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  Thank you for tuning in. God bless.