Here we have another song which is to be sung in the land of Judah. That in the last chapter is not so called, yet was it an outburst of praise after the shaking of heaven and earth; in this we have the people still further celebrating what God has done for Judah.
If we look at Israel now, the contrast with what they are to be made by and by is very striking. For in Rom. 1:18, they are thus alluded to: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness [i.e., Gentile wickedness in general] and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness [that of Israel].” Here, on the contrary, it is said, “Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may pass in.” (Ver. 2.)
The truth will have been abandoned by the Jewish people, or the larger part of them, in the last days. At the first advent of Christ it could be said that “salvation is of the Jews;” they had the truth, but held it in unrighteousness. They had the form of sound doctrine maintained for the most part, save among the Sadducees. But before the Lord comes the second time, the great mass of the nation will not hold the truth, but a lie, the great deceit of the last days, the lie of Antichrist, instead of the truth of Christ. The unrighteousness will be similar.
Here we have the blessed contrast of all this: there is a remnant whom God will make to be a strong nation, and they are called, “The righteous nation which keepeth the truth.” (Ver. 2.) In verse 3, it is not merely that there is a general profession of the nation, but there will be individual reality among them. In the past they were called “The holy nation,” that was the name that belonged to them, but in the future there is this comfort for our souls that it will be real, and individually real. No common privileges are ever to make us less mindful of our individual need.
For many years the common joy of the Church was very little entered into, because of the worldliness, legalism, many divisions and innumerable wrong ways that had crept in. But there is the danger, now that God has been pleased to show the importance of corporate blessing, of our forgetting that the individual place must be still more carefully watched. It is of primary moment to know the standing of the Christian and the position of the Church, but state must next be looked to. Strength depends upon what passes between our own souls and God, who in His gracious, vigilant care watches over the saints individually. These, then, do not forget the public blessings of the nation, but there is also the individual saint's walk, staying upon God, caring for His glory, who, on His part, keeps the soul in perfect peace; the mind is stayed upon God Himself. For no matter what the blessings are, if we have not God Himself as the object of our hearts, they are sure to be misused; therefore it is said, “because he trusteth in thee.” It is not merely the perception of the goodness of God and of the wonders He had wrought for them. Now they know Himself, and trust Himself; and this is a very great thing for our souls—this personal knowledge of God and trust in God. I need not say it is what God looks for now in a still more intimate way than even then, though all that ever has been done on the face of the earth will have been completely eclipsed with but one exception (and that exception is Christ, and we may add His body the Church). Nothing can surpass the last Adam; nothing compare with Christ's cross, and that will be our portion, of which we will joy and boast even in glory.
Remark this also, that in all these statements of what they are to share, you never find such language addressed to them as supposes them to enter into the depths of God's ways in the cross as is expected of us now. What can be sweeter than the way in which they count on their deliverance, and confide their souls to God! But you never find such words as, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Yet nothing would have been more easy, had it been in due keeping, than for God to have said so here. We are called into such fellowship with God about His Son and about His cross, as well as heaven, as nobody can really find in the Old Testament.
When a person starts with the thought that it is all one and the same thing, the distinctive value of Scripture is lost. For the soul, too, the least possible measure of blessing is the result. Ver. 4. Here we have the Lord Jehovah brought in; and the reason why they speak of His everlasting strength is, because “He bringeth down them that are on high,” &c. (Ver. 5.) It will be one nation upon whom God in the last days will clothe with such honor, after they have been put down in every way by the Gentiles. Hence they are singing; for God has not a single difficulty then in the way of fully blessing them. It is touching to see how God insists that He has done everything that was needed for their deliverance and good. But it is always in the abasement of what is high and lofty, referring to Israel themselves. Ver. 7. They will have been brought through tremendous trials, and have borne the added and painful reproach of being a most abandoned people.
For a godly few of the Jews will entirely gainsay the lie of Satan when all the power of their nation, and the great mass of the west, will have given way to Antichrist. A little, despised remnant will still hold out for the Lord, still refuse him who puts himself forward as the true Messiah. They will have been faithful in the face of death, and now they are made to praise God because “He has weighed the path of the just.” (Ver. 7.) It is sweet in thinking of this, that their triumph will not be by their power or their knowledge, but by their simple trust in Jehovah and faith in His word. But a scanty glimpse will be theirs; for they are the very souls referred to, in Isa. 1, as walking in darkness and having no light. This ought never to be said of a Christian, though he may slip into such a feeling; for he has seen Christ, the light of life, the true light. He may have but a dim perception of Christ, but still Christ is before his soul and always shines; for it is not true, that where the light of grace has once shone, God takes it back again. The difference is on the part of the Christian. It is never the light that is gone; but that he may have been unfaithful and turned his back upon it. The Holy Ghost has come down to abide with the Christian forever. He may not always walk according to the light, but in it he is, as a believer, and cannot but be; yea, he is now light in the Lord. The Christian walks in the light as long as he professes the name of Christ. He never walks in darkness; he may not enjoy the light, but that is another thing.
The contrary language is very common in Christendom, because they confound the position of the Christian with that of the Jewish people, who must go through darkness by and by, before their light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon them. Possibly a very few may not be thus walking in darkness; some certainly will have godliness in contrast with the many; then are “the wise.” But the beautiful feature of the godly is, that although they thus walk in darkness, yet as they have been touched by the Spirit of God, and know that what is of God can never have alliance with sin, so they will refuse to own that idols and Antichrist can be of God. Thus they pass through the fires, with an uncommonly feeble measure of knowledge of God no doubt, but still they will be true to what they have got, and will be brought out to praise God. (Ver. 7.) They are entitled to be spoken of as “the just.” So now, it is a great snare as well as mistake of believers not to take the place of being saints of God; for if they decline it, they feel not responsibility in their walk. So in earthly relations, if persons in the position of masters or servants do not act from their true position, they will never carry themselves in practice as becomes them. To own our proper relationship is not pride, but a duty and wisdom. If you are occupied therein with self, no doubt pride comes in, but it is all right and important to acknowledge God in the relationships to which He has called us.
The Spirit of God leads them to say, “Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee,” &c. (Ver. 8.) That is what they had been wading through. They had waited for Him in the way of His judgments, we follow Him in grace and look to appear with Him in glory. “With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Ver. 9.) Now we have the individual again. As far as the world is concerned, the patience of God will have ended in the most fearful departure from the truth. God is now suffering the ways of man. He has not left them to their own conjectures or darkness; but He has caused His light to shine in the person of Christ, leaving man to himself, save working by His word and Spirit. Outwardly God seems as though He did not notice what is passing here below, and all this after the full light of God has shone through Christ upon this world. Saving grace has appeared to men. Favor has been shown to the wicked: this is what is going on now. “Let favor be shown unto the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness.” “In the land of uprightness,” it is added, “will he deal unjustly and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.” The gospel is but for a witness; it will not, cannot govern the world. When God's judgments are here below, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Hence there is another thing: in verse 11 Jehovah, with uplifted hand, is coming in the way of judgment. Does the first answer declare “they will not see?” But, says He, “They shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.” “Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.” (Ver. 11-13.)
And what then about Israel? “They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise.” (Ver. 14.) This is of course highly figurative language. If we look at the resurrection, we know that the wicked are to rise as well as the righteous; that is, there is a resurrection of all men, just and unjust. These Gentile oppressors of Israel must rise in the resurrection of judgment. They will rise like other bad men. Hence when it is said here, “They shall not rise,” the Spirit does not describe the literal resurrection of the body, but the complete reversal of the lot of the Gentiles and Israel in this world. These old lords are no longer to live or rise again in this world. This will suffice to show that the language here is figurative.
In chapter 25:8, it is said, “He will swallow up death in victory.” This, we know from God self, will be realized in the literal resurrection of the body, when the saints are raised. But in chapter 26 that allusion to resurrection is employed as a figure, because the context proves that it cannot refer to that literal fact; for if it did, it would be to deny that the unrighteous are to rise. This is the true criterion for the understanding of any passage of the word. If a person bring you a text against what you know to be true, always examine what surrounds it, what God is treating of. Here it is plain that it is a question of the way in which God will deal in that day with the Gentiles who lorded it over Israel. But is it not the fact, some may ask, that these Gentiles were literally dead? Certainly, I answer; but it is not true that they shall not rise. Perhaps this would not be worth dwelling on, were it not that many apply chapter 26 to the same literal resurrection as 25:8. We must never force but bow to Scripture. The passages that do refer to a raising of bodies we must hold fast, but it is dangerous to misapply others which it only uses as a figure, because one might infer, as from our chapter, that some shall never rise. In truth, as we know, all men must rise. “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” (John 5:28, 29.) There we have the most decisive proof that all the dead, just and unjust, are to rise and reappear. Here, contrariwise, the wicked enemies of Israel “shall not rise.” John clearly teaches the resurrection of all, good and bad. Isa. 26:14 refers only to the figure of rising or not to comfort Israel from all fears of their old troublers. “They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.” (Ver. 14.) But what had been done for the nation? “Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.” (Ver. 15.) He does not speak of the resurrection of the body. Clearly when that takes place as described, it could not be said that He had removed the risen saints far unto all the ends of the earth. Take it of Israel, and how true it is!
So, again, verses 16-18. “Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 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 in thy sight, O Lord. 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.” They will review their past conduct, and see that they have not accomplished the purpose of God. They had brought in no divine flow of blessing; they had learned the bad ways of the Gentiles, and brought a curse on themselves; the name of the Lord was blasphemed because of them. But now it is said, “Thy dead shall live; my dead body shall they arise.” What mighty words! and how tender! The Lord awakens Israel, and even calls them His dead body. It is no question of bodily death, but of national revival. The daughter awakes from her long sleep, and the Lord speaks of the Jews (so long defunct as His people) as His dead. They, for their part, own themselves to be just as bad as the rest of the nations, but the difference is that the Lord claims them as His own. “Let them be dead,” He says as it were, “still they are mine.” It is the Jewish nation that had been like a corpse whom the Lord is graciously pleased to identify as His dead body, bringing them out again. So Abraham would bury his dead out of his sight. Here God claims them to fill them with a new life. “My dead body shall they arise.” Some may think this a questionable interpretation of the passage; but a scripture or two will prove its soundness.
In Ezek. 37 the terms of the figure are quite as strong as here; the Spirit of God shows the prophet a valley of dry bones. “They were very dry.” “Can these bones live?” was the question. (Ver. 3-5.) “Behold I will cause breath to enter into you.” (Ver. 6.) Then the vision is realized, the bones come together; then there was flesh on them. (Ver. 11.) Then the bones, coming forth and clothed with flesh, answer to the dead men here raised out of their graves; and beyond controversy they are the whole house of Israel: “Thy dead shall live,” says Isaiah. To put this chapter of Ezekiel along with Isa. 26 makes, to say the least, a strong presumption that if the figure of resurrection is used to show the fresh start of Israel in the one, so it may be in the other. But it is certainly so intended in Ezek. 37; for, if we have the vision, we have also the inspired interpretation. We are not therefore at liberty to explain the vision according to our own thoughts; the explanation of the Holy Ghost is express and conclusive. Thus we can carry divine light back to Isa. 26, where the very same allusion is found.
In Hosea again, there is a similar figure, as also in Dan. 12:2, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” If we divert this to a resurrection of the body, in the first place it is not a resurrection of all, but only of many. In the second place, it is of some to everlasting life and of some to shame and contempt at the same time. We must give up the doctrine of the first resurrection, separated by a thousand years and more from the second death (Rev. 20), in order to found on this a literal rising from the graves. All is plain and just if it apply in the same way as Ezekiel and Isaiah to the national revival of Israel (or the Jews), whom God will bring out of all their present condition of shame, though some of them be allowed to display fatal wickedness and pride. But the last will be quickened with divine life. This is another confirmation of the truth of the interpretation.
But further, the next verse (20) is explicit, where God says, “Enter thou into thy chamber till the indignation be overpast.” Those who interpret the context of a literal resurrection are led into the error, that the risen saints (for such this scheme would suppose to be here meant) would be here on earth whilst the divine indignation is going on! One could understand their holding that some are to pass through the tribulation, though it is not the same thing as the indignation. But it is clearly a question of men alive here below, not of men changed. God tells them (the Jews) to enter into their chambers until He has spent all His wrath upon the nations. Is this what we look for? Are we not to be taken out of this earthly scene and to enter into the Father's house above? We are not an earthly but a heavenly people. We know the Lord is coming who will take us to be with Himself where He is, and when He has translated the Christians above, the Jews will be called for the earth. The little remnant will be grievously tried, and the vast body of the nation will receive the false Christ. Then when the judgment of the quick comes, it is said, “enter into thy chambers.” He will not provide a heavenly abode for them, but they are to enter into their chambers, always some place of refuge and earthly security. All this renders plain the right interpretation of the passage, and shows that He is not speaking about the heavenly saints, but refers to the remnant of the Jews in the last days, who are to have a haven of refuge provided for them. It is not like Abraham: this is our place; Israel's will be much more like Lot, for they will be in the midst of the place where the judgment is to be executed. Lot entered into his chambers (i.e., Zoar) when the judgments came; but, as for Abraham, be was entirely out of the scene; and yet before it came to pass, he knew it far better than Lot. His position, communion, and experience were entirely different from those of his nephew. So we shall be taken to Christ and brought into the Father's house; and afterward, when the Lord comes to execute judgment, we shall come along with him.