11/29

Isaiah 26:19-21

¹⁹But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. ²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. ²¹See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no longer.

In Isaiah 26 the prophet contrasts the hopelessness of the world with the hope of the people of God. He tells us that the world's great ones come and go and are soon forgotten. Their kingdoms rise and fall. God disciplines them, but they do not learn. He chastens them, but they refuse instruction.

The people of God are different. When God deals with them, they learn righteousness. Though they are oppressed and downtrodden by the world, they have the hope of this passage. The day is coming when God will do the treading upon those who do evil. He will come to judge the earth. No murders will be unsolved. No crimes will be hidden. There will be retribution for all evil done by those who have not repented and looked to God for salvation.

The people of God will rise from their graves. They will meet the LORD in the air. The world thinks it will silence the righteous by killing them, but they will return. The wrath of God will be poured upon the earth, and then they will return to rule and reign with Christ.

Are you looking forward to the hope that is set before us, or are your eyes set in the earth, on the passing things? Do you think evil will escape without justice being met? All sins will be dealt with, either by the redeeming blood of Jesus or the wrath of the Lamb. If you have chosen repentance and redemption your body will one day wake up and shout for joy.

Consider: Your death here is only the beginning of eternity in God's presence. We have this hope!