Isaiah 26:16-19

These verses stuck out to me mostly because of the pregnancy and labor metaphor. But also because it reminds me that so often I try to do things as best I can, yet end up with little to show for my efforts. God is the one that brings us fruit for our labor. We are very capable of doing things, but God is the one who rewards our efforts.

¹⁶ Lord, they came to you in their distress;
    when you disciplined them,
    they could barely whisper a prayer.

¹⁷ As a pregnant woman about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
    so were we in your presence, Lord.
¹⁸ We were with child, we writhed in labor,
    but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth,
    and the people of the world have not come to life.

¹⁹ But your dead will live, Lord;
    their bodies will rise—
let those 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.

Verse 16 is meant to remind Isaiah’s audience that the trouble they have experienced is of their own doing. Rather than trusting in God, they looked to other nations to deliver them from their oppressors. Finally, when God sent them into exile for their continued disobedience, their prayers and cries of distress were more like groans of fatigue and silent cries of desperation. But ultimately, God’s discipline did not drive His people away, but rather it drove them back to Him. Oftentimes, we tend to complain when our lives aren’t going as we want them to: the job is more stressful than we’d like, or has just been taken away; the kids are misbehaving; and we have no time for ourselves and our projects. So, we do what we have been taught to do, we pray. But really we are just whining because our plans aren’t matching up to God’s. Scripture shows us that when we insist on being in control of our lives, our lives tend to fall apart. Whether by God’s hand (such as Jonah), or by our own limited powers.

When things aren’t going how we’d like, it should be an invitation to stop and examine what exactly we feel is going wrong, and whether our desires are lining up with God’s. Sometimes, our distress may be God’s discipline, other times it might be us walking into a trap we created. Either way, stress, trouble, distress, and hardship should drive us back into the arms of God because He is the one who is in control and can help and comfort. Each experience should deepen our faith in the God who holds all things in His hands, and help us to grow closer to Him.

Verses 17 and 18 demonstrate this principle well. We can do everything we can and know how to do, and still have nothing to show for it. We can cry out in our distress, hardship, and troubles, and yet if we do not turn to God and trust Him to carry out His plan for our lives, we still have nothing. The pain of labor is made bearable because of the end result: the joy of a child. However, for Isaiah’s audience, all their pain and trials have resulted in nothing.[1] “We have not brought salvation to the earth.” Israel’s suffering may have been worth it if through the exile they had been able to fulfill the Abrahamic Blessing on the nations (Genesis 12:1-3), or had seen God’s power and salvation come upon their host nations. While there were some notable individuals who rose to power during the exile (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Esther, Ezra, etc), the host nations were by and large spiritually unchanged throughout the time of the exile. So the people of God were exiled, punished, and brought back to broken cities with nothing of heavenly value to show for their time away, except for a greater desire to follow the law so such a thing would never happen again. Ouch.

Did you read that? A greater desire to follow the law so such a thing would never happen again. 400 years later this desire has developed into the Pharisees and Scribes of the Law – individuals who were trying to protect the purity of the Jews, and missing the point completely. When we are punished for our sins (either directly by God, or by God allowing us to reap the consequences of our actions), do we vow to do better by reading our Bibles more, going to that mid-week prayer meeting, and generally ticking off the boxes of what it means to be a “good Christian?” Or do we realize that we actually don’t know God very well and need to love Him better? The Bible Studies, prayer meetings, and other church events are things that are meant to help our relationship with God, but they are not the relationship itself.

A.W. Tozer says, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”[2] Do we think of all the good Christian things we do? Or do we think of who God is, and what He has done for us?

For Isaiah’s audience, the Jews in exile, there hadn’t been a revival of new life throughout the pagan empires, rather there had only been more death (see Isaiah 59:10).[3] So what happened to those that had died in this hopeless time?

Verse 19 answers this by stating that there will be a resurrection. All-powerful God will raise up His dead to enjoy His festivities in His Kingdom. This verse asserts that even though God’s people are humiliated and oppressed, God will have the final victory, and all those who belong to Him will be there to enjoy victory feast. So here, in the Old Testament, we also find the hope of what is promised in the New Testament: that Christ’s resurrection will bring an end to the domination of sin, and will usher in a new age of life for those who place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

This last verse gives us the reason that we endure the hardships of this world, and the discipline of God and all our unanswered questions: because there is life beyond death, there is true joy in the presence of our God and King, and we will partake in His kingdom. What we endure in this world is meant to form us, mold us, and bring us to greater life in Christ. Therefore, when we run into trouble from others or of our own doing, we must remember that God is above it all, and is the one who will bring us through it and into a life that is filled with heavenly joy and worship.

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[1] John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 1-39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1986), 484.

[2] A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1961), 1.

[3] Oswalt, 485.