Isaiah 26:12 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, the prophet looks back at what God has done for his people in mercy and judgment. He gives God thanks for both, and then he looks ahead to what he hopes God will still do for them. His reflections are mixed, because he sees both God’s kindness and God’s rebukes in the story of the church.

First, he sees that God had been very gracious to them and had done great things for them. In general, he says, “You have worked all our works in us” or “for us” (Isaiah 26:12). Any good work done by us comes from God’s grace working in us first. He puts good thoughts and right desires into our hearts, and he works in us “to will and to act” for his own good purpose. If we act, it is because we have first been acted upon by him. And if any kindness is shown to us, or any of our affairs go well, it is God who has made it happen for us.

In particular, he says, “You have increased the nation, O Lord” (Isaiah 26:15). A small people became many. In Egypt they multiplied greatly, and later in Canaan they filled the land. In this God was honored, because the greatness of a people is the glory of their ruler. He was also showing his faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham, when he promised to make him the father of many nations. God’s people are meant to keep growing, and that growth brings honor to God. The increase of the church, that holy nation, is something to rejoice in, because it means more people are learning to glorify God in this world.

Yet the prophet also remembers that God had brought them under his rebukes. At times the surrounding nations had oppressed them and ruled over them (Isaiah 26:13). He turns to the Lord, who alone has the right to rule his people, and he complains that “other lords besides you have ruled over us.” This was true in the days of the judges and also afterward, when God often gave them into the hands of their enemies. In one sense, they sold themselves by their sins (Isaiah 52:3-5). When they had grown careless in God’s service, he allowed their enemies to rule over them, so they would learn the difference between serving him and serving the kingdoms around them.

This can also be read as a confession of sin. They had served other gods and followed the false religious customs of their neighbors. Those idols were called lords, so in that way other lords had ruled over them besides the true God. Now they promise it will be different. “By you only will we mention your name.” They mean that they will worship God alone, and only in the way he has appointed. The same should be true for us when we repent. Other lords, besides God, have often ruled over us. Every sinful desire has tried to be our master, and we have followed it too long. So our serious resolve should be that we will belong to God alone, keep close to him, and never turn away from our duty.

They had also been carried off into captivity before their enemies (Isaiah 26:15). The nation that God had first increased and rooted in the land was later diminished, uprooted, and scattered to the ends of the earth, just as had been warned in (Deuteronomy 30:4) and (Deuteronomy 28:64). Still, notice that between the mention of their increase and their removal, the text says, “You are glorified.” God is honored both when he blesses his people and when he punishes them for their sins. His judgments are as much for his glory as his mercies.

The prophet also remembers that when they were oppressed and carried away, they cried out to God (Isaiah 26:16). That was a good sign. It showed that they had not completely turned away from him, and that he had not completely given them up. It also showed that God’s judgments had a merciful purpose. This was often true in Israel’s history, especially in the time of the judges. When other lords ruled over them, they humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous” (2 Chronicles 12:6).

This teaches us our need for afflictions. Trouble often stirs up prayer. When it says, “In trouble they visited you,” it suggests that in ease and prosperity they had stayed distant from God. When life was comfortable, they seemed to think they had little need to seek his favor. But affliction often brings us back to him. It wakes us up to our duty and reminds us how much we depend on him.

Affliction also often does us real good. It brings us to God, makes us more serious in prayer, and teaches us to seek his help. Those who once came to him rarely now begin to visit him often. They become familiar with him and pour out their prayers freely. The line, “They poured out a secret speech,” means that prayer is a private speaking of the heart to God. It is not real prayer unless the heart is speaking. Suffering often drives people to secret prayer, where they can speak more freely and fully than they can in public. In trouble, those who had been slow to seek God often seek him early (Hosea 5:15). Pain can make prayer more intense and more fluent.

He says they “poured out a prayer, as drink offerings are poured out, when your discipline was on them.” But there is a sad warning here too. When the discipline is removed, people often drift back into the same carelessness they had before.

Finally, the prophet says their efforts to win back their freedom had been painful and dangerous, but not successful (Isaiah 26:17, Isaiah 26:18). They had the pains and struggles they feared. They were like a woman in labor, crying out in her birth pains. They had tried with much anxiety and hard work to help themselves, and their efforts had only increased their troubles, as when Moses came to deliver Israel and their brick quota was doubled. Their prayers grew stronger because their suffering was so sharp, and they cried out with the force of a woman in severe labor.

Still, they took comfort in this, that all their misery was before God’s sight. “So have we been in your sight, O Lord.” He was not unaware of their pain or their prayers. That was a great comfort in their distress. “Lord, all my desire is before you, and my groaning is not hidden from you” (Psalm 38:9). Whenever they came before the Lord with their complaints and requests, they were in agony like a woman in labor.

They had also fallen short of the success they hoped for. They could say, “We have been pregnant, full of hope for a quick and happy rescue. When we were in pain, we comforted ourselves by thinking the joy of birth would make us forget the suffering” (John 16:21). But, sadly, they had only brought forth wind. Their hope had turned out false, and their hard work had come to nothing. Their pain was more like dying pain than labor pains. They had a womb that miscarried and breasts that gave no milk.

All their efforts had failed. “We have not brought deliverance in the earth,” either for ourselves or for our friends and allies. Instead, they had only made things worse for both sides. The people they had been fighting, the inhabitants of the world, had not fallen before them in strength or in hope. They were still as proud and defiant as ever.

A good cause may be faithfully pressed in prayer and effort, before God and before people, and still remain hidden for a long time. The victory may not come right away.

Still, the prophet’s outlook is bright. In general, “You will ordain peace for us” (Isaiah 26:12). That means all the good our needy condition requires. Whatever peace the church has, or hopes to have, comes from God’s ordering. We can take comfort in this: whatever trouble may be appointed to God’s people for a time, peace will at last be appointed for them. Their end is peace.

If God works all our works in us by his Spirit, then he will also ordain peace for us. The work of righteousness will be peace. That is true and lasting peace, the kind the world cannot give or take away. God ordains that kind of peace, and for those who have it, it will stay as sure as the fixed order of day and night.

Also, what God has done for us before gives us reason to hope that he will continue to do good to us. “You have heard the desire of the humble, and therefore you will hear” (Psalm 10:17). And when this peace is ordained for us, then “by you only will we make mention of your name” (Isaiah 26:13). We will give all the glory for it to God alone, not to anyone else, and we will depend on his grace alone even to do that. We cannot praise God’s name except by his strength.

The prophet comforts the church especially with two things.

First, he speaks of the great ruin of her enemies (Isaiah 26:14). “They are dead, those other lords who ruled over us.” Their power is broken beyond repair. They are completely cut off and destroyed. They will not live again, and they will never rise to power any more. Since they are judged to final ruin, God himself has visited them in wrath as a righteous judge. He has cut off the men themselves and even erased their memory. They and their names are buried together in the dust.

He has made all remembrance of them disappear. They are either forgotten or spoken of with disgust. The cause that stands against God and his kingdom among people may prosper for a while, but it will certainly fall in the end, and all who cling to it will perish with it.

The Jewish teachers, comparing this with Isaiah 26:19, thought this meant the resurrection of the dead belongs only to the Jews, and that people from other nations will not rise. But we know better. We know that all who are in their graves will hear the voice of the Son of God. This verse speaks of the final destruction of Christ’s enemies, which is the second death.

Second, he speaks of the surprising rising again of her friends (Isaiah 26:19). Even though the church does not rejoice in the birth of the promised child, but instead seems to have brought forth only wind (Isaiah 26:18), the disappointment will be balanced in a matching way. “Your dead will live.” Those thought to be dead, those who had already felt the sentence of death in themselves, those cast aside as if dead in body, will appear again in their former strength.

A spirit of life from God will enter the slain witnesses, and they will prophesy again (Revelation 11:11). The dry bones will live and become a very great army (Ezekiel 37:10). “Together with my dead body they shall arise.” If we believe the resurrection of the dead, including our own bodies at the last day, as Job did and as the prophet does here, then it becomes easier to believe the promised restoration of the church’s honor and strength in this world.

When God’s time comes, no matter how low she has fallen, they shall arise, even Jerusalem, the city of God, which now lies like a dead body, like a carcass around which eagles gather. God still owns it, and so does the prophet. But it will rise again, be rebuilt, and flourish once more. Therefore let the poor, desolate, sorrowful remains of its people, who dwell as if in dust, wake up and sing. They will see Jerusalem, the city of their holy gatherings, become a quiet home again (Isaiah 33:20).

The dew of God’s favor will be to it like evening dew on herbs that have been parched by the day’s heat. It will revive and refresh them. And like spring dew that waters the earth and causes buried herbs to come up and bud, so Jerusalem will flourish again, and the earth will cast out the dead as it brings forth the herbs from their roots. The very ground where they seemed to be lost will help bring them back to life.

When the church and her interests are restored, neither the dew of heaven nor the richness of the earth will be lacking to help in the work. This, as Ezekiel’s vision explains it, may also be applied in a fitting way. It can refer, first, to the spiritual rising of those who were dead in sin by the power of Christ’s gospel and grace. Dr. Lightfoot applies it this way (Hor. Hebr. in John 12:24): “The Gentiles will live; with my body they shall arise.” That is, they will be called in after Christ’s resurrection, rise with him, and sit with him in heavenly places. He even says, “they shall arise my body,” meaning they will become the mystical body of Christ and rise as part of him.

Second, it can refer to the final resurrection, when dead saints will live and rise together with Christ’s dead body. He rose as the firstfruits, and believers will rise because they are united with him and share in his resurrection.