Salvation and Resurrection of Israel Isaiah 26:17-19 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Last week we taught the basic outline of a moderate dispensational view of Bible prophecy. This week, as we study this passage, we will build on this dispensational view which will help us understand the doctrinal application of Isaiah 26 much better.
Remember that the Tribulation follows the Church Age and the Second Coming of Jesus ends the Tribulation and ushers in the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 26 includes specific references to all three of these dispensations.
We will study the verses that deal with the most obvious dispensational truths first and then we will study the remaining verses. We will only be able to cover one of these truths today. Also, we will take the verses chronologically rather than numerically.
One of the great dispensational truths is the future salvation and resurrection of Israel. It involves the new birth of Israel and the bodily resurrection of all of her saints not saved in the Church Age.
Is 26:17-19 say, “17 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. 18 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. 19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.”
Notice the clear reference to birth [which happens to be Israel being born again, Rom 11] and the reference to resurrection [which happens to be the national resurrection of Jewish saints not saved in the Church Age, Ezek 37]. Rom 11:25-27 says that all Israel shall be saved and the context is the Second Coming of Jesus. Notice also that he refers to his covenant with them when he will take away all their sins [something that he did not do under the old covenant of the law, Ex 34:7].
The covenant to which Paul refers in Rom 11:25-27 is the covenant of Jer 31:31-34. This is the New Covenant and when Israel, as a nation, is finally under this covenant, they will be saved and resurrected. See the national resurrection of her saints in Ezek 37:1-14. Jewish saints from the Old Testament and the Tribulation will rise at the Second Coming of Jesus, by whom their resurrection is made possible. Any Jews saved in the Church Age will go up at the rapture of the Church.
Paul quotes this New Covenant in the New Testament in Heb 8:1-13. Notice that Jesus is in heaven when Paul quotes the Old Testament. Keep this fact in mind when we study the next two references that deal with the new birth of Israel.
Is 66:7-11 shows a woman delivered of a man child and a nation being born at once, in one day. The man child is Jesus and the “nation” and the “children” are Israel. We see this again in Rev 12:1-6. The woman with child is Israel and the man child who gets caught up to heaven [remember Heb 8] is Jesus, whom the devil tried to destroy right after he was born [Matt 2]. The woman who flees to the wilderness is Israel awaiting her new birth during the Tribulation. She is hiding from the devil who is trying to devour her [Ps 14:4, Rev 17:6; 1 Pet 5:8].
You might remember when Jesus was born King of the Jews in Matt 2, Herod [a type of the antichrist] attempted to kill him [the man child] by killing all of the male children in Bethlehem [Matt 2:13, 16-18]. The reference in Jeremiah that is fulfilled is actually in the context of the Second Advent of Jesus [this is important]. Joseph escaped with Jesus into Egypt [like the Jews running into the wilderness in the Tribulation].
Interestingly, when the Jews were enslaved in Egypt, Pharaoh [a type of the antichrist] killed all the “male” children [Ex 1:16, 22]. And in the Tribulation, the antichrist will be killing them again. So, Jesus is the man child and Israel is the nation referenced in Is 66 and Rev 12.
When Moses brought Israel out into the wilderness, he brought them out as God’s firstborn son [Ex 4:22-23]. That was their first birth. When he saves them at Jesus’ Second Coming they will be “born again!” Salvation is of the Jews!
Now here is an interesting note that pertains directly to us. It is important to remember at this point that the Old Testament prophets prophesied that the First and Second Advents of Jesus were together. In other words, God had prepared for Israel to accept Jesus as their Messiah. John the Baptist fulfilled the ministry of Elijah in the event that Israel would accept him [Matt 11:12-15; 17:10-13]. Between the ascension of Jesus and his return, Israel could have repented, the Tribulation would have started and Jesus would have returned shortly thereafter. Then we Gentiles would have been saved during the millennial reign of Jesus just like the Old Testament prophets prophesied [Rom 15:8-12, check the context of these OT references Paul quoted; they are all millennial references].
Our new birth in the Church Age, then, is part of the New Covenant that God made with Israel [Eph 2:11-22]. Our new birth will be completed when we get our glorified bodies after the rapture. Because Israel rejected Jesus at his first coming, God opened the Church age whereby we could be saved while God deals with Israel and prepares them for their national salvation [a process which began in earnest following their statehood in 1948]. So is fulfilled the saying, “the last shall be first, and the first last.”