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Commentary on Isaiah 26 verses 5–11
Here the prophet further encourages us to trust in the Lord for ever, and to continue waiting on him; for,
I. He will make humble souls that trust in him to triumph over their proud enemies, Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased: For he brings down those that dwell on high; and wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above them. Even the lofty city Babylon itself, or Nineveh, he lays it low, Isa 25:12. He can do it, be it ever so well fortified. He has often done it. He will do it, for he resists the proud. It is his glory to do it, for he proves himself to be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job 40:12. But, on the contrary, those that humble themselves shall be exalted; for the feet of the poor shall tread upon the lofty cities, Isa 26:6. He does not say, Great armies shall tread them down; but, When God will have it done, even the feet of the poor shall do it, Mal 4:3. You shall tread down the wicked. Come, set your feet on the necks of these kings. See Psa 147:6; Rom 16:20.
II. He takes cognizance of the way of his people and has delight in it (Isa 26:7): The way of the just is evenness (so it may be read): it is their endeavour and constant care to walk with God in an even steady course of obedience and holy conversation. My foot stands in an even place, goes in an even path, Psa 26:12. And it is their happiness that God makes their way plain and easy before them: Thou, most upright, dost level (or make even) the path of the just, by preventing or removing those things that would be stumbling-blocks to them, so that nothing shall offend them, Psa 119:165. God weighs it (so we read it); he considers it, and will give them grace sufficient for them, to help them over all the difficulties they may meet with in their way. Thus with the upright God will show himself upright.
III. It is our duty, and will be our comfort, to wait for God, and to keep up holy desires towards him in the darkest and most discouraging times, Isa 26:8, Isa 26:9. This has always been the practice of God's people, even when God has frowned upon them, 1. To keep up a constant dependence upon him: "In the way of thy judgments we have still waited for thee; when thou hast corrected us we have looked to no other hand than thine to relieve us," as the servant looks only to the hand of his master, till he have mercy upon him, Psa 123:2. We cannot appeal from God's justice but to his mercy. If God's judgments continue long, if it be a road of judgments (so the word signifies), yet we must not be weary but continue waiting. 2. To send up holy desires towards him. Our troubles, how pressing soever, must never put us out of conceit with our religion, nor turn us away from God; but still the desire of our soul must be to his name and to the remembrance of him; and in the night, the darkest longest night of affliction, with our souls must we desire him. (1.) Our great concern must be for God's name, and our earnest desire must be that his name may be glorified, whatever becomes of us and our names. This is that which we must wait for, and pray for. "Father, glorify thy name, and we are satisfied." (2.) Our great comfort must be in the remembrance of that name, of all that whereby God has made himself known. The remembrance of God must be our great support and pleasure; and, though sometimes we be unmindful of him, yet still our desire must be towards the remembrance of him and we must take pains with our own hearts to have him always in mind. (3.) Our desires towards God must be inward, fervent, and sincere. With our soul we must desire him, with our soul we must pant after him (Psa 42:1), and with our spirits within us, with the innermost thought and the closest application of mind, we must seek him. We make nothing of our religion, whatever our profession be, if we do not make heart-work of it. (4.) Even in the darkest night of affliction our desires must be towards God, as our sun and shield; for, however God is pleased to deal with us, we must never think the worse of him, nor cool in our love to him. (5.) If our desires be indeed towards God,. we must give evidence that they are so by seeking him, and seeking him early, as those that desire to find him, and dread the thoughts of missing him. Those that would seek God and find him must seek betimes, and seek him earnestly. Though we come ever so early, we shall find him ready to receive us.
IV. It is God's gracious design, in sending abroad his judgments, thereby to bring men to seek him and serve him: When thy judgments are upon the earth, laying all waste, then we have reason to expect that not only God's professing people, but even the inhabitants of the world, will learn righteousness, will have their mistakes rectified and their lives reformed, will be brought to acknowledge God's righteousness in punishing them, will repent of their own unrighteousness in offending God, and so be brought to walk in right paths. They will do this; that is, judgments are designed to bring them to this, they have a natural tendency to produce this effect, and, though many continue obstinate, yet some even of the inhabitants of the world will profit by this discipline, and will learn righteousness; surely they will; they are strangely stupid if they do not. Note, The intention of afflictions is to teach us righteousness; and blessed is the man whom God chastens, and thus teaches, Psa 94:12. Discite justitiam, moniti, et non temnere divos - Let this rebuke teach you to cultivate righteousness, and cease from despising the gods. - Virgil.
V. Those are wicked indeed that will not be wrought upon by the favourable methods God takes to subdue and reform them; and it is necessary that God should deal with them in a severe way by his judgments, which shall prevail to humble those that would not otherwise be humbled. Observe,
1.How sinners walk contrary to God, and refuse to comply with the means used for their reformation and to answer the intentions of them, Isa 26:10. (1.) Favour is shown to them. They receive many mercies from God; he causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall upon them, nay, he prospers them, and into their hands he brings plentifully; they escape many of the strokes of God's judgments, which others less wicked than they have been cut off by; in some particular instances they seem to be remarkably favoured above their neighbours, and the design of all this is that they may be won upon to love and serve that God who thus favours them; and yet it is all in vain: They will not learn righteousness, will not be led to repentance by the goodness of God, and therefore it is requisite that God should send his judgments into the earth, to reckon with men for abused mercies. (2.) They live in a land of uprightness, where religion is professed and is in reputation, where the word of God is preached, and where they have many good examples set them, - in a land of evenness, where there are not so many stumbling-blocks as in other places, - in a land of correction, where vice and profaneness are discountenanced and punished; yet there they will deal unjustly, and go on frowardly in their evil ways. Those that do wickedly deal unjustly both with God and man, as well as with their own souls; and those that will not be reclaimed by the justice of the nation may expect the judgments of God upon them. Nor can those expect a place hereafter in the land of blessedness who now conform not to the laws and usages, nor improve the privileges and advantages, of the land of uprightness; and why do they not? It is because they will not behold the majesty of the Lord, will not believe, will not consider, what a God of terrible majesty he is whose laws and justice they persist in the contempt of. God's majesty appears in all the dispensations of his providence; but they regard it not, and therefore study not to answer the ends of those dispensations. Even when we receive of the mercy of the Lord we must still behold the majesty of the Lord and his goodness. (3.) God lifts up his hand to give them warning, that they may, by repentance and prayer, make their peace with him; but they take no notice of it, are not aware that God is angry with them, or coming forth against them: They will not see, and none so blind as those who will not see, who shut their eyes against the clearest conviction of guilt and wrath, who ascribe that to chance, or common fate, which is manifestly a divine rebuke, who regard not the threatening symptoms of their own ruin, but cry Peace to themselves, when the righteous God is waging war with them.
2.How God will at length be too hard for them; for, when he judges, he will overcome: They will not see, but they shall see, shall be made to see, whether they will or no, that God is angry with them. Atheists, scorners, and the secure, will shortly feel what now they will not believe, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They will not see the evil of sin, and particularly the sin of hating and persecuting the people of God; but they shall see, by the tokens of God's displeasure against them for it and the deliverances in which God will plead his people's cause, that what is done against them he takes as done against himself and will reckon for it accordingly. They shall see that they have done God's people a great deal of wrong, and therefore shall be ashamed of their enmity and envy towards them, and their ill usage of such as deserved better treatment. Note, Those that bear ill-will to God's people have reason to be ashamed of it, so absurd and unreasonable is it; and, sooner or later, they shall be ashamed of it, and the remembrance of it shall fill them with confusion. Some read it, They shall see and be confounded for the zeal of the people, by the zeal God will show for his people; when they shall be made to know how jealous God is for the honour and welfare of his people they shall be confounded to think that they might have been of that people and would not. Their doom therefore is that, since they slighted the happiness of God's friends, the fire of his enemies shall devour them, that is, the fire which is prepared for his enemies and with which they shall be devoured, the fire designed for the devil and his angels. Note, Those that are enemies to God's people, and envy them, God looks upon as his enemies, and will deal with them accordingly.
When, by such faith and knowledge, the Lord’s people have embraced this true life, they surely receive the joy of heaven. The wicked, on the other hand, since they don’t care about the Lord’s life, are rightly deprived of its blessings. For, “let the wicked be taken away so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord.” In the end they, like everyone else, shall hear the universal proclamation of the promise, “Awake, sleeper, and rise up from the dead.” They shall rise and knock on the doors of heaven, saying, “Open to us.” The Lord, however, will rebuke them for rejecting knowledge of him and will tell them, “I do not know you.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ came on this account, too, that we might see not only his glory here but also the glory to come. Therefore he said, “I will that where I am they also may be, in order that they may behold my glory.” Now, if this glory here has been so bright and splendid, what could one say of that other? It will not appear on this corrupt earth or while we are in our perishable bodies but in that immortal and everlasting creation, and with so much brightness that it is impossible to put it into words. Oh, blessed, and thrice-blessed, and blessed many times over, they who are deemed worthy to become beholders of that glory! With reference to it the prophet says, “Away with the impious, that he may not behold the glory of the Lord.”
(Verse 10.) When you execute your judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Show mercy to the wicked, who does not learn righteousness; in the land of the saints he acts unjustly and does not see the glory of the Lord. Learn righteousness, you who dwell on the earth. The wicked will cease to exist and will not learn righteousness on the earth; he will not act with truth, let the wicked be taken away so he will not see the glory of the Lord. Let us first speak according to the Hebrew, and if we want to express the meaning of the prophet, then let us turn to the Septuagint Interpreters. As long as you do not exercise your judgments upon the earth, and neither reward the good with good nor the evil with evil, your justice, O Lord God, is ignored on earth. But when on the day of judgment you will render to each according to the quality of their deeds, then your justice will be known throughout the world, which previously seemed unjust among the unbelievers, so that even one of the saints would say: My steps were nearly weakened, my feet were nearly poured out, for I was zealous for the wicked, seeing the peace of the sinners (Ps. LXXII, 2). To which the Lord responded: Let us have mercy on the wicked; for except for the Seventy, all others have also translated it this way. And the meaning is: may the wicked obtain mercy even more, and may he learn my clemency; so that he himself may also be saved. And in response to the Lord speaking, the Prophet, representing human impatience, replied: And he will not learn justice. And the meaning is: and how will he be able to know your justice if he has only experienced your clemency? And the reasons why he wants to learn the justice of God are as follows: because he acted unjustly on the earth of the saints, and continually fought against your saints, he must feel torment. And again the Lord, tempering the judgment, says, And let him not see, whether he will not see the glory of the Lord. And this is the meaning: it is enough punishment for him that he will not see me reigning in my majesty with my saints. Some want the impious one, that is, Resa, to be understood as the devil, about whom it is written in the 108th psalm: You have rebuked the nations, and the wicked one has perished; you have destroyed their name forever and for eternity. The enemies have ceased their spears to the end, and you have destroyed their cities (Psalm 9:6). However, let us generally consider the wicked either as a sinner or as one who does not have the worship of God. According to the Septuagint, the inhabitants of the earth are commanded to learn righteousness. For every man seems just to himself; but God knows the hearts of all, who will render to each one according to his deeds (Proverbs 21). And in another place of the same volume it is said: There are ways that seem right to a man, but the ends thereof lead to the depths of hell (Proverbs 14:12). Where should we learn justice, and not rely on our own judgment. For he is just who perishes in his own justice (Eccles. VII); not because he is just, but because he appears just to himself. But if Christ has become for us from God wisdom, and justice, sanctification and redemption (I Cor. I), to whom it is commanded that they know justice, it is commanded that they learn and know Christ. Therefore I command you, he says, to learn justice, because the wicked one has been taken away; and his kingdom has been destroyed, who as long as he reigned on earth, could not know justice, nor do the truth. About which it is written elsewhere, that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John XVII). And because the wicked does not make truth on earth, it will be taken away: for he does not deserve to see the Lord reigning.
In the resurrection itself it is not easy to see God, except for those who are clean of heart; hence, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” From here on he begins to speak of that world where all who rise again will not see God, but only those who rise to eternal life. The unworthy will not see him, for of them it is said, “Let the wicked be taken away lest he behold the brightness of the Lord.” But the worthy will see him, and of such the Lord spoke when, though present, he was not seen, saying, “He that loves me keeps my commandments, and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.”
Then, therefore, we shall come and we shall enjoy the one thing; but the one thing will be all things to us. For what was it I said, my brothers, when I began to speak? What is that sufficiency which we shall possess when we shall have no need? What is the sufficiency which we shall possess? I had intended to say, “What will God give to us which he will not give to them?” “Let the wicked be taken away that he may not see the glory of God.” Hence God will give his glory to us so that we may enjoy it; and the wicked will be taken away that he may not see the glory of God. God himself will be the entire sufficiency which we shall possess as our own. Greedy one, what did you seek to gain? What does anyone, for whom God is not enough, seek from God?
In this human form the good will see him in whom they have believed; the wicked, him whom they have despised. But the wicked will not see him in the form of God in which he is equal to the Father, for as the prophet says, “The wicked shall be taken off that he may not see the glory of the Lord,” and, on the other hand, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.”
His coming means his return from the judgment to his kingdom. The Lord comes to us after the judgment, because he lifts us up from his human appearance in the contemplation of his divinity; his coming means that he leads us to the vision of his glory. We see in his divinity after the judgment the one we beheld in his humanity at the judgment. At the judgment he comes in the form of a servant and appears to everyone, since it is written, “They will look on him whom they pierced.” When the condemned fall down to their punishment, the righteous are led to the brightness of his glory, as is written: “The wicked is taken away, so that he will [not] see the glory of the Lord.”
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SUMMARY
Isaiah 26:10 presents a stark and profound theological observation on the persistent human resistance to divine influence and truth, even when God extends His common grace and places individuals within an environment conducive to righteousness. It underscores the unyielding obstinacy of the wicked heart, which, despite experiencing favor, refuses to embrace justice, chooses to act deceitfully even in a land where integrity should flourish, and remains spiritually blind to the glorious presence and sovereign authority of the Lord.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Isaiah 26:10 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey its powerful and sobering message. Contrast is central to the verse, juxtaposing the "favour" shown to the wicked with their unyielding refusal to "learn righteousness" and their continued "deal[ing] unjustly." This highlights the deep-seated nature of their rebellion, which external circumstances cannot easily sway. Irony is also powerfully present; one would naturally expect favor and a righteous environment to soften a heart and lead to positive change, but here it has no such effect, emphasizing the profound perversity of the wicked's disposition. The phrase "land of uprightness" functions as a form of Synecdoche, where a part (the land, representing the physical and social environment) stands for the whole (the moral and spiritual atmosphere God intends for His people). This setting further underscores the Paradox of the wicked's actions: they commit injustice precisely in a place designated for justice and truth. Finally, the inability to "behold the majesty of the LORD" is a powerful use of Metaphor for spiritual blindness, signifying not a physical inability to see, but a willful, internal rejection of divine truth, glory, and the ultimate source of all righteousness.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Isaiah 26:10 articulates a foundational theological truth: the inherent resistance of the unregenerate human heart to God's grace and truth, even when exposed to it. It underscores that while God's common grace extends to all, true spiritual transformation requires an internal willingness to respond to His call and a divine work of illumination. The verse highlights the justice of God's ultimate judgment, as it is not arbitrary but a consequence of persistent, willful rebellion and spiritual blindness that refuses to acknowledge His glory and embrace His righteousness. This stubbornness demonstrates the necessity of divine intervention for genuine change, as mere external favor proves insufficient to alter a heart set against God.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Isaiah 26:10 serves as a profound mirror, reflecting both the persistent human capacity for rebellion and the unwavering character of God. For believers, it's a sobering reminder that our salvation is not merely a result of favorable circumstances or external blessings, but a miraculous work of God's grace that opens our eyes and softens our hearts to "learn righteousness" and "behold the majesty of the LORD." This verse should cultivate deep gratitude for the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, recognizing that our ability to respond to God's favor is itself a gift. It also calls us to a greater understanding and compassion for those who remain spiritually hardened, prompting us to pray earnestly for their eyes to be opened and for the Spirit to break through their resistance. Furthermore, it reinforces the justice of God's final judgment, assuring us that His righteous decrees are not arbitrary but are a just response to persistent, willful rejection of His truth and glory. We are called to live out the righteousness we have learned, demonstrating the transformative power of beholding His majesty in our daily lives.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does "favour" in this verse refer to God's common grace or something else?
Answer: While the Hebrew word chânan (H2603) broadly means "to favor" or "bestow kindness," in this context, it most likely refers to God's common grace—the general goodness, blessings, and opportunities for well-being that He extends to all humanity, regardless of their spiritual state. It implies that even when the wicked experience prosperity, peace, or leniency (which are expressions of God's general benevolence), this external favor does not inherently lead them to repentance or a change of heart. It highlights that the problem is not a lack of divine goodness, but a willful resistance within the human heart itself. This aligns with the New Testament concept that God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good" (Matthew 5:45).
What does it mean that the wicked "will not behold the majesty of the LORD"?
Answer: This phrase signifies a profound spiritual blindness and a deliberate, willful refusal to acknowledge, appreciate, or be awestruck by God's glorious power, supreme authority, and inherent holiness. It's not a physical inability to see, but a spiritual one—a heart that is so hardened by sin and self-will that it refuses to recognize the Creator's rightful place and the splendor of His character. This spiritual blindness prevents them from responding to God in worship, obedience, or repentance, even when His presence or works are evident. It is a rejection of the very essence of who God is, leading to continued unrighteousness, as seen in Romans 1:20-21. The wicked actively suppress the truth about God, choosing darkness over light.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Isaiah 26:10 finds its ultimate fulfillment and most poignant illustration in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The verse describes the wicked's unyielding resistance to grace and their refusal to "behold the majesty of the LORD" even in a "land of uprightness." This powerfully foreshadows the rejection of Jesus by many in His own time, particularly those who, despite being in the "land of uprightness" (Israel, where God's law and prophets were known), refused to recognize God's favor extended through Him. Jesus, the very embodiment of God's favor and grace, came "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14), yet He was rejected by many who "loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). He revealed the "majesty of the LORD" in His miracles, teachings, and sinless life, yet many "did not behold" it, choosing instead to "deal unjustly" by condemning Him (Acts 3:14-15). However, for those who do "behold" His majesty—those whose eyes are opened by the Spirit to see Him as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29)—they are given the power to "become children of God" (John 1:12), truly learning righteousness and experiencing the transformative favor of God through Him. Christ's death and resurrection decisively address the very problem highlighted in Isaiah 26:10, offering a new heart that can indeed "learn righteousness" and truly "behold the majesty of the LORD" in His glorious face (2 Corinthians 4:6).