“Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for somewhat while until his wrath has passed by” —Isaiah 26:20
Isaiah is a book of warning, prophecy, and encouragement. God’s Word got here straight through his servant and Chapter 26, verses 20-21, demonstrates the extremes between wrath and salvation; death and life.
Some of Isaiah’s prophecies have also spurred debate about whether Christians will remain on earth through the tribulation or will likely be raptured to Heaven before that point, and v.20 is one such verse.
Are we told to cover ourselves until his wrath has passed? What does that mean?
God as a Storm
“Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for somewhat while until the fury has passed by” (Isaiah 26:20). God, through Isaiah, actually does instruct His people to cover from His fury.
We see within the prophecies many indications that the Lord will sweep through the nations like a tornado, His wrath bringing destruction to the evil: “His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet” (Nahum 1:3).
Zechariah 9:14 says “the Lord God will sound the trumpet and can march forth within the whirlwinds of the south.” Jeremiah 23:19 declares the facility of God’s anger against evil-doers: “Behold, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it can burst upon the top of the wicked.”
Isaiah 26 maintains this theme, portraying the Lord’s anger in a way which the human mind can grasp, but which is barely a fraction of the truth of God’s just anger towards and punishment of those that reject Him and rebel against His ways.
One Bible scholar explains that Isaiah 26 describes “God’s unfailing love and righteousness. It encourages believers to keep up steadfast trust within the Lord, assuring them of perfect peace amidst turmoil.” Speaking of vv.20-21 particularly, the author adds that “Isaiah provides a glimpse of hope with the promise of resurrection for the dead” at the same time as Isaiah 26 closes with the promised punishment for sin.
That hope is our peace within the storm.
His Storm Hits Home
God’s anger has not at all times passed Israel by because it did through the Passover, prior to the good exodus from Egypt across the Red Sea. There were times when God did visit His anger upon Israel.
2 Kings 17 describes what happened to Israel after they’d chosen to follow the sins of Jeroboam and to practice idolatry: “The LORD rejected all of the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had forged them out of his sight” (v.20).
The people of God couldn’t at all times escape His wrath. When they’d been warned repeatedly, instructed to follow the Lord’s laws, but selected as an alternative to walk in ways of the pagans around them, Israel and Judah would suffer terrible punishment. And Christians today cannot expect to get away with sin either.
Even though Jesus has paid the value for our iniquities, “the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6) Perhaps not His tempest-like wrath, but discipline is assured for individuals who need it as a way to correct their path. The worst a part of God’s anger, nonetheless, won’t ever fall upon His children–Because Jesus endured God turning His face from Him, God won’t ever turn His face from us. Jesus alone endured this worst a part of God’s punishment for sin.
Should Christians Hide?
In light of those ideas, and the wording of Isaiah 26:20, are we to consider that God won’t allow His people to endure suffering in the event that they hide away at the primary sign of tribulation? Seen from one perspective, that is an appealing notion. After all, the Lord is our rescuer. He DOES save His people from their enemies.
Examples include how He saved Israel from Pharaoh’s anger; and rescued Gideon and His army from the Middianites; not to say David and Goliath, Esther and Haman; Daniel and the advisors of King Darius. But, will God at all times rescue His people?
There are also examples of the Lord permitting His people to be subjected to oppression, which is why Jews were dispersed removed from Jerusalem. God said to His people multiple times that disobedience would result in discipline.
“As I called, and they might not hear, so that they called, and I’d not hear,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I scattered them with a whirlwind amongst all of the nations that they’d not known. Thus the land they left was desolate” (Zechariah 7:13-14).
God didn’t instruct them to cover from their oppressors; He told them to obey HIM. This tells us that the danger God’s people have to hide from shouldn’t be external but internal: sin.
We see this in 1 Corinthians 6:18, where Paul tells the church to “flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin an individual commits is outside the body, however the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (v.18) This is a battle against thoughts and desires which result in destructive actions.
The sin begins with excited about and wanting something which God has spoken against. Paul’s selection of “flee” reminds us that what we should always fear and run from on this earth is anything that may tempt us to sin, since it has power over us and separates us from God. We are ceaselessly unequal to that battle, although if we stand firm in Christ, He will empower us to withstand.
John puts it this manner: “You are from God and have overcome them, for he who’s in you is larger than he who’s on the planet” (1 John 4:4). His power will come to our rescue after we undergo it.
The Reality of Tribulation
Christians have predicted Christ’s imminent return again and again since His death. Commenting on a previous prediction – that Christ would return on September twenty third, 2017 – Glen Taylor of Wycliffe College observed: “ominous and extraordinary events today might well be thought to be a type of ‘wake-up call’ concerning realities that lie ahead, corresponding to the ultimate and decisive judgment of humanity by God.”
This should remind us to not let our guard down, so while “predictions are dangerous, […] humility, caution, and, most significantly, readiness are so essential.” Talking about and excited about End Times is an excellent option to remind ourselves of the urgency around our work as Christians, spreading the Good News wherever we meet non-believers.
Does this readiness result in hiding? That would make it difficult to share the Gospel. Yet, in line with statistics regarding the worldwide persecution of Christians, a lot of them ARE in hiding because, having shared their faith in dangerous places, authorities in various countries are aware of Christian rebel against laws designed to forestall such courageous audacity.
In one study, reported by the BBC in 2019, “the Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, estimated that one in three people suffer from religious persecution. Christians were essentially the most persecuted religious group, it found.” Those numbers have been steadily rising worldwide. “In some regions, the extent and nature of persecution is arguably coming near meeting the international definition of genocide, in line with that adopted by the UN.”
This adds significance to the apologetic argument that one would should be crazy to follow Christ if He shouldn’t be truly our Savior. The risks are far too high. Believers knowingly put themselves in harm’s way, though not gratuitously.
There will likely be times after we see danger coming and realize this shouldn’t be a useful option to lose our lives. Jesus declared to his disciples regarding the good tribulation “Pray that your flight might not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will likely be great tribulation, corresponding to has not been from the start of the world until now, no, and never will likely be” (Matthew 24:20-21).
Choosing When to Hide
There is an expectation that we are going to hide from the danger if we will, but since we glance to Christ we all know that there’s a likelihood we will even be asked to present our lives in a really possible way.
This shouldn’t be for each follower, but there may be a special type of glory in Heaven for individuals who were “Slain for […] the witness they’d borne. […] They were each given a white robe and told to rest somewhat longer, until the variety of their fellow servants and their brothers must be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been” (Revelation 6:9,11).
Some of us will hide until His wrath has passed; and a few of our brothers and sisters in the religion will stand with the lost, in the course of the storm, praying that it remains to be not too late to avoid wasting just another.
Sources:
https://biblehub.com/chaptersummaries/isaiah/26.htm
https://www.julianspriggs.co.uk/Pages/SecondComingDates
https://www.wycliffecollege.ca/blog/more-september-23
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48146305
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Bulat Silvia
