Isaiah 26:5-6 – Calamity
In verses 5 and 6, there is calamity to the proud. Now we know that in Scripture God condemns those who are proud, who think themselves to be high and mighty, who think themselves to have no need of the triune God, no need of any godliness, and they can go and do what they want. Now, as we’ve been saying, when we think about the exaltation of God’s people, and when we think about the destruction of the wicked, we could think of what was going on in Isaiah’s day of the breaking of the power of Nineveh and Assyria, even though they seemed to have come to the place of their greatest power and their greatest conquest. As they raised their head up, God chopped it off. Or we could look ahead from Isaiah’s day to a later generation and the destruction that came by the Babylonians. But within two generations, Babylon itself was crushed. Ultimately though, as we’ve seen, what is seen here is the destruction of the power of Satan and what is sometimes called the city of the world or the city of man in the resurrection of Christ, the coming of the new covenant with the people of God, having those from every nation grafted in, as Paul later wrote of in Romans 11.
So often it is that God has allowed the wicked to grow in strength and in pride. This doesn’t happen because the proud are stronger than God. This doesn’t happen because God does not care. When pride and evil raise up, it is only because God, in His everlasting, holy, and perfect plan has allowed it. He, of course, does not partake of their sin. He allows them to ferment until the time comes for their destruction. God shows, when the wicked rise, when the proud exalt themselves, His own mighty power and glory in their destruction.
In verse 6 it is not the mighty kings that shall step upon the plans and the pretensions of the proud and the mighty. No, it is the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy, even those who are weak, those who are considered by the world to be nothing, but who are the precious ones of the God of heaven. It is they who have the privilege of stomping all over the wicked with a desire to see all brought under the Lord Jesus Christ.
Questions
- What are these verses ultimately a prophecy of?
- Why does God allow the wicked to grow?
Prayer Points
- Pray that God would destroy His enemies.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.