Isaiah 26:9-21 Enter thou into thy chambers
9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
This will begin the millennial kingdom of Christ where His judgements are in the earth and the world will learn righteousness. It begins with the world reaping what they have sown during the tribulation. We have seen what an unrighteous government looks like, now for a thousand years we will learn what righteousness can yield.
10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
Many do not understand why the Lord tarries in His judgement, but it is to prove this point. Shewing the wicked favor does not result in their repentance from evil. Likewise, they see a land of uprightness as a prime opportunity to run their scams since people are naturally trusting. Regardless of how much you might speak on the majesty of the Lord they will refuse to see it.
11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
And this is why the end of this age is a time of rejoicing for some and a time of woe for others. Do you see the Lord’s majesty? Do you see that His hand is lifted up? Deal with your envy, because when the Lord judges it is like a forest fire that devours up all the dried out trees.
12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
The church is the Lord’s masterpiece, He has been building it for 2,000 years and the end of the age is a display of all the works He has wrought in us.
13 O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
Human history also testifies to the greatness of our Lord. We discover every day that many, many societies that existed previously have all been visited, destroyed and their memory has perished.
15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 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.
This is the great sign in heaven that we saw September 2017, and which John wrote about in Revelation 12. It indicates that God’s people are like a woman in travail to give birth. We see God’s people in travail to give birth and the wicked doing everything in their power to stop this from happening.
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.
At the time of the Lord’s coming the people of God will be in pain, like birth pains, crying out to Him. The world may be rejoicing, but once the baby is born and caught up to heaven (the first rapture) then the world’s rejoicing will turn to sorrow and God’s people will be the ones rejoicing. Even at this moment many feel like all of the travail has been for naught.
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.
The dead in Christ rise and then those of us who remain will also be with the Lord in the air. This will be stunning, all these men of faith for the last two thousand years rising from the grave.
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
During the Tribulation those that are raptured are able to hide in these chambers till the Lord’s indignation is past. But what will the situation be like? The Lord will be indignant at the sins and abusive behavior of the corrupt leaders. Already we see that the wheat harvest in the US has been destroyed, and the harvests in China have been destroyed, and the pasture land in the US has been destroyed. The Lord said His coming would be like a thief in the night. No one is paying attention but the food has been destroyed. It takes months in the pipeline before a cow in the field or grain growing in the field ends up on the grocery store shelves. This indignation is already coming down the pipeline. We can see terrible famine in Yemen and Madagascar, but once this hits it will become much more widespread. Think of the famine coming like a caravan of trucks driving to DC to protest the mandates.
21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
This is a picture of the end of this age. It begins with the festival of trumpets and this chapter in Isaiah is always read during this festival. After the rapture we have the four horsemen of the apocalypse followed by the fifth seal where the martyrs are revealed and their blood under the altar is disclosed. What are the horsemen? The Gospel and the false gospel (represented by the White horse), war, famine and plague. What we will learn is that there are many, many people responsible for these atrocities that the Lord will punish at this time.
The only word I have heard concerning the rapture and the tribulation is that the rapture takes place 187 days before the tribulation (based on the typology of David being king in Hermon) and the tribulation begins on the Feast of Trumpets.