"ENTER THOU INTO THY CHAMBERS"

ISAIAH 26:1

A. "COME, MY PEOPLE, ENTER THOU INTO THY CHAMBERS, AND SHUT THE DOORS ABOUT THEE: HIDE THYSELF AS IT WERE FOR A LITTLE MOMENT, UNTIL THE INDIGNATION BE OVERPAST."
  1. The words of our text are another expression of God's loving care for his own:
    1. He cares for them in life - "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." - 1 Pet. 5:7
    2. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." - Ps. 103:13
    3. "For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." - Matt. 6:32
    4. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." - Phil. 4:19
  2. He recognizes the inevitable in life and in death:
    1. "In all their affliction he was afflicted." - Isa. 63:9
    2. "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." - Isa. 53:4
  3. Thus we see anew that God's children are cared for by one who is able and who will never forsake us:
    1. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." - Isa. 41:17
    2. Hagar and her son are witnesses to this promise - Gen. 16:7-13
    3. Israel, too, experienced this blessing - Num. 20:8- 12
B. "ENTER THOU INTO THY CHAMBERS, AND SHUT THE DOORS ABOUT THEE."
  1. These chambers are, doubtless, the graves into which the children are laid:
    1. "If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness." - Job 17:13
    2. "But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." - Dan. 12:13
    3. The grave will be the resting place of God's people - Rev. 14:13
C. WHY THE LORD CALLS HIS SAINTS TO ENTER INTO THEIR CHAMBERS
  1. It will be for them a hiding place:
    1. "O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past." - Job 14:13
    2. The grave is a blessing in disguise for the saints; it is the bed-chamber of God's people for a short season only.
  2. Isaiah and Job must have looked down through the stream of time to the time of trouble, and saw how the Lord would lay many of the saints into the graves:
    1. Not to destroy them.
    2. But to hide them until the day of God's wrath is passed.
  3. That indicates that before the Son of God comes the second time to deliver the saints:
    1. Great tribulation will fall upon the inhabitants of the earth - Isa. 24:1-23
    2. There will be, at that time, a time of trouble upon the earth, as has not been since the flood - Dan. 12:1, 2, 3
    3. The time of indignation has reference to the outpouring of the seven last plagues: for in them is poured out the wrath of God - Rev. 15:1
    4. All, who would not be able to go through the seven last plagues, will God, in mercy, lay into their bed-chambers until the indignation is past.
  4. Such is the consolation of our test to all who are laid to rest, and also to those who have to lay loved ones to rest:
    1. God, who knows the end from the beginning, seeks to spare His people from the terrible judgment that will be visited upon the wicked just shortly before Christ comes.
    2. He, who cares for His own life will care for them in death also - EXAMPLES -
      1. He cared for his servant Moses; He buried him and He raised him from the dead - Deut. 34:6; Jude 9: Matt. 17:5
    3. Such is the lot of all who live for God and die for Him; He will care for them in life and in death.


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