“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. 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,” Isaiah 26:20-21.

As I draw near to the end of my days of preaching, my mind turns more and more to the events revealed in the Bible concerning the last days. Just before the meeting I though of Jacob in this regards, Gen 49:1 and then all the prophets of God have likewise spoken of the last times,. “‭Whom‭ the heaven‭‭ must‭‭ receive‭‭ until‭ the times‭ of restitution‭ of all things‭, which‭ God‭ hath spoken‭‭ by‭ the mouth‭ of all‭ his‭ holy‭ prophets‭ since‭ the world began‭,‭” ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬Acts 3:21. So it is with me tonight.

Part of the verse 8 of chapter 25 of Isaiah puts a time on these events spoken of by the prophet. “He will swallow up death in victory.” Those words are applied to the time of the resurrection of the saints of God by Paul. “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory,” 1 Cors 15:54. You can see that verse 19 of our chapter likewise speaks of that time.

Our text then refers to the end of this age.

I. IT CAN BE SEEN THAT IT WILL BE A TIME OF GOD’S INDIGNATION.

1. God will come forth to deal with an earth in rebellion. The word ‘iniquity’ means ‘perversity, depravity’. It is not one nation or two but the whole earth! This is universal rebellion against God. That is where the nations of the earth are moving toward today. That ‘moral shift’ is all too evident in our own nation! The ‘acceptable’ of today is the ‘abominable’ of yesterday! How many things divide the nations but their rebellion against God unites them! (Pilate & Herod, Luke 23:12)

2. Man needs to understand that that which earth endorses, God abhors. The word ‘indignation’ means ‘rage’! There is little thought given to what God feels about the evils of today!

3. Man’s rebellion has caused a withdrawal by the Lord. Note the words: “For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth . . .” That suggests that an element of the reaction of God to man’s sin has been His withdrawal. Indeed, it is that withdrawal of God’s restraining presence that has enabled man to plunge downward at the speed he has! So it was at the time of the devil’s attack on Job, 1:12, 2:6. God’s power and displays of wrath will be seen on this earth in a way long hidden to mankind!

II. IT IS TO BE A TIME OF THE DISCLOSURE OF MAN’S SIN

While man’s sin is known to the Lord, man is blinds himself to his evil deeds!

1. There has been a crying out to God by the blood of victims since Cain. Gen 4:10. It is still crying out as are many others, Rev 6:10. The voices of long forgotten sins are heard in heaven and will be answered!

2. The day of concealing sin will be over. The wicked deceits of Governments and Princes, Kings and Emperors will all be uncovered as was Achan’s, Judges 7:18-26. The IRA - ‘Your day will come’!!

3. The word ‘cover’ means ‘to clothe’. How man has dressed up his wickedness as righteousness! That is what the majority of preachers today are engaged in, as were the Pharisees of the Saviour’s day when they argued that to kill Him was a good and holy thing! Abortion is the most obvious example of this today.

III. IN THIS DAY OF DIVINE VISITATION, THE PEOPLE OF GOD WILL BE SAFE

“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.”

1. God has always sheltered His people in days of trouble. He has a concern for them. Thus He warns them and instructs them, Genesis 6:7-8, 13-14, 17-18; Ex 12:21-23, 14:13; Matt 24:15-16, 25; Rev 18:41.

2. God’s shelter is the chambers of our homes where we seek the Lord. Prayer sanctifies the home of the believer. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly,” Matt 6:6. So it was in the days of Noah, Genesis 7:1, 10; In Egypt also, Exodus 9:18-21, 12:22. Rahab, Joshua 2:18-19. The righteous are ‘kept’ - ‘garrisoned’ by the Lord, 1 Peter 1:5.

3. The time of indignation is brief. ‘A little moment.’ How swift is God’s blow against the enemy. The Bible is filled with evidence of this. Goliath-1 Sam 17:48-49, Sennacherib-2 Kings 19:35-36, Antichrist shall reign only for 3.5 years, Rev 13:5.

4. Our duty in that day is seen in the words: ‘enter into’, ‘shut the door’, ‘hide thyself’. All these betoken a complete removal of ourselves and our families from all that is taking place in the world! Rev 18:4 is a solemn warning regarding this matter. The idea of abandoning all we possess and presently count precious is considered utterly unreasonable but that view can change very quickly! I watched a video just two days ago where in Colorado, USA, almost 600 homes were destroyed by wild fires. Some 25,000 people hastily abandoned all in the face of this deadly threat and surrendered their possessions to the flames.

There is coming to this world in the last years of this age that which is more dangerous than any wild fire. It will especially affect believers in Israel (Jer 30:1-7). For this reason the Lord gives a command which ordinarily would be viewed as most unreasonable. “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes . . . . . For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened,” Matthew 24:24:15-18, 21-22.

It was of this time that Isaiah wrote in our text. It is a time of trouble for the Jews but it will have an impact upon all believers, though likely to a lesser degree the further they are from Israel, which is to be the centre of Antichrist’s activities.

But, some of this unprecedented storm will be felt wherever the Christian is to be found. These verses give us God’s answer. Separation has ever been the means of safety! Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man . . . . .” Happiness and peace and prosperity are found near to the Father’s house and far from the world! (So the Prodigal found!)