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Isa 26:12-21 The Earth Shall Cast Out The Dead

Isa 26:12  LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
Isa 26:13  O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
Isa 26:14  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.
Isa 26:15  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.
Isa 26:16  LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Isa 26:17  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.
Isa 26:18  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.
Isa 26:19  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.
Isa 26:20  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.
Isa 26:21  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 26th chapter begins with this phrase 'that day', and we are made aware of the blessings 'that day' portends for us as the Lord's judgments begin to do their work in our lives in this age.

Isa 26:1  In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Isa 26:2  Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

It is few indeed who take note that we are told here in the prophet Isaiah that our salvation is appointed of God. The next two verses demonstrate that faith in God, trust in the Lord, is our only hope of being delivered from the oppression  and trials of life:

Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isa 26:4  Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
Isa 26:5  For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

King David had said as much many years earlier:

Psa 81:1  To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

"God [is] our strength", and therefore He is also our salvation, as King David repeats many times:

Psa 79:9  Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

Psa  85:4  Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Psa 95:1  O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Isa 33:2  O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

So while Isaiah speaks throughout this prophecy of the benefits of the Lord's judgments, he also emphasizes the function of trusting in the Lord for our salvation through His judgments.  Isaiah speaks very clearly of the fact everything we do is, in reality, His Work within us - "all our works", both good and evil:

Isa 26:12  LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
Isa 26:13  O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. Isa 26:14  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.

The holy spirit here again tells us, "For you have wrought all our works in us." The spirit here is telling us that "all our works", even our sins, are worked within us "after the counsel of His own will". For anyone who doubts that the Lord, "after the counsel of His own will" makes us to sin and become aware of our need for His salvation, consider this statement by the holy spirit through this same prophet:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The New Testament consistently agrees because it, too, was inspired of the same holy spirit:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

"The law of sin" is in the flesh of every man, and there is but one lawgiver who sustains that "law of sin... in [our] members". Listen to what James tells us about this 'law of sin':

Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Jas 4:11  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

"Who are [we to] judge [our brother]" when we know fully well we are all slaves to the law of sin in our members? That is what Isaiah is telling us in this chapter and in this verse when he tells us "You have removed it far unto all the ends of the earth":

Isa 26:15  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.

This "increase [of] the nation" has been mentioned before and in that instance the miraculous deliverance from Midian by 300 unarmed men under Gideon was mentioned:

Isa 9:3  Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Isa 9:4  For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
Isa 9:5  For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

This 'nation' is now within us (Luk 17:20-21], and it is first "in trouble" because it has been 'brought to destruction' by the Lord. Our old man and his kingdom is not destroyed by his own will. That kingdom is destroyed against our will. Only after our own rebellious kingdom is destroyed does the Lord bring us to repentance and command us to "return" to Him.

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

The point being made by the Lord is that this is all His work. Just as He delivered Israel from the hoards of Midianites with 300 unarmed men with trumpets and clay vessels, so He is now doing so again spiritually by weak, unarmed clay vessels by which He is delivering His people, His Israel.

This same prophet makes this point clear with these words:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and ["why hast thou"] hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

When Isaiah repeats the fact that it is God who increases His nation, but does not increase the joy, the holy spirit through Isaiah is telling us that it is God who "makes [us] to err from [His] ways, and hardens our hearts from [His] fear" for the express purpose of judging us just as He judged the Midianites. He did so with weak clay vessels who had no armaments of their own, but they have the Lord, the lamp of light, within them. But just as He waited to judge the Amorites, He waits to judge us only after increasing our sins and bringing our own iniquities to their full bloom, and we cannot deny the depth of our own iniquities:

Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

We are these 'Amorites'. These Amorites are our old man whose iniquities must be full, and we must be brought to our own destruction before the Lord will deliver us from those iniquities.

Paul makes it very clear that when God hardens our hearts, we do not seek or receive His mercy:

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

As always the holy spirit humiliates our rebellious carnal mind while emphasizing the Lord's sovereignty over our will. When He hardens our hearts we are hopelessly hardened and we will continue to rebel against Him in the most illogical manner possible. He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. He does not care about what we will.

But when He determines "after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11) that the time has come to bring us to repentance, at that very moment we are brought to repentance, even if it is right in the midst of the road to Damascus to persecute, imprison and destroy Him and His body:

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

When "He wills" He chastens and scourges us until we are made to be repulsed by those things which only yesterday gave us purpose and were to us at that time "the pleasures of sin for a season".

It is the Lord who brings us into our troubles. Our troubles are not random accidents. They are one and all the hand of God in our lives working His good work within us for our own good, and this is what our troubles work within us when we are being judged:

Isa 26:16  LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Isa 26:17  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.
Isa 26:18  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.

The verses echo the message of Psalms 107, of which I will quote but one of the four examples given in that Psalm:

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

We are just naturally so proud and so stubborn that we actually believe we are responsible for "increasing the nation", including all the good and evil within our 'nation', and when our troubles come and our pains increase to the point of being intolerable, "They [we] cry unto the Lord in [our] trouble", and "[when] we have been in pain,  [and we are finally brought to realize that] we have as it were brought forth wind; [and] we have not worked any deliverance in [our lives, or in the lives of others]", only then will we "pour out a prayer when your chastening [is] upon [us]" (vs 16).

As always the Lord's sovereignty is the emphasis of this entire chapter of the 107th Psalm, which four times tells us that the Lord judges us for the stubborn "law of sin" which He has placed "in [our] members" for the very purpose of judging and destroying our naturally carnal, rebellious mind.

Notice just how effortlessly the Lord can administer what we in modern jargon call 'an attitude adjustment' to a most stubborn mind:

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

How easily and how quickly are we brought from our pride of "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against... the Lord" to saying, "Lord what would you have me to do?"

The Lord is in the process of destroying the kingdom of our first old man, and He will not be denied. But in the process of doing so, "man's...work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

This is the Biblical formula for the salvation of "every man" who has or ever will live and draw breath on this earth:

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

"All things are... every man['s], [therefore]  all things are [ours]". We will build on the foundation of Christ with "wood, hay, and stubble", we will "suffer loss" before we will then "build thereon with gold, silver and precious stones", which one and all are created only through extreme pressure and through the symbolic spiritual 'fire', which "fire" is Christ and His words and His doctrines, as Paul explains:

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

It is the word of God which is the fire by which "Every man... all in Adam... shall be saved". Which brings us to our next verse:

Isa 26:19  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.

Not even the churches of Babylon deny that the scriptures teach a resurrection of all dead. The question is, to what end are all men resurrected? The vast majority of churches and religions teach that many of those resurrected are immediately cast into a lake of fire from which there is no hope of escape. Since they also teach that everyone goes either to heaven or hell upon the moment of physical death, such a doctrine renders a resurrection from the dead something a little less than useless, since everyone simply returns to their fate which was supposedly determined at the moment of their physical death.

As we have demonstrated "all things are ours" (1Co 3:21-22) and "all things come alike to all", and "every man's work" will be judged by the fire of the Lord's words (1Co 3:11-16). Yet our next two verses are used by many of the churches to deny those truths and to teach some form of a rapture out of the time of "great tribulation". Taken by themselves they can easily be twisted to say just that:

Isa 26:20  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.

Is Isaiah contradicting himself when He also tells us:

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Let's put these two phrases together: "In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment [and] hide yourself as it were for a moment, until the indignation be overpast." Do we hide from and avoid the Lord's wrath "for a moment", or do we endure "a little wrath... for a moment"?

Does Isaiah 26:20 contradict any of these verses of scripture?

Pro 20:30  The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

What does it mean to "enter thou into thy chambers"?

I looked up the Hebrew to get more insight into what we are being instructed to do here, and this is the Hebrew word translated as 'chambers':

H2315
חֶדֶר
cheder
kheh'-der
From H2314; an apartment (usually literally): - ([bed] inner) chamber, innermost (-ward) part, parlour, + south, X within.
Total KJV occurrences: 38

Here are the various ways this word is translated:

H2315
חדר
cheder
Total KJV Occurrences: 39
chamber, 14
Gen_43:30, Jdg_3:24, Jdg_15:1, Jdg_16:9, Jdg_16:12, 2Sa_13:10 (2), 1Ki_1:15, 1Ki_20:30, 1Ki_22:25, 2Ki_9:2, 2Ch_18:24, Son_3:4, Joe_2:16
chambers, 8
Job_9:9, Psa_105:30, Pro_7:27, Son_1:4 (2), Isa_26:20, Eze_8:12, Eze_21:14
bedchamber, 6
Exo_8:3, 2Sa_4:7, 2Ki_6:12, 2Ki_11:2, 2Ch_22:11, Ecc_10:20
inner, 4
1Ki_20:30, 1Ki_22:25, 2Ki_9:2, 2Ch_18:24
innermost, 2
Pro_18:8, Pro_26:22
inward, 2
Pro_20:27, Pro_20:30
parlours, 1
1Ch_28:11
south, 1
Job_37:9
within, 1
Deu_32:25

Here is the first time we see this Hebrew word 'cheder' in scripture:

Gen 43:30  And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.

Joseph went into his own private bedroom to weep over seeing his brothers for the first time in many years. He knew who they were, but he has not yet revealed himself to them because he knew they still needed to be made aware of the exceedingly sinful thing they had done to him. "His chamber" was his most inward and private part of his home, and that is where he went to weep away from the eyes of his brothers and the Egyptians.

One more example will demonstrate that this word speaks of a place where we feel so secure and safe that this is where we would want to be with our spouse:

Jdg 15:1  But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

Our 'spouse', our spiritual 'husband', is Christ, and Israel in the Old Testament typifies us as the Lord's bride. These words are addressed to us:

Joe 2:12  Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Joe 2:13  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
Joe 2:14  Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
Joe 2:15  Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Joe 2:16  Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

We saw earlier in this study that the scriptures teach:

Pro 20:30  The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

"Stripes... cleanse away evil [from] the inward parts of the belly". That is true because 'stripes' are the fire by which "every man... shall be saved":

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

It so happens the words "the inward parts" in Proverbs 20:30 are the Hebrew word 'cheder'. The same word is most often translated in the King James as 'chamber', and this again demonstrates the closeness and intimacy associated with this Hebrew word 'cheder'. Christ is our Husband, and as such our 'chamber' is "in Him". Christ emphasizes this Truth many times:

Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Verse 20 tells us in very clear words that Christ is our 'chamber' into whom we "enter... and close the door until the indignation be overpast".

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Isa 26:20  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.

So what does it mean to enter into Christ until the indignation be overpast? Does this 20th verse mean that we are given to avoid the suffering of Christ, contrary to:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

and:

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

and:

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

and:

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

The answer is obviously that Isa 26:20 is not teaching that God's elect are exempt from the suffering of the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God. Being in our chamber, Christ simply guarantees that we will remain there "till the indignation be overpast", just as Christ did being in His 'chamber', being in His Father. Because He was "in [His] Father", He was heard of His Father and was saved from death, just as He had prayed to His Father:

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Christ's security in His 'chamber' was the gift He was given of enduring "the things which He suffered" without denying His Father, even while facing the apparent loss of His life. Christ and His 'Christ' are what the experience of the three Hebrew children foreshadowed when they stood before a very angry King Nebuchadnezzar who appeared to have their lives in his hand:

Dan 3:16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

"He will deliver  us out of your hand, O King." Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego could say this because, in type, they had entered into their chamber and closed the door until the indignation was overpast.

We are given the same promise in the New Testament in this verse:

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Pay close attention to the function of this "way of escape". Has the Lord promised that we need not endure the tribulations and trials of this life? No, we enter into our chamber 'until the indignation is overpast', because it is through being in Christ that we "can bear it", not hide from the trials of life and the suffering of the cross. The way to escape the Red Sea is to pass through it. The way to be delivered out of King Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace is to be in that furnace with Christ. The way to be delivered from the lion's den is to be cast in that den with Christ. In the same way, the way we are delivered out of death is to "die daily" and to be "crucified [together] with Christ.

Life can come to us only "through death":

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The 'death' that produces life is the death of our old man and his carnal, earthy body of sinful flesh and blood which was never, from the beginning, intended to inherit the spiritual kingdom of God:

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

It was the Lord Himself who "sowed a natural body" predestined to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What He is doing with His creatures is 'plan A', and it will include and save all who are "in Adam":

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

"All in Adam" will be "made alive... in Christ... each in his own order... every man... so as by fire".

And this chapter concludes with the Lord's judgment upon his creatures:

Isa 26:21  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.

"The Lord comes to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, but when His punishing judgments have done their work, "the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  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.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will begin chapter 27:

Isa 27:1  In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Isa 27:2  In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
Isa 27:3  I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Isa 27:4  Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
Isa 27:5  Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
Isa 27:6  He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.