Isaiah
26:20
20 Come [yalak], my people [`am], enter [bow'] thou into thy
chambers [cheder], and shut [cagar] thy doors [deleth] about
thee: hide [chabah] thyself as it were for a
little [m@`at] moment [rega`], until the indignation [za`am] be overpast [`abar]. KJV-Interlinear
20 Come, my people, enter your
chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until
the fury has passed by. ESV
Remember the context of this passage. Isaiah is writing of the end times, but in
his day, the end times were, and are, still future.
And when the end times arrive, then there will be a
resurrection.
The chambers, is a reference to the private place of
peace and calmness. This is the state of death for believers in the Savior, who
we know as Jesus Christ.
Shut the doors, is a phrase to indicate that no one
else will be allowed to interfere with your rest. Thus death is private and there is no power
or authority which will disrupt death.
For a little while, is a reference to a span of time,
a short time if compared to eternity. It
is a blink of an eye, during which the dead will wait for their promised
resurrection.
The indignation, is the status of death and the nature
of death which is caused because of the angelic conflict, which is caused by
Satan and all of his complaints against God.
So, because of Satan, humanity is forced to experience
death, prior to life in eternity. And
this is humiliating, in that death brings the corruption of the body and all the
foul things that accompany it, as well as the inconvenience of death, which
postpones life in heaven and eternity while God plays out history due to Satan’s
complaint and opposition.
So, the promise is, that death is only for a short
time, and to the dead, it will seem very short.
Kind of like when you go to sleep at night and then suddenly it is
morning. That eight hours of sleep,
seemed like but a moment. And so it will
be with death.
Our life will continue for all of eternity and that is
a very long time. The entire human
history in this world is but a moment on that eternal timeline.
