Isaiah 26:20
Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 26:16-21
Continuing today with Isaiah 26, beginning with verse 17, Isaiah describes the world before Jesus returns. It’s like a woman experiencing labor pains about to give birth. Then in verse 20, Isaiah is possibly pointing to a pre-Tribulation Rapture as follows:
- My people – those who are saved in Christ
- Your rooms – in heaven
- Hide yourselves for a little while – safe in heaven
- Until his wrath has passed by – until the Tribulation has ended
The Hebrew word for “wrath” in this verse is zaʽam which is translated in other versions of the Bible as indignation. This refers to God’s righteous anger and judgment towards sin and wickedness. It’s also thought of as a code word for the Tribulation period. Most of the times that this word occurs is in the prophetic books announcing judgment.
For example, the angel Gabriel told Daniel in his vision, “I am going to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath, because the vision concerns the appointed time of the end” (Dan 8:19). The word for “wrath” is again the Hebrew word zaʽam. Another instance is in the book of Zephaniah:
“I have decided to assemble the nations,
to gather the kingdoms
and to pour out my wrath on them—
all my fierce anger” (Zeph 3:8).
Jesus also spoke about this period of time:
“For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again” (Matt 24:21). The New Testament being in Greek uses the word thlipsis which is translated as “distress” or “tribulation.”
The events of the Tribulation period are constructed mainly from the following Scriptures:
- Matthew 24
- Daniel 9
- Revelation 6-18
- 2 Thessalonians 2
A crash course on the Tribulation period goes like this:
- A bold leader (the anti-Christ) emerges on the scene (Rev 6:1-2)
- This new leader brings peace to Israel by brokering a 7-year peace deal with the surrounding nations (Dan 9:27)
- For the first 3 1/2 years, there is peace in Israel and Israel will rebuild their third temple on the Temple Mount (Dan 9:27)
- After this 3 1/2 years of peace, this leader will break the peace deal and proclaim to be God demanding to be worshipped. (2 Thes 2:4)
- From that point on, until the end of the 7 years, this last 3 1/2 years is a time of great trials and destruction. (Matt 24:21)
So back to the Rapture. We have these Scriptures that point us to a meeting in the sky between Jesus and those who have been saved (1 Thes 4:17). The timing of that meeting is very much up for debate. For the most part, there are three camps – pre-Tribulation, mid-Tribulation and post-Tribulation.
The pre-Tribulation camp find support for a Rapture at the beginning mark of the final “week” in Revelation chapters 4-6. The church is comprised of all the people saved in Christ. The church is is seen in Revelation 4-5 singing the song of redemption to the Lord, wearing crowns and worshipping God in heaven. When the wrath begins in Revelation 6, the church is no longer seen after that. Thus, it can be assumed that the church was Raptured into heaven.
There is also support for the pre-Tribulation in 1 Thessalonians 5:9: “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since we are not appointed to suffer “wrath” or “tribulation” then of course we will be raptured before the Tribulation. The fact that God promises to deliver Christians from wrath (1 Thes 5) shortly after promising to remove His people from the earth (1 Thes 4) supports the pre-Tribulation argument.
Lastly in support of the pre-Tribulation argument is Revelation 3:10. Jesus tells the church in Philadelphia, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” This if taken literally tells us that the church will not go through the trials of the Tribulation.
The mid-Tribulation camp find support for a Rapture at the 3 1/2-year mark in Matthew 24:29-31. The logical support for the mid-Tribulation rapture is that the church doesn’t need to be removed from the first half of the Tribulation. There is no “wrath” being poured out since it is a time of worldwide peace. Jesus tells us in Matthew 24, “Immediately after the distress of those days … he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect.” “Those days” are being interpreted to mean the first half of the Tribulation because after “those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” So the church will be raptured immediately before God’s wrath.
The post-Tribulation camp find support for a Rapture at the end of the final “week” in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul tells us in that chapter that Christ will return for his people and call them up and meet him in the air. This will be at the trumpet call of God. This is the big announcement that the entire world will hear and this is at the very end – the last trumpet to sound. Jesus comes for his people (1 Thes 4:16) calling them up in the air and then immediately comes to earth with his people (Rev 19:11-21).
So was Isaiah a pre-Tribulation rapture guy? It would seem that way if you read Isaiah 26:20 as prophecy of the Tribulation. But then again, maybe Isaiah was speaking about something else. Prophecy is a funny thing in that you really can only see it in hindsight. So time will tell.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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