The Proprietor of Peace
Introduction: The Choice of Masters
Our modern world is obsessed with peace. We have peace talks, peace prizes, peace movements, and a thousand gurus selling inner peace. But for all our talk, we live in an age of anxiety, strife, and perpetual conflict. We want the fruit of peace, but we want it on our own terms. We want to be the architects of our own tranquility, the proprietors of our own serenity. But this is like trying to build a house in the middle of a hurricane while insisting that you are the one who controls the wind.
The problem is not a lack of desire for peace, but a fundamental misunderstanding of where it comes from. Peace is not a technique to be learned or a treaty to be signed. Peace is a person, and His name is Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. And peace is not a neutral state of affairs; it is a kingdom established by conquest. It is a gift bestowed by a sovereign Lord who has decisively defeated all His rivals. The Bible does not present us with a buffet of spiritual options from which we may select our preferred master. It presents us with a stark choice: you will serve Yahweh, or you will be enslaved by tyrants of your own making. There is no third way.
This passage in Isaiah is a song of the redeemed. It is a song sung by those who have been liberated from the rule of "other masters" and have come to understand the foundational grammar of reality. It is a declaration of allegiance, a confession of absolute dependence, and a triumphant celebration of the God who not only wins the war but does all the fighting for His people. This is not a song for the proud, the self-sufficient, or the spiritually autonomous. This is a song for those who know they are utterly owned, and who rejoice in the quality of their Owner.
The Text
Yahweh, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
O Yahweh our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we bring Your name to remembrance.
The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have visited and destroyed them,
And You have made all remembrance of them perish.
You have increased the nation, O Yahweh;
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
(Isaiah 26:12-15 LSB)
The Divine Contractor (v. 12)
The song begins with a statement of bedrock confidence, grounding the future hope of peace in the past reality of God's work.
"Yahweh, You will establish peace for us, Since You have also performed for us all our works." (Isaiah 26:12)
Notice the logic. Peace is not something we achieve; it is something God establishes. It is not our project; it is His. And the reason we can be confident of this future establishment is because of a past and present reality: God has already performed all our works for us. This is the doctrine of sovereign grace in its most potent form. It is a frontal assault on every form of self-righteousness and bootstrap religion.
This verse tells us that God is the great contractor of our salvation. He does not simply draw up the blueprints and leave us to do the construction. He doesn't just supply the materials and wish us luck. He does the whole job, from foundation to rooftop. Every good deed we have ever done, every act of faith, every moment of repentance, every victory over sin, was His work in us. As the apostle Paul would later say, "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). We work, yes, but our working is the result of His working in us. He is the cause, and our obedience is the effect.
This is profoundly humbling, and it is gloriously liberating. If our peace depended on our performance, we would never have it. Our works are shot through with mixed motives and lingering sin. But our peace is established on the bedrock of His perfect works. He performed the great work of creation. He performed the great work of redemption at the cross. And He performs the great work of sanctification in our hearts. Because He is the one doing the work, the outcome is not in doubt. Peace is not a possibility; it is a certainty.
A Declaration of Exclusive Allegiance (v. 13)
Having established God's total sovereignty, the people now make a confession. It is a confession of past spiritual adultery and a vow of future fidelity.
"O Yahweh our God, other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we bring Your name to remembrance." (Isaiah 26:13)
The "other masters" for ancient Israel were the pagan gods of the surrounding nations and the earthly tyrants who served them, like the kings of Assyria or Babylon. For us, the masters are legion, and often more subtle. The modern state is a jealous god, demanding total allegiance. Mammon is a cruel master, promising security and delivering anxiety. The sexual revolution is a chaotic tyrant, promising freedom and delivering bondage and confusion. And the ultimate master is the autonomous self, the little god in the mirror who demands to be worshipped and obeyed above all.
The people confess this past slavery. "Other masters have ruled us." This is the story of every unbeliever, and it is the recurring temptation for every believer. But then comes the turn, the declaration of independence. "But through You alone we bring Your name to remembrance." Even this act of turning, this act of remembering and confessing Yahweh's name, is not something they accomplish on their own. It is "through You alone." God even gives us the grace to repent. He gives us the ability to turn from our idols and call upon His name. He doesn't just save us; He enables us to ask to be saved. Our very cry for help is a gift from Him.
The Ghosts of Defeated Tyrants (v. 14)
What is the status of these "other masters"? What power do they have over the people of God now? The answer is a resounding none.
"The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have visited and destroyed them, And You have made all remembrance of them perish." (Isaiah 26:14)
This is a verse of triumphant mockery. These other masters, these idols, these tyrants, are not just defeated; they are dead. They are ghosts, impotent spirits with no power to rise again. This is a direct polemic against the pagan myths of dying and rising gods. Yahweh is the only one who holds the keys of life and death. When He destroys a rival, that rival stays destroyed.
God has "visited" them, which in Scripture is a term for divine judgment. He has not only destroyed them, but He has "made all remembrance of them perish." This is total, comprehensive victory. This is what Christ accomplished at the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them (Col. 2:15). The idols of our age, for all their bluster and apparent power, are dead. The secular state is a ghost. The sexual revolution is a ghost. Materialism is a ghost. They have no life in them, and they cannot give life. They are on the ash heap of history, and God is wiping even their memory from the minds of His people.
The Postmillennial Payoff (v. 15)
What is the result of God's sovereign work, His people's exclusive allegiance, and His total victory over His enemies? The result is not a retreat into a holy huddle, but a glorious, unstoppable expansion.
"You have increased the nation, O Yahweh; You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land." (Isaiah 26:15)
This is the Great Commission in seed form. When God is rightly worshipped and His enemies are routed, His kingdom grows. The repetition, "You have increased the nation," emphasizes the certainty and the source of this growth. It is God's doing. And notice the relationship between the growth of the kingdom and the glory of God: "You have increased the nation; You are glorified." God is glorified in the victorious advance of His gospel. The salvation of sinners and the expansion of the church are not incidental to His glory; they are the primary means by which He displays it in the world.
And this growth is geographical. "You have extended all the borders of the land." For Israel, this was a promise of possessing the promised land. For the New Covenant church, this is the promise of the whole earth. As Abraham was promised, his seed will inherit the world (Rom. 4:13). The borders of Christ's kingdom are destined to extend to the ends of the earth. This is the optimistic, world-conquering vision of the Christian faith. We are not fighting a losing battle. We are not managing a strategic retreat. We are on the victorious side of a war that has already been won, and our task is to plant the flag of King Jesus over every institution, every nation, and every square inch of this world that He created and redeemed.
Conclusion: Your Work is His Work
This passage leaves us with no room for pride and no room for despair. We have no room for pride because everything we are and everything we have done is a gift from God. "You have performed for us all our works." Our salvation is His project from start to finish. We bring nothing to the table but the sin He died for.
And we have no room for despair because the God who performed all our works is the same God who will establish peace for us. The tyrants and idols that seem so powerful are already dead. They are ghosts, and we need not fear them. The future is not one of grim defeat, but of glorious expansion. The nation of God will increase, the borders will be extended, and God will be glorified.
Therefore, our task is to live in light of this reality. We must confess and forsake our "other masters." We must refuse to bow the knee to the dead idols of our age. And we must joyfully give ourselves to the work of the kingdom, knowing that it is not ultimately our work, but His work in us. And because He is the one working, it cannot, and it will not, fail.