Isaiah 26:16-18 English Standard Version
16 O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.
17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord;
18 we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
I can understand why Israel had a nationalistic view as it is stated in verse 2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.”
Now in our life we are given the Word to understand what being born again means. I see how verse 18 might have been misunderstood by the religious leaders of that time. Giving birth to the Spirit because wind in that verse in the Hebrew is רוּחַ rûwach, roo’-akh; from H7306; wind; by resemblance breath. It could be misconstrued as something else and not the spiritual birth by the breath of God.
Hints of a future event that are not clearly understood will not sway people to give up their point of view. Israel held firmly to their nationalistic promises and ignored any personal connection. Here is an opinion that I found in the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia: “It is very remarkable that a doctrine of life after death as an essential part of religion was of very late development in Israel, although this doctrine, often highly elaborated, was commonly held among the surrounding nations. The chief cause of this lateness was that Israel’s religion centered predominantly in the ideal of a holy nation. Consequently the individual was a secondary object of consideration, and the future of the man who died before the national promises were fulfilled either was merged in the future of his descendants or else was disregarded altogether.”
Perhaps this is why the words of Jesus were so readily accepted when the people heard them. He did not disregard them in any way. He took His message to the people who were thirsty for the Word because the religious leaders of the day did not give them a second thought.
When leaders stop tending to the needs of the people, the people stop listening.
Matthew 11:7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
A reed is not stiff and bends to the breath of God.
Exodus 32:9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.