We saw in our last study (Isaiah 63) that God seemed to be distant. As the people began to realise it might be their fault, they turned to prayer.
Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.
18 For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.
19 We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.
Their prayer starts well, acknowledging what the Lord had done for them compared to their enemies.
Isaiah 64
1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
And on first reading, their prayer is now pleading for God to again show himself as in days of long ago. But look at verse 2. They haven’t yet accepted that it is they themselves that need to be frightened, that they themselves had perhaps made themselves enemies of God..
4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
That’s better. The first stage of repentance is to actually acknowledge that we have sinned. They accepted that their sin had angered God and now they were truly scared. Now they began to see themselves as God sees.
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.
Now they understand. ‘all our righteous acts are like filthy rags’. We can do nothing to make amends, we are shrivelled and worthless. We have forgotten you and as a result you have simply allowed us to go our own way.
8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins for ever. Oh, look upon us we pray, for we are all your people.
12 After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?
They now acknowledge that as God had made them, they were his. This is like the prodigal son, hoping against hope that he might be allowed back into his fathers family.
10 Your sacred cities have become a wasteland; even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
See how far had they sunk. Look at the mess that they now acknowledged was the result of their sins. Would God ever have them back?
Isaiah 65
1 ‘I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, “Here am I, here am I.”
2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations –
3 a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; 4 who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat; 5 who say, “Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!”
Well, says God, do you realise what it has been like for me as your father, pleading with you to return, only to be rebuffed so strongly? No wonder I turned to the Gentiles who were only too happy to be saved. And no wonder that you have been punished.
Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.
6 ‘See, it stands written before me; I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps – 7 both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,’ says the Lord. ‘Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.’
And the punishment was not randomly vindictive, but carefully measured out to reflect the amount of their sin – written down and then paid back in full (verse 6).
8 This is what the Lord says: ‘As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, “Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,” so will I do on behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live.
10 Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting-place for herds, for my people who seek me.
But says the Lord, not everyone will suffer, There will still be those who have not turned against me. They will be saved, I have a place prepared for them, ‘for my people who seek me’.
11 ‘But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
12 I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will fall in the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.’
‘Fortune’ and ‘Destiny’ were false gods that were accepted into the Greek and Roman pantheon. These had been worshipped openly by those who had forsaken the Lord, even though he had continually sent prophets to warn them and call them away. OK he says, I’ll tell your fortune, I’ll show your destiny:
13 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
My servants will eat, but you will go hungry;
my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty;
my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.
14 My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit.
15 You will leave your name for my chosen ones to use in their curses; the Sovereign Lord will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name.
16 Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the one true God; whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the one true God. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.
It's as if God had been looking at all their past failings and has now had enough. He is going to turn his back on it all and look to the future.
17 ‘See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.
As you turn to the light, the shadows fall behind you. God now sees the opposite of what has gone before, and people are now ‘a joy’.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
20 ‘Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people;
What a picture for a community where life expectancy was so short. And I love the last line!
my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They will not labour in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,’ says the Lord.
Here in God’s new creation, everyone and everything will operate the way god originally intended. Not out of compulsion, but in a new atmosphere of love.
Isaiah 66
Now in this final chapter, God has the last word.
1 This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting-place be?
2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the Lord.
‘These are the ones I look on with favour: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.
Let’s get things straight. Have you forgotten what it is to be God? Do, you really imagine you can build something I could be constrained to live in? Who made building materials and gave skill to the builders?
Don’t approach me in arrogance, but be humble and contrite.
3 But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a person, and whoever offers a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck;
whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense is like one who worships an idol.
They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations;
4 so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread.
Those who ritualistically ‘go through the motions’ of religion are detestable to God.
People who have added rules upon rules and have delighted in so doing – are only pleasing themselves. Where is the contrite heart approaching God with a true sign of their repentance?
For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened.
This more than anything has been the trouble. God had spoken through many prophets, but they had all been ignored. Here God is speaking to all classes of people, especially the Kings and Priests.
They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.’
5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word; ‘Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of my name, have said, “Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy!” Yet they will be put to shame.
6 Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve.
Those in authority make rules deciding who in their eyes is worthy of entering the Temple, so as not to offend the name of the Lord. What absolute arrogance! They are the ones profaning God’s holiness – well listen, what you will hear coming from the Temple will not be sounds of joy.
7 ‘Before she goes into labour, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son.
8 Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children.
9 Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?’ says the Lord. ‘Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?’ says your God.
The New Heaven and Earth will appear suddenly, complete. This will need no aeons of evolution, it will appear at God’s command.
10 ‘Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.
11 For you will feed and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.’
12 For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will feed and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.
13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.’
The new Jerusalem will be a place of comfort, warmth and peace. Three times comforted (verse 13).
14 When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.
15 See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment on all people, and many will be those slain by the Lord.
But again, when separating those who will enjoy eternal rest, there will always be those who are rejected. Not by God’s choosing but by their own choice. And something has been prepared for them too.
17 ‘Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things – they will meet their end together with the one they follow,’ declares the Lord.
Those who follow their invented rituals, and worship their invented gods only do this because they have turned away from the one true God, and actually worship Satan. He and his followers have an end which is already decided.
18 ‘And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.
19 ‘I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations – to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. 20 And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord – on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,’ says the Lord. ‘They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels. 21 And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,’ says the Lord.
Again, not because of any merit of their own, God himself will draw people from all nations to join him in his new creation.
22 ‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure. 23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord. 24 ‘And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.’
Well I don’t think that I will have any interest in looking at the fate of the wicked, but again we are reminded that while we are still here on Earth we have a continuing duty to warn others of the certainty of what awaits them.
