Isaiah 66

Isaiah 66:1

9. The Consummation: Peace Like a River (Chap. 66)66:1, 2 The opening words of the last chapter of Isaiah were written to the unrepentant people of Israel. They need not think that, in that condition, they can please God by building a temple for Him. After all, He is the universal Creator and Owner, enthroned in heaven, with the earth as His footstool. The dwelling place He desires is the heart of a person who is humble and contrite, and who trembles at His word. 66:3, 4 Those who are impenitent offend God by their religious observances. When divorced from practical holiness, their sacrifices and offerings are crimes and abominations. They can choose their hypocritical ways, but they cannot choose the consequences. God will do that. Those who refuse His call to repentance and who go on in ways that He hates will taste His wrath. 66:5, 6 Those faithful, God-fearing Jews who tremble at His word will be persecuted by their own brethren. The wicked persecutors will think that they are doing God service, as is evidenced by their pseudo-pious taunt, “Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy,” that is, your joy at being miraculously delivered. But the Lord will intervene to shame their foes. The work of judgment will begin at the temple; there the voice of Jehovah will reveal that the time of recompense has come. 66:7-9 In verse 7 Israel brings forth a male child (the Messiah) before the time of her birth-pangs (the Great Tribulation). In verse 8 she brings forth sons after her time of travail. The first birth took place nearly two thousand years ago at Bethlehem. The second is the spiritual rebirth of Israel, which will occur after the Tribulation. Nothing will hinder God from accomplishing this purpose. 66:10-17 The day of Israel’s restoration will be a time of great rejoicing in Jerusalem. All . . . who love her and who have wept with her will share in the ecstasy and jubilation of that moment. Enriched by the glory of the Gentiles, she in turn will give prosperity, nourishment, comfort, and rejuvenation to all who come to her. Then it will be obvious to all that Jehovah is committed to the welfare of His own and to the punishment of His enemies. The Lord’s Second Coming will mean the unleashing of His fiery indignation against all idolaters and rebels. He sees them going through ceremonies to make themselves ritually clean, only to engage in the most abominable idolatrous practices. 66:18-21 He knows their works and their thoughts and when He rains down judgment on them, they will see His glory. He will give them some supernatural sign, which we cannot identify at present. Those who escape will go to the ends of the earth with the news of the Lord’s power and fame. Then the Gentiles will mobilize their transportation facilities to carry dispersed Israelites back to the land, as if they were bringing an offering to Jehovah. God will reinstitute the priesthood and the Levitical order for service in the millennial temple. 66:22, 23 Israel’s status with God will be as permanent and secure as the new heavens and the new earth. Pilgrims from all nations will come to Jerusalem at the appointed times to worship. 66:24 While there they will walk out to the Valley of Hinnom and see the corpses of rebels being cremated in the perpetual fire of the city dump. It is worth noting that our Lord quotes from the last verse in Isaiah as a warning to those who would live in sin and offend Christ’s little ones. Three times in Mark 9 Jesus uses Isaiah’s solemn words: “Their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched” (vv. 44, 46, 48). The good news is that a person can escape these eternal fires of hell by putting his or her faith in the Savior, the Servant of the Lord that Isaiah has described so winsomely in so many of his prophecies. For most of our readers, who have already received Christ as their Savior, the Book of Isaiah is great prophecy and great poetrycertainly among the finest in the OT. But it would be a shame if that were all. We are meant to apply this book to our daily lives and practice God’s good pleasure. We close with a practical exhortation from the devout English Bible scholar, W. E. Vine: All this brings home the folly, futility and sinfulness of pursuing our own way, carrying out our own designs and turning after that in which God cannot take pleasure, instead of waiting upon Him, listening to His voice and delighting in the fulfilment of His will. Through our walking with God He fulfils, and will fulfil, all the promises of His Word. He responds to delighted confidence in Him, by adding an Amen to His assurance. The peace of an obedient heart and a trusting spirit is that which enjoys the sunshine of His countenance and the calmness of holy communion with Him.