Isaiah 65:13-16

2. CHARACTERIZED

TEXT: Isaiah 65:13-16

13

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be put to shame;

14

behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit.

15

And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen; and the Lord Jehovah will slay thee: and he will call his servants by another name:

16

so that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

QUERIES

a.

Who are Jehovah's servants?

b.

How will Israel's name be a curse?

c.

What is the other name?

PARAPHRASE

On account of the fact that there are a few good people who have chosen to serve Me while the majority of Israel has deliberately chosen to do evil, I will fill My servants with spiritual nourishment and satisfaction but those who rebel against Me will suffer spiritual starvation and shame, says Jehovah. Indeed, those who choose to serve Me will express their joy in singing, but those who disobey Me will weep, moan and wail with sorrow and confusion. The name of this disobedient nation will be forever after used as an illustration of rebellion, mockery and blasphemy by those who are really My chosen people. Jehovah is going to deliver a deathblow to Israel's status as the elect people and He will choose obedient people from every nation on earth and call them by a new name which will characterize their new nature and blessedness. I will so completely and certainly fulfill My promises, the people who are chosen will invoke My name as the source of all truth for those who are My servants will be pardoned forever from the guilt and penalty of sin.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 65:13-14 NURTURED: Continuing the idea of a refined Zion and the contrast between the good grapes and the bad grapes the Lord now pictures the different consequences of the refining process. Those (even of the goiym who were not called by His name) who do find Him and call upon Him and become obedient servants, He will fill with spiritual nutrition growth and satisfaction. Of course, Isaiah is using times coloring here, i.e., writing of future spiritual things in physical terminology. The New covenant scriptures make it plain that God's richest blessings are spiritual (cf. Ephesians 1:3, etc.). Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled (Matthew 5:6); those who seek the Bread of Life shall have it (John 6:52-65); those who thirst for the Water of Life shall drink of it (John 4:13; John 7:37-39, etc.); those who declare joy shall have it abundantly (John 15:1-11, etc.). Eating, drinking, feasting, celebrating and singing merely symbolize the blessings God's servants will receive (see comments Isaiah 25:6 ff). The kingdom of God is essentially character, not food and drink (physical things) (cf. Romans 14:17). Those who rebel and disobey will find their souls and spirits starving and dying of spiritual nourishment. They will suffer sorrow and vexation (cf. Amos 8:11-12). There is no torture more excruciating than spiritual torture (cf. Luke 16:24-31).

Isaiah 65:15-16 NAMED: Those of the chosen nation who rebelled against their messianic destiny and their God left their name to the world for a curse. God promised Israel she would become a proverb and a by-word among the nations if she was rebellious and disobedient (cf. Deuteronomy 28:37; 1 Kings 9:7; 2 Chronicles 7:20; Psalms 44:14). The Jewish nation became the chief illustration for Christians of the consequences of rebelling against the Lord (cf. Matthew 21:33-43; Matthew 22:1-10; Luke 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Hebrews 3:1 to Hebrews 4:13, etc.).

The Lord will slay the former Israel and create a new Israel (Galatians 6:15-16). Jehovah delivers the deathblow to the former Israel when He cancelled her covenant and nailed it to the cross of Christ. It was definitely prophesied that He would do away with the election of physical Israel (cf. Jeremiah 3:15-18; Jeremiah 31:31-34, etc.). These verses (Isaiah 65:13-16) clearly show that the genetic nation of Israel as such is not synonymous with God's chosen (cf. also Romans 2:28-29). In the light of this precise statement that God is going to slay the disobedient nation and call His servants by another name, what scriptural reason is there for expecting a future resurrection of genetic Israel? Ezekiel 37 undoubtedly refers to the restoration of Judah after the Babylonian captivity in 536 B.C. Certainly the nation that was restored then cannot be the fulfillment of Isaiah 65:13-16; neither can the present-day Israel! See our comments on Isaiah 62:2 for a discussion of the new name.

The Lord will so completely and evidently fulfill His promises in Christ, those who choose to obey Him will invoke His name as the source of all truth. They will pray to Him for every need and they will proclaim Him as Infinite answer to man's finiteness. He, Himself will become the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). Those who become His disciples will know the truth and be set free from falsehood (John 8:31 ff). The Incarnate Son of Jehovah will become an oath demonstrating in time and space the veracity of Jehovah's promises once and for all (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1 ff; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Hebrews 6:17-20; Hebrews 9:1 ff, etc.). Whoever wishes to be blessed from henceforth must be blessed in the name of Jehovah and His Son; whoever wishes to verify the truthfulness, value, reality or meaning of anything must henceforth verify it in the character and will of Jehovah and His Son as revealed in the written record (the scriptures).

The God of truth is an extremely significant proposition. Jehovah is the truth. In the Person of Jehovah (and His Incarnate Son) is the whole of truth! There is no source of truth outside the character and will of God. He is truth absolute, ultimate, eternal in contradistinction from all that is relative, derived, partial and temporal. All that is true is relative to His character. When we speak of the sanctity of truth we must understand that underlying such a phrase is the sanctity of His character (His love, power, faithfulness, holiness, etc.). He is the God of truth and all truth derives its sanctity from Him. This is why all untruth or falsehood is wrong; it is a contradiction of what God is! This is why God cannot lie or change His will. To do so would contradict Himself and He cannot deny Himself and be God! The devil's attack upon man was first an attack upon the veracity of God. He accused God of deliberate falsehood and deception in telling Eve that she should not eat of the tree because God knew if she did her eyes would be opened and she would then know something only God knew. Furthermore, the devil said God lied when He told Eve she would die if she ate of the tree. The devil openly assailed the integrity and veracity of God. And here is the important point; in convincing Eve that God was less than faithful, the devil very subtely destroyed Eve's integrity when he seduced her into doubting God's integrity. The only reference point upon which man may build his own integrity, veracity, truthfulness and faithfulness (his own character, as it were) is in unreserved commitment and belief in God's integrity and faithfulness. All of man's unfaithfulness (indeed, all of man's sin) has its affinity with that lie by which Eve was seducedthat God is untrustworthy. Man has only the power to believe or disbelieve. Truth is not in man, but in God. Truth can only be in man when man believes and trusts and obeys God! Therefore, if men are to be formed into the image of God it can only be done by preaching the objectively revealed (in the Bible) character of God (His faithfulness, love, and power). All preaching to convert must center on who God is and what He has donenot in what man feels, or thinks or is able to do. It is not in man to be faithful or to love or to be holy. Man can only be faithful and love and be holy when he believes God is absolutely faithful and absolutely loving and absolutely holy.

All that is false and standing against man has been forever conquered and eliminated through the Son of God. The power, the guilt and the penalty of man's rebellion has been atoned for and truth, ultimate saving truth, is resident in Him. Man can be in Him by faith. That is where God chooses His servantsin Him Who is Truth! This is the new, refined Zion.

QUIZ

1.

What kind of eating and drinking is to be given the servants of Jehovah?

2.

What did God promise about the name of the Jews if they rebelled?

3.

What happened when God slew the rebellious Israel?

4.

What is meant about people blessing themselves by the God of truth?