Isaiah 66:1-6

F. EPILOGUE, CHAPTER 66
1. BURIAL OF OLD ZION

TEXT: Isaiah 66:1-6

1

Thus saith Jehovah, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what manner of house will ye build unto me? and what place shall be my rest?

2

For all these things hath my hand made, and so all these things came to be, saith Jehovah: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word.

3

He that killeth an ox is as he that slayeth a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as he that breaketh a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as he that offereth swine's blood; he that burneth frankincense, as he that blesseth an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations:

4

I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear; but they did that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not.

5

Hear the word of Jehovah, ye that tremble at his word: Your brethren that hate you, that cast you out for my name's sake, have said, Let Jehovah be glorified, that we may see your joy; but it is they that shall be put to shame.

6

A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of Jehovah that rendereth recompense to his enemies.

QUERIES

a.

What is the point of stressing the omnipotence of Jehovah?

b.

How is one who kills an ox like one who slays a man?

c.

How could those who cast others out say, Let Jehovah be glorified?

PARAPHRASE

What arrogance you disobedient ones manifest by thinking I will have anything to do with that building you call My Temple. The wickedness and hypocrisy you are practicing there are abominations to Me. I Am Omnipotent and Absolutely Holy; I am not like the provincial gods of the idolatrous heathen which have to have earthly houses to live in. Neither will I allow My name to be profaned by having it associated with your blasphemies. I created the whole universe; I am omnipresent and I desire an atmosphere of humility where I am worshipped. I dwell in people of afflicted and contrite heartsthose who respect and obey My word. But people like you, arrogant, haughty, rebellious and blasphemousyour hypocritical animal sacrifices are as abominable to Me as if you had made human sacrifices or offered an unclean sacrifice like a dog; your wicked attitudes make your attempts at ceremonial purification as repugnant as if you had offered swine's blood for your cleansing; your burning of incense is as ungodly as if you were worshiping an idol. This is so because you are arrogantly and blatantly doing these things when you know they are against My will. You are not making innocent mistakes; you are doing these abominations because you like them and want to mock Me. You worship the stars because you fear famine and pestilence; you worship pagan idols because you want to trust in the pagan nations of those idols; now I am going to use those very things you fear as a judgment upon you and prove to you that they are delusions. This is the alternative you have left Me, you rebellious people. When I spoke to you through My messengers, you refused to listen and obey. You deliberately did what I told you would profane My name and anger Me. Now, hear Me those of you who do respect and wish to obey My word: Those of this nation who claim to be your brothers but really hate you and make you outcasts of this society and mock you, saying, We have cast you out, but of course, you are Jehovah's so why don-'t you praise his name and rejoice now!let Me tell you, says the Lord, it is these arrogant mockers who will be soon put to shame. Very soon now there will be the clash, clatter and din of warfare heard from inside the walls of this very cityyea, even from within the temple you hold so dear shall come the noise of judgment. That noise will be the voice of Jehovah rendering His vengeance upon those who have deliberately declared war upon Him.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 66:1-3 ABOMINABLE: Chapter 66 contains a three-part summarization of the whole book of Isaiah. First there is capsulation of the abomination of Isaiah's contemporaries and the coming judgment (Isaiah 66:1-6); second, the birth of new Israel (messianic agechurch) (Isaiah 66:7-14); third, the proclamation of redemption to the whole world (Isaiah 66:15-24). These are the three major theses of the prophet and thus chapter 66 forms an appropriate epilogue.

These verses are not condemnations of houses of worship as such, nor were they intended to abrogate animal sacrifices for Isaiah's contemporaries. The prophet is condemning the arrogant hypocrisy of those who thought an earthly temple guaranteed the presence of Jehovah in their midst regardless of the wickedness of their motives and actions. Many of the Jews fell into the dangerous self-induced delusion that as long as their temple stood Jehovah must confine Himself there so their nation would never be without His presence and protection. This delusion is a consequence of spiritual immaturity and this-worldly-mindedness about the worship of God. Most of the Jewish rulers and religious leaders of Jesus-' day trusted in their earthly temple, human priesthood and animal sacrifices but not in the Invisible God who made them. It is a common failure of human nature to demand that which can be handled, touched and tasted (cf. Colossians 2:20-23; 2 Corinthians 4:16 to 2 Corinthians 5:5, etc.). When the Pharisees of Jesus day wanted to make an oath by the highest thing they could think of, they made it on the temple or the gold of the temple (cf. Matthew 23:16-21). When Jesus predicted the desolation of the city and the temple (Matthew 23:37-39), His own disciples could not believe it, so He gave an extended lesson to them about the destruction of Jerusalem (Matthew 24:1-35) at the hands of the Romans. The fundamental issue of the entire book of Hebrews in the N.T. is that of weaning Hebrew Christians away from the powerful temptation to return to Judaism (abrogated by the new covenant) which appealed to the fleshly desire for a religion that centered in an earthly temple, touchable sacrifices, visible high-priesthood and religious hierarchy. Stephen, the martyr, condemned his Jewish brethren for not accepting the fact that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the temple stood for (Acts 7:44-53). The Jews were not alone in thinking the Creator could be reduced to human level and confined to earthly shrines. Paul reminded the idolaters of Athens that such ideas were illogical (cf. Acts 17:24-28). Young aptly says, Those who would build a house influenced by such conceptions were seeking to render the infinite finite, the eternal temporal, and the Creator a mere creature.

Jehovah does dwell in a spiritual temple composed of people (cf. Ephesians 2:11-22; 2 Peter 2:5) of afflicted and contrite hearts. The Hebrew word -anah is translated poor but means literally, afflicted. It is from a root word that may also be translated answer. The idea is that God dwells in people who are poor in spirit or afflicted in the soul enough to answer God when He calls. God's presence dwells in a people who are humble and penitent, whether they have a church building or not. But the most elaborate building and the best well-organized religious system will never enjoy the presence of God if haughty, arrogant, independent and rebellious worshipers gather there. True worship of God is done in spirit and truth (John 4:19-26) and where God is worshiped is secondary to that! When truth and righteousness are renounced for the sake of places, things and human traditions, it is an abomination before the Lord!

Rituals and ceremonies are means to an end; they are vehicles of human expressions of faith and willing obedience to a PersonGod. When the rituals and ceremonies become the objects of our hope, they become idols! God Himself is the object of our hope; biblical commandments concerning acts of obedience or rituals or worship are revealed as acceptable ways men may express their faith in Him. There are two ways men turn biblically revealed rituals into abominations before the Lord: (a) make the rituals the object of their hope, or; (b) refuse to observe the ritual as the Lord commands it in His Word. The people of Isaiah's day were guilty of both. They were making their ability to keep the rituals the object of their hope which is trusting in self-righteousness, and they were also arrogantly mixing the practices of pagan idolatry with the worship of Jehovah. Sacrifices to God, no matter how often or how affluent, without the proper spirit and contrary to revealed truth are unacceptable to God (cf. Isaiah 1:10-20; Ezekiel 8:5-18; Ezekiel 14:1-11; 1 Samuel 15:17-23; Isaiah 57:1-13; Micah 3:11; Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 6:1-18; etc.). Observance of rituals contrary to biblical specifications and without humility toward the God who commanded them makes them abominations to God. A man may kill an ox and bring it to the temple for a sacrifice, but with an improper attitude toward God he may as well have offered a human sacrificeboth are equally abominable to God! Do men really realize how serious it is to observe religious ritual in an improper frame of mind and heart?! To give an offering or do any act of worship without a contrite heart is an affront to the Lord and as insulting as offering swine's blood! Such impersonal, rebellious, impenitent behavior exposes the real focus of the heart of a manthe ritual itselfand that is in fact, idolatry! Even people of the new covenant must be on guard against this tendency. Ananias and Sapphira fellnot in the amount given or not given to the Lord, but in the attitude they had in their heart (cf. Acts 5:1 ff). Simon, the converted magician, fellnot in what he sought but the purpose for which he sought it (cf. Acts 8:9-13). Even the Corinthian church made the Lord's Supper an abomination before the Lord by the attitude of divisiveness in which they participated in it (cf. 1 Corinthians 10-11). The church at Laodicea was an abomination to Christnot because she was affluent but because of her attitude toward her affluency.

Men will err and sin. Those who worship God will never be able to do so perfectly. The Lord will forgive those errors when men worship Him penitently, honestly and trembling at His Word. But when men deliberately choose their own ways against those God has plainly revealed, and when they delight in doing what they know is contrary to His revealed will, He will not forgive.

Isaiah 66:4-6 ABANDONED: What choice do men leave the Righteous and Just God when they delight in their abominations? The only choice God has is to leave them to their choice! God chooses their delusions as the instruments of their judgment. When God called and called, none were poor (-anah) enough in spirit to answer. When God spake, none obeyed (shama-'). They plainly told God they did not want to hear from Him (cf. Isaiah 30:9-11; Micah 2:6-11, etc.). They obstinately chose their own way against God's (cf. Jeremiah 6:16-18; Jeremiah 8:4-7, etc.). So the Lord let them have what they chose! The Lord abandoned them to their sins (cf. Ezekiel 11:21-25; Ezekiel 39:23-24, etc.). They are given up to suffer in their own bodies the due penalties of their errors (cf. Romans 1:27). Judah trusted in human schemes and human allies to keep her safe and prosperous, but her human allies betrayed her and turned on her. Judah's idol gods could not provide anything for her because they were only pieces of wood and stone. Judah's social injustices and political chicanery on the international scene eventually caused her captivity. But it-was Jehovah who was exercising His sovereign rule in righteousness over the universe that was the real cause of it. God exercises His sovereign rule through secondary agents both in men and natural means (cf. Isaiah 10:5-19; Jeremiah 27:1-11; Amos 4:6-11; Habakkuk 1:5-6; Daniel 8:1 ff; Revelation 6:1-17; Revelation 8:1 to Revelation 9:21; Revelation 17:15-18, etc.).

In verse five, the Lord addresses Himself to those few people who were listening to the teaching of Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 8:16 ff) and being persecuted for their faithfulness. The majority of the people hated the righteous remnant. God's righteous minority will alway be persecuted by the wicked majority because their righteousness acts as a catalyst of judgment in their midst (cf. John 3:18-21; John 9:35-40; John 15:18-27, etc.). The righteous minority of Isaiah's day had been cast out which probably means the haughty, self-righteous majority had ostracized them socially, religiously economically and politically. The poor and humble in spirit and those obedient to the Word of God were oppressed and exploited. The rich and powerful wicked mock them as they oppress them, saying, Since you are so anxious to praise the name of Jehovah and call on Him for help, we will give you plenty of opportunity to call on Him by casting you out. Such perverse haughtiness in a people who had all the advantages of the miraculous deliverance of God from enemies centuries past and who had the Law of God delivered by angels through Moses, is shocking! It is blasphemous! But such mockery of God's saints in the midst of their persecutions will continue so long as this present order exists. All who live a godly life in this world will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). But God's vindication of His saints will be doneif not in this world, in the next!

As for those of Isaiah's day who were persecuting the righteous, they would themselves be cast out and suffer shame and humiliation for their disobedience to God in the Babylonian captivity. But Isaiah is looking past his own time by many centuries and hears the noise of warfare that comes from Jerusalem, the city that the wicked majority believed would never fall (Micah 3:11; Jeremiah 6:13-14; Jeremiah 8:11; Jeremiah 26:7-11; Jeremiah 28:1-17). Isaiah's prediction of Jerusalem's judgment refers to her fall at the hands of Rome (70 A.D.) as will be seen from the following text.

QUIZ

1.

What did the majority of Isaiah's contemporaries think about God's presence in Jerusalem and the temple?

2.

Are these verses intended to condemn building houses of worship?

3.

Where does Jehovah dwell in the new covenant age?

4.

Just how serious is it to worship with a haughty attitude?

5.

How does chapter 66 form an epilogue to the whole book of Isaiah?

6.

What is being poor and of a contrite spirit?

7.

Did the people of Isaiah's day and later really think their city and temple would never fall?