Isaiah 57:18-21

People must choose whether to put their complete trust in the *Lord, or to continue to follow their own desires. But people will never know real satisfaction if they do not put their complete trust in the *Lord.

Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible; in the original language, it means ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
idol ~ home-made image of a god.
worship ~ to praise God (or a false god) and to pray to him.
sacrifice ~ to offer a gift of value to God (or, to a false god).
rightful ~ a word that emphasises the rank or authority that someone ought to have.
messenger ~ a person who carries a message on behalf of the sender.
Sheol ~ the place where Jews thought that dead people went.
Jews ~ people who belong to the countries called Judah and Israel; people who belong to the 12 tribes of Israel.
tribe ~ group of the later family of one father.
Canaanite ~ anything that has a relationship with the land called Canaan.
Canaan ~ original name of the land that God gave to his people.
exile ~ someone that an enemy takes away to a foreign country.
exile ~ someone that an enemy takes away to a foreign country.

1. Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

God’s *Messiah Beats God’s Enemies

Isaiah Chapter s 56 to 66

Gordon Churchyard

The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. The words in round brackets (…) are explanations.

Chapter 57

v1 When a very good man dies, nobody really thinks about it. [Death] takes away men that [God] loves. But nobody understands why [death] takes them away. It is to protect the very good man from trouble that will soon come.

v2 [When a good man dies] he goes into *peace. They rest on their beds. He is the man that walks in the right [way].

v3 But you, come here! [You are] sons of a woman that does magic. [You are] the children of an *adulteress. [You are the children of] a woman that sells her body for sex.

v4 Whom are you laughing at? Whom are you insulting? You stick your tongue out of your mouth! You are a crowd of people that do not obey [God’s] rules. You are the children of a lie.

v5 Your feelings make you have sex among the big trees. Also, [you have sex] under every tree that spreads out [its branches]. You kill and burn your children [for false gods]. [You do this] in the steep valleys and under the rocks that hang over [the sides of hills].

v6 Your place is among the smooth [stones] in the steep valley. Yes, they, they are your part. Yes, you have poured out drink, to offer it to them. And you have offered [them] grain. Because of this, I, [God], will not change my mind.

v7 You have made your bed on a high and tall hill. You went there to offer things to your [false god].

v8 You have put your sign behind your door and your doorway. But you left me and you uncovered your bed. You climbed into it and you opened it wide. You made an agreement with those whose beds you loved. You saw a hand [to help you].

v9 You went to the king with *olive oil and you increased your *perfumes. You sent your officials far away and you went down to *Sheol.

v10 All your journeys wore you out. You would not say, “It is hopeless.” You found new strength and so you did not give up.

v11 Now, who frightens you, so that you are not loyal [to me]? Also, of whom are you so afraid, that you do not remember me? Neither have you thought about me in your hearts. Are you not afraid of me because I have been silent for a long time?

v12 I will show [everybody what you think is] your good character and your works. And they will not benefit you.

v13 When you cry out for help, let your collection [of false gods] save you! The wind will carry them all off. [Somebody’s] breath will blow them away. But anyone that comes to me for help will have the land. [He or she] will possess my *holy mountain.

v14 He will say, ‘Build up [a road]! Build [it] up, prepare a road. Remove the things that prevent my people’s journey along the road.’

v15 Now this is what the High [God] is saying. He is the [God] above [Everything]. He [is the God that] will always be alive. His name is *holy. [He says], ‘I live in a high and *holy place. But [I will live] also with anyone who has a humble and *lowly (humble) spirit. I will make the spirit of the humble person live on. I will also make the heart of the *lowly (humble) person live on.

v16 [I will do this] because I will not always accuse [man (people)]. I will not always be angry [with man]. Otherwise, [his] spirit would become weak in front of me. I gave breath [to him] when I made man.

v17 He wanted more than he really needed. That was a *sin. It made me angry and I punished him. I was angry and I hid from him. But he continued to do what he wanted to do.

v18 I have seen what he is doing. But I will cure him. Then I will guide him and I will give him back his comfort.’

v19 [God] will create *praise on the lips of the people that are sad with him. The *LORD says, ‘[I will give] *peace, *peace to the people that are far away. [And I will give *peace, *peace to the people] that are near. And I will cure them.

v20 But wicked people are like a sea that is not still. It cannot be calm. Its waves throw up mud and dirt.

v21 There is no *peace’, says my God, ‘for wicked people.’

1. Notes

Verse 1 ‘Really thinks’ is ‘thinks in their heart’ in the *Hebrew Bible. The *Jews believed that you thought with your heart. An English way to say this is ‘take it to heart’. Notice the series ‘man … men … man’. Isaiah wants us to understand that this happens to people in general. But also, that it happens to each person. Isaiah uses a similar technique in verse 2 also. Notice also:

• ‘very good man’. The *Hebrew word for ‘very good’ is ‘tsedek’. Only God is really ‘tsedek’, or ‘very, very good’. But God declares this. People that love him are ‘tsedek’ also. So, they must try to live good lives and they must trust him to help them. In most English Bibles, the translation of ‘tsedek’ is ‘*righteous’. It means very, very good. That is how we translate it in Isaiah 56:1.

• ‘men that [God] loves’. The *Hebrew word for ‘loves’ is ‘hesed’. It is a love that never fails. It is the love with which God loves his people. So, a better translation is ‘men that [God] never fails to love’. If the love came from God, the people must share it with other people. Several Bible translations have ‘devout men’ instead. That means ‘men who love [God]’. God has given ‘hesed’ (love that never fails) to them. So now they show real love both to God, and to other people.
• the word for ‘trouble’ means ‘evil’ in the *Hebrew Bible. ‘Evil’ in the *Old Testament often means bad things like storms, floods and strong winds, battle and war.

Verse 2 Notice again the ‘he … they … he’ series. While the truth is general, it is very important for each person. Here, *peace means the absence of trouble. The *Hebrew word for ‘rest’ is the same word as ‘lie about’ in Isaiah 56:10. Perhaps Isaiah is contrasting the bad leaders with the very good servants of God! As the very good man is dying, we could translate ‘bed’ as ‘grave’. ‘Walks in the right way’ means this: ‘He lives in a manner that God approves of.’

Verse 3 The word ‘but’ contrasts the very good people of verses 1-2 with the bad people of verses 3-13. Isaiah may have written these words when there were false religions in Judah. These false religions used magic and sex. An ‘*adulteress’ has sex with a man who is not her husband. ‘Sons of’ and ‘children of’ is a *Hebrew way to say ‘people that do this’. As an example, a ‘son of sport’ would mean somebody that does much sport. Here, it means that people used magic and sex in false religions.

Verse 4 They are probably laughing at these people.

• The very good men of verses 1-2.

• The good leaders like Hezekiah and Isaiah.
• Most of all, God.

The lie is probably that the false gods are real. After the *exile in Babylon, the *Jews did not *worship (serve) false gods. The *exile was the period when the *Jews had to live away from their own country as a punishment.

Verse 5 Here are two more things that they did in false religions:

• They had sex under the large green trees. They believed that the false god Baal made their crops grow better because of this. God did not want the people to do this, Numbers 25:1-5.

• They killed and burned their children. They believed that the false god Moloch wanted them to do this. But God did not want this, either, 2 Kings 23:10.

Verse 6 In verses 3-5, ‘you’ and ‘your’ are male words in the *Hebrew Bible. But in verses 6-13 they are female words. The *prophet is now writing about ‘the woman that does magic’, verse 3. Hosea 4:12 and Hosea 5:4 tells us that this is not a woman as such. It is an evil spirit. It makes people do bad things. So God, through Isaiah, is telling people why they do bad things. Something outside themselves makes them do bad things. It is ‘the woman that does magic’. So even the men are called ‘you (female)’ in this section. It is the men that offer drink and grain to the false gods.

The ‘smooth [stones]’ is just ‘smooth things’ in the *Hebrew Bible. Bible students think that Isaiah meant special stones. They were the shape of false gods. The rain and river water had made the stones into these shapes. That was where the bad people should be; that was their place or part. Psalms 16:5 and Psalms 119:57 tell us that the *LORD is the true believer’s part. ‘Part’ here means ‘place in life’ or ‘what life has given to you’. Motyer, in his book on Isaiah, says this. ‘They, they are your part’ probably means ‘take a chance with them’. Verses 12 and 13 tell us what God will do.

Verses 7-8 The bed in these verses means this. ‘The place where the men had sex with women who were not their wives’. They were not ashamed of this. It was part of their religion, so they let everybody see it. Two things in verse 8 are puzzles for Bible students.

• The doorway sign. This may mean the sign of a false god. But it probably means the sign of the one true God, Deuteronomy 6:9. They pretended to serve God, but in practice they served false gods also. But you cannot really serve two gods. This is what Jesus meant in Matthew 6:24. There he said, ‘You cannot serve God and money.’

• The hand. Some Bible students think that it means a male sex sign. But in 1 Samuel 15:12 the word hand means a monument. That is a stone that people remember things by. Such stones made people famous. Or, it could just mean ‘strength’. They thought the false gods would make them strong.

The word ‘agreement’ probably helps us to understand these verses better. Although the *Jews did all these bad things, they were a sign of something else. All through his book, Isaiah had warned people not to trust foreign kings. He told them not to make agreements with Egypt, or Syria, or Babylon. Yet Hezekiah became very friendly with the son of the king of Babylon, Isaiah 39:1-2. Hezekiah thought that it would make him stronger. There is an English phrase ‘give a hand’. It is a special way to say ‘give some help’. So the ‘hand’ in this verse, which follows the word ‘agreement’, could mean ‘give a hand (help)’. Perhaps Hezekiah thought that Babylon would ‘give him a hand (help)’.

Verses 9-10 In these verses, Isaiah explains clearly some of what he means in verses 3-8. They had sent gifts to a foreign king: *olive oil and *perfumes. People use *olive oil to cook with. People use *perfume to make them smell nice. They sent officials with the gifts. The officials probably asked the foreign king to help them (or ‘give them a hand’). It was as if they had gone to the special place called *Sheol! The *Jews thought that dead people went to *Sheol. The agreement with the foreign king would lead them all to *Sheol. Some Bible students think that ‘king’ should really be ‘Molech’. Those words are the same in the *Hebrew language. This would link it with verse 5. But it would not explain the ‘agreement’.

Verse 11 Isaiah makes a list of four things that the people in Judah have done.

(1) They have not trusted God, so they are afraid of the future.

(2) They have not been loyal to God, so they have not obeyed his laws.

(3) They do not remember all that God has done for them in the past.

(4) They do not think about God in their hearts (minds), which is an insult to God.

God then asks the reason why they are not afraid of him. Perhaps it is because he has been ‘silent’ for a long time. The *Hebrew word for ‘silent’ usually means ‘has not done anything’. They are complaining that God has not done anything to help them. But they have forgotten - see number 3 above.

Verse 12 Here, the *Hebrew word for ‘good character’ is the same word, ‘tsedek’, as in verse 1. But it does not mean here the good things of which God approves. It means the things of which their false gods approved! It is an example of a special kind of humour. In that case, you say the opposite of what you really mean! They considered their character ‘good’ because of the way that they had served their false gods. But God considers those actions to be evil, not good. So God will show everyone how ‘good’ they are. In other words, he will show that they are completely evil! That is what God really means here.

Verse 13 ‘Cry for help’ probably refers to the ‘trouble (evil)’ of verse 1. False gods cannot help in any trouble. But God can and will help people that trust in him. They will be part of God’s ‘collection’ (see Isaiah 56:8) in his land and in his *holy mountain. For Isaiah, this meant Judah and Jerusalem. For Christians, it means heaven, where they go at death.

Verse 14 Isaiah does not say who ‘he’ is. It may be God, or it may be a future servant of God. It remains a mystery. But the words are to those people that are part of God’s ‘collection’, verse 13.

Verse 15 ‘High One’ and ‘Above One’ (or ‘One Who is Above’) are names of God. Our translation has ‘High [God]’ and ‘[God] Above [Everything]’. Like all God’s names, they describe him. There are not many words for ‘god’ in the *Old Testament. Even the word Elohim, which we usually translate ‘God’, really means ‘powers that be/are’. (In other words, ‘Someone powerful that rules.’) Although God has his home above the highest heaven (2 Chronicles 6:18), he also lives with the lowest people. That is, with the people who choose to be humble in front of him. He considers their humble attitude to be wonderful (Numbers 12:3; Micah 6:8; Matthew 18:4). God does not explain his change from anger to kindness in verses 15-18.

Verse 16 ‘Man’, ‘he’, ‘his’ and ‘him’ in verses 16-18 mean everybody … men, women and children. The word ‘breath’ is plural in the *Hebrew Bible. So it really does mean everybody!

Verse 17 ‘He wanted more than he really needed.’ That means more than just ‘greedy for food’. It means ‘greedy for everything, especially money and power’. ‘Hid from him’ means that God did not seem to do anything for his people.

Verse 18 ‘Cure’ in this verse does not mean ‘cure an injury’. It means ‘cure from *sin’. We are guilty of *sin when we do not obey God’s laws. Notice that this verse links with Isaiah 61:2.

Verse 19 ‘*Praise’ means the words that people use to give honour to God. ‘*Praise on their lips’ is a *Hebrew way to say, ‘They praise God with their mouths.’ ‘*LORD’ is a special name for God that only his people use. When the *Hebrew Bible uses a word twice, it means ‘very, very much’. Here, it promises, ‘*peace, *peace’ to those people that are both near and far away. This *peace is not ‘no war’. It is ‘*peace with God’. That is, a right relationship with God.

Verses 20-21 The mud and the dirt are like the bad things that wicked people do. There is no *peace for them because they are fighting God.

2. Something to do

1. Make sure that you enjoy ‘tsedek’ and ‘hesed’, verses 1 and 2. Ask God to forgive you and to make you a good person. Also, share God’s love with the people round you. Do not ‘take a chance’ with bad people, verse 6.

2. Read Psalms 1 which is about the right and wrong ways or roads.

3. Read the Chapter s of Isaiah which warn against agreements with:

• Egypt … Isaiah 30:1-7

• Assyria … Isaiah 7:1-9 (with 2 Kings 16:5-9)

• Babylon … Isaiah 39:1-8

7. heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
   messiah ~ a leader such as a king. With a capital M (that is, ‘Messiah’), it means Jesus for Christians.
   Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
   peace ~ a calm and content attitude. The word often means simply that there is no war. But ‘peace’ especially means the calm and content attitude of a person who has a right relationship with God.
   adulteress ~ a woman who has not been loyal to her husband, because she has had sex with another man.
   olive ~ a fruit that gives oil.
   perfume ~ a substance that has a beautiful smell.
   Sheol ~ death. Many people thought that your spirit went to a place called Sheol after the death of your body.
   holy ~ very, very good. Only God is really holy. He is so holy that he is separate from everybody else.
   lowly ~ humble.
   sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
   praise ~ worship of God; the words that we use when we praise God.
   worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
   LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language, it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
   lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’), it is a name for God.
   Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
   Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
   righteous ~ very, very good. Only God is really righteous (always right) but he calls his people righteous too.'Old Testament ~ the earlier part of the Bible.
   exile ~ a person whom enemies force to live away from his own home or country. Or, the place where that person has to live.
   worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
   prophet ~ someone who says what God is saying.
   praise ~ worship of God; the words that we use when we praise God.
   worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.