Isaiah 66:1

CHAPTER LXVI

This chapter treats of the same subject with the foregoing.

God, by his prophet, tells the Jews, who valued themselves much

on their temple and pompous worship, that the Most High

dwelleth not in temples made with hands; and that no outward

rites of worship, while the worshippers are idolatrous and

impure, can please him who looketh at the heart, 1-3. This leads to a threatening of vengeance for their guilt,

alluding to their making void the law of God by their

abominable traditions, their rejection of Christ, persecution

of his followers, and consequent destruction by the Romans. But

as the Jewish ritual and people shadow forth the system of

Christianity and its professors; so, in the prophetical

writings, the idolatries of the Jews are frequently put for the

idolatries afterwards practiced by those bearing the Christian

name. Consequently, if we would have the plenitude of meaning

in this section of prophecy, which the very content requires,

we must look through the type into the antitype, viz., the very

gross idolatries practised by the members of Antichrist, the

pompous heap of human intentions and traditions with which they

have encumbered the Christian system, their most dreadful

persecution of Christ's spiritual and true worshippers, and the

awful judgments which shall overtake them in the great and

terrible day of the Lord, 4-6. The mighty and sudden increase of the Church of Jesus Christ at

the period of Antichrist's fall represented by the very strong

figure of Sion being delivered of a man-child before the time

of her travail, the meaning of which symbol the prophet

immediately subjoins in a series of interrogations for the sake

of greater force and emphasis, 7-9. Wonderful prosperity and unspeakable blessedness of the world

when the posterity of Jacob, with the fulness of the Gentiles,

shall be assembled to Messiah's standard, 10-14. All the wicked of the earth shall be gathered together to the

battle of that great day of God Almighty, and the slain of

Jehovah shall be many, 15-18. Manner of the future restoration of the Israelites from their

several dispersions throughout the habitable globe, 19-21. Perpetuity of this new economy of grace to the house of Israel,

22. Righteousness shall be universally diffused in the earth; and

the memory of those who have transgressed against the Lord

shall be had in continual abhorrence, 23, 24. Thus this great prophet, after tracing the principal events of

time, seems at length to have terminated his views in eternity,

where all revolutions cease, where the blessedness of the

righteous shall be unchangeable as the new heavens, and the

misery of the wicked as the fire that shall not be quenched.

NOTES ON CHAP. LXVI

This chapter is a continuation of the subject of the foregoing. The Jews valued themselves much upon their temple, and the pompous system of services performed in it, which they supposed were to be of perpetual duration; and they assumed great confidence and merit to themselves for their strict observance of all the externals of their religion. And at the very time when the judgments denounced in verses Isaiah 66:6 and 12 of the preceding chapter Isaiah 65:6; Isaiah 65:12 were hanging over their heads, they were rebuilding, by Herod's munificence, the temple in a most magnificent manner. God admonishes them, that "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands;" and that a mere external worship, how diligently soever attended, when accompanied with wicked and idolatrous practices in the worshippers, would never be accepted by him. This their hypocrisy is set forth in strong colours, which brings the prophet again to the subject of the former chapter; and he pursues it in a different manner, with more express declaration of the new economy, and of the flourishing state of the Church under it. The increase of the Church is to be sudden and astonishing. They that escape of the Jews, that is, that become converts to the Christian faith, are to be employed in the Divine mission to the Gentiles, and are to act as priests in presenting the Gentiles as an offering to God; see Romans 15:16. And both, now collected into one body, shall be witnesses of the final perdition of the obstinate and irreclaimable.

These two chapters manifestly relate to the calling of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian dispensation, and the reprobation of the apostate Jews, and their destruction executed by the Romans. - L.