Isaiah 66:15-24--Final Judgment and Glory of the LORD

Isaiah 66:15-24
English Standard Version

Final Judgment and Glory of the LORD
15 “For behold, the LORD will come in fire,
    and his chariots like the whirlwind,
to render his anger in fury,
    and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment,
    and by his sword, with all flesh;
    and those slain by the LORD shall be many.

17 “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the LORD.

18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. 21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.

22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
    that I make
shall remain before me, says the LORD,
    so shall your offspring and your name remain.
23 From new moon to new moon,
    and from Sabbath to Sabbath,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the LORD.

24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

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This is it!  The final passage of the book of Isaiah. It combines two themes that correlate--judgment and the glory of God.  We often like to separate God's wrath from His glory--the know He is glorified in the salvation He provides to those He makes saints, but they have a hard time imagining that He receives glory from pouring out His wrath upon those who have chosen to remain sinners.  At the time of the final deliverance of the saints of God, the Lord will come to make war against the world.  He will bring a sword of judgment against all flesh that has rebelled against Him and His people.  These are those who have worshiped idols and practiced all kinds of immorality and have eaten the things that are unclean and detestable.  The Jews would easily identify these traits as belonging to the Gentile people of the world and not supposed to belong to the people of God.

God will make His glory known to all the nations of the world--even the far-away places where no Jew could live because it was too far away to have to make the pilgrimages back to Jerusalem several times a year.  This is because the LORD will save a remnant from every tribe, tongue and nation.  Though His judgment will be poured out on all flesh, the Jews were wrong in their assumption that all Gentiles would be destroyed and only the Jews would be saved.  Jesus told His disciples that He had sheep from other folds that they did not know about.  One day, He will gather all of His sheep together and they will all be one people with one Shepherd, and we will worship the LORD together.  They will all come to the mountain of the LORD--to Jerusalem, the City of God--to worship Him.  Then the LORD says that some of them will even become priests and Levites in His service.  How can that be when this was based on the Levites being of the tribe of Levi and the priests being of the sons of Aaron of the tribe of Levi?  The answer is in the New Testament epistles that speak of a better priesthood based off of Jesus as our Great Hight Priest (see 2 Corinthians 3, Revelation 1:6, 5:10, and 20:6 as some references to how we will all minister as priests before the LORD in His eternal kingdom).

There will be no more death or decay in the New Heavens and the New Earth and all those who are citizens in this new kingdom will be worshipers of the LORD--no longer will children rebel and turn away from the LORD.  Day after day, week after week, month after month, we will always perfectly obey the LORD and worship Him together.  All the peoples of the world will have one common faith with one Lord, one Savior, and one High Priest.  They will all see those whom the LORD has judges and destroyed, and they will rejoice in His victory and His judgment over the wickedness and rebellion that has plagued all of creation since the Fall.  His judgment is right, and His wrath is just as holy and righteous as His love.  Both are reasons to glorify Him and praise Him forever and ever.  He is victorious, both now and forevermore!