Isaiah 65:1-16--Judgment and Salvation

Isaiah 65:1-16
English Standard Version

Judgment and Salvation
65 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
    to a nation that was not called by my name.
2 I spread out my hands all the day
    to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;
3 a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
    and making offerings on bricks;
4 who sit in tombs,
    and spend the night in secret places;
who eat pig's flesh,
    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
5 who say, “Keep to yourself,
    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
    a fire that burns all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me:
    “I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their lap
7     both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together,
says the LORD;
because they made offerings on the mountains
    and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
    payment for their former deeds.”

8 Thus says the LORD:
“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
    and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
    for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants' sake,
    and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
    and from Judah possessors of my mountains;
my chosen shall possess it,
    and my servants shall dwell there.
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
    and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
    for my people who have sought me.
11 But you who forsake the LORD,
    who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
    and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
12 I will destine you to the sword,
    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
because, when I called, you did not answer;
    when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my eyes
    and chose what I did not delight in.”

13 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, my servants shall eat,
    but you shall be hungry;
behold, my servants shall drink,
    but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice,
    but you shall be put to shame;
14 behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
    but you shall cry out for pain of heart
    and shall wail for breaking of spirit.
15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,
    and the Lord God will put you to death,
    but his servants he will call by another name,
16 so that he who blesses himself in the land
    shall bless himself by the God of truth,
and he who takes an oath in the land
    shall swear by the God of truth;
because the former troubles are forgotten
    and are hidden from my eyes.

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If the LORD waited for us to seek after Him, none of us would be found--we would remain lost.  The LORD is like the father in the parable of the Lost Son who is out every day looking to the horizon, ready to run and meet the wayward son at the first sign of repentance (yet, even that repentance doesn't truly originate from us--it is the work of the Spirit).  We find Him because He cries out to us and seeks after us.  Though we have made ourselves His enemies, He seeks us out to save us.

The Jewish people think they have a secret life of idolatry and living like the Gentiles that the LORD does not see or hear, but He tells them that He knows all about their deeds that they try to hide in the cover of darkness.  They must keep their distance from the LORD right now so that His fury and wrath do not consume them, for He is holy, and they are committing high-handed sins of rebellion (they know what they are doing is wrong and they are doing it anyways).  Yet, He is going to make a way for them to be saved, somehow, someway.  He always does.  There will be a price to pay for their sin, of that we can be sure.  He will not simply wink at their sin and "wave a magic wand" over them to make them righteous and give them the blessings of the covenant once more.

The LORD will destroy some of the wicked who would never repent as a lesson to those who remained that the LORD takes sin seriously and that their lineage to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not enough for them to escape the consequences of sin and rebellion.  For the sake of His Name and His covenant, He would save them so that His plan could go forward.  He would also cause a new generation to come forth.  This would not be the last generation of His people as they feared. This generation would die off (much like in the book of Numbers how the first generation was judged over a long period of time.  A couple of faithful ones remained to see the blessing given to the next generation, but for the most part, the children inherited the blessing that the parents rejected.)  This will be like a new Exodus for this new generation.  It will be like they are coming into the Promised Land for the very first time.

The blessings that were meant for God's servants will be withheld from those who, having been exposed to the grace of God and having been offered a place in His family have rejected it because they loved the darkness more than they loved the light.  There will be a place prepared for them where they will experience none of these blessings--a place of darkness and torture and suffering and anguish.  Thought the Jews imagined that all the Jews went to heaven and all the Gentiles went to hell, God is telling them that many of them will be in hell (and He has already told them that many of the Gentiles will be in heaven).  Eternal destiny has nothing to do with pedigree or bloodline, but it has to do with those who have been born again and had their sins atoned for and forgiven and their hearts transformed by the one called The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  They did not know His name as Jesus at this point.  They did not know the totality of the facts of His death, burial, and resurrection, but they did understand that there needed to be a better sacrifice to take their place and not only cover over, but to take away all of their sins and to deal with their sins of rebellion and iniquity--not just their trespasses.

God will call His servants by a new name and will restore the covenant blessings to them, but these wicked men will have no part in it.  They will neither receive the new name nor the blessings.  They will be cursed and will die in their sins.  They will not have the kind of relationship with God that His remnant will have.  God will make a New Heaven and a New Earth so that when all the evil and wicked are destroyed, everyone will once again be made in His image and be innocent and righteous (just like Adam and Eve were) and we will have a new beginning--remembering nothing from the past.  All we will know is God and His perfect creation and we will love Him and serve Him forever.  It will be the kind of existence that Adam and Eve could have had if they had not sinned, but God will do away with all sin and all temptation to sin.  We will forever be in our glorified, perfected state and we will be unable to sin.  Because of this, there will be no more disease, aging, sickness, or death.  Everything will always be in its perfect state.  To some that sounds awful (they hate the idea of living as servants of God forever and ever as they would rather be their own masers in hell than a servant of God in heaven--these are kinds of wicked men that this passage talks about that will be destroyed).  For the people of God, they look forward to this day when all things will be made new and God will once again make it so that He dwells among men.  He will reign forever and His glory will fill all the earth.  Hallelujah!