Isaiah 65:1-7

V.—THE FIFTH DISCOURSE

The Death and Life-bringing End-Period

Isaiah 65-66

These two chapters are closely connected. They form one discourse. Their commencement is obviously related to the preceding prayer, in which the people had been regarded as a unity without distinguishing between the godly and the wicked. In chap. 65 it is shown that Israel will neither be entirely saved (Isaiah 65:1-7), nor entirely cast off (Isaiah 65:8-12). The true and righteous God will act according to the rule “suum cuique” (Isaiah 65:13-16). The Prophet then describes the salvation destined for the godly as new life. He depicts it, Isaiah 65:17-25, from its outward side, and, Isaiah 66:1-3 a, from its inward side. I must regard the verses Isaiah 66:3-6 as an interpolation. [But see the exposition.—D. M.] In Isaiah 66:7-9 the Prophet describes the new life in a quite peculiar relation. He shows the wonderfully intensive power with which the new life will unfold itself, and find its realization in posterity that cannot be numbered. The fundamental, ethical character of the new order of life, which will express itself both in the relation of the redeemed to one another, and in the relation of the Lord Himself to the redeemed, shall be maternal love (Isaiah 66:10-14). In conclusion, the Prophet draws another comprehensive picture of the time of the end, in which he first views collectively all its elements of judgment, and then shows how the distinction between Israel and the Gentile world will cease, and the entire human race will be one new Israel, raised to a higher elevation (Isaiah 66:15-24).

1. NOT ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED

Isaiah 65:1-7

1          I am sought of them that asked not for me;

I am found of them that sought me not;

I said, Behold me, behold me,Unto a nation that was not called by my name.

2     I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people,

Which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;

3     A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face;

That sacrificeth in gardens,And burneth incense 1upon altars of brick,

4     Which remain among the graves,

And lodge in the 2monuments,

Which eat swine’s flesh,And 3 4broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

5     Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me;

For 5I am holier than thou.

These are a smoke in my 6nose,

A fire that burneth all the day.

6     Behold, it is written before me:

I will not keep silence, dbut will recompense,

Even recompense into their bosom,

7     Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord,

Which have burned incense upon the mountains,And blasphemed me upon the hills:

eTherefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 65:1. The dative after the passive נדרשׁ stands here as Ezekiel 14:3; Ezekiel 20:3; Ezekiel 20:31; Ezekiel 36:37, according to a well-known usus loquendi. אשׁר is to be supplied before לא. [Ges., Gr., §123, 3.] The Pual of קָרָא is of not unfrequent occurrence in the latter part of Isaiah 48:8; Isaiah 48:12; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 62:2.Isaiah 65:6. ושׁלמתי has the accent on the final syllable on account of the future signification, to distinguish it from the first שׁלמתי, which has the accent on the penult.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Chaps. 65 and 66 are a Yes—but [an affirmative answer with qualifications] to the prayer of the church. For that prayer shall assuredly be heard, but quite otherwise than she imagines [?]. First of all the Lord makes a distinction, which was not made in the prayer, between the persons, according to their religious and moral condition. The prayer takes the people as an undistinguished unity in what is good as in what is bad. The good are not excepted where the transgression of the people is spoken of (Isaiah 63:10; Isaiah 63:17; Isaiah 64:4-6), and where deliverance and salvation are spoken of, the evil are not excepted (Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 54:7-8). [It is not the case that the prayer altogether ignores the distinction between the good and the bad in the community. This distinction is prominently made in the latter part of Isaiah 63:17 : Return for thy servants’ sake to the tribes of thine inheritance (amended translation). Jehovah’s answer is exactly conformable to this prayer. Comp. Isaiah 65:8 sq.: So will I do for my servants’ sakes. When the prayer speaks of the whole nation being God’s people, the reference is to the original relation established between them and God. The prayer distinctly declares that it is for those that wait for Him that God acts, and that it is he who rejoiceth and worketh righteousness whom God meets, Isaiah 64:4-5. Moreover, this prayer, which the church is supposed to utter, testifies, notwithstanding its strong confession of prevalent and general ungodliness, to the existence of a faithful, praying remnant. Dr. Naegelsbach fails to appreciate the prayer that precedes chap. 65, and attributes to it defects and blemishes which it does not really contain.—D. M.]. In chap. 65 there is a sharp line of separation drawn between the servants of Jehovah who have sought Him (Isaiah 65:8-10; Isaiah 65:13 sqq.), and the persons who have forsaken Him (Isaiah 65:11 sqq.) But it is not the intention of the Lord. that Israel should be reduced by the exclusion of the ungodly to a little flock, and that the old patriarchal promise of an innumerable progeny should find but a scanty realization in the glorious time of salvation. In the Messianic time Israel shall be not only blessed and glorious, but also numerous (comp. Ezekiel 36:37). Just think of places such as Isaiah 49:13 sqq.; Isaiah 54:1 sqq.; Isaiah 60:4 sqq.! But the Lord will take the members of His redeemed church not merely out of Israel. He takes them out of all nations. For, connection with the church of the redeemed is no longer dependent on natural descent from Abraham and circumcision in the flesh, but on being born of God and circumcision of the heart. [We give here Dr. J. A. Alexander’s analysis of this section: “The great enigma of Israel’s simultaneous loss and gain is solved by a prediction of the calling of the Gentiles, Isaiah 65:1. This is connected with the obstinate unfaithfulness of the chosen people, Isaiah 65:2. They are represented, under the two main aspects of their character at different periods, as gross idolaters and as Pharisaical bigots, Isaiah 65:3-5. Their casting off was not occasioned by the sins of one generation, but of many, Isaiah 65:6-7. But even in this rejected race there was a chosen remnant, in whom the promises shall be fulfilled, Isaiah 65:8-10.”—D. M.].

2. I am sought——called by my name. Isaiah 65:1. The Apostle Paul understands Isaiah 65:1 of the Gentiles while he adheres to the Septuagint, with a transposition of the clauses (Romans 10:20). The Jewish commentators (with exception of Chiquitilla or Gecatilia, comp. RosenmuellerSchol. in loc.) and most modern interpreters refer the words to the unbelieving Jews. Only Hendewerk, who supposes the Persians specifically to be here meant, Stier and von Hofmann are exceptions. I agree with these latter. For 1) if Isaiah 65:1 is to refer to the Jews, then &נמצאתי נדרשׁתי must signify: quaerendum, inveniendum me obtuli, and not “I let Myself be asked for, be found,” which signification the Niphal undoubtedly has in Ezekiel 14:3; Ezekiel 20:3; Ezekiel 20:31; Ezekiel 36:37 (Niph. tolerativum). For, in fact, the Jews have not sought the Lord, and therefore have not asked for and found Him. If then we would take the verbs נדרשׁתי and נמצאתי in the sense in which נדרשׁ occurs in the places quoted from Ezekiel, that would be affirmed regarding the Jews in the place before us which was not true of them. We must then take נדרשׁ and נמצא in the sense of quaerendum, inveniendum me obtuli, or in the sense “I was capable of being asked for, capable of being found;” but this sense the perfect Niphal cannot bear. In reference to נדרשׁ, an examination of the places in Ezekiel makes this clear. But in reference to נמצא appeal is made to Isaiah 55:6. There it is said: Seek the Lordבְּהִמָּֽצְאוֹ which may be rendered while he may be found.—For everything which is found, may be found. But does it follow that נמּצא can mean “to be capable of being found” to the exclusion of the signification “to be actually found?” But that must be the case if Isaiah 65:1 is to be referred to the Jews. 2) גוי לא קֹרָא בשמי is appropriately applied only to Gentiles, as even Delitzsch confesses. [Delitzsch also calls attention to the use of גּוֹי (comp. Isaiah 55:5) in Isaiah 65:1 and of עַם in Isaiah 65:2, as indicating that Isaiah 65:1 relates to the Gentiles and Isaiah 65:2 to the Jews.—D. M.]. With the words הנני הנני the Lord wishes to declare that He offers Himself lovingly and pressingly to the nation hitherto strangers to Him (comp. Isaiah 58:9).

3. I have spread out——their bosom.

Isaiah 65:2-7. In opposition to what the Lord will be in fact to the Gentiles we are told in these verses what the Lord wished to be to Israel, but was not on account of the stubbornness of this people. With infinite, compassionate love the Lord spread out His hands to Israel כל־היום (comp. Isaiah 65:5; Isaiah 28:24; Isaiah 51:13; Isaiah 52:5; Isaiah 62:6), i. e,, continually. He would gladly have enclosed them in His arms as dear children (כּרשׂ see the List.). But they were a refractory people. He calls them עַם not גּוֹי as, Isaiah 65:1, the Gentiles; but they were עם סורר. How they proved refractory is declared in what follows. They pursued evil, perverse ways, and this was the necessary consequence of their following, not the thoughts of Jehovah, but only their own thoughts (comp. Isaiah 55:7; Isaiah 59:7; Jeremiah 18:12). But not only by omitting to do what the Lord desired, did they offend Him, but also by defiant and open (על־כּני, comp. Job 1:11; Job 6:28; Job 21:31, probably, too, alluding to Exodus 20:3) doing of that which is contrary to the chief commandment of the theocracy, by gross idolatry which they practised, while they sacrificed in gardens or groves (comp. on Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 66:17), and burnt incense on altars which, contrary to the law, were built of bricks. According to the Mosaic law only an altar of earth or of unhewn stones [or of wooden boards overlaid with brass] was allowed (Exodus 20:24 sqq.; Isaiah 27:1 sqq.; Isaiah 30:1 sqq.). The bricks recall Babylon, the land of lateres cocti from ancient time (Genesis 11:3). Another form of their idolatry consisted in their frequenting groves and other kept (i. e., secret, not easily accessible) places, where they even passed the night in order to obtain mantic revelations through the demons, or through the spirits of the dead, a thing which was strictly forbidden in the law (Deuteronomy 18:11; comp. Isaiah 8:19). Even Jerome and Theodoret have so understood this place. Jerome says: . . “Sedens . . vel habitans in sepulchris et in delubris idolorum dormiens, ubi stratis pellibus hostiarum incubare soliti erant, ut somniis futura cognoscerent.” Other passages from ancient authors regarding this usage are given by Rosenmueller,in loc. It seems to me less appropriate to think of purificatory offerings presented for the dead (inferiae, februationes, Vitringa), as these offerings and not require a lengthened sitting or passing the night in sepulchral caves. נְצוּים are loca abscondita, as Isaiah 48:0:6נְצוּרוֹתres absconditae, as נָצַר easily obtains the signification of hiding from the signification custodire, observare (comp. Proverbs 7:10). The swine which divides the hoof, but does not chew the cud, is according to the law unclean, and durst not be eaten (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:18). Quamdiu stetit Judaeorum respublica, in Judaea nulli erant sues,” says Bochart (Hieroz. I. p. 804, comp. Luke 15:11; Luke 8:26; Luke 8:32). It is doubtful whether in our place the common or the ritual use of swine’s flesh (at the sacrificial meal) is spoken of. Both are possible. Where swine are eaten, there they can also be used in sacrifice, and where they are sacrificed, there they are also eaten. In Isaiah 66:17, too, both profane and sacred uses can be promiscuously spoken of. That among many heathen nations of antiquity swine were offered in sacrifice has been sufficiently proved by Spencer (De legg. Hebr. p. 137), Bochart (Hieroz. II. p. 381 sqq.), Saubert (De sacrificiis veterum cap. 23, p. 572 sqq.); Movers (Phoen. I. p. 218 sqq.). That the Babylonians sacrificed and ate swine seems to be implied in what is here said [?], but is not confirmed by other testimonies (comp. Delitzschin loc.). כָּרָק from כָּרַקto rend, to tear in pieces (comp. Genesis 27:40; Psalms 7:3 et saepe) is ἅπ. λεγ. The signification must be that which is torn to pieces, broken. [Gesenius assigns to the word the meaning of broth, soup, which is so called from the fragments or crumbs of bread on which the broth is poured.—D. M.]. כִּגּוּל is res foeda, abominabilis, abomination (comp. Leviticus 7:18; Leviticus 19:7; Ezekiel 4:14). Broken bits (a ragout, a medley) of abominations are their dishes. The expression is metonymical [synecdochical, comp. Jeremiah 24:2]. The K’ri reads מְרַק, which, according to Judges 6:19-20, must mean broth. But the alteration is not needed. In Isaiah 65:5 the Prophet alludes to idolatrous rites of purification or sanctification which were not sanctioned by the law. They were probably connected with the celebration of mysteries. One recalls appropriately here the, word of Horaceodi profanum vulgus et arceo. [Henderson thinks the class here described to be entirely different from the idolaters spoken of in Isaiah 65:3-4. “Having specified the sins for which the Jews were notorious, during what may be called the idolatrous period of their history, Jehovah now portrays their character during the self-righteous period, or that which succeeded the return from the captivity—including Pharisaism, Talmudism, and modern Judaism.” Comp. Isaiah 58:1-3; Luke 18:11; Romans 10:3—D. M.]. קרב אליך recalls expressions such as we find Isaiah 49:20; Genesis 19:9; Genesis 19:3; Genesis 19:2; Proverbs 9:4; Proverbs 9:16. [“The literal translation is approach to thyself, which implies removal from the speaker. The E. V., stand by thyself suggests the idea of standing alone, whereas all that is expressed by the Hebrew phrase is the act of standing away from the speaker, for which Lowth has found the idiomatic equivalent keep to thyself.” Alexander. D. M.]. נָנַשׁ stands only here with בְּ, probably because there lies in the word the idea of an approach that would be offensive, disturbing. קדשׁתיך is one of the rare cases in which the verbal suffix has the signification of the dative (comp. Isaiah 44:21). [I am holy to thee,i. e., unapproachable.—Del.]. If the words which we read from Isaiah 65:3 b, to Isaiah 65:5 a, really portray such idolatry as the exiles committed in Babylon, we must regard them as an interpolation. For the description is so particular that it could proceed from no one but an eyewitness. [Here again our author would alter the text to make it conform to his theory of the nature of prophecy. It was such idolatry as is here described that brought on the Jews the punishment of the Exile. Comp. Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 57:3-8. The Babylonish captivity had the effect of making them turn with abhorrence from such gross idolatry.—D. M]. By means of a strong figurative expression the Lord makes known how much those idolatrous practices call for His retributive justice. He describes those sinners as the prey of an unquenchable fire (comp. Isaiah 66:24), whose smoke ascends perpetually before Him (see similar images Isaiah 9:18; Isaiah 10:17; Isaiah 30:27). In order to prove that He is in terrible earnest with the threatening in Isaiah 65:5 b, the Lord attests in Isaiah 65:6 that it is written before Him. He does not mean that the sin of those idolaters is recorded before Him, for what is recorded is stated in what goes before and follows. But immediately before and after, mention is made not of sin, but of punishment. The Lord intends to say: it is not merely decreed, but recorded, set down in a document (Job 13:26; Jeremiah 22:30), that I will not be silent till I have recompensed. ושׁלמתי assures that the recompense will not remain intention but will become fact. על־חיקם comp. Jeremiah 32:18; Psalms 79:12 (Luke 6:38). These are the only other places in which the expression occurs in the Old Testament. In them אל is found instead of על, as in the K’ri on Isaiah 65:7. These two particles are frequently substituted the one for the other (comp. on Isaiah 10:3). It is worthy of remark that Jeremiah (Isaiah 32:18) had this place manifestly in his mind. The quick change of person sounds very hard. Isaiah 65:6 closes with their bosom; and Isaiah 65:7 in reference to the same persons proceeds to say your iniquities, in the second person. [The form of the address shows that עונתיכם וגו׳ִ, Isaiah 65:7 a, is not governed by ושׁלמתי but by an אְַשַׁלֵּם which is easily understood from it.” Delitzsch.). ומדתי וגו׳ connects itself with ומדתי וגו׳ Isaiah 65:6, so that the words עונתיכם to חרפוני appear as a parenthesis. פעלתם ראשׁנה cannot mean: what they have first deserved, their first, earliest guilt.—For why should the Lord punish only this? But if the meaning was intended to be: their total guilt from the beginning, why do we not read מֵרֵאשִׁית, or some similar expression? ראשׁנה can therefore only be an adverb, and signify primum. The Prophet has the people of the Exile in his eye. The people suffering the Exile endure in it only the beginning of the punishment for the national guilt. This punishment extends beyond it. And the people redeemed from exile still suffer under it. The first restoration from the captivity was a poor one. Israel was never after the Exile again independent. And on the first exile a second still worse followed. For the second destruction by the Romans was total, while the first by Nebuchadnezzar was only partial. After the first exile the Israelites could organize themselves again according to their law. After the second this could no more be done. This thought lies also at the basis of the passage Jeremiah 16:18 (comp. my remarks on this place), which manifestly depends on the one before us.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isaiah 65:1-2. Our Lord has said, “He that seeketh findeth” (Matthew 7:8). How, then, does it come that the Jews do not find what they seek, but the heathen find what they did not seek? The Apostle Paul puts this question and answers it, Romans 9:30 sqq.; Isaiah 10:19 sqq.; Isaiah 11:7. [See also Isaiah 10:3]. All depends on the way in which we seek. Luther says: Quaerere fit dupliciter. Primo, secundum praescriptum verbi Dei, et sic invenitur Deus, Secundo, quaeritur nostris studiis et consiliis, et sic non invenitur.” The Jews, with exception of the ἐκλογή (Romans 11:7), sought only after their own glory and merit. They sought what satisfies the flesh. They did not suffer the spirit in the depths of their heart to speak,—the spirit which can be satisfied only by food fitted for it. The law which was given to them that they might perceive by means of it their own impotence, became a snare to them. For they perverted it, made what was of minor importance the chief matter, and then persuaded themselves that they had fulfilled it and were righteous. But the Gentiles who had not the law, had not this snare. They were not tempted to abuse the pædagogical discipline of the law. They felt simply that they were forsaken by God. Their spirit was hungry. And when for the first time God’s word in the Gospel was presented to them, then they received it the more eagerly in proportion to the poverty, wretchedness and hunger in which they had been. The Jews did not find what they sought, because they had not a spiritual, but a carnal apprehension of the law, and, like the elder brother of the prodigal son, were full, and blind for that which was needful for them. But the Gentiles found what they did not seek, because they were like the prodigal son, who was the more receptive of grace, the more he needed it, and the less claim he had to it. [There is important truth stated in the foregoing remarks. But it does not fully explain why the Lord is found of those who sought Him not. The sinner who has obtained mercy when he asks why? must have recourse to a higher cause, a cause out of himself, even free, sovereign, efficacious grace. “It is of God that showeth mercy,” Romans 9:16. “Though in after-communion God is found of those that seek Him (Proverbs 8:17), yet in the first conversion He is found of those that seek Him not; for therefore we love Him, because He first loved us.” Henry. D. M.].

2. On Isaiah 65:2. God’s long-suffering is great. He stretches out His hands the whole day and does not grow weary. What man would do this? The disobedient people contemns Him, as if He knew nothing, and could do nothing.

3. On Isaiah 65:2. “It is clear from this verse gratiam esse resistibilem. Christ earnestly stretched out His hands to the Jews. He would, but they would not. This doctrine the Remonstrants prove from this place, and rightly too, in Actis Synodi Dodrac. P. 3. p. 76.” Leigh. [The grace of God which is signified by His stretching out His hands can be, and is, resisted. That figurative expression denotes warning, exhorting, entreating, and was never set forth by Reformed theologians as indicating such grace as was necessarily productive of conversion. The power by which God quickens those who were dead in sins (Ephesians 2:5), by which He gives a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), by which He draws to the Son (John 6:44-45; John 6:65), is the grace which is called irresistible. The epithet is admitted on all hands to be faulty; but the grace denoted by it is, from the nature of the case, not resisted. Turrettin in treating De Vocatione et Fide thus replies to this objection, “Aliud est Deo monenti et vocanti externe resistere; Aliud est conversionem intendenti et efficaciter ac interne vocanti. Prius asseritur Isa. lxv. 2, 3. Quum dicit Propheta se expandisse totâ die manus ad populum perversum etc., non posterius. Expansio brachiorum notat quidem blandam et benevolam Dei invitationem, quâ illos extrinsecus sive Verbo, sive beneficiis alliciebat, non semel atque iterum, sed quotidie ministerio servorum suorum eos compellando. Sed non potest designate potentem et efficacem operationem, quâ brachium Domini illis revelatur qui docentur á Deo et trahuntur a Patre, etc.” Locus XV.; Quaestio VI .25.—D. M.].

4. On Isaiah 65:2. (Who walk after their own thoughts.)

Duc me, nec sine, me per me, Deus optime, duci.

Nam duce me pereo, te duce certus eo.

[“If our guide be our own thoughts, our way is not likely to be good; for every imagination of the thought of our hearts is only evil.” Henry. D. M.].

5. On Isaiah 65:3 sq. “The sweetest wine is turned into the sourest vinegar; and when God’s people apostatize from God, they are worse than the heathen (Jeremiah 3:11).” Starke.

6. On Isaiah 65:5. [I am holier than thou. “A deep insight is here given us into the nature of the mysterious fascination which heathenism exercised on the Jewish people. The law humbled them at every turn with mementoes of their own sin and of God’s unapproachable holiness. Paganism freed them from this, and allowed them (in the midst of moral pollution) to cherish lofty pretensions to sanctity. The man, who had been offering incense on the mountain-top, despised the penitent who went to the temple to present ‘a broken and contrite heart.’ If Pharisaism led to a like result, it was because it, too, had emptied the law of its spiritual import, and turned its provisions into intellectual idols.” Kay. D. M.].

7. On Isaiah 65:6-7. “The longer God forbears, the harder He punishes at last. The greatness of the punishment compensates for the delay (Psalms 50:21).” Starke after Leigh.

8. On Isaiah 65:8 sqq. [“This is expounded by St. Paul, Romans 11:1-5, where, when upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked Hath God then cast away His people? He answers, no; for, at this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnant…Our Saviour has told us that for the sake of these elect the days of the destruction of the Jews should be shortened, and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise would have proceeded to that degree that no flesh should be saved. Matthew 24:22. Henry. D. M.].

9. On Isaiah 65:15. The judgment which came upon Israel by the hand of the Romans, did not altogether destroy the people, but it so destroyed the Old Covenant, i.e., the Mosaic religion, that the Jews can no more observe its precepts in essential points. For no Jew knows to what tribe he belongs. Therefore, they have no priests, and, consequently, no sacrifices. The Old Covenant is now only a ruin. We see here most clearly that the Old Covenant, as it was designed only for one nation, and for one country, was to last only for a certain time. If we consider, moreover, the way in which the judgment was executed, (comp. Josephus), we can truly say that the Jews bear in themselves the mark of a curse. They bear the stamp of the divine judgment. The beginning of the judgment on the world has been executed on them as the house of God. But how comes it that the Jews have become so mighty, so insolent in the present time, and are not satisfied with remaining on the defensive in their attitude toward the Christian church, but have passed over to the offensive? This has arisen solely from Christendom having to a large extent lost the consciousness of its new name. There are many Christians who scoff at the name of Christian, and seek their honor in combating all that is called Christian. This is the preparation for the judgment on Christendom itself. If Christendom would hold fast her jewel, she would remain strong, and no one would dare to mock or to assail her. For she would then partake of the full blessing which lies in the principle of Christianity, and every one would be obliged to show respect for the fruits of this principle. But an apostate Christendom, that is ashamed of her glorious Christian name, is something more miserable than the Jews, judged though they have been, who still esteem highly their name, and what remains to them of their old religion. Thus Christendom, in so far as it denies the worth and significance of its name, is gradually reaching a condition in which it will be so ripe for the second act of the judgment on the world, that this will be longed for as a benefit. For, this apostate Christendom will be the kingdom of Antichrist, as Antichrist will manifest himself in Satanic antagonism to God by sitting in the temple of God, and pretending to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:3 sqq.). [We do not quite share all the sentiments expressed in this paragraph. We are far from being so despondent as to the prospects of Christendom, and think that there is a more obvious interpretation of the prophecy quoted from 2 Thess., than that indicated.—D. M.].

10. On Isaiah 65:17. [If we had only the present passage to testify of new heavens and a new earth, we might say, as many good interpreters do, that the language is figurative, and indicates nothing more than a great moral and spiritual revolution. But we cannot thus explain 2 Peter 3:10-13. The present earth and heavens shall pass away; (comp. Isaiah 51:6; Psalms 102:25-26). But how can we suppose that our Prophet here refers to the new heavens and new earth, which are to succeed the destruction of the world by fire? In the verses that follow Isaiah 65:17, a condition of things is described which, although better than the present, is not so good as that perfectly sinless, blessed state of the redeemed, which we look for after the coming of the day of the Lord. Yet the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:13) evidently regards the promise before us of new heavens and a new earth, as destined to receive its accomplishment after the conflagration which is to take place at the end of the world. If we had not respect to other Scriptures, and if we overlooked the use made by Peter of this passage, we should not take it literally. But we can take it literally, if we suppose that the Prophet brings together future events not according to their order in time. He sees the new heavens and new earth arise. Other scenes are disclosed to his prophetic eye of a grand and joy-inspiring nature. He announces them as future. But these scenes suppose the continued prevalence of death and labor (Isaiah 65:20 sqq.), which, we know from definite statements of Scripture, will not exist when the new heaven and new earth appear (comp. Revelation 21:1-4). The proper view then of Isaiah 65:17 is to take its prediction literally, and to hold at the same time that in the following description (which is that of the millennium) future things are presented to us which are really prior, and not posterior to the promised complete renovation of heaven and earth. Nor should this surprise us, as Isaiah and the other Prophets place closely together in their pictures future things which belong to different times. They do not draw the line sharply between this world and the next. Compare Isaiah’s prophecy of the abolition of death (Isaiah 25:8) in connection with other events that must happen long before that state of perfect blessedness.—D. M.].

11. On Isaiah 65:20. [“The extension of the Gospel every where,—of its pure principles of temperance in eating and drinking, in restraining the passions, in producing calmness of mind, and in arresting war, would greatly lengthen out the life of man. The image here employed by the Prophet is more than mere poetry; it is one that is founded in reality, and is designed to convey most important truth.” Barnes. D. M.].

12. On Isaiah 65:24. [It occurs to me that an erroneous application is frequently made of the promise, Before they call, etc. This declaration is made in connection with the glory and blessedness of the last days. It belongs specifically to the millennium. There are, indeed, occasions when God even now seems to act according to this law. (Comp. Daniel 9:23). But Paul had to pray thrice before he received the answer of the Lord (2 Corinthians 12:8). Compare the parable of the importunate widow, Luke 18:1-7. The answer to prayer may be long delayed. This is not only taught in the Bible, but is verified in Christian experience. But the time will come when the Lord will not thus try and exercise the faith of His people.—D. M.].

13. On Isaiah 65:25. “If the lower animals live in hostility in consequence of the sin of man, a state of peace must be restored to them along with our redemption from sin.” J. G. Mueller in Herz. R.-Encycl. xvi. p. 45. [“By the serpent in this place there seems every reason to believe that Satan, the old seducer and author of discord and misery, is meant. During the millennium he is to be subject to the lowest degradation. Compare for the force of the phrase to lick the dust, Psalms 72:9; Micah 7:17. This was the original doom of the tempter, Genesis 3:14, and shall be fully carried into execution. Comp. Revelation 20:1-3.” Henderson. D. M.].

14. On Isaiah 66:1. [“Having held up in every point of view the true design, mission and vocation of the church or chosen people, its relation to the natural descendants of Abraham, the causes which required that the latter should be stripped of their peculiar privileges, and the vocation of the Gentiles as a part of the divine plan from its origin, the Prophet now addresses the apostate and unbelieving Jews at the close of the old dispensation, who, instead of preparing for the general extension of the church and the exchange of ceremonial for spiritual worship, were engaged in the rebuilding and costly decoration of the temple at Jerusalem. The pride and interest in this great public work, felt not only by the Herods but by all the Jews, is clear from incidental statements of the Scriptures (John 2:20; Matthew 24:1), as well as from the ample and direct assertions of Josephus. That the nation should have been thus occupied precisely at the time when the Messiah came, is one of those agreements between prophecy and history, which cannot be accounted for except upon the supposition of a providential and designed assimilation.” Alexander after Vitringa. D. M.].

15. On Isaiah 66:1-2. What a grand view of the nature of God and of the way in which He is made known lies at the foundation of these words! God made all things. He is so great that it is an absurdity to desire to build a temple for Him. The whole universe cannot contain Him (1 Kings 8:27)! But He, who contains all things and can be contained by nothing, has His greatest joy in a poor, humble human heart that fears Him. He holds it worthy of His regard, it pleases Him, He enters into it, He makes His abode in it. The wise and prudent men of science should learn hence what is chiefly necessary in order to know God. We cannot reach Him by applying force, by climbing up to Him, by attempting to take Him by storm. And if science should place ladder upon ladder upwards and downwards, she could not attain His height or His depth. But He enters of His own accord into a child-like, simple heart. He lets Himself be laid hold of by it, kept and known. It is not, therefore, by the intellect [alone] but by the heart that we can know God.

16. On Isaiah 66:3. He who under the Christian dispensation would retain the forms of worship of the ancient ritual of shadows would violate the fundamental laws of the new time, just as a man by killing would offend against the foundation of the moral law, or as he would by offering the blood of dogs or swine offend against the foundation of the ceremonial law. For when the body, the substance has appeared, the type must vanish. He who would retain the type along with the reality would declare the latter to be insufficient, would, therefore, found his salvation not upon God only, but also in part on his own legal performance. But God will brook no rival. He is either our All, or nothing. Christianity could tolerate animal sacrifices just as little as the Old Testament law could tolerate murder or the offering of abominable things.

17. On Isaiah 66:5. [“The most malignant and cruel persecutions of the friends of God have been originated under the pretext of great zeal in His service, and with a professed desire to honor His name. So it was with the Jews when they crucified the Lord Jesus. So it is expressly said it would be when His disciples would be excommunicated and put to death, John 16:2. So it was in fact in the persecutions excited against the apostles and early Christians. See Acts 6:13-14; Acts 21:28-31. So it was in all the persecutions of the Waldenses, in all the horrors of the Inquisition, in all the crimes of the Duke of Alva. So it was in the bloody reign of Mary; and so it has ever been in all ages and in all countries where Christians have been persecuted.” Barnes.—D. M.].

18. On Isaiah 66:10. “The idea which is presented in this verse is, that it is the duty of all who love Zion to sympathize in her joy. The true friends of God should rejoice in every real revival of religion, they should rejoice in all the success which attends the Gospel in heathen lands. And they will rejoice. It is one evidence of piety to rejoice in her joy; and they who have no joy when souls are born into the kingdom of God, when He pours down His Spirit and in a revival of religion produces changes as sudden and transforming as if the earth were suddenly to pass from the desolation of winter to the verdure and bloom of summer, or when the Gospel makes sudden and rapid advances in the heathen world, have no true evidence that they love God and His cause. They have no religion.” Barnes.—D. M.

19. On Isaiah 66:13. The Prophet is here completely governed by the idea that in the glorious time of the end, love, maternal love will reign. Thus He makes Zion appear as a mother who will bring forth with incredible ease and rapidity innumerable children (Isaiah 66:7-9). Then the Israelites are depicted as little children who suck the breasts of their mother. Further, the heathen who bring back the Israelites into their home, must do this in the same way in which mothers in the Orient are wont to carry their little children. Lastly, even to the Lord Himself maternal love is ascribed (comp. Isaiah 42:14; Isaiah 49:15), and such love as a mother manifests to her adult son. Thus the Israelites will be surrounded in that glorious time on all sides by maternal love. Maternal love will be the characteristic of that period.

20. On Isaiah 66:19 sqq. The Prophet describes remote things by words which are borrowed from the relations and conceptions of his own time, but which stand in strange contrast to the reality of the future which he beholds. Thus the Prophet speaks of escaped persons who go to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, and Javan. Here he has rightly seen that a great act of judgment must have taken place. And this act of judgment must have passed on Israel, because they who escape, who go to the Gentiles to declare to them the glory of Jehovah, must plainly be Jews How accurately, in spite of the strange manner of expression, is the fact here stated that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed to the Gentiles exactly at the time when the old theocracy was destroyed! How justly does he indicate that there was a causal connection between these events! He did not, indeed, know that the shattering of the old form was necessary in order that the eternal truth enclosed in it might be set free, and fitted for filling the whole earth. For the Old Covenant cannot exist along with the New, the Law cannot stand with equal dignity beside the Gospel. The Law must be regarded as annulled, in order that the Gospel may come into force. How remarkably strange is it, however, that he calls the Gentile nations Tarshish, Pul, Lud, etc. And how singular it sounds to be told that the Israelites shall be brought by the Gentiles to Jerusalem as an offering for Jehovah! But how accurately has he, notwithstanding, stated the fact, which, indeed, still awaits its fulfilment, that it is the conversion of the heathen world which will induce Israel to acknowledge their Saviour, and that they both shall gather round the Lord as their common centre! How strange it sounds that then priests and Levites shall be taken from the Gentiles also, and that new moon and Sabbath shall be celebrated by all flesh in the old Jewish fashion! But how accurately is the truth thereby stated that in the New Covenant there will be no more the priesthood restricted to the family of Aaron, but a higher spiritual and universal priesthood, and that, instead of the limited local place of worship of the Old Covenant, the whole earth will be a temple of the Lord! Verily the prophecy of the two last chapters of Isaiah attests a genuine prophet of Jehovah. He cannot have been an anonymous unknown person. He can have been none other than Isaiah the son of Amoz!

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isaiah 65:1 sq. [I. “It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should be made nigh, Isaiah 65:1. II. It is here foretold that the Jews, who had long been a people near to God, should be cast off, and set at a distance, Isaiah 65:2.” Henry, III. We are informed of the cause of the rejection of the Jews. It was owing to their rebellion, waywardness and flagrant provocations, Isaiah 65:2 sqq.—D. M.]

2. On Isaiah 65:1-7. A Fast-Day Sermon. When the Evangelical Church no more holds fast what she has; when apostasy spreads more and more, and modern heathenism (Isaiah 65:3-5 a) gains the ascendency in her, then it can happen to her as it did to the people of Israel, and as it happened to the Church in the Orient. Her candlestick can be removed out of its place.—[By the Evangelical Church we are not to understand here the Church universal, for her perpetuity is certain. The Evangelical Church is in Germany the Protestant Church, and more particularly the Lutheran branch of it.—D. M.]

3. On Isaiah 65:8-10. Sermon on behalf of the mission among the Jews. Israel’s hope. 1) On what it is founded (Israel is still a berry in which drops of the divine blessing are contained); 2) To what this hope is directed (Israel’s Restoration).

4. On Isaiah 65:13-16. [“The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woful condition of those that rebel against him, are here set the one over against the other, that they may serve as a foil to each other. The difference of their states here lies in two things: 1) In point of comfort and satisfaction, a. God’s servants shall eat and drink; they shall have the bread of life to feed, to feast upon continually, and shall want nothing that is good for them. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in it, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving. In communion with God and dependence upon Him there is full satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but disappointment. b. God’s servants shall rejoice and sing for joy of heart; they have constant cause for joy, and there is nothing that may be an occasion of grief to them but they have an allay sufficient for it. But, on the other hand, they that forsake the Lord shut themselves out from all true joy, for they shall be ashamed of their vain confidence in themselves, and their own righteousness, and the hopes they had built thereon. When the expectations of bliss, wherewith they had flattered themselves, are frustrated, O what confusion will fill their faces! Then shall they cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit. 2) In point of honor and reputation, Isaiah 65:15-16. The memory of the just is, and shall be, blessed; but the memory of the wicked shall rot.” Henry.—D. M.]

5. On Isaiah 66:1-2. Carpzov has a sermon on this text. He places it in parallel with Luke 18:9-14, and considers, 1) The rejection of spiritual pride; 2) The commendation of filial fear.

6. On Isaiah 66:2 Arndt, in his True Christianity I. cap. 10, comments on this text. He says among other things: “The man who will be something is the material out of which God makes nothing, yea, out of which He makes fools. But a man who will be nothing, and regards himself as nothing, is the material out of which God makes something, even glorious, wise people in His sight.”

7. On Isaiah 66:3. [Saurin has a sermon on this text entitled “Sur l’ Insuffisance du culte exterieur” in the eighth volume of his sermons.—D. M.]

8. On Isaiah 66:13. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. “These words stand, let us consider it, 1) In the Old Testament; 2) In the heart of God always; 3) But are they realized in our experience?” Koegel in “Aus dem Vorhof ins Heiligthum, II. Bd., p. 242, 1876.

9. On Isaiah 66:24. The punishment of sin is twofold—inward and outward. The inward is compared with a worm that dies not; the outward with a fire that is not quenched. This worm and this fire are at work even in this life. He who is alarmed by them and hastens to Christ can now be delivered from them.—[“It is better not to fall into this fire and never to have any experience of this worm, even though, as some imagine, eternity should not be eternal, and the unquenchable fire might be quenched, and the worm that shall never die, should die, and Jesus and His apostles should not have expressed themselves quite in accordance with the compassionate taste of our time. Better, I say, is better. Save thyself and thy neighbor before the fire begins to burn, and the smoke to ascend.” Gossner.—D. M.]

Footnotes:

[1]Heb. upon bricks,

[2]secret places.

[3]their dishes are a mixture of abominations.

[4]Or, pieces.

[5]1 am holy to thee.

[6]Or, anger.