It is striking how verse 4 follows what we have dwelt upon in the
first three verses. Isaiah desired a mighty display of the power of God
such as had been manifested at the outset of Israel's history: yet he
was conscious that God had in reserve things beyond all human
knowledge, and prepared for those who waited for Him to act.
To this verse the Apostle Paul referred in 1 Corinthians 2: 9,
showing that though in ordinary matters men arrive at knowledge by the
hearing of the ear-tradition-or by the eye-observation-or by what we may call intuition, these things can only reach us by revelation from
God by His Spirit. Isaiah knew that there were things to be revealed.
Paul tells us that they have been revealed, so that we may know them.
In keeping with this, the Apostle Peter has told us in his first
Epistle that when the Spirit of Christ testified through the prophets,
they "inquired and searched diligently," concerning what they had
written, and they discovered that they were predicting things, only to
be made known to such as ourselves who are brought into the light of
what Christ has accomplished. So again we have to remind ourselves how
great are the privileges that are ours. God has indeed "come down," but
in grace and not, for the time being, in judgment.
The prophet foresaw that when the prepared things were made known
they would only be received if a certain moral state were found. There
must be not only the waiting for Him but also a rejoicing in
righteousness and working the same, as well as a remembrance of God in
all His ways. Thus the godly remnant of Israel are described here. It
will be so in a future day, and so it is today, since it is only by the
Spirit that we perceive and receive the wonderful things now revealed.
When, having been received, the Spirit of God is in control, we enter
into the enjoyment of the things that God has prepared for those who
love Him.
Now at that moment the necessary state did not exist amongst the
people, hence we have the words, "Behold, Thou art wroth; for we have
sinned." This confession is placed in brackets, in Darby's New
Translation, so that the following words spring out of the beginning of
the verse. In righteousness and remembrance is
to be "continuance, and we shall be saved." Isaiah had previously
presented to us, "a just God and a Saviour" (Isa. 45: 21); thus the
people whom He saves must be brought into conformity with Himself.
Verses 6 and 7, continue the confession of sin that was interjected
in verse 5. Notice the four figures that are used to express their
sorrowful state. First, unclean, as a leper is unclean, in the sight of
the law. Second, their "righteousnesses," that is, their many doings
which they considered to be acts of righteousness, were but "filthy
rags" in the sight of God. Third, as a consequence of this they were
all fading, dying things, like autumn leaves. Fourth, their sins were
like a wind that blew them all away.
Are things different today? Has the spread of a civilisation based
upon Christian ideals altered things? It has not, and things are just
the same. The leprosy of sin is just as virulent; the outward
righteousnesses of mankind are just as spurious; death is just as busy;
the wind of God's judgment on sin will soon sweep all away.
Further the prophet had to complain that no one was rightly moved by
this state of things, so as to call upon the name of God; no one was
found to take hold of God in supplication and prayer. The fact was that
God had hid His face from them in His holy government. It was a sad
state of affairs when no one was stirred to take the place of an
intercessor.
And without a doubt we may say the same as we look on the state of
Christendom today. Bright spots there are, thank God!-spots where the
Spirit of God is manifestly at work. But in spite of this, the picture
over-all is a dark one. Evil abounds under the profession of Christ's
name, and even where the Spirit of God is working, wholehearted
servants of God are all too few. Who stirs himself up to take hold on
God as to it? Who prays to the Lord of the harvest, that He will send
forth labourers into His harvest?-as the Lord Himself directed in
Matthew 9: 38. May God Himself stir us up, instead of hiding His face
from us, if we fail to stir ourselves up in this matter.
Now, in our chapter, comes the touching appeal to Jehovah. The very
first words of Isaiah's prophecy were, "The Lord hath spoken, I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me."
Very well then Jehovah had taken the place of Father to Israel, and
upon that the faith of the prophet counted, and on it he based his
appeal. Moreover Jehovah was not only Father to them but He was as a
Potter also. Israel was but the clay in His hand.
That this was so, and that God acknowledged it to be so, was made
manifest a little later in the days of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 18 we read
how he was instructed to go down to the potter's house and receive a
lesson there. He saw the clay vessel "marred in the hand of the potter:
so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to
make it." The Lord proceeded to tell Israel that they were in His hand
as clay is in the hand of the potter, so He could do with them as
seemed good in His sight. Confining our thoughts to Israel, we know
that God will make another vessel, which is what the Lord Jesus was
showing Nicodemus, as narrated in John 3. That which is born of the
flesh-even Abrahamic flesh-is flesh. Only that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Only a born-again Israel will enter the Kingdom.
In Isaiah's day the point as to "another vessel," made known to
Jeremiah, had hardly been reached; hence here we have further pleadings
with God on behalf of the marred vessel as we see in the four verses
that close the chapter. "We are all Thy people," says the prophet,
though about that time, or very soon after, Hosea's
son had to be called "Lo-ammi: for ye are not My people, and I will not
be your God" (Hosea 1: 9). These closing verses of appeal seem like a
last cry to God, before the sentence of repudiation was given to Hosea.
The iniquity marking the people is confessed, but mercy is sought.
The desolations mentioned in verses 10 and 11 strike us as being stated
prophetically, for though the king of Assyria ravaged the cities of
Judah in the days of Hezekiah, he was not allowed to take Jerusalem nor
burn the temple. Jeremiah it was, who actually saw these things
fulfilled. Even in Hezekiah's day however, it was certain that these
terrible desolations would come to pass, as we saw when reading the end
of chapter 39 of this book. When they were accomplished Israel was set
aside for the time being, and the times of the Gentiles began.
The two verses that commence Isaiah 65, are in exact harmony with
this. They are quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10: 20, 21 after he
had shown that even Moses had upbraided the people and predicted that
God would turn from them to others. Then he prefaced his quotation from
our chapter by Saying that, "Esaias is very bold. . ."
Yes, Isaiah does speak with great boldness for he speaks as the very
voice of Jehovah rather than speaking about Him. He does not say, "He
is sought. . . He is found. . . He said. . ." but rather, "I am sought.
. .I am found. . .I said. . ." How comes it, we may enquire, that
people who never asked after God should be seeking Him? The answer
seems obvious. It must take place as the result of God seeking after
them. This is exactly what has taken place in this Gospel age. Israel
being set aside, God goes out in sovereign mercy to Gentiles, as Paul
goes on to explain in Romans 11. Has the wonder of this mercy
penetrated our hearts in any substantial measure?
God's dealings with Israel, in setting them aside for this long
period, is justified by what we read in verse 2. The people had been
rebellious, following "their own thoughts," instead of God's thoughts,
as expressed in His holy law, and these thoughts of theirs led their
feet into a way that was not good. God had condescended to entreat them
"all the day," and that "day" had been a long one, extending over
centuries of time. To these entreaties they had not responded.
The following verses lay specific evils to their charge, but before
we consider them let us pause a moment to consider whether we have been
guilty of pursuing our own thoughts instead of God's in that which has
been revealed to us. His mind for us as individual Christians, and also
as members of the body of Christ-the church-is plainly stated in the
Epistles of the New Testament. Now it is sadly easy to slip away from
these and walk after our own thoughts; and more particularly so in
regard to church matters; easy to say, "That was doubtless right enough
for the first-century Christians, but hardly practicable for us today."
But it is God's thoughts and ways that are perfect, whilst our own
thoughts lead us into "a way that was not good."
The evil ways of Israel were largely connected with idolatrous
practices, as verses 3-7 show. The opening words of Deuteronomy 12 are,
"These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in
the land," and there follow prohibitions against the high places and
groves, or gardens, and altars which the heathen nations had made. So
God's way for them was that they should bring all their offerings to
His place in Jerusalem; offering as He had commanded. But they
preferred to worship according to their own thoughts with the result
that is described in these verses. Their sacrifices were wrong; their
altars were wrong; the food they ate was wrong; and to crown all this
they affected a sanctimonious piety, which led them to say to others,
"Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou."
This plainly indicates that the evil of Phariseeism began early in
Israel's history. The spirit of it is plainly visible when we read the
prophecy of Malachi. It reached its fullest and worst expression in the
time of our Lord, furnishing the main element which led to His
crucifixion. We may remember how He charged them with, "Teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15: 9). So this quite agrees
with what we have just seen stated by Isaiah. They preferred to walk
after their own thoughts, rather than by the word of God. The same evil
principle has persisted through the years, and it is all too evident
today within the circle of Christian profession. Though their
positions, both doctrinally and ecclesiastically, may widely differ,
there are found those who demand separation-"Stand by thyself, come not
near to me," -based on a claim of superior sanctity or spirituality as
the case may be. Such separatists are as offensive to God as, "smoke in
My nose, a fire that burneth all the day."
Now this state of things in Israel demanded a recompence of judgment
from the hand of God. It would seem that this spurious sanctity on top
of their rebellious disobedience was their crowning sin. It brought
upon them the seventy years of captivity in Babylon; and, when those
years had passed and a remnant came back to the land, the same
hypocrisy sprang up in their midst again, rendered worse, if anything,
by the very mercy that had been shown to them. They crucified their
Messiah saying "His blood be on us, and on our children." Thus it has
been through their long centuries of trouble, and will yet be in the
far worse sorrows of the great tribulation.
The lesson for us is that God desires obedience to His thoughts,
expressed in His word, If that be our aim, we shall soon realize how
little we apprehend them, and even more feebly carry them out, and this
will produce in us a spirit of humility- the complete opposite to that
of a spurious sanctity such as is revealed here.
Another note is struck when we reach verse 8. Under the figure of
sparing a cluster of grapes, because it is of value for wine producing,
God declares that He will spare a remnant of the people, though
judgment must fall on the mass. This He will do, "that I may not
destroy them all." This remnant is spoken of as, "My servants," and in
the next verse as, "a seed out of Jacob," and also as, "Mine elect,"
who will inherit the land.
We may remember how our Lord Himself was predicted as "Seed" of the
woman, in Genesis 3, and again as the "Seed" of Abraham, concerning
which the Apostle wrote "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as
of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ" (Gal. 3: 16). When
considering Isaiah 53, we also saw that the risen Christ is to "see His
seed," as the fruit of the travail of His soul; and the same thought
meets us at the close of the other great prediction of the sufferings
of Christ in atonement -"A seed shall serve Him" (Ps. 22: 30). He, who
is pre-eminently the "Seed," is to have a seed of His own order in His risen life. This thought underlies the verses we are considering.
Two further things may be pointed out before we leave these verses.
First, it was to this godly seed that the Lord Jesus referred at the
beginning of His well-known, "Sermon on the Mount." The prophet speaks
of, "an inheritor of My mountains," and says, "Mine elect shall inherit it." The third beatitude is, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the
earth" (Matt 5: 5). Now this enlarges the promise, so that it applies
beyond the confines of Jacob and Judah. It is the meek of all peoples
who will inherit the earth, when Heaven's kingdom is at last
universally established.
The second thing we have to remember is that this remnant according
to the election of grace, called out from the mass of the Jews, exists
today, though by the very fact of its calling it is severed from
Judaism and its earthly hopes. That it exists is made plain by the
Apostle Paul in the opening verses of Romans 11, and he cites his own
case as the proof of it. We have to read Ephesians 2, particularly the
latter part of it, to learn the new position of heavenly favour and
blessing into which they are brought in association with those called
from among the Gentiles by the Gospel that is being preached today.
In our chapter earthly blessing is before us, as verse 10 makes very
plain. The valley of Achor, was a place of judgment, as narrated in
Joshua 7: 24-26. That place of judgment is to become, "a door of hope,"
according to Hosea 2: 15. Our verse reveals it as a place of rest for
flocks and for men. Is there not a parable in this? Where judgment has
been executed, there hope is to be found, and rest is the final result.
We leave this beautiful picture when we read verses 11 and 12. God
cannot forget the existing state of departure and sin that marked the
people in Isaiah's day They had forsaken Jehovah; they had forsaken His
holy mountain, whereon stood His temple. And to what had they turned?
The rest of the verse reveals it, though the translation is rather
obscure. In Darby's New Translation we find "Gad" substituted for "that
troop," and "Meni" for "that number," with footnotes giving an
explanation to the effect that the former word indicates, "Fortune, or
the planet Jupiter," and the latter word, "Number, or Fate, or the
planet Venus."
The people had turned aside to worship the heavenly bodies, and
connected their false worship with the gambling instincts, which are so
strong in fallen humanity. If things went well it was Fortune. If
badly, it was Fate. In the minds of the people these were deities to
whom they made offerings of food and drink. As so often "table" is a
figure indicating solid food, as on the table of shewbread, and wine
furnished the drink. This throws some light on the Apostle's words in 1
Corinthians 10: 21, where he mentions, "the cup of devils," and "the
table of devils." The devils of this verse were of course demons; and
demon power lay behind the "Gad" and the "Meni," mentioned here.
When in verse 12, God says He will "number" them to the sword, there
is an allusion to the name "Meni," which means number. The people are
plainly told that judgment and death lay before them. They were
rejecting the law of God. We are living in an age when men are
rejecting the grace of God; and to do this is more serious than to
reject law, as we are told in Hebrews 10: 20. When the Gospel is
preached, let this be made very plain.