Though God has to pronounce judgment upon the evildoers, which must
be executed in due time, He delights in the mercy and blessing that He
bestows upon His true servants. This He makes manifest in the passage
which begins with verse 13. We notice, of course, that earthly
blessings and earthly judgments are in view; food, drink, rejoicing and
song, on the one hand; hunger, thirst, shame and sorrow, on the other.
A curse and death will come upon them; their very name being considered
a curse, while the chosen servants will be called by another name.
This will be fulfilled in days to come, but it is remarkable how we
can see a fulfilment of it even in our day. The very name "Jew" has
acquired an unpleasant flavour, which is explained by what the Apostle
Paul wrote in Thessalonians 2: 14-16. On the other hand a remnant,
according to the election of grace, is still being called out of that
people and incorporated with elect Gentiles as the church of God. Upon
such another Name is called, for they are CHRISTian.
As far back as Isaiah 42, we had Jehovah's declaration, "New things
do I declare" (verse 9), and now we discover the wide scope of that
declaration. There is to be a complete sweeping away of the old order
and the creation of new heavens as well as a new earth. The verses that
follow show that the millennial age is referred to and not the eternal
state, which is announced in Revelation 21: 1.
At present the heavens are the seat of Satan's power, as Ephesians
6: 12 indicates. They will be in a new condition when those evil power
are cast out, and heavenly saints are installed, as from the New
Testament we know they will be. When the Messiah acts as "the Arm of
the Lord," and His dominion extends to the ends of the earth, it will
be a new earth indeed. In comparison therewith the old order will be so
horrible that men will banish it from their minds.
The remaining verses of the chapter give a description of the happy
conditions that will characterise the millennial age, beginning with
the joy and blessing of Jerusalem, which will be then, as always
intended, the centre of earthly blessing. Yet it will not be an age of
absolute perfection as verse 20 shows. For the righteous, life will be
greatly prolonged, yet it will be possible for sinners to be discovered
and come under a curse. Still those who are the elect will have their
days as the days of a tree, and we know how many a tree does not grow
old for centuries.
Hence earthly blessings will be enjoyed to the full; houses,
vineyards, fruit, and above all they will be in close touch with
Jehovah their God. So much so, that not only will He hear them while
they are yet speaking to Him, but He will answer their desires even
before they express them by calling upon Him. This indicates that a
place of remarkable nearness to Him will be theirs.
Moreover mercy will be extended even to the animal creation, which
at the outset was placed under man, and so has suffered as the result
of his fall. No longer shall strong animals slay and devour the weak
Those most opposed, like the wolf and the lamb, will feed together, and
the most voracious, like the lion, will be satisfied with vegetable
food. All hurt and destruction shall cease.
To this there will be just one exception. The serpent was used by
Satan in deceiving Eve, and the curse upon it ran, "Upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life" (Gen.
3: 11). Now this sentence is not to be revoked. It seems that in the
ranks of the lower creation it will be retained as a sign and reminder
of the tragic effects of sin. The serpent will not be able to hurt nor
destroy, but its degraded and miserable state will remain.
Isaiah 66 opens on a very lofty note. The earth is but the footstool
of Jehovah's feet for the heavens are His shone. Recognizing this, we
are conscious that no earthly house built for Him is anything but a
small matter. What is a great matter is the right spiritual state and
attitude, which should be found in man, who by nature is sinful and
estranged from God. To be poor and contrite in
spirit, and to receive the word as being truly the Word of God, and
therefore to tremble at it and be governed by it-this invites the
Divine regard. To such a man the Lord will look in blessing. We may
remember that when the Lord Jesus opened His mouth on the mountain, the
first beatitude He uttered was, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5: 3).
But once more the prophet has to turn to the people, in their then
existing state, with words of denunciation. They might be killing oxen,
sacrificing lambs, offering oblation, burning incense, and yet all was
an utter offence before God because their hearts were astray. They were
anything but poor in spirit, but rather self-assertive, choosing their
own ways and taking pleasure in abominable things. For this reason they
came under God's judgment. Instead of calling upon God, and receiving
His immediate attention, He had called to them and they paid no
attention whatever.
From these the prophet turned, in verse 5, once more to assure those
who really did tremble at the word of God. They had been hated and cast
out by the men of that day, and this they claimed to do in the name of
the Lord and for His glory. We at once recognize that this is no
uncommon thing. Something similar has happened again and again. It was
thus when our Lord was on earth and in the days of the apostles. It has
been so all too often in the sad history of Christendom, as witness the
burning of "heretics" whether in Spain or in Britain. In Spain such an
act was called by an expression, which in English means, "an act of faith," and since of faith of course, as they thought, to the glory of God.
The answer of the Lord to this kind of thing is not immediate but
inevitable. The word is, "He shall appear to your joy, and they shall
be ashamed." He SHALL-the thing is determined and certain, but it is future. The
voice of the Lord will yet be heard, and when He speaks the thing is
done. It will bring joy to the godly while a just recompence in
judgment will be the portion of the enemies.
But now a further great prophetic fact comes before us. This mighty
intervention of God, delivering His people, and judging His foes, will
be accompanied by a wonderful work of grace in the souls of those He
will deliver. The earth will be made to bring forth in one day, and a
nation will be born at once. The figure used in verse 7 indicates that
this deliverance will be a "birth," which takes place in a way quite
unexpected. So here we have Isaiah alluding to that great work of the
Spirit of God, which is described more fully in Ezekiel 36: 22-33, to
which the Lord Jesus referred when He spoke to Nicodemus of being born,
"of water and of the Spirit."
Shall a nation be born at once? is the question asked in surprise.
And the answer quite clearly is-Yes, it will. Of the old Israel, that
the world has known, Moses had to complain at the start of their sad
history, "They are a perverse and crooked generation. . .a very forward
generation, children in whom is no faith" (Deut. 32: 5, 20). The Israel
that will enter into millennial blessedness will be a new Israel, born
again and therefore cleansed from their old life and ways. The Apostle
Peter, writing to the scattered Jewish Christians of the early days,
could say to them, "But ye are a chosen generation" (1 Peter 2: 9), and
he had previously spoken of their having been born again. As regards
the new birth, converted Jews of today are advance samples of what will
be wrought in the children of Israel, who finally enter the kingdom.
In view of this, all those who love Jerusalem, and at present mourn
for her, may well rejoice. Her prosperity and glory will be a joy to
behold. The sons of Israel through the long centuries of their unbelief
and rejection of their Messiah, have been noted for the ability with
which they have managed to "suck" wealth and profit out of the Gentile
world. The objectionable features, which have characterized them in
doing this, will have disappeared when they are a born-again nation.
The saved of the nations will act toward them as a nursing mother, and
peace will flow as a river, instead of there being resentment and
disturbance on every side. The hand of God will be in all this, for His
word is, "so will I comfort you."
But the prophet leaves us in no doubt as to what God's intervention
will mean to the world at large. It will be the day when the
inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousness because God's
judgments are in the earth, as Isaiah told us in chapter 26. Jehovah
will come with fire and whirlwind and sword, as we see in verses 15 and
16, and when we turn to such a passage as Revelation 19, we discover
that the Person who will thus come in judgment is no other than
Jehovah-Jesus.
Verse 17 would indicate, we judge, that judgment will be specially
severe against false religion-against those who practise abominable
things, of an idolatrous nature, while professing to sanctify and
purify themselves by them. Religious evil always incurs judgment of a
very severe nature. This we see exemplified in our Lord's day. His
strongest denunciations were directed against the Pharisees and Scribes.
The millennial reign will be preceded by the gathering together
before God of the masses of mankind and before them the Divine glory
will be displayed. The gathering of the nations that they may see the
glory is described in verses 18 and 19, but the outcome of this is not
described here. We turn to Matthew 25: 31-46, and there we discover
what will take place. All of them will be judged on the basis of their
attitude towards the Son of Man who is the King, as revealed by their
treatment of messengers, who have represented Him, and whom He owns as
His "brethren."
In Isaiah, however, the term used is "your brethren," for the
prophet is more occupied with the re-gathering of the children of
Israel from the most distant places to which they had been scattered.
Their coming in this way will be like the bringing of an offering to
God in a clean vessel-an offering therefore acceptable to Him and for
His pleasure. Brought thus to the house of Jehovah, they will be taken
for priests and Levites in the millennial age.
Now this was the original intention of God, as we see if we refer to
Exodus 19: 6. Had Israel kept the law that was delivered through Moses
at Sinai, they would have been "a kingdom of priests." They broke the
law, so this they never were. But the purpose of God is never defeated,
and so here we are permitted to know that what failed then is
ultimately achieved, as the fruit of the mercy of God. That it will be
the fruit of MERCY is made very clear in the closing part of Romans 11,
Had it been brought about on a legal basis, some future breach of
the law would imperil the whole position; as it stands on the basis of
mercy, it is a permanent thing, as stable as the new heavens and new
earth of the millennial age. From the overthrow of David's kingly line
the world has seen a succession of kingdoms, rising up as the result of
some overthrow, and each being overthrown in its turn, as predicted in
Ezekiel 21: 27; but here at last is a kingdom that abides.
And it will prove to be a kingdom in which Jehovah at last obtains
His rightful place as the Object of worship. What He originally
intended in connection with Israel, His people, will be fully
accomplished, His glory will be in their midst; they will surround His
house as a kingdom of priests; they will render Him due worship from
one sabbath and new moon to another. He will have accomplished His
original design.
The contemplation of these things is surely a great encouragement to
us. We are not called to find our part in, "My holy mountain
Jerusalem," since our calling is a heavenly one, but we may rest
assured that God will reach His original purpose with the church, as
really and as fully as He will with Israel. Not one item of His good
pleasure as to us will fail. And He will do it in such fashion as will
command our glad recognition and worship. The saints in their heavenly
seats will render a worship that will not need to be governed by
sabbaths or new moons.
The last verse of our prophet is one of much solemnity. When Israel
is re-gathered and blessed, and the earth rests in the blessedness
indicated at the end of chapter 65, there will yet be a perpetual
reminder of the awful result of rebellion and sin. When the Lord Jesus
spoke of "the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth
not," (Mark 9: 43, 44), it would seem that He alluded to this verse,
and gave it an application stretching far beyond the millennial age. In
"the lake of fire," which is "the second death" (Rev. 20: 14), there
will be an eternal witness to the awful effects of sin.
Let us rejoice in the greatness of the salvation that has reached us through our Lord Jesus Christ.