A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 70: New Heavens and Earth

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 70: New Heavens and Earth

We had titled our commentary on the early portion of Isaiah chapter 65 Christians and Pagans, and perhaps Christians and Heathens may have been more accurate, and even more properly descriptive, but either way the same point is made. There have always been people among the children of Israel who are quick to depart from the faith in exchange for the temporary pleasures of the flesh, or even at the first sign of some trial. While the pagan beliefs may be seen as ancestral, they actually represent the errors and sins of our ancient ancestors. All of the records of Norse paganism, or Greek paganism, or the paganism of Mesopotamia reflect an acceptance of sexual licentiousness, Sodomy, child grooming, adultery and other sins which are not sins for pagans, because even the gods indulged in such acts, and if one’s god does it, well, then it must be permissible for everyone. 

As soon as the children of Israel in the Exodus account had thought that Moses had been gone too long at Sinai, they quickly broke off on their own path and compelled Aaron to make for them a golden calf. Most Christians probably do not realize that the golden calf was a symbol of Baal, and that the Israelites in Egypt must have been familiar with Baal, because they were in Goshen, in the area of the Nile Delta, during the same period when Canaanite kings had ruled over much of Lower Egypt. Apparently, after the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos, the Egyptians themselves had also added Baal to their own collection of idols. Much later, when the kingdom of Israel was divided, the golden calves of Jeroboam I had also represented the worship of Baal.

So thus far in this chapter of Isaiah, Yahweh God is portrayed as having answered the prayer of the people which they had made in Isaiah chapter 64. However doing so, He spoke of both the pious and the impious of the captivity of Israel, promising His servants forgiveness and reconciliation, while all those who forsake Him are warned of imminent destruction. The pious servants, we would insist, were Christians before the manifestation of Christ, and the rebellious are pagans, or heathens, no better than the ancient Baal worshippers. The pagans were last told, in verse 15:

15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:

We did not expound on this except to repeat the prophecy that Israel would be Called by a New Name, which is found in Isaiah chapter 62. Apparently, even the name of Israel had been soiled by the sins and the history of the broken kingdom, so it would be left behind in Palestine with the other hallmarks of the nation, as we read in Hosea chapter 3:

4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: 5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

The name of Israel would be a curse unto the chosen. The chosen, who are today Christians even if not all modern Christians are the chosen, because the terms are no longer used properly, would consider the name a curse, because today the name of Israel has been adopted by the enemies of God, and those enemies had been enabled by the ancient sins of the people who had fallen into that pagan category according to Isaiah here. Therefore it is permanently soiled, at least so far as this world endures. 

This chapter opened with the words “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”, because Israel in captivity no longer had a name bestowed by Yahweh. They were stripped of the name in the Assyrian deportations, and then they began to be called by other names. A husband typically bestows his name onto his wife, as we read in a Messianic prophecy in Isaiah chapter 4:

Isaiah 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

However when Israel went into captivity they were “not My people” in the eyes of God, which is prophesied in Hosea chapter 1 where we read:

9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

So in divorce the wife no longer had use of the name Israel, which was bestowed upon her by her Husband. The name Israel means “he prevails with God”, or perhaps “he persists with God”, as the angel who had bestowed it upon Jacob in Genesis chapter 32 had defined it, and once Israel was put off in punishment, Israel had no longer prevailed with God. Yet that prophecy in Hosea also parallels this one, where we read in that same chapter in the very next verse:

10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

This was fulfilled as the twelve tribes scattered abroad accepted the Gospel of Christ and became Christians, as Peter have cited this same verse in chapter 2 of his first epistle (1 Peter 2:10).

So this is certainly a prophecy of the time when those things would be said to them, as the Gospel of Christ had caught up to them in their prophesied new home, mainly in Europe although some of them had tarried in the Near East. That was also a subject of prophesy for post-captivity Israel, where in Micah chapter 4 we read:

7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

So looking forward to the time of the reconciliation of Israel in captivity, under their new name of Christian, we interrupted our commentary for Isaiah chapter 65 in verse 16 where we read:

16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

Likewise the children of Israel, in their captivity and in the state of blindness which had been prophesied on several other occasions here in Isaiah, for which reason Christ had come to open the eyes of the blind, would forget all of their former troubles, and also their national identity as Israel. Now, for at least most of the balance of this chapter, the Word of Yahweh continues to speak to those who would serve Him, and there are further promises of restoration, as we commence where we had left off in Isaiah chapter 65:

17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

In a context of the coming restoration, this promise is repeated towards the end of Isaiah chapter 66 where we read:

22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.

That name, by necessity, would be the “new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name” which is prophesied in Isaiah chapter 62 (62:2). Here we would assert that this prophecy has been fulfilled, but like many of the prophecies found here in Isaiah and the other ancient prophets, it is also looking forward to an ultimate fulfillment in a far vision. It was fulfilled as the children of Israel moved into the places of their new homes, which shall also be mentioned in chapter 66, where they had established new governments in a new land, or earth.

Here Yahweh is not describing any intention to reorder the stars and the other heavenly bodies, and there is no intention to replace “earth” as the planet or its land mass. But as we have mentioned often, heaven was used as an allegory for seats of power and government, such as the temples of ancient Mesopotamia and the palaces of its kings. In that manner, earth is an allegory for the body of the people under heaven, organized under a government from which their laws and order emanate.

Here and in Isaiah chapter 66 we see the phrase “new heavens and a new earth” but in Revelation chapter 21 it is “new heaven and a new earth”. Perhaps we may conjecture why heavens is plural in Isaiah, while in Revelation chapter 21 it is singular. However the Hebrew word שׁמים or shamiym is a plural form, and apparently the singular form does not ever appear in Scripture, although it is frequently also translated as a singular. In the New Testament, the Greek word οὐρανός, which is heaven, appears in both singular and plural forms in various contexts. 

The first fulfillment of this prophecy, we would identify with what we might call the Church Age which had been prophesied in Revelation chapter 20. Here, because of an interpolation which is found in the King James Version and most popular translations, we shall cite the Christogenea New Testament:

4 And I saw thrones, and they who sat upon them, and judgment had been given to them, and the souls of those having been beheaded on account of the testimony of Yahshua and on account of the Word of Yahweh and who did not worship the beast nor his image and did not receive the inscribed mark upon their foreheads and upon their hands. And they lived and ruled with Christ for a thousand years. 5 This is the first restoration. 6 Blessed and holy is he having a part in the first restoration. Over these the second death does not have authority, but they shall be priests of Yahweh and of Christ and they shall rule with Him for the thousand years.

As we had interpreted this passage in our Revelation commentary, in a presentation titled The Camp of the Saints, the martyrs who were beheaded on account of the Gospel in the early Roman and Jewish persecutions of Christianity had lived and ruled with Christ, in an allegorical manner, once Christianity had prevailed in Europe and all of the nations of Europe came to be ruled under Christian governance, even if it was not always perfect. At the end of the Church Age, Satan was loosed from the pit, the children of Israel entered the prophesied “time of Jacob’s trouble” and to this day Christendom has been ruled over by the children of Esau, which will end at the fall of Mystery Babylon. As it says in Revelation chapter 17, which is also a punishment for sin:

17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

With the fall of Mystery Babylon, as the narrative in the Revelation of Yahshua Christ is presented, He shall return to avenge all of his enemies, and another new order shall be established. The apostle Peter foresaw that day and described it in 2 Peter chapter 3:

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

So while this prophecy in Isaiah had a fulfillment, as the servants of Yahweh accepted the Gospel of Christ, it still has a fulfillment, as the redemption of Jacob is completed at the marriage supper of the Lamb as it is described in Revelation chapter 19. However we would assert that most of the balance of this reply to their prayer is more relevant to the earlier fulfillment, as we hope to elucidate as we proceed:

18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

In Isaiah chapter 62 we read a very similar prophecy concerning Jerusalem:

5 For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. 6 I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, 7 And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Yet at the time when Isaiah had written these words, this cannot be a reference to the Jerusalem in Palestine, which has already been prophesied to be destroyed earlier in Isaiah, for example in chapters 5 and 39. Neither could it be a reference to second temple Jerusalem, for which Christ had mourned and which both Daniel and Christ had prophesied would be destroyed once again after His Passion. So the Jerusalem prophesied both here and in chapter 62 must be an allegorical Jerusalem. In another verse from Micah chapter 4, immediately following the verse we have already cited, we read:

8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

That must be a reference to the Church Age, where the words of Christ had spoken in Revelation chapter 20 (20:5) “This is the first restoration”, as we have translated the clause.

This “daughter of Jerusalem” seems to represent the heaven, the seats of government and authority which the children of Israel would have once they had moved to A Place of Their Own and accepted the Gospel of Christ, beginning the so-called Church Age. However now, in this age, Satan has encompassed the Camp of the Saints and Christians await the promised vengeance and judgment of Christ, yet another Jerusalem is prophesied, of which we read in Revelation chapter 21:

1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

So we would assert that this Jerusalem in which Yahweh has promised to rejoice here in Isaiah, also has both a near-vision and far-vision fulfillment. But as we also said, most of this passage of Isaiah relates the the near-vision fulfillment, to the time when the servants of Yahweh receive and accept His Gospel. For that we read:

20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

This describes the Church Age, and certainly not the Kingdom of Heaven ruled directly by Christ Himself. The child here is the obedient servant of Christ, as we read in Matthew chapter 18:

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Yahweh, being our Father, one who aspires to be a servant of Yahweh believes and obeys Him without question, as a child believes and obeys his worldly father. For that, Paul of Tarsus had written in Hebrews chapter 12:

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

So in the Christian era, such an obedient child of God has a promise of a long life. But a sinner who lives a hundred years in his sin shall have misery and be accursed, evidently on account of the fact that he has no treasure in heaven, and as we read in Daniel chapter 12, at least some men are resurrected to everlasting contempt. In any event, here we see that even the righteous would be expected to live for a hundred years, at most, so we would assert that this must be speaking of the Church Age, of Christians in this world, and not of the time following the Resurrection. In the Resurrection, all sinners will be sinners no longer, since Yahweh has promised on several occasions in the prophets to forgive all of the sins of the children of Israel, and no sinner will enter the gates of the New Jerusalem.

21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. 22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

This promise is a reversal of what they had been suffering under the curses of disobedience, where, among other things, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 28:

30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

That curse in Deuteronomy perfectly describes the culture of no-fault divorce and “hooking up” which permeates our society today, where once again we are under the same curses of disobedience. The next verse also follows a reversal of those curses:

23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.

A little further on in Deuteronomy chapter 28 we read:

32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand. 33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

The formerly Christian governments of the nations of the West now give large allotments of money to aliens, in the form of social benefits, business loans, and other means, and the original stock of once-Christian citizens is compelled to pay for it all with higher and higher taxes. Today, and perhaps for these last few generations, race-mixing fornication with aliens has grown more and more prevalent in society, and many sons and daughters have been given to other people, who then raised up their children for trouble. Their children shall be bastards and shall never be admitted into the congregation of Yahweh. In fact, in Revelation chapter 2 Christ had warned that He would kill their children with death. Doing that, He had used a woman whom He had called Jezebel as an example and said:

21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

In reference to earlier verses in this chapter, comparing Christians and Pagans, we had already discussed the description of men who turn their backs on Yahweh, and also on their own people, taking “foolish wives” and producing broods of bastards which shall never take root, where Solomon in his book of Wisdom had written that “6 For children begotten from of lawless slumber are witnesses of wickedness against their parents at their examination.” However the children of Israel are the “seed of the blessed of the LORD”, and they and their children are promised these blessings upon their obedience to Him. Then, in times when they need Him:

24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

In contrast, in the very opening verses of Isaiah, where the children of Israel are being chastised for their sins in Isaiah chapter 1, we read in part:

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Following that verse is an admonition very much like we had seen in the opening verses of this chapter, where the sins of those who turn to Yahweh shall be forgiven, but for those who do not, they shall be punished:

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

These words were spoken to the people when they were about to be invaded by the Assyrians, a process which for the most part took about twenty-two years to the fall of Samaria. Throughout Isaiah, the messages in all of the visions of the prophet are remarkably consistent. Now for the conclusion of chapter 65:

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Of course, animals do not change their nature, but this is not speaking of literal animals. In Genesis chapter 49 we read:

27 Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

Then earlier in that same chapter:

9 Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?

In Deuteronomy chapter 33 Moses is recorded as having blessed the tribes and speaking of Joseph he said, in part:

17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

The lamb seems to symbolize innocence, as Christ Himself is called the Lamb of God in Scripture. The children of Israel are the “sheep of His pasture”, as they are described in the 95th Psalm:

7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand….

And again in the 100th Psalm:

3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

So the wolf, the lion, the ox and the lamb all represent varies types or qualities found in the children of Israel. There is similar language found in a Messianic prophecy in Isaiah chapter 11:

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child [a lamb] shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

There it is evident, that the asp and the cockatrice, which are types of serpents, would not be able to harm so much as a child in Christ, and here in this parallel prophecy we see that “dust shall be the serpent’s meat”. Throughout practically the entire Church Age, jews had been barred from many vocations, they had been forced to live separately in what they call ghettos, and they had no civic rights in Christian nations. They were compelled to live on dust, which we would understand as a metaphor for all of the unseemly vices and vocations in which they had been permitted to engage.

With this, we shall commence with Isaiah chapter 66. But before we begin, there are some necessary comments so that we may better understand the first few verses of this chapter. In Isaiah chapter 64, there was a lamentation which is actually a prophecy, because when Isaiah had written these things, it would be as long as another hundred and ten years or so before Jerusalem is destroyed by the Babylonians. So in that chapter we read:

10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

That is a prophecy, and not yet a historical fact, because it did not happen until 585 BC. So now, as we enter Isaiah chapter 66, the focus of Yahweh’s reply to the prayer of the children of Israel which had begun in the opening verse of chapter 65 continues, and His attention turns back to the inevitable destruction of Solomon’s temple:

1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

This verse is cited in Acts chapter 7 (7:48) where it is attributed to the words of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who had made them in his defense of the Christian Faith. There we read:

47 But Solomon built him an house. 48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, 49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? 50 Hath not my hand made all these things? 51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

So while Solomon was honored with building the temple, and while the temple design itself was of Yahweh, and was used to house the ark with the mercy seat and to fulfill the sacrifices required by the Law, in the grand scheme of things it was only a building, and Yahweh evidently needs no building in which to dwell. But the Judaeans of Stephen’s time evidently held the temple in greater esteem than God Himself, for which Stephen had rebuked them.

Now there is a plea to those who would be the servants of Yahweh, as He requires humility from His people:

2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

The word translated as poor, עני or aniy (# 6041) may have been better rendered here as humble, although a different word which may also mean humble was used in Isaiah chapter 57, where there is a similar prophecy which also makes a reference to the true residence of Yahweh and reads: 

15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Going back to the child who would live to be a hundred years old, Christ had said, in Matthew chapter 18:

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Then, where it is translated as lowly, Christ had used the same word meaning humble of Himself in a plea to His people found in Matthew chapter 11:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The same Greek word for humble, ταπεινός (# 5011), appears both here and in the similar passage in Isaiah chapter 57 (57:15) in the Septuagint, as well as in both of these passages which we have just cited from Matthew chapters 11 and 18.

So Christ Himself is a signal example of the humility which Yahweh expects of His people, and the same word translated as lowly here describes Him in that same manner, in a Messianic prophecy which is found in Zechariah chapter 9:

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

In Matthew chapter 23, Christ spoke likewise to His disciples and said:

10 Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. 11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Now the attention seems to shift towards the sacrifices typically offered in the temple, where it is evident that Yahweh God would also come to despise them, on account of all of the sins of the people:

3 He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.

Here and throughout the reply to this prayer which ended with Isaiah chapter 64, the words of David in the 51st Psalm are fully manifest:

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then, where earlier in chapter 65 of Isaiah Yahweh had promised to hear the prayers of His servants even before they call (65:24), but to punish the wicked (65:13-15), there is also a similar statement by David in the 34th Psalm:

16 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

The apostles of Christ had admonished their readers to humble themselves before God. First in James chapter 4:

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Then in 1 Peter chapter 5:

6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

It must be noted, that true Christian humility is not humility towards men, although Christians should have a humble disposition towards other Christians, but true Christian humility

So Yahweh God has promised here to look upon the man who is of a humble and contrite spirit, but that he would reject the sacrifices, in reference to those who “have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.” We have already cited Isaiah chapter 1 in this regard, in relation to Yahweh’s refusal to hear their prayers on account of their sin. Here we shall read a wider portion of the passage, because it is also evident that He had rejected their sacrifices on account of their sin. They sacrificed in order to justify themselves, but they never ceased from sinning:

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

The last verse of that passage contains an expression of the very desires which Yahweh God had expressed for those who would keep His fasts and His sabbaths, in Isaiah chapter 58.

So evidently, on account of their refusal to cease from sin, if a man killed an ox for sacrifice it was as bad in the eyes of God then as if he had killed a man, and sacrificing a lamb was no better than sacrificing a dog, which is unclean and therefore unfit for sacrifice. Likewise, oblations, which were typically offerings of wine or oil, were no better than offering pigs blood, and burning incense no better than committing idolatry.

Christ Himself had cited Hosea in both Matthew chapters 9 and 12, making two different statements in regard to the same passage, where He is recorded as having said:

9:13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

In Hosea chapter 6 we read:

6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

So if a man continues to sin, he commits those sins against his own brethren, showing them no mercy. For that same reason, the apostle John had written, in 1 John chapter 5:

1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

One cannot love his brethren unless he also keeps the commandments of God. Not keeping the commandments, sacrifice is meaningless. For this reason, in Hebrews chapter 6 Paul had warned concerning those who had come to Christ, and had fallen away:

4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Therefore here, in reference to those who continue in sin, ostensibly the people whom we had called pagans in our commentary on Isaiah chapter 65, we now read:

4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.

If Yahweh chooses their delusions, it is a punishment for their sins, and no man can ever pull them out of it. These are people who had the law, who were schooled in the truth and majesty of God, who learned of what things He had done for their ancestors, and who intentionally chose to turn their backs on their own rich heritage. In Romans chapter 1, Paul wrote in condemnation of the LGBT alphabet soup crowd in Rome in his own time, Lesbians and Sodomites, and explained that Yahweh God had given those Romans up to those sins, because they had exchanged the truth of God for the lies of paganism. So paganism truly is gay, but in the end pagans will not be happy.
 

There are eighteen verses remaining in Isaiah, which I pray I can finish appropriately next week.