Isaiah 66:15-24.  So here we are at the end of Isaiah.  I never did get an introduction written to the book but I hope that the comments throughout have been helpful and kept you all on track for understanding when the book was written, to whom, and why.   In yesterday’s reading we got another dose of hope about the future of God’s promises to Israel promises we all share in if we are humble and contrite (a word that means lame in the other two times it is used in the Old Testament) and have great respect for what God is doing (Isaiah 66:2).  At the very end of yesterday’s reading Isaiah told us that God will use his power (“his hand will be made known” is a fancy way of saying God will help) to help those dedicated to living for him (the ‘hope” part) but then he also reminded us that God will continue to be angry about the unfairness that his enemies have been practicing (very end of v. 14).

Verses 15-17 give us more details about what happens when God doesn’t like what we are about.   The consequences of having God “deal” with us are described as fire and the sword.  We are also told that many people will perish at the hand of God.  Verse 17 tells us that people who are being religious but not really following God will suffer their normal existence will cease.

In verse 18 we see that a time is coming when all mankind will have to face God and they will understand who he really is (“see his glory”).  Proof of who God is is the fact that many nations who had not had a relationship with God (like the Israelites did) would give honor to God.  Verse 20 says that these formerly uninformed and unbelieving people groups would bring many people to Jerusalem.  These people from the nations are called “brothers” of the Israelites, they are also called an “offering”, and some of them will even become priests (people who serve God in a special way) in the new kingdom.  Offerings in the Law of Moses were given to honor god and show respect to him. Theses people from all the nations will make God very happy.

Yesterday I talked about the end, the millennial (1000 year) kingdom and the new heavens and earth in and for eternity.  It won’t be just the new creation that lasts forever so will the “children” of the Israelites.  This is talking about people who come to believe in Jesus because of what God has done in the world starting with the Jewish people.  The religious festivals tht were supposed to help mankind see how helpless they were because of their sin will, in this new existence, become times when God is honored (Sabbaths were days when the Jewish people were to remember God and focus their activities on Him (including doing good to others (Matthew 12:1-13).  One last time in the book of Isaiah we see the seriousness of turning away from God.  Evidently there is a place in the new existence where believers can look at the eternally separated existence of those who chose not to follow God not take his offer to restore them.  The image is gruesome like Prometheus in Greek mythology who was eternally condemned to be eaten by birds in reality those who do not put their eternity into Jesus hand will be eternally tormented in the lake of fire (see Revelation 20) and there situation is described as one where they are eternally being consumed by worms like a corpse in the ground.

As a message to those in Jerusalem who had spent much of their lives living for themselves by their own power the book of Isaiah must have been scary.  The fact that God is serious about sin (disobedience and rebellion) was seen in the invasion by Sennacherib, a tool of God’s judgment.  .  But the fact of God’s love and faithfulness was also seen in his destruction of the Assyrian army at the gates of Jerusalem.  The book was a continual reminder of the two aspects of God’s existence, his love and his purity or holiness.  God will deal with sin and actually has dealt with it through Jesus.  The question is will we each take him up on his offer of salvation or will we continue to try to reach him on our own through our own prideful lives.  The truth is we have all fallen short of God’s perfection (Romans 3:23), we have all gone astray (Isaiah 53:6) but god laid the penalty for all of our sins on that one perfect servant, his son Jesus (1 John 2:2).  We cannot get to God on our own Jesus is the only way (John 14:6).  So dump your pride, accept the gift of eternity with Him, and honor him each day by living you life Him.  As another prophet said, “He has shown you, oh man, what is good:  to treat others justly, to love his mercy toward us and show it to others, and to bow down before Him”  (Micah 6:8).  The offer is on the table and the clock is ticking.  Think about it today.

Lord thank you for helping me survive long enough to hear your word and respond to it.  Thank you for letting me live long enough to live at least some years for you.  I am sorry for the years that were lost in sin and disobedience.  Thank you for coming into my life and renewing me and becoming my helper.  You are an amazing and loving God.  Help many come to you before it is too late.  Eternity with you sounds so much more amazing than eternity being worm food.

Isaiah 65:17-66:14.  Yesterday’s reading ended by telling us that all of the troubles of life would be things of the past in our future with God.  In Isaiah 65:17-25 we see a description of the kingdom God is going to set up.  It will be a place of security and comfort.  We will have all that we need.  But notice that we will need to work, we will plant vineyards and build houses and make shoes and clothes.  But there will be no weeds, the houses will not be taken away from us, and the cloths will take a long time to wear out and so will we.  It is interesting that it is implied that some people will eventually grow old and die.  Most people think about eternity as, eternal, and it is.  1 Corinthians 15 tells us that our mortal bodies will become immortal.  So what is this all about?

Remember that the book of Isaiah was originally written to the Jewish people living during the reign of 4 kings.  During that time they flirted with unfaithfulness and trusted often in the power of neighboring kingdoms.  Much of the book is to the people of Jerusalem as they face an invasion by more than 186,000 Assyrian troops.  All the while they are wondering what happened to the promised kingdom.  About 100 years later the people of Judah were taken hostage by the Babylonian empire.  During that time they wondered the same things.  Another prophet, Daniel, gave them a very specific timetable for how god’s promises would all work out.  In Daniel 9:24-27 we learn that starting at a specific historic event 483 years would pass by and then the promised king and savior (the Servant in Isaiah) would be “cut off”, killed.  After that event an unspecified amount of time would pass then there would be a seven year period.  This seven years would involve the people of Israel fulfilling the role or destiny God had planned for them.  We will not get into the specifics here, but this prophecy was fulfilled to the day in history ending the 483 years with the crucifixion of Jesus.  The seven years is still future and is described in more detail in Revelation 4-19.

In Revelation 20 we learn that at the end of this seven year period (usually called the Tribulation or Great Tribulation) That Jesus, the Messiah, the Promised One, will set up the kingdom promised to the Jewish people and will reign on the earth for 1000 years.  It appears that this kingdom will include the resurrected (brought back to life) followers of Jesus who will have immortal bodies and existence.  It also appears that there will be people who survived the Tribulation who had turned their lives over to God too.  These people will still have their mortal lives to live and will have children who also will be mortal.  But the world will be renewed and under the control of Jesus.  There will be radical changes back toward what the world was originally in the Garden of Eden before Adam disobeyed and the world (and universe) was cursed.  At the end of the 1000 years the Devil will lead one last attempt at overthrowing God that will fail.  At that time he will be banished and those humans from all time who rejected God will be judged and banished also.  After that time the universe will be completely remade and we will then live in eternity eternally with God in a new heaven and new earth (see also Revelation 21-22).  The millennial (1000 year) kingdom is what I think Isaiah is talking about in Isaiah 65:7-25.

In Isaiah 66:1-2 God takes a little break to remind us all who we are dealing with and how we need to respond to him.  He is the all powerful creator and we need to be humble.  Remember pride is one of the big things God is dealing with in the book of Isaiah.  The other one is the fact that he alone deserves all the credit.  Those are both found in theses two verses.

Isaiah 66:3 is not a rallying verse for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights people).  God is dealing with fake religion here.  The Israelites were to kill certain animals on certain days for certain reasons.  It was all part of the Law of Moses.  But notice the end of verse 3, “They have chosen their own way.”  The problem was that the people were using the rituals in the Law as a sort of magic wand.  The Law was there to be a reminder that we all fail to live up to God’s standards (Romans 3:19-20), it was never intended to be a way to make everything all right between us and God.  But they were trying to use it as a way back to God.  Jesus told us that he is the way and there is no other (John 14:6).  Through verse 6 we see religious hypocrisy being condemned.  So we see more warning like we have seen over the past few day’s readings.

Verses 7-14 return back to hope.  Verses 8-8 compare the beginning of the nation of Israel to a woman having a baby, and this baby plopped right out, no labor pains, just bam!  A baby.  Normally nations take time (and often war) to form.  The nation of Israel was formed miraculously by God.  Verse 9 is the real point though, God made the nation of Israel so did the Israelites really think he would then abandon them?  The answer is no, it’s like the potter and the clay from a couple of days ago (Isaiah 64:8) God does not make things just to destroy them, as we have seen, the reality is some will get destroyed but that is not God’s original intention for them.

So in verses 10-14 we see people being told to be happy because God will be faithful to the promises he has made and Jerusalem will be a wonderful place not just for the Jewish people, but for people from every nation (v. 12).

God thank you for taking so much time to make it clear how much you love us and how you will be faithful to al of your promises.  Thank  you that you are faithful in spite of the evil we do.  Thank you for making it very clear that there is a down side, there is judgment and banishment for those who reject you.  Help me share your love with those around me.  Thank you for your love.