"I am made known to those that ask not for me; I am found of those, that sought me not: I have said: Behold me, here I am, To the nations which never invoked my name: I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, Who walk in an evil way, after their own devices. A people, who provoke me to my face continually; Sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense on the tiles: Who dwell in the sepulchers, and lodge in the caverns; Who eat the flesh of the swine; And the broth of abominable meats is in their vessels: Who say: Keep to yourself; come not near unto me, for I am holier than you. These kindle a smoke in my nostrils, a fire burning all the day long. Behold, this is recorded in writing before me: I will not keep silence, but will certainly requite; I will requite into their bosom their iniquities; And the iniquities of their fathers together, says Jehovah: Who burnt incense on the mountains, and dishonored me upon the hills: Yea, I will pour into their bosom the full measure of their former deeds. Thus says Jehovah: As when one finds a good grape in the cluster; And says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: So will I do for the sake of my servants; I will not destroy the whole. So will I bring forth from Jacob a seed; And from Judah an inheritor of my mountain: And my chosen shall inherit the land; And my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold for the flock, And the valley of Achor a resting for the herd; For my people, who have sought after me. But you, who have deserted Jehovah; And have forgotten my holy mountain: Who set in order a table for Gad; And fill out a libation to Meni: You will I number out to the sword; And all of you shall bow down to the slaughter. Because I called, and you answered not; I spoke, and you would not hear: But you did that, which is evil in my sight; And that, in which I delighted not, you chose. Wherefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be famished; Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be confounded: Behold, my servants shall sing aloud, for gladness of heart; But you shall cry aloud, for grief of heart; And in the anguish of a broken spirit shall you howl. And you shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen: And the Lord Jehovah shall slay you; And His servants shall He call by another name. Whoso blesses himself up the earth, Shall bless himself in the God of truth; And whoso swears upon the earth, Shall swear by the God of truth. Because the former provocations are forgotten, And because they are hidden from my eyes. For behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: And the former ones shall not be remembered, Neither shall they be brought to mind any more. But you shall rejoice and exult in the age to come, which I create: For lo! I create Jerusalem a subject of joy, and her people of gladness; And I will exult in Jerusalem, and rejoice in my people. And there shall not be heard any more therein, The voice of weeping, and the voice of a distressful cry: No more shall there be an infant short-lived; Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days: For he, that dies at a hundred years, shall die a boy; And the sinner that dies at a hundred years, shall be deemed accursed. And they shall build houses, and shall inhabit them; And they shall plant vineyards, and shall eat the fruit thereof. They shall not build, and another inhabit; They shall not plant, and another eat: For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people; And they shall wear out the works of their own hands. My chosen shall not labor in vain; Neither shall they generate a short-lived race: For they shall be a seed blessed of Jehovah, They, and their offspring with them. And it shall be, that before they call I will answer; They shall be yet speaking, and I shall have heard. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox: But as for the serpent, dust shall be his food. They shall not hurt, neither shall they destroy, In all my holy mountain, says Jehovah." (Isaiah 65:1-25,Lowth)
This chapter is naturally divided into two portions, the first sixteen verses showing who are the true Israel, and that no particular race or nation constitute God's people, but that they are gathered out one by one from "all nations, and kindreds and people, and tongues;" (Revelation 7:9) while verses 17-25 tell of the new earth, in which "the righteous nation that keeps the truth--will dwell throughout eternity." (Isaiah 26:2)
Sincere Gentiles Accepted -- Insincere Jews Rejected
In order to understand the first two verses, we have only to read: "But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses says, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold, and says, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he says, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." (Romans 10:19-21)
From those verses, taken in connection with what precedes, namely, that the sound of the Gospel has gone to the ends of the earth, we learn that the Gentiles are referred to by the words, "I am inquired of by them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not." (Isaiah 65:1)
And the "rebellious people, [to whom God has] stretched out His handsall the day," (Isaiah 65:2) is Israel after the flesh. With the inspired comment to guide us, we can have no difficulty in reading the chapter, for in verses 3-7 we have a picture of the Jewish people, who prided themselves upon being God's people, no matter what abominations they committed. "A people that provokes me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifices in gardens, and burns incense upon altars of brick; Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day. Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the Lord, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom." (Isaiah 65:3-7)
The fact that their ancestors had been the objects of special blessings, in the deliverance from Egypt, and subsequently, and that they had the law, was their boast, although they did not keep the law. "Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God, And know His will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; And are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. You therefore which teach another, do you not teach yourself? you that preach a man should not steal, do you steal? You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? you that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You that make your boast of the law, through breaking the law do you dishonour God?" (Romans 2:17-23)
They thought themselves too holy to associate with the uncircumcised heathen; but God has shown that a circumcised heathen is no better than an uncircumcised one, and that it is faith and obedience that distinguishes the true Israelite from the heathen.
Moment by moment the Christian lives. If we gain a victory today, that is no proof that we shall gain another tomorrow. It is a proof of the power and goodness of God, who ever lives to bless; but if we reap the benefit of His mercy in the future, it can only be by continual yielding and consecration. Our breath moment by moment is an evidence that God is with us; but the breath that we breathed yesterday will not profit us today; we need a fresh supply. Much less can we be benefited by that which somebody else has breathed.
So for a person to base his confidence on the fact that he belongs to a denomination that at some time in the past had marked evidences of the presence and power of God, is to build his hope for bread today on money that was spent last year. It is a grand thing to have entrusted to us the ark in which are the oracles of God; but we may have this and still be accursed captives of sin. Far better is it to have our own hearts as temples of the Holy Spirit of truth.
The Eating of Swine's Flesh
Everybody who knows anything about the Bible knows that it forbids the use of swine's flesh; but nothing in the Bible shows so clearly how God regards the filthy beast, and those who take it into the most intimate relation to themselves, than the passing reference in verses 4 and 5. There the eating of swine's flesh is classed by the Lord with the most abominable idolatry. "Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; Which say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day." (Isaiah 65:4-5)
The hog is one of the most filthy and disgusting of animals, gross in its habits, and the imparter of grossness to all who have anything whatever to do with it; yet there is no other animal in the world that is in such demand as food for men. In this we see how God's order has been perverted.
Satan has done his best to reverse every design of God, and among the majority of mankind he has succeeded for even thousands of professed Christians, to say nothing of non-professors, seem to be bent on making their religious practices as far different as possible from what God ordained.
When Satan induced men to worship devils instead of God, while still professing to serve God, he led them to sacrifice swine upon their altars, in contradistinction to the clean and innocent animals that were sacrificed in the worship of God.
It is eminently fitting that the hog should be used by those whose lives are devoted to the service of Satan; but that men and women who profess to worship the God of heaven, and to be guided and controlled by the pure life of Jesus Christ, should take the filthy animal into their bodies is a part of the mystery of iniquity.
Everybody is shocked at the impiety of Antiochus Epiphanes, who defiled the temple of God in Jerusalem by offering hogs upon its altar, yet that temple at best was only a figure. Think then how much greater sacrilege it is to offer up the swine in our own bodies, which are the real temples of Jehovah. "But you are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop [Gad], and that furnish the drink offering unto that number [Meni]." (Isaiah 65:11)
Concerning the heathen gods mentioned in this verse, one ancient writer has made the following sensible comment, which may save a great deal of useless speculation:
Why should we be solicitous about it? It appears sufficiently, from the circumstance, that they were false gods, either stars or some other natural object, or a mere fiction. The Holy Scriptures did not deign to explain more clearly what these objects of idolatrous worship were, but chose rather that the memory of the knowledge of them should be utterly abolished. And God be praised that they are so totally abolished that we are now quite at a loss to know what and what sort of things they were.--Commentary on the Holy Bible from Henry and Scott. Also found in Adam Clarke's Commentary. Comments on Isaiah 65:11, a quote from Lowth quoting from Schmidius.
Lessons from the Grape
"Thus says the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all." (Isaiah 65:8) "As when one finds a good grape in the cluster" (Isaiah 65:8,Lowth)
Just why Lowth has "a good grape" instead of "new wine," in this verse, it is impossible to tell, for the ordinary Hebrew text most certainly has it as in our common version. The lesson, however, is not materially affected by the difference.
As Lowth has it, it shows how God does not take people in bulk, but as individuals. Just as we will pick out a single good grape from a cluster of unripe or decayed fruit, so God selects His people out from the world, or even from among churches and societies that have the name of belonging to Him, until Israel is composed of those in every nation and class in society, who are without guile.
This is evidently the lesson to be drawn from verse 8; but there is an incidental lesson in it as rendered in our version, that may be noted. The "new wine is found in the cluster," and not in the fermenting vat. And "a blessing is in it." When we eat the fruits of the earth in the natural state in which God himself prepares them for us, or as near it as possible, and recognize God in the gift, we get the blessing of His own life.
God's life is most holy and precious, and we should be most careful not to pervert it or misuse it. The stream of life from the throne of God is perfectly pure, but it may become contaminated by the abuse of men; therefore we should be solicitous to go to the fountain head, and take the unperverted life directly from God himself.
The Long-Suffering of God
The great lesson from the first section of the chapter is the wondrous love and patience and forbearance of God. He loves those who love Him not. He calls for those who have not inquired for Him, and seeks out those who have never given Him a thought. And more than this, He is not easily offended when slighted and deliberately rejected.
He not only seeks out those who are ignorant of Him, but He bears long with the waywardness of those who have known His goodness and have not appreciated it. To Israel He says, "All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." (Romans 10:21; Isaiah 65:2)
Wonderful love! Oh that it may always be ours. It may be; for the Holy Spirit so freely given to us, if received, sheds abroad in our hearts that love that "suffers long, and is kind, ... seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil." (1 Corinthians 13:4-5)
It is not ours by nature, but grace can give us the Divine nature, of which it is an attribute.
A New Heavens and New Earth
In striking contrast with the sorrow and anguish incident to this present evil world, and the sure destruction that is to be the fate of all who are united to it, is the state of the servants of the Lord. The new heavens and the new earth will obliterate from the mind every thought of the want and the suffering endured in this earth.
And as this thought is impressed on our minds in reading this description of the joy and peace of the world to come, let us not forget that God has already placed the world to come in subjection to man, and that we may now taste its power. Just now, in this time of hardship and tribulation, in the midst of all this world's lack, it is ours by the Spirit to know "the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." (Ephesians 1:18)
God has placed eternity in our hearts, so that beginning right now we may be glad and rejoice for ever in that which He creates; for: "If any man be in Christ there is a new creation; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 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." (Isaiah 65:17-19)
Compare these verses with: "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. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful." (Revelation 21:1-5)
There can be no question as to the application. The Lord is not here speaking figuratively of some mere local work to be done in one nation, but is speaking of the real change to come over all the earth, and He uses language as plain and as perfectly adapted to our comprehension as possible. Life in the world to come will be very real.
Strangely enough, the term "real life" conveys to most people a sense of hardness and bitter suffering. How sad it is that so many know of no joy except in imagination, and find no happiness except in dreams. But the real--that which God creates--is infinitely beyond the wildest flights of human imagination. Imagination is not needed by the servants of God, for the real brings to them wonders of joy and happiness and knowledge that have never been conceived of by any human heart.
There will be nothing vague or misty or shadowy in the new earth, but people will associate together just as in this world, only with no trace of sin. It is sin that has made this earth what it is, and all the change that is needed to make it new is to remove sin from it. "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat of the fruit of them." (Isaiah 65:21)
There will be possessions in the land, but no buying and selling, for everything will be free as the gift of God. "All mine is yours," (John 17:10) will be the motto of every inhabitant. That which socialists vainly dream of, and infinitely more, is assured to men through the Gospel. "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." (Revelation 21:3-4)
From this we know that verse 20 of our lesson chapter marks the transition stage. "No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only the cursed will die that young!" (Isaiah 65:20,NLT)
Remember that the final destruction of the wicked, and the renewal of the earth, does not take place until a thousand years after the appearing of Christ and the first resurrection, (See Revelation 20) during which time the saints have been reigning with Christ in the New Jerusalem in heaven. Consequently the sinner a hundred years old, who dies accursed, is but a boy in comparison with them.
Seventy years is considered full age in this life, yet the sinner who goes to destruction at the age of a hundred years is compared with the saints reigning in glory, as one who is cut off in early boyhood. For from the time of Christ's coming there will not be among the saints such a thing as a short-lived infant, but all will live an endless life; yet the thousands of years upon a man's head will not make him old, nor diminish the freshness of youth. "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 my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." (Isaiah 65:22)
A tree is one of the best representations of continual youthful life, and the tree of life is the model for all trees. Such will be the life of all God's people. They will live for ever, as long as the tree of life, to which they have free access, exists. Their life will be that of God. Do not be misled by the words in Lowth's translation, "they shall wear out the works of their own hands." (Isaiah 65:22,Lowth)
The idea is not that any work of their hands will become so worn as to be thrown aside, like the garments now worn, but that they shall enjoy themselves. They will ever live to enjoy their own work, and will not die and leave it to others. "They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 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, says the Lord." (Isaiah 65:23-25)--Present Truth, June 21, 1900--Isaiah 65:1-25.