Isaiah 66
I. (1-39) Condemnation
A. Chapters 1-12 - ”Prophecies against Israel and Judah
B. Chapters 13-23 - ”Prophecies against the Nations
C. Chapters 24-27 - ”Prophecies of the Day of the Lord
D. Chapters 28-35 - ”Prophecies of Judgment and Blessing
E. Chapters 36-39 - ”Historical accounts
II. (40-66) Consolation
A. Chapters 40-48 - Israel’s God
B. Chapters 49-54 - Israel’s Messiah
C. Chapters 55-66 - Israel’s Opportunity
1. \\#Isa 55:1-56:8\\ An Invitation
2. \\#Isa 56:9-12\\ A Condemnation
3. \\#Isa 57:1-14\\ A Warning
4. \\#Isa 58:1-14\\ A Possibility
5. \\#Isa 59:1-62:12\\ A Commitment
6. \\#Isa 63:1-64:12\\ A Psalm
7. \\#Isa 65:1-66:24\\ A Response
a. \\#Isa 65:1-7\\ God explains His rejection of Israel’s prayer
b. \\#Isa 65:8-10, 17-25\\ A Promise Is Made to the Remnant
c. \\#Isa 65:11-16\\ A Promise Is Made to the Present Generation
d. \\#Isa 66:1-4\\ God Rejects Israel
I. #Isa 63:1-64:12 A Psalm
A. \\#Isa 66:1-4\\ God Rejects Israel
1. \\#1\\ God had no house in Israel.
a. "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool" - God
declares His greatness.
b. "where is the house ye build unto me?" Yet, this great God has no
place to abide in within Israel’s boarders.
c. Although the temple still stood, it has been desecrated and filled
with idols. It was not a place in which God’s holy presence
could "rest."
2. \\#2\\ God had no worshippers in Israel.
a. "For all those things hath mine hand made" - While God can create
heaven and earth for His pleasure, He desires man to choose Him.
b. "to this man will I look" - God will give His attention to a godly
man.
c. "him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my
word" - What is a godly man? One who is poor and humble in their
spirit. and one that fears and obeys God’s Word.
3. \\#3-4\\ So God has rejected Israel.
a. \\#3\\ God has cursed Israel’s worship.
(1) "He that killeth an ox… that sacrificeth a lamb… that
burneth incense" - These were acts of Old Testament worship.
(2) "is as if he slew a man… as if he offered swine’s blood…
as if he blessed an idol" - But now, any who bring
sacrifices to worship God will be considered as evil as a
murderer or the worst blasphemer.
(3) "they have chosen their own way" - This is the path that
Israel has selected for themselves.
b. \\#4\\ So God has chossen to delude their minds.
(1) "I also will choose their delusions" - God will put false
thoughts into their minds.
(2) "and bring their fears upon them" - He will then bring the
most fearful of these false thoughts to pass.
c. Why?
(1) "because when I called, none did answer" - God has repeated
this charge against Israel several times
\\#Isa 59:2, 65:12\\. Since Israel had called upon God,
expecting Him to answer them \\#63:15-64:12\\, this
charge is all the more blatant.
(2) "they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I
delighted not."
B. \\#Isa 66:5-14\\ God again gives promises to the remnant.
1. \\#5-6\\ "Hear the word of the Lord" - God is making another
commitment to Israel.
a. "ye that trembled at his word" - Specifically to the righteous.
b. "Your brethren that hated you, that case you out" - God had seen
how the wicked of Israel had treated the righteous.
c. "but he shall appear to your joy… they shall be ashamed" - God
God will bring joy to the righteous and shame to the wicked.
d. \\#6\\ "A voice… that rendereth recompence to his enemies"
God’s voice of promise will resonate across the "temple" and the
"city."
2. \\#Isa 66:7-9\\ God compares Israel’s future to a birth.
a. \\#7-8\\ God will do strange things.
(1) \\#7\\ "Before she travailed, she brought forth… a man
child"
(a) It is indeed a strange thing for a child to be born
before the labor pains, but it happened to Israel.
(b) The SHE in this verse is Israel.
(c) The MAN CHILD is Christ.
(d) The travail and "pain" is the tribulation.
(e) The meaning of the verse is that before the time of
great pain and judgment comes to Israel, the Christ-
Child would be born.
(2) \\#8\\ "Shall the earth… bring forth in one day? shall a
nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she
brought forth her children."
(a) While nations have a day which marks their beginning,
they also have a long history behind that beginning.
(b) God is describing a beginning for Israel which will
have no history leading up to it.
i. This is the day when Israel accepts Christ.
ii. It will be like a new beginning for Israel for all
their former days of sin will be forgotten.
iii. It will be like a day with no history before it
because prior to it, Israel will be following the
anti-Christ as all the lost world will be doing.
b. \\#9\\ "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring
forth?" - God assures Israel that these things will happen.
3. \\#Isa 66:10-14\\ So the godly Gentiles should rejoice. This
passage is not directed to Israel but to the Gentiles concerning
their relationship with Israel.
a. \\#10\\ "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem… all ye that love her"
God encourages and commands the Gentiles to rejoice with
Jerusalem.
b. \\#11\\ "that ye may suck, and be satisfied" - Those who are
for Israel will be blessed with Israel.
c. \\#12\\ Why rejoice?
(1) "I will extend peace to her (Israel) like a river"
(2) "I will extend… glory of the Gentiles like a flowing
stream" - This is another of the many references to the day
the Gentiles will honor and revere Israel.
(3) "then shall ye suck… be born upon her - Those who have
rejoiced in God’s plans for Israel will benefit when God
brings those promises to pass.
d. \\#13\\ "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will comfort
you" - God will love on the Gentiles who have been good to
Israel like a MOTHER.
e. \\#14\\ "when ye see this" - When God’s promises are fulfilled,
then…
(1) "your heart shall rejoice" - This relates to the spirit being
filled with joy.
(2) "your bones shall flourish" - This relates to the body being
filled with health.
(3) "the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants" -
It will be known to the righteous that God works on the
behalf of the righteous.
(4) "and his indignation toward his enemies" - It will be known
that God judges the wicked.
C. \\#Isa 66:15-24\\ God again gives promises to the wicked.
1. \\#Isa 66:15-18\\ The Lord will come in judgment.
a. \\#15\\ "the Lord will come" - This is Lord’s coming to set
up His kingdom at the beginning of the millennium.
(1) "with fire" - Fire may be symbolic of judgment or it may
be more literal, describing the closest thing to the
judgment of God which is to come.
Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the
nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
Zech 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the
people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and
their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
(2) "with his chariots" - Revelation describes the Lord coming
to earth on horses. The image is of the Lord returning
in the heavens.
(3) "to render his anger with fury" - While the way the Lord
returns may be unclear, the reason for His return is very
clear.
b. \\#16\\ "plead with all flesh" - While the Lord will return to
Jerusalem, His coming is to deal with all the world for their
sin.
c. \\#17-18\\ Some of Israel’s sins are listed,
(1) \\#17\\ "They that sanctify themselves… in the gardens"
This is another reference to Israel worshipping the
fertility gods of the heathen nations \\#Isa 65:7\\.
(2) "eating swine’s flesh, and the abominations" - And another
reference to them eating things forbidden by the law
\\#Isa 65:4\\.
(3) "and the mouse" - The mouse was considered a delicacy by
some but was forbidden to the Jews \\#Lev 11:29\\.
(4) \\#18\\ "For I know their works… thoughts" - God knows
and rewards mankind not only for what he does, but what he
considers doing.
d. \\#18-21\\ God will gather the world and the Jews to Himself.
(1) \\#18\\ "I will gather all nations and tongues… see my
glory" - This is not a gathering of judgment but one of
worship. After God judges the world, the nations that are
left will worship Him.
(2) \\#19\\ "I will set a sign among them" - God establishes
a sign to the nations of the world.
(a) "I will send those that escape" - These are those who
ESCAPE God’s wrath. While one’s first thought may be
those that escape the tribulation, this must be a
smaller group of people for all those in the nations
which are listed in this verse will do that. Since
the surrounding verses speak of Gentile people, this is
probably those who were near Jerusalem and escaped
when the Lord returned \\#Rev 19:14\\. God may show
mercy even to some of the anti-Christ’s army.
(b) "I will send… of them" - God will make them messengers
to take first-hand testimony back to their homelands of
God’s power and glory.
(c) "unto the nations… that have not heard my fame"
i. "Tarshish" - likely Spain
ii. "Pul" - northern Africa
iii. "Lud" - western Asia Minor
iv. "Tubal" - north-eastern Asia Minor. Tubal is one
of the nations which will come against Israel in
the last days \\#Eze 38:2-3, 39:1\\.
v. "Javan" - Greece
vi. "isles afar off" - other distant islands
(d) "they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles" - This
ministry of reconciliation will take place at the end
of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennium.
(3) \\#20\\ "And they shall bring all your brethren" - The
repenting nations will bring the scattered Jews back into
the land of Israel.
(a) "for an offering… out of all nations" - Gentiles will
bring many offerings to God as they worship Him, but
none will be so precious as this first offering, His
people.
(b) "upon horses… in chariots… litters… mules…
swift beasts" - Every conceivable mode of
transportation will be utilized.
(c) "to my holy mountain Jerusalem" - Jerusalem is the center
of God’s kingdom.
(4) "as the children of Israel bring an offering" - The Gentiles
will bring the Jews and the Jews will bring their own
offering.
(5) \\#21\\ "I will also take of them for priests and for
Levites" - THEM probably refers to the Jews who have been
brought back. The millennium is the time period when the
Jews finally obey God. There is no reason to suppose God
will make Gentiles servants within the millennial temple.
e. \\#Isa 66:22-24\\ "the new heavens and the new earth" - The
reference to NEW HEAVENS AND… EARTH would seem to move ahead
into eternity, but like \\#Isa 65:17\\, there is the possibility
that it refers to the renovated earth and heavens at the
millennium. If not, Isaiah will have to jump backward in time
fore he speaks of "flesh" in \\#Isa 66:23\\ and death in
\\#Isa 66:24\\. The best interpretation would seem to be that
Isaiah is speaking of the renovated millennial earth in both
passages.
(1) \\#22\\ "so shall your seed and your name remain" - Once
the new world begins, Israel will never be cast off again.
(2) \\#23\\ "all flesh come to worship" - During the millennial,
Jews and Gentiles alike will worship God in Jerusalem.
(3) "new moon to another… sabbath to another" - The millennium
is the time for the Jews to do all that they failed to do
before, including worshipping God on His appointed holy days.
The Gentiles will do so as well.
(4) \\#24\\ "they shall… look upon the carcases of the men
who transgressed" - Since God has already given verses which
describe a longer life, even for sinners \\#Isa 65:20\\,
this probably refers to those slain at the Lord’s return
\\#Eze 39:12-13\\. If the actually carcass is not seen,
the grave will be.
(5) "their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be
quenched" - A phrase quoted by our Lord to describe hell
and eternal damnation \\#Mark 9:44-49\\. Of course,
fleshly beings cannot now or in the future see into hell.
(6) Both of these last phrases, describing the horrid sight
those who come to Jerusalem would see, are probably not so
much literal as evidential; that is, the worshippers shall
see the mass graves which is evidence that there are rotten
corpses in them and tormented souls in hell.
(7) "they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh" - The end result
is that all who see it, will be sickened and repulsed by
the knowledge that so many could be so wicked.
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