The two verses that commence chapter 65 are in exact harmony with this. They are quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10:20-2120But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 21But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. (Romans 10:20‑21), after he had shown that even Moses had upbraided the people and predicted that God would turn from them to others. Then he prefaced his quotation from our chapter by saying that, “Esaias is very bold...”.
Yes, Isaiah does speak with great boldness, for he speaks as the very voice of Jehovah rather than speaking about Him. He does not say, “He is sought... He is found... He said...” but rather, “I am sought... I am found... I said...”. How comes it, we may inquire, that people who never asked after God should be seeking Him? The answer seems obvious. It must take place as the result of God seeking after them. This is exactly what has taken place in this Gospel age. Israel being set aside, God goes out in sovereign mercy to Gentiles, as Paul goes on to explain in Romans 11. Has the wonder of this mercy penetrated our hearts in any substantial measure?
God’s dealings with Israel, in setting them aside for this long period, is justified by what we read in verse 2. The people had been rebellious, following “their own thoughts”, instead of God’s thoughts as expressed in His holy law, and these thoughts of theirs led their feet into a way that was not good. God had condescended to entreat them “all the day”, and that “day” had been a long one, extending over centuries of time. To these entreaties they had not responded.
The following verses lay specific evils to their charge, but before we consider them let us pause a moment to consider whether we have been guilty of pursuing our own thoughts instead of God’s in that which has been revealed to us. His mind for us as individual Christians, and also as members of the body of Christ— the church— is plainly stated in the Epistles of the New Testament. Now it is sadly easy to slip away from these and walk after our own thoughts; and more particularly so in regard to church matters; easy to say, “That was doubtless right enough for the first-century Christians, but hardly practicable for us today.” But it is God’s thoughts and ways that are perfect, whilst our own thoughts lead us into “a way that was not good”.
The evil ways of Israel were largely connected with idolatrous practices, as verses 3-7 show. The opening words of Deuteronomy 12 are, “These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land”, and there follow prohibitions against the high places and groves, or gardens, and altars which the heathen nations had made. So God’s way for them was that they should bring all their offerings to His place in Jerusalem; offering as He had commanded. But they preferred to worship according to their own thoughts with the result that is described in these verses. Their sacrifices were wrong; their altars were wrong; the food they ate was wrong; and to crown all this they affected a sanctimonious piety, which led them to say to others, “Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.”
This plainly indicates that the evil of Pharisaism began early in Israel’s history. The spirit of it is plainly visible when we read the prophecy of Malachi. It reached its fullest and worst expression in the time of our Lord, furnishing the main element which led to His crucifixion.
We may remember how He charged them with “Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:99But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:9)). So this quite agrees with what we have just seen stated by Isaiah. They preferred to walk after their own thoughts, rather than by the word of God. The same evil principle has persisted through the years, and it is all too evident today within the circle of Christian profession. Though their positions, both doctrinally and ecclesiastically, may widely differ, there are found those who demand separation “Stand by thyself, come not near to me;” based on a claim of superior sanctity or spirituality as the case may be. Such separatists are as offensive to God as “smoke in My nose, a fire that burneth all the day.”
Now this state of things in Israel demanded a recompence of judgment from the hand of God. It would seem that this spurious sanctity on top of their rebellious disobedience was their crowning sin. It brought upon them the seventy years of captivity in Babylon; and, when those years had passed and a remnant came back to the land, the same hypocrisy sprang up in their midst again, rendered worse, if anything, by the very mercy that had been shown to them. They crucified their Messiah saying, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” Thus it has been through their long centuries of trouble, and will yet be in the far worse sorrows of the great tribulation.
The lesson for us is that God desires obedience to His thoughts, expressed in His word. If that be our aim, we shall soon realize how little we apprehend them, and even more feebly carry them out, and this will produce in us a spirit of humility— the complete opposite to that of a spurious sanctity such as is revealed here.
Another note is struck when we reach verse 8. Under the figure of sparing a cluster of grapes, because it is of value for wine producing, God declares that He will spare a remnant of the people, though judgment must fall on the mass. This He will do, “that I may not destroy them all.” This remnant is spoken of as “My servants”, and in the next verse as “a seed out of Jacob”, and also as “Mine elect”, who will inherit the land.
We may remember how our Lord Himself was predicted as “Seed” of the woman, in Genesis 3, and again as the “Seed” of Abraham, concerning which the Apostle wrote, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:1616Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)). When considering Isaiah 53, we also saw that the risen Christ is to “see His seed”, as the fruit of the travail of His soul; and the same thought meets us at the close of the other great prediction of the sufferings of Christ in atonement “A seed shall serve Him” (Psa. 22:3030A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. (Psalm 22:30)). He, who is preeminently the “Seed”, is to have a seed of His own order in His risen life. This thought underlies the verses we are considering.
Two further things may be pointed out before we leave these verses. First, it was to this godly seed that the Lord Jesus referred at the beginning of His well-known “Sermon on the Mount”. The prophet speaks of “an inheritor of My mountains”, and says, “Mine elect shall inherit it”. The third beatitude is, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:55Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)). Now this enlarges the promise, so that it applies beyond the confines of Jacob and Judah. It is the meek of all peoples who will inherit the earth, when Heaven’s kingdom is at last universally established.
The second thing we have to remember is that this remnant according to the election of grace, called out from the mass of the Jews, exists today, though by the very fact of its calling it is severed from Judaism and its earthly hopes. That it exists is made plain by the Apostle Paul in the opening verses of Romans 11, and he cites his own case as the proof of it. We have to read Ephesians 2, particularly the latter part of it, to learn the new position of heavenly favor and blessing into which they are brought in association with those called from among the Gentiles by the Gospel that is being preached today.
In our chapter earthly blessing is before us, as verse 10 makes very plain. The valley of Achor was a place of judgment, as narrated in Joshua 7:24-2624And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. 25And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. 26And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day. (Joshua 7:24‑26). That place of judgment is to become “a door of hope”, according to Hosea 2:1515And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. (Hosea 2:15). Our verse reveals it as a place of rest for flocks and for men. Is there not a parable in this? Where judgment has been executed, there hope is to be found, and rest is the final result.
We leave this beautiful picture when we read verses 11 and 12. God cannot forget the existing state of departure and sin that marked the people in Isaiah’s day. They had forsaken Jehovah; they had forsaken His holy mountain, whereon stood His temple. And to what had they turned? The rest of the verse reveals it, though the translation is rather obscure. In Darby’s New Translation we find “Gad” substituted for “that troop”, and “Meni” for “that number”, with footnotes giving an explanation to the effect that the former word indicates “Fortune, or the planet Jupiter”, and the latter word “Number, or Fate, or the planet Venus”.
The people had turned aside to worship the heavenly bodies, and connected their false worship with the gambling instincts which are so strong in fallen humanity. If things went well it was Fortune. If badly, it was Fate. In the minds of the people these were deities to whom they made offerings of food and drink. As so often “table” is a figure indicating solid food, as on the table of shewbread, and wine furnished the drink. This throws some light on the Apostle’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:2121Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. (1 Corinthians 10:21), where he mentions “the cup of devils” and “the table of devils”. The devils of this verse were of course demons; and demon power lay behind the “Gad” and the “Meni” mentioned here.
When, in verse 12, God says He will “number” them to the sword, there is an allusion to the name “Meni”, which means number. The people are plainly told that judgment and death lay before them. They were rejecting the law of God. We are living in an age when men are rejecting the grace of God; and to do this is more serious than to reject law, as we are told in Hebrews 10:2929Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29). When the Gospel is preached, let this be made very plain.
Chapters 65:13-66:24
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