isaiah 65-66

Read Isaiah 65-66 at Bible Gateway.

“I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,
Who walk in a way that is not good,
According to their own thoughts;” Isa 65:2

The way that the LORD walks is the good way; His way is a narrow path. Man lost the knowledge of His way of walking when they rebelled against Him at Babel. So God looked for one man who would walk in His way, who would teach his children to walk in His way, to reveal Himself to, to establish a covenant with, and that one man was Abraham, the father of all who believe. Of him, the LORD said, he obeyed His voice, and kept His commandments, His charge, and His torah (Gen 26:5). Of him, the LORD said, he commanded his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice (Gen 18:19). The LORD’s torah is His instruction and teaching to mankind, of His thoughts and His ways, what walking in His path looks like.

The LORD’s thoughts and His ways are not the same as ours, which is why He needs to reveal His thoughts and ways to us; His thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isa 55:8-9). If we walk according to what makes sense with our logic, and our way of thinking, then we might miss God. Now see in this chapter, the things that the LORD says provokes Him to anger, the things that He considers iniquity, and the things that His soul takes no delight in:

1) Offering a sacrifice in a garden and burning incense on an altar made of brick (Isa 65:3). The sacrifice was offered to the LORD, so according to human logic, it should be okay, right? God revealed that His sacrifices were to be offered in the temple, with minute instructions as to what the good way, His way, was. His altars were all made of natural, not hewn, stones, certainly not of brick. To us, what difference does it make? But because He is God, and knows what is righteousness and sin, the things in which He delights and the things which are abhorrant to Him, we need to listen to Him and conform our actions accordingly.

2) Spending the night in the tombs (Isa 65:4); this is a reference to calling up or conversing with the dead;

3) Eating swine’s flesh and the broth of unclean things (Isa 65:4). I used to make a dish, where one of the ingredients was clam broth. Some asian sauces have oyster broth in them. Clams and oysters are unclean, according to torah. Most of us were told that it doesn’t matter what we eat since Jesus has come. That is not what the Scripture says. In fact, when the LORD returns, and He pours out His indignation to His enemies, some of those He considers His enemies are those who eat swine’s flesh (Isa 66:17). They are those who do not listen to His voice and do not obey His word.

In fact, continuing on in Isa 66:

“For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the LORD,
“So shall your descendants and your name remain.
And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.
“And they shall go forth and look
Upon the corpses of the men
Who have transgressed against Me.
For their worm does not die,
And their fire is not quenched.
They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”  Isa 66:22-24

These are the final verses of Isaiah, and as Isaiah opened with the judgment which was coming upon Israel and Judah, it closes with the return of the King of kings, the peace, joy, and blessing upon Israel and Judah, His servants, and the judgment upon His enemies. New moons and Sabbaths will be observed in the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness is completely restored!

We have been told it does not matter what we eat, and on what day we rest or worship — by men. The word of the LORD says differently. Let us conform ourselves to HIM, and not to man, whose thoughts and ways are not His!