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Isaiah 64-66 - Reading
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Isaiah 64-66
Isaiah 64 – The themes are a continuation of Isaiah 63
v. 3 – The awesome things mentioned here is a reflection on the Exodus.
v. 5-7 – Isaiah uses four similes to lament the patterns of sin among God’s people. “like one who is unclean” – an infected leper (Lev. 13:45). “like a polluted garment” – even their righteousness is disgusting to God (Ezek. 36:17). “like a leaf” – decayed, brittle and lifeless (Isa. 1:30). “like the wind” – the overwhelming power of sin (Ps. 1:4). “for you have hidden your face” – When God’s face shines upon His people, they live in His favor. When He hides it due to their unfaithfulness, they suffer.
v. 10 – Jerusalem was a desolation as a result of the Babylonian invasion.
Isaiah 65 – Though the people of God have unfaithful sinners mixed among them, God is eager to bring His true people into their glorious eternal home.
v. 1 – These verses anticipate the drama of the book of Acts and the spread of the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts. 28:17-28).
v. 2 – A powerful picture of people who make up their own way of worshipping rather than following God’s standards for worship. God calls us to take worship seriously rather than making up what we believe is important.
v. 4 – God laments over religious practices that offend Him: apparently they mixed Canaanite elements into Israelite religious life.
v. 8 – A cluster of grapes represents Israel and the “juice” is the faithful remnant.
v. 23 – This is a reversal of the curse on humanity (Gen.3).
v. 25 – The serpent keeps eating dust is an illusion to the curse of Gen 3. Satan does not escape nor is he redeemed. This signifies the absence of all evil or harm.
Isaiah 66 – Though the worship of God is violated now, in the future falsehood will be judged, true worship will spread, and God will be honored forever.
v. 3 – “their own ways” – although they offered a bull, a lamb, and grain, their sacrifice was not made from a contrite heart.
v. 5 – Those who God esteems are subject to ridicule for pursuing God rather than pursuing their own imaginations. God says that those He esteems will be vindicated. This reflects a theme in this chapter of God’s people being rewarded and His enemies being punished.
v. 7 – The birth of the new community would come so quickly and dramatically that it would be painless.
v. 13 – God likened His tender love to that of a mother.
v. 18-24 – Isaiah closed his book with a prophecy describing the climax of God’s judgment and salvation: the new heavens and the new earth.
v. 20 – “all your brothers from all the nations” is a contrast to “all your brothers who hate you” in v. 5.
v. 23 - Universal worship of God at His appointed times.
v. 24 – This imagery from Jerusalem’s garbage dump, where unclean corpses were burned, became symbolic of perpetual punishment and anguish.
4 comments:
Isaiah 65 talks about the new heavens and the new earth. I have a question with this passage.
20Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
How is it at this point someone is able to die at 100. It seems we are taught that by the time we come to this point of the new heaven and the new earth there would be no more death.
Is this a future period of time similiar to the time before the flood when some people lived up to 900 years and yet some still died younger?
Is there a reason the reading is in the English Standard version vs. the NIV version?
Easy answer first, we put the reading out in the ESV because it is a more direct translation of the Hebrew/Greek--this makes it better for study. The NIV uses dynamic equivalence which is great for general reading and worship, but not as good for study.
Chris, on your question of lifespan. The picture that Isaiah gives, like other Old Testament passages, points us toward God's reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth by giving us evocative images rather than literal pictures. For a time when many children died in infancy (as many children do in developing nations today) and a person who reached 80 was considered to have had a phenomenally long life, Isaiah's picture is one of hope and wonder. The fullness of that picture comes in books such a Revelation where we are told of resurrection and eternal life. At any rate, Isaiah's words are not straight forwardly literal, but poetic and draw people in to his message of hope.
The idea that there will be a time when people live long lives, as far as I can tell, has no Biblical merit. God tells us in Genesis that because of our sin he is shortening lifespans. I am not aware of a place where he revokes that decision.
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