A humble and repentant man cries out to God, admitting his sin and the sin of his nation. He asks God for help, and in Chapters 65 and 66 we hear God’s reply.
Isaiah is brokenhearted at the destruction of the temple. What boggles my mind is that he responds as though he has seen it collapsed and on fire,and yet he died 100 years before the temple was destroyed. Beyond prophecy, he must have had a vision of the fall of Jerusalem, and it clearly caused him great pain.
His repentant plea for help from God is a great model for us, it is a mixture of praise for God’s holy attributes along with a confession of our inability to stay pure as God wants. But Isaiah doesn’t stop there, He pleads with God to help anyway, and appeals to His love for the Israelites and Jerusalem.
Okay, so in Chapter 65 we begin to see God’s response. The first several lines tell the whole story “I was willing and ready to help, but no one called on me”. What a terrible epitaph! “Help was available, but he never asked”. That’s the marker on the grave of this generation of Israelites, and it will be the same for many people who have ignored or rejected God’s offer of assistance in our day.
Verse 5 describes a person who has a “form of godliness” but is unrepentant and rebellious on the inside. It’s far easier to adopt christian practices outward than it is to make them a part of your life inwardly. In fact, they won’t become part of our character without the help of the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who creates desire within us for spiritual growth. The Holy Spirit is the one who causes us to recoil with disgust at sin…otherwise we would find it attractive.
The key message that I am hearing today in this passage is that God wants to come to our rescue. He is eagerly anticipating our cry for help, and wants to respond. The only thing keeping Him from stepping in and making life better is our stubborn refusal to ask for His help. Our request can’t come out of frustration or anger, but only out of humility. When we humbly ask the Lord to intervene, admitting our sins and our guilt, He is always quick to come to our aid. Perhaps you find yourself in need of rescue today…God is willing, if you will ask. Don’t let the devil trick you into believing that you are “too far gone” or “you can do this by yourself”.
One other quick thought here (and this is somewhat random)
i think the new nation that was “born in a day” could be Christianity. Born at the moment Christ rose from the dead, exploding in growth all over the world for the next 50 to 100 years. Thousands were made citizens in a single day, at the message of the Apostle Peter. This new nation flies only the flag of Jesus Christ, although it’s citizens live in many countries. They receive orders from God himself, although they remain obedient to the lawful orders of human rulers. They speak different languages, have different preferences and live and practice different cultures…but over all and above all, they are one nation. The greatest nation on the earth, the only nation beyond the earth. Christianity.
As I listen to the Lord describe Jerusalem, and how people will live for hundreds of years I find myself wondering about the context. This can’t be heaven, because in heaven we live forever. These people will live a long time, but it’s implied that they die. People are traveling into Jerusalem to worship God, and it appears they come and go, week after week, month after month. They don’t stay there…so again, this isn’t heaven.
As they travel in and out of the city they will see the dead who defied God. These people are constantly being eaten by worms and the fire that burns them never goes out. That sounds like a description of hell, but here it’s being used to describe a valley just outside Jerusalem. There is a valley outside town where the people used to offer human sacrifices, and burn garbage. Today it’s a city park…I noticed that no one lives there. Sometime in the future I guess the dead will be piled there.
All of this has me wondering about where hell is, and how this description fits into my understanding of hell as part of purgatory. These people seem dead, unresponsive. Other times when I read this description the people seem aware, alive while they are in hell.
I will have to spend some time investigating.
Faithfully,
PR