WWUTT 2204 Closing Thoughts on Isaiah

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In Isaiah 66, 22, we read, just as the new heavens and the new earth, which

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I make will endure before me, declares Yahweh, so your seed and your name will endure to the end, when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. And our study of the book of Isaiah, we are finished.

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We completed our study of Isaiah, but I'm not quite ready to leave the book just yet.

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So I wanted to do one more lesson offering some closing thoughts. I kind of rushed the end of chapter 66 anyway.

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So let's do a quick review of everything that we have considered in Isaiah in more than a year that we have been in this book.

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Part of this is because I'm not quite ready to jump into the next book, which might be

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Hosea. I know some of you were expecting me to go from Isaiah right into Jeremiah. It makes the most sense.

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I've had a couple of emails even asking me if that's what I was going to do, but because we spent more than a year in Isaiah and Jeremiah is more than 50 chapters, we'll be in that book for more than a year.

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I think it would be better to do something short in between. So Hosea is probably where I'm gonna go next, and we'll do an introduction to that book in the next

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Old Testament lesson. In the meantime, let's kind of finish some thoughts on Isaiah.

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I even got a couple of messages recently that go well with what we read in chapter 65 and 66.

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Let me recap once again and open with reading Isaiah 66 verses 22 to 24 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which

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I make will endure before me, declares Yahweh, so your seed and your name will endure.

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And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath.

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All mankind will come to worship before me, says Yahweh. Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be an object of contempt to all mankind.

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And as I said, when we read this passage the week before, what providence it was for us to be reading this in about the same proximity that we were in the

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Gospel of Mark, in which Jesus quotes exactly this passage at the very close of the book of Isaiah.

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They will go forth and look on the corpses of men who have transgressed against me, for their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be an object of contempt to all mankind.

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Jesus says that's the description of eternal punishment. That's what it will be like for those who do not inherit the kingdom of God, but will be cast into essentially hell.

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They will be in a place where their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched.

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But throughout Isaiah, we have had this promise of a new heavens and a new earth, even though that phrase doesn't come up until the end of Isaiah, and we see it here in the closing verses, for just as the new heavens and the new earth, which

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I make will endure before me, declares Yahweh, so your seed and your name will endure.

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The whole book has been building up to this, and God has used the exile of his people from Jerusalem, from Judah, and into Babylonian captivity.

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He's used that to show how he is going to bring to himself a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation on earth.

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They will be called out from the world. They will come to him, and the one through whom they will come to him is the one who will be born of a virgin, as talked about in Isaiah 7, the one who will have the government on his shoulders, as talked about in Isaiah 9, the suffering servant on whom

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God will pour his wrath, and the wrath of God will be satisfied. It will please God to crush him, and he will atone for the iniquity of us all, as talked about in Isaiah 53.

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This is the one through whom God will bring nations to himself, all those who believe in Jesus Christ.

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And we understand those passages in Isaiah 7, in Isaiah 9, in Isaiah 11, the root of Jesse, in Isaiah 53, all of this was pointing to Christ.

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It is one of the most Christ -prophetic books in the Old Testament, in fact, probably the most

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Christ -prophetic book, and Jesus quoted from it often. We have the prophecy of John the

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Baptist made in Isaiah, in that he would be the predecessor to the coming of the anointed one, who would call out from the desert, make straight the way of the

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Lord. Now, as we went through Isaiah, if you'll recall, Isaiah is divided up into two parts.

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You have chapters 1 through 39, and then chapters 40 through 66.

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And as has been pointed out by many, it's kind of prophetic that you have 39 chapters in Isaiah, in the first part of Isaiah, and there's 39 chapters, or 39 books, rather, in the

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Old Testament. Then there's 27 chapters in the second half of Isaiah, or the second portion of Isaiah, and there's 27 books in the

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New Testament. So I had this question was asked of me at the very beginning of the study, is Isaiah somehow a picture of the layout of the whole

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Bible? And my answer to that would be no, because the chapters and verses are not divinely inspired.

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So the fact that Isaiah is divided up into 66 chapters, I don't know if the person who did that had anything in mind with regard to there being 66 books of the

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Bible. Most likely he did not. He may have considered the Apocrypha to be part of the Bible.

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So the chapters and verses are not divinely inspired. The Holy Spirit did not inspire

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Isaiah to write chapter one, this, chapter two, that, so on and so forth.

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So no, it's not in any way a kind of a picture of the whole Bible. You can consider that kind of a providential coincidence.

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It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't point to anything theologically significant that there's 66 chapters in Isaiah in 66 books of the

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Bible. But we do have in the first portion of Isaiah, so that first two thirds, you have

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God saying that he is going to exile his people into Babylonian captivity.

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They are gonna come into defeat because of their disobedience against God, because they had worshiped false gods and mute idols.

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God is finally going to take his hand of provision off of them and he will turn them over to their enemies.

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Now, again, Isaiah is being written in about 700 BC thereabouts.

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And the conquering of Jerusalem and the exile of the

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Jewish people into Babylonian captivity doesn't happen for another hundred years. So all of these things that are being written about here point towards something that is gonna happen in their future.

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And then when they are exiled, as the prophet had said was going to happen to them, may they remember this book of the prophet and the promises that God made through the prophet that he would not destroy them in their exile, but would in fact rescue them and deliver them into an even better kingdom.

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Now, we know that the kingdom that the Jews came back into after their exile was not better than the kingdom that they were exiled from.

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The temple was even destroyed and the temple that they rebuilt when they came back into the land did not look anything near as great as what

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Solomon built. So much so that the people even wept over it as talked about in the book of Ezra.

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Later on, Herod would come along, Herod the Great, and he would make an even more magnificent temple than Solomon had originally built.

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But this was not the fulfillment of the promises that were made in Isaiah either, because God had said that he would call all nations to himself through the one whom he had appointed, which is the

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Christ. It's stated here in chapter 66, verse 23, from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to worship before me, says

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Yahweh. But the Jews had figured that the way that God was going to do this was going to be through the

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Jewish people, not in the sense of a savior coming along who was gonna die for us and rise again from the dead, but that it was gonna be in the way that the covenant promise was made with Abraham.

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Those who bless you, I will bless, and those who curse you, I will curse. So those who bless the nation of Israel will be blessed and those who curse the nation of Israel will be cursed.

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That was the expectation that they had. But of course, we know now on this side of the cross that the way that God was going to fulfill this was going to be through his son,

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Jesus Christ, who dies on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sins, not just for the

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Jews, but also for the Gentiles. And this is the statement that's made in John 3, 15 to 16.

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As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.

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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

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So Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness for Israel, but the son of man will be lifted up for whoever believes in him, whoever looks upon him.

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It was a type in a shadow, that bronze serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness pointing to someone greater who would be lifted up.

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Jesus Christ who would be raised up on a standard himself, nailed to a cross and those who look upon him, their sins will be forgiven.

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The deadly poison of sin, which has affected their bodies, that has afflicted them and will lead to certain death, they will be healed and will have fellowship with God now in this life and even also the promise of life forevermore.

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The way we finish Isaiah in chapter 66, this actually closes something that had started back in chapter 56.

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And I didn't point this out when we did our final verses there in Isaiah 66.

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So let me jump back 10 chapters to Isaiah 56, where it says, thus says

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Yahweh, keep justice and do righteousness for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed.

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How blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who takes hold of it, who keeps from profaning the

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Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say,

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Yahweh will surely separate me from his people nor let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree for thus says

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Yahweh to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant.

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To them, I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name that is better than that of sons and daughters.

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I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. And notice that sounds exactly the same as what we see here at the end of Isaiah 66.

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Just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I make will endure before me declares Yahweh. So your seed and your name will endure and it shall be from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all mankind will come to worship before me.

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So this is the close of sort of that framework that had begun in chapter 56.

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It begins with that poem at the start of 56, it concludes with those final words at the end of Isaiah 66.

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So this is demonstrating, it starts there in 56, it ends in 66 showing that people from all nations are invited to come and be a part of God's people and will be in God's covenant family.

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And everyone will know their creator as their redeemer.

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And God had used this that had happened to the Israelites to show how

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God was going to do something even greater than through the Jewish people. And this is why when you read

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Matthew Henry's commentary on Isaiah, probably the most profound of any commentary that has ever been written on Isaiah, it is deep and it is vast.

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And it is even longer than what we read through when we went through the book of Isaiah. But anyway, when you read through Matthew Henry's commentary he will use the terms

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Israel and the church interchangeably because he understood that what we're reading about in Isaiah is ultimately pointing toward a people that God is calling to himself from all over the world and that is his church.

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"'I will build my church,' Jesus said." And it's made up of all people from all tribes, tongues and nations on earth who look upon the sun and call upon him and look to him for the forgiveness of their sins.

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They are part of this covenant people that will inhabit the new heavens and the new earth that God has promised.

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Now, as I finished this up, there were a couple of comments that I received about chapters 65 and 66.

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I don't have them up in front of me. So I'm just kind of gonna summarize the comments the way that I received them.

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But there was a statement in chapter 65 that I kind of brushed over pretty fast. And I don't know that I pointed out the significance of the words that are used in Isaiah 65 11.

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Well, let me come back up to verse eight here. So this is Isaiah 65 and starting in verse eight. "'Thus says

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Yahweh, as the new wine is found in the cluster and one says, do not make it a ruin for there is benefit in it.

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So I will act on behalf of my slaves in order not to make all of them a ruin.

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I will bring forth a seed from Jacob and a possessor of my mountains from Judah. Even my chosen ones shall possess it and my slaves will dwell there.'"

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So we're seeing here how God is gonna preserve his people and will dwell upon his mountain.

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"'Sharon will be a pasture land for flocks and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds for my people who seek me.

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But for you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for fortune and who fill cups with mixed wine for destiny.

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I will destine you for the sword and all of you will bow down to the slaughter because I called, but you did not answer.

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I spoke, but you did not hear and you did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which

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I was not pleased." So why am I reading this again? Well, someone had brought up a question about fortune and destiny.

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They were reading from a different translation. There were different words there. It doesn't say who set a table for fortune and who fill my cups with mixed wine for destiny.

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It had different words. I don't remember now which translation that was. But the names there are actually for false gods and fortune is the

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Hebrew word gad, which was probably the planet Jupiter. Now those stars that were brightest in the sky and did not twinkle, the planets don't twinkle when you go outside and you look at them because they're closer to the earth and they're also reflecting light.

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They're not generating light. So they don't have the twinkle that stars have. So when you see those bright lights in the sky, usually the first ones that appear at sunset, they're the ones that the pagans would attribute to being gods or being representative of gods.

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And Jupiter was gad in Hebrew and it was worshiped as the greater fortune.

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It's the brighter light. It's the brightest object in the night sky after the moon.

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And so this is the one to whom pagans would attribute fortune. He was the giver of good luck, essentially.

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And then the lesser light, there would be another planet that would appear with Jupiter as the sun would set and that would be the planet

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Venus. And that one would be called lesser fortune. So when you look at these words once again, who set a table for fortune and who fill my cups or who fill cups,

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I can't ever get that line right, who fill cups with mixed wine for destiny. That's greater fortune and lesser fortune, literally how that comes out to be.

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And those were pagan gods. So you forsake Yahweh, you forget my holy mountain, you set a table for fortune and fill cups with mixed wine for destiny.

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Hey, I got the line right that time. So these were the false gods that the people worshiped.

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They forsook Yahweh and they worshiped false gods. And it was exactly for that reason that God was exiling them into the hands of their enemies because they did not worship the

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Lord God, they worshiped false gods. So that's the explanation for fortune and for destiny.

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And we remember the words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying that you cannot dine at the table of the

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Lord and at the table of demons. You're either all in for God or you're not.

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I mean, if you're trying to share the glory of God with all these other things, false gods that you may worship or expectations that you have, fame, popularity, wealth, whatever it might happen to be, you try to go after those other things, rightly named fortune and destiny in the legacy standard translation, well, then you have forsaken

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God. Though you may claim to worship God, you don't really because the worship God demands is exclusive.

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I will have no other gods before me, the very first of the 10 commandments. So that was something that was mentioned in Isaiah 65 and I just kind of jumped through it real quick.

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In Isaiah 66, there was one other one, a comment that I got about chapter 66.

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It was in verse 17. I did kind of address this last time too, but those who sanctify and purify themselves to go to the gardens following one in the center who eats swine's flesh, detestable things and mice will come to an end altogether declares

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Yahweh. And I got a question from somebody that was asking me about all this mentioned about Sabbaths, we've heard it in chapter 56 and 66 and the right foods to eat.

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We see that in chapter 66, the one who eats swine's flesh will come to an end altogether. And a person is hearing this and actually gets kind of nervous about it.

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Well, should we not be eating pig? Because after all, as it said at the very start of the chapter, this is the one to whom

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I will look to him who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word. And so doesn't the word of God say that we should abstain from eating these particular animals?

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Well, as I pointed out when we were in Mark chapter seven, the reason for the dietary laws was about ceremonial cleanliness and specifically separating the

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Jewish people from Gentiles. Since God's people is made up of Jews and Gentiles now together who've been reconciled together and reconciled to God, then those dietary laws are unnecessary since the purpose of those laws was to purify the

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Jewish people or to keep them pure from the Gentile practices. But now since we are

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Jews and Gentiles together in the family of God, there's no reason for that separation. We eat at the same table together.

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Thus, Jesus declares in Mark seven, all foods clean and says in Acts 10 to Peter, repeats this thing to Peter when he says, rise, kill and eat and don't call unclean what

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God has called common. You know, even before we got to the dietary laws in Leviticus chapter 11,

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God had already declared all foods clean prior to the giving of the

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Levitical law, of the ceremonial law regarding proper worship in the tabernacle and in the temple.

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After the floodwaters subsided and Noah made a sacrifice unto

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God, the Lord said in Genesis nine, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

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And the fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky with everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea into your hand they are given.

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Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you as with the green plant,

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I give all to you. However, flesh with its life, that is its blood, you shall not eat.

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Surely I will require your life blood from every living thing I will require it and from every man, from each man's brother,

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I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed for in the image of God, he made man.

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As for you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it.

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So even there, going back to Genesis nine three, every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.

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You could eat any animal you wanted prior to the giving of the law that was handed down to Moses, given to the

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Levitical priests and the people of Israel followed for 1500 years until Jesus declares all foods clean and those dietary laws are abolished.

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They're fulfilled in Christ really is what it is. Colossians chapter two saying, let no one disqualify you with regard to food and drink or a festival or a new moon or a

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Sabbath, for these were a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ. So Christ has fulfilled all of this, there are no longer dietary laws that keep us separated.

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But I'll still have, you know, somebody will say, well, isn't it true that pig wasn't food?

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So when we read that all foods are clean, that's just talking about the foods that they were allowed to eat in Leviticus 11, but that still excludes pig because it wasn't really considered food.

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This is a common argument that I hear, especially the Hebrew roots guys that will come up with this.

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But again, going back to Genesis 9, 3, every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.

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So that would include pork. That was food even for Noah and his descendants in Genesis 9.

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Again, it's not until the dietary laws come about and the purpose of those laws was ceremonial cleanliness to keep

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Jews separated from Gentiles. And since we're not separated anymore but reconciled to God in Christ, then that's the reason why those dietary laws have been abrogated and we don't have to abide by those anymore.

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There's not a tabernacle or a temple made with human hands that we have to go into and be ceremonially clean in order to worship there.

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We worship God from everywhere. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, where worship will not happen on this mountain or in Jerusalem, but worship will happen everywhere for we worship the

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Father in spirit and in truth. So those were the last couple of comments that I had there about our study in Isaiah.

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And now having brought this to a close, I hope you have enjoyed the year plus that we have been in the book of Isaiah and have learned something about this.

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But ultimately, once again, all of this intended to point us to Christ. And I come back again as I bring this to a close from that passage that we read in Isaiah 53.

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Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Yet ourselves, we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions.

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He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our peace fell upon him and by his wounds, we are healed.

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All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

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Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've studied here in the book of Isaiah. And I pray that it does indeed rejuvenate our hearts and stimulates our thinking toward Christ.

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We live as exiles in this world. And as we look to the new heavens and the new earth, we look to Christ who rules over both heaven and earth, everything seen and unseen.

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We find our confidence in Christ, not in anything that is happening in this world, not in wicked rulers who are gonna lead our nations to more and more depravity, but we look to the

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God, the Holy God of the universe who leads us into his righteousness. And may we live righteously before you this day after Christ and in expectation of that glorious kingdom that awaits us.

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It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. This has been, When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word,