Read with me Isaiah 66:6 … “A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.” Just a short few Lines of Scripture!

The “Voice” here, based on the context of our chapter (Isaiah 66) is None Other than that of Jesus!

Looks like this Circumstance occurs at our Lord’s Second Coming to earth, so aptly described in Revelation 19:11 and Zechariah 14:4.

Yesterday’s Lesson (Isaiah 66:5) plainly declares: “He shall appear to your joy!” God speaking to Israel, the Remnant who have believed in Jesus in those terrible last days of Tribulation!

Also today’s verse teaches us that the Lord (when He returns) will execute judgment on “His enemies.” Who, by the way, are Israel’s enemies too. (If one hates Israel, he or she also hates the God of Israel!)

And Jesus’ Judgment (the “Wrath of the Lamb,” Revelation 6:16) will include expelling all the Jew haters from Jerusalem! Zechariah 14:2 foretells what will have happened: “For I (the Lord) will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity.” The Holy City … overrun by a bunch of filthy rebels, gentiles, anti-Semites!

But Jesus is here (in today’s Text) liberating Jerusalem! (“A Voice of noise from the City (Jerusalem), a voice from the Temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.”)

But He not only cleanses Jerusalem from such vileness … the Temple too! (“A Voice from the Temple!”) Yes, Jesus is going to cleanse that Place once again, one more time, the final time!

Oh, His Love for the House of God! That it be a “House of Prayer,” not a “Den of Thieves.” (Matthew 21:13)

And Jesus’ Judgment? It is here called “rendering recompense” to the enemies! “Giving them what they deserve!” Or “repaying” them, one lexicon says.

This is Galatians 6:7 in fulfillment. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Wow!

See how precise Isaiah is when it comes to the Second Coming of Jesus? Even down to our Lord’s specific Actions!

And, even here in Isaiah 66, there is more to come, the Lord willing. We shall study it again tomorrow morning.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I am glad we’re on the winning Side!

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Isaiah 66:5 is phenomenal!

That verse has taught me (earlier this morning as I studied) that those who hate Israel, persecute her so relentlessly, often do so with a religious motive!

Here is our King James Text … “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” Again, this is Isaiah 66:5.

God is addressing the faithful, the really born-again, in Israel. Bible loving people. “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word.” This much is abundantly clear.

The next line is what “arrested” me. God reminds Israel that she is not (by any means) a “unified” nation. She is hated by some of her very brethren, other Jews. Here’s Isaiah, speaking for the Lord … “Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out.” This is a Statement of historically verifiable fact!

The verb “cast out” is “nadah” in Hebrew. It means “to drive away, to thrust aside.” And it is written in the Piel stem, a Hebrew indication that this action is vigorous, aggressive, very intense.

(If you recall, the man born blind in John chapter 9, the man whom Jesus miraculously healed … was so outspoken about our Lord’s Power and Glory and Deity … that the Pharisees “cast him out” of the Synagogue! An apt illustration of Isaiah’s Sermon here.)

But now notice WHY they so mistreat Israel, true Israel. “Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out FOR MY NAME’S SAKE …!”

They actually believe they have tortured, imprisoned, killed those Israelites … for the sake of the Lord God himself! They cloak their sin in some sort of religious acceptance!

They say, as they light the fire (to burn the Jews to death, to ignite some holocaust) “Let the LORD be glorified.” Unimaginable, but true! (The Catholics did this during the Inquisition. And the Germans under Hitler! Just two examples.)

But, our verse promises, the day will come when all those hateful people … “shall be ashamed.” (Confounded, confused, delayed, disappointed!)

And when will THAT glorious day occur?

And here only the King James Version tells me this: When “He shall appear to your joy.” And I believe this “He” is none other than the returning Saviour, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth!

In other words, God will make it “right” some day!

Let’s reassemble the Text for this morning: “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.”

Some day anti-Semitism will come to an eternal end.

So … this millennia long persecution of the Jews IS spiritually sourced! But it is not coming from God’s Holy Spirit … I say it is coming from the Devil, from Satan, from Lucifer, and from all the wicked who have chosen to follow that pernicious path.

“God bless Israel!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Isaiah’s last chapter often shuttles back and forth between discussions of both “good” and “evil” people … who live upon earth.

For example, in Isaiah 66:2 we saw (yesterday’s Lesson) a godly man “trembling” (in reverence) at God’s Word, and doing so with a “poor and contrite” spirit, in humility.

Bu today, in Isaiah 66:3 we see something quite different. The evil man “trying” to be religious! “Putting on” a false front.

“He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.”

The killing of the “ox” is an act of worship, worshipping Jehovah God. (The ox is the largest and most expensive animal in all the Mosaic law that could be offered to go. This represents REAL love to God!) But in God’s Eyes … if this worshipper has a wicked heart … he (again in God’s Eyes) had just as well committed murder!

Read it: “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man.”

Wow!

And any man, here a Jew, who brings a “lamb” to the altar, the lamb being the central “animal” sacrifice for all Israel … doing so with a hypocritical heart, a sinful heart … had just as well brought a “dog!” (Dogs being unclean animals and “anathema” to God as far as worship is concerned!)

Read it: “He that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck.”

But there’s more in our verse: “He that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood.” The noun “oblation” means a “gift,” one given to God as an act of adoration. This offerer had, not being “in tune” with the Lord, just as well offered hog’s blood! Unclean, unclean, unclean!

And the religious Jew who “burns incense to God” (again an act of worship) with a heart “foreign” to God, not living right … he is (in God’s Eyes) as if he had just blessed/worshipped an idol! “He that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.”

Wow!

These people have “chosen their own (wrong) ways,” Isaiah preached.

They “delight” in their disobedience, their rebellion to the Lord. (Though his deviant lifestyle is “covered/seasoned” with acts of worship, the duties of religion!)

Jesus expertly summed this shocking Isaiah Text in the following manner: “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” Matthew 15:8

See what I mean?

In a fairly short two verse span Isaiah has praised the godly and condemned the ungodly!

God knows our “hearts.”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I have referred (both when studying and preaching) to today’s Text through the years, repeatedly. It suggests a “mindset” we Christians should maintain.

At “attitude” we should cultivate toward the Word of God.

And God is the Speaker, here in Isaiah 66:2. “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”

The verb “look” is significant. Rather than being the normal “raah” (in Hebrew), the Holy Spirit opts for “nabat!” A much stronger term, it seems to me. It means “to pay attention to!” Even this: “to set One’s Desire upon!” God so desiring and overseeing you and me … IF we sufficiently love His Word! In the King James Text, “nabat” means “to consider” 5 times and “to respect” 3 times!

What kind of man so attracts God’s gracious approbation? (The word means “to test” with the idea of one having “passed” that test! It has a Latin background.)

The person with a “poor and contrite” spirit (heart). Where “poor” means “lowly” and “contrite” means “beaten, smitten, stricken!”

Wow!

In other words, a “humble” man or woman. Not “proud” for sure!

But there is another qualification, too … he or she must “tremble” at the Word! THIS is the aspect of our Verse that so intrigues me. Such deep respect for the Bible!

The root (“charad”) means “to be afraid,” no doubt about that. But “to fear” is this sense: being so reverent, so respectful, so honoring the Scripture … that one thereby “trembles.”

Maybe even this: “to be anxiously careful!”

God said this back in 1 Samuel 2:30. “For them that honour Me … I will honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.”

“Dear Lord,” I pray, “grant us this kind of serious attitude toward the Word of God.”

Our Verse, our Clause once again: “Thus saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isaiah 66:2b

Amazing!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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The Millennium is under discussion in Isaiah 65:25, the chapter’s last verse. How living conditions then, under the Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ … here on earth, will be altered for the better! And altered forever!

Actually, it appears the “curse” (as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin) will be lifted from all creation … and things will be restored to their “pre-Garden-of-Eden” innocence, glory.

And our Text today … Isaiah 65:25 … is an example of this “reversal,” at least in the animal world! (God’s Word says a lot about His creatures, the animals. I believe God loves even them! And cares for them as well.)

“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.”

Wolves and lambs … no longer “hunter” and “hunted!” No longer enmity between them!

And lions not attacking and killing innocent little animals? Rather, eating straw (hay) like the cattle do!

And the snakes … a Hebrew word with “dark” connotations, meaning “to practice divination, magic, to observe signs and omens” … will eat “dust,” apparently no longer being venomous!

All nature … transformed!

Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) … here promising … “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.”

No more killing!

No more pain!

And “God’s Holy Mountain,” is specifically the Temple, but all Jerusalem, no doubt the Holy Land (Israel) as well … but it would not surprise me … the entire world!

Wow!

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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