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Isa 65:1-25.

GOD'S REPLY IN JUSTIFICATION OF HIS DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL.

In

Isa 64:9,

their plea was, "we are all Thy people." In answer, God declares that others (Gentiles) would be taken into covenant with Him, while His ancient people would be rejected. The Jews were slow to believe this; hence Paul says

(Ro 10:20)

that Isaiah was "very bold" in advancing so unpopular a sentiment; he implies what Paul states

(Ro 2:28; 9:6, 7; 11:1-31),

that "they are not all (in opposition to the Jews' plea,

Isa 64:9)

Israel which are of Israel." God's reason for so severely dealing with Israel is not changeableness in Him, but sin in them

(Isa 65:2-7).

Yet the whole nation shall not be destroyed, but only the wicked; a remnant shall be saved

(Isa 65:8-10, 11-16).

There shall be, finally, universal blessedness to Israel, such as they had prayed for

(Isa 65:17-25).

1. I am sought--Hebrew, "I have granted access unto Me to them," &c. (so

Eze 14:3,

"Should I be inquired of";

Eph 2:18).

found--Ro 10:20

renders this, "I was made manifest." As an instance of the sentiment in the clause, "I am sought," &c., see

Joh 12:21;

of the sentiment in this clause,

Ac 9:5.

Compare as to the Gentile converts,

Eph 2:12, 13.

Behold me--

(Isa 45:22).

nation . . . not called by my name--that is, the Gentiles. God retorts in their own words

(Isa 63:19)

that their plea as being exclusively "called by His name" will not avail, for God's gospel invitation is not so exclusive

(Ro 9:25; 1:16).

2. spread out . . . hands--inviting them earnestly

(Pr 1:24).

all . . . day--continually, late and early

(Jer 7:13).

rebellious people--Israel, whose rebellion was the occasion of God's turning to the Gentiles

(Ro 11:11, 12, 15).

way . . . not good--that is, the very reverse of good, very bad

(Eze 36:31).

3. continually--answering to "all the day"

(Isa 65:2).

God was continually inviting them, and they continually offending Him

(De 32:21).

to my face--They made no attempt to hide their sin

(Isa 3:9).

Compare "before Me"

(Ex 20:3).

in gardens--(See on

Isa 1:29;

Isa 66:17; Le 17:5).

altars of brick--Hebrew, "bricks." God had commanded His altars to be of unhewn stone

(Ex 20:25).

This was in order to separate them, even in external respects, from idolaters; also, as all chiselling was forbidden, they could not inscribe superstitious symbols on them as the heathen did. Bricks were more easily so inscribed than stone; hence their use for the cuneiform inscriptions at Babylon, and also for idolatrous altars. Some, not so well, have supposed that the "bricks" here mean the flat brick-paved roofs of houses on which they sacrificed to the sun, &c.

(2Ki 23:12; Jer 19:13).

4. remain among . . . graves--namely, for purposes of necromancy, as if to hold converse with the dead

(Isa 8:19, 20;

compare

Mr 5:3);

or, for the sake of purifications, usually performed at night among sepulchres, to appease the manes [MAURER].

monuments--Hebrew, "pass the night in hidden recesses," either the idol's inmost shrines ("consecrated precincts") [HORSLEY], where they used to sleep, in order to have divine communications in dreams [JEROME]; or better, on account of the parallel "graves," sepulchral caves [MAURER].

eat swine's flesh--To eat it at all was contrary to God's law

(Le 11:7),

but it much increased their guilt that they ate it in idolatrous sacrifices (compare

Isa 66:17).

VARRO (On Agriculture, 2.4) says that swine were first used in sacrifices; the Latins sacrificed a pig to Ceres; it was also offered on occasion of treaties and marriages.

broth--so called from the "pieces" (Margin) or fragments of bread over which the broth was poured [GESENIUS]; such broth, made of swine's flesh, offered in sacrifice, was thought to be especially acceptable to the idol and was used in magic rites. Or, "fragments (pieces) of abominable foods," &c. This fourth clause explains more fully the third, as the second does the first [MAURER].

is in--rather, literally, "is their vessels," that is, constitute their vessels' contents. The Jews, in our Lord's days, and ever since the return from Babylon, have been free from idolatry; still the imagery from idolatrous abominations, as being the sin most loathsome in God's eyes and that most prevalent in Isaiah's time, is employed to describe the foul sin of Israel in all ages, culminating in their killing Messiah, and still rejecting Him.

5.

(Mt 9:11; Lu 5:30; 18:11; Jude 19).

Applicable to the hypocritical self-justifiers of our Lord's time.

smoke--alluding to the smoke of their self-righteous sacrifices; the fire of God's wrath was kindled at the sight, and exhibited itself in the smoke that breathed forth from His nostrils; in Hebrew the nose is the seat of anger; and the nostrils distended in wrath, as it were, breathe forth smoke [ROSENMULLER]

(Ps 18:8).

6. written before me--"it is decreed by Me," namely, what follows

(Job 13:26),

[MAURER]; or, their guilt is recorded before Me (compare

Da 7:10; Re 20:12; Mal 3:16).

into . . . bosom--

(Ps 79:12; Jer 32:18; Lu 6:38).

The Orientals used the loose fold of the garment falling on "the bosom" or lap, as a receptacle for carrying things. The sense thus is: I will repay their sin so abundantly that the hand will not be able to receive it; it will need the spacious fold on the bosom to contain it [ROSENMULLER]. Rather it is, "I will repay it to the very person from whom it has emanated." Compare "God did render the evil of the men of Shechem upon their heads"

(Jud 9:57; Ps 7:16)

[GESENIUS].

7. Their sin had been accumulating from age to age until God at last repaid it in full.

mountains--

(Isa 57:7; Eze 18:6; 20:27, 28; Ho 4:13).

their--"Your" had preceded. From speaking to, He speaks of them; this implies growing alienation from them and greater distance.

work--the full recompense of their work (so

Isa 49:4).

8. new wine--as if some grapes having good wine-producing juice in them, be found in a cluster which the vinedresser was about to throw away as bad, and one saith, &c.

blessing--that is, good wine-producing juice (compare

Jud 9:13; Joe 2:14).

so--God will spare the godly "remnant," while the ungodly mass of the nation shall be destroyed

(Isa 1:9; 6:13; 10:21; 11:11, 12-16).

my servants--the godly remnant. But HORSLEY, "for the sake of my servant, Messiah."