Isaiah 65: 1 – 25
Why Must He Say, ‘Here I Am’
1 “I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by My name. 2 I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts; 3 A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick; 4 Who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs; Who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5 Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. 6 “Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will repay—even repay into their bosom—7 Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” says the LORD, “Who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed Me on the hills; Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.” 8 Thus says the LORD: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,’ so will I do for My servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all. 9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 10 Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me. 11 “But you are those who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni. 12 Therefore I will number you for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; Because, when I called, you did not answer; When I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight.” 13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed; 14 Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit. 15 You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; For the Lord GOD will slay you, and call His servants by another name; 16 So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes. 17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 20 “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; They shall not plant and another eat; For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. 24 “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
I beat on my chest when I realize the words of our Great Creator. We will read about our sins. He will say, ‘Because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear.’ I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people. People who provoke Me to anger continually to My face’ He calls out to mankind continuously saying, ‘Here I Am, here I Am. And what does mankind do in response to such an amazing Holy and Loving God – We ignore Him. Oh Lord please forgive us. It is true that we are nothing but dust. Thank you for Your faithfulness in not quitting on us. You Are truly awesome. There is no one like You, Almighty God.
In today’s study we learn that the prophet Isaiah continues his theme that not all will suffer the fate of Edom. He learns that God will rise up a new nation, springing from the old and containing many from among the nations. But the large part of those who called themselves His people will be brought into judgment
1 “I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by My name
We start off by learning our Holy Adoni Yahweh’s reply to the question as to whether He will save the undeserving. He will create a new nation. Those who had no intention of asking things of Him, or of seeking Him, will find Him and enquire of Him, because He, Yahweh, will cause it to be so. He will say, ‘Here I Am’, twice to a nation which was ‘not called by His name’, that is a new nation which He will form but which up to this point has not borne His name. It will be composed of those who in the past were not seen as His or responsive to Him, and had not claimed membership of the covenant, but to Whom He will Sovereignty say, ‘Look to Me’, and they will look.
So by His own powerful call He will bring to His feet some that have constantly had nothing to do with Him. It also has in mind the future call of the Gentiles. They too will come.
The term ‘A nation’ is significant. This may possibly refer to a nation within the nation, a minority from whom He will form a new nation. Thus He is declaring that hope has not gone because, although He must judge His people, He will form for Himself a new nation to replace the old, which will include all Whom He brings to Himself, a nation composed of the least expected. He will produce an Israel which is truly of God. On the other hand those who do claim to be called by His name, but are hypocritical, will be rejected and punished because of their unfaithfulness and idolatry.
2 I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts;
In contrast with those in verse 1 are these who have been the constant subject of God’s appeals through Isaiah, who profess to be called by Yahweh’s name, but have been rebellious and instead of walking by the covenant and the Law, have walked in a way that is not good, following their own ideas and desires. He has spread out His hands to them all day, that is unceasingly, but still they will not listen.
Please see here the reversal of the usual position of spreading out the hands. Usually men stretch out their hands to God, but God had become so concerned for them that He had reversed the roles.
3 A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick; 4 Who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs; Who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5 Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
He points out that the reason that they will not listen is because they are people who constantly provoke Him to His face by sacrificing and offering incense to false gods in the sacred gardens on rooftops and in sacred groves. Both sacrificing in gardens (to Baal and Asherah) and burning on brick altars were forbidden (Exodus 20.25; Deuteronomy 27.5-6).
Take a look at the statement -‘Who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places.’ This would be a great reference for Halloween. People have this infatuation with the dead. This refers to consulting the dead and various occult practices. The infamy of what they did is revealed by their secrecy (Ezekiel 8.8-12).
In addition, they deliberately partake of that which has been declared unclean, and what is socially abhorrent.
Some say, “Stand by yourself. Do not come near to me, for I am holier than you.’ This is speaking of elitist sects in which participants move from grade to grade and engage in ever more degrading ritual. They are exclusivist and divisive, and by their attitude reveal that they are heavily committed and dedicated to false gods.
‘These are a smoke in my nose, a fire which burns all the day.’ Our Holy Father Yahweh Is not impressed by them. They are a continual smoke in His nose, something which makes Him want to splutter and spew them out. This is a contrast with the delightful aroma that arose to Him when offerings were made by the righteous (Genesis 8.21; Exodus 29.18, 25, 41).
6 “Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will repay—even repay into their bosom—7 Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” says the LORD, “Who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed Me on the hills; Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”
The sins of these people and the similar sins of their fathers are written before Him, that is, it is permanently recorded and will therefore be permanently remembered. And He will not withhold action and do and say nothing. They will be paid in full. Yes, they will be paid in full and with personal effect (‘into their bosom’). So whoever is saved it will only be a remnant.
For they go into the mountains and hills to burn sacrifices and incense to Baal and Asherah. Like the people way back with their involvement with the Tower of Babble, their thought was that the nearer they got to the heavens the more likely that Baal would be forced to respond to their suggestive worship. This is blasphemy against Yahweh. Therefore all will receive personally for what they have done - ‘Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together.
So we see that while our Holy God has guaranteed that there will be a nation that survives, it will be a new nation. And large numbers of the old nation will face their necessary judgment. This is the inevitability, the necessary response of a Holy God.
During his inaugural call way back in chapter 6 Isaiah had been warned that the people of Judah/Israel would go through refinement after refinement because of the depths of their sinfulness. God had warned him not to expect easy results. Few of His so-called people would be saved. But in the end, He had promised, there would be a stump remaining, a holy seed (6.13).
8 Thus says the LORD: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,’ so will I do for My servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all. 9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My Mountains; My elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 10 Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me.
The ‘wine dripping’ is referring to the juice that flows from the grapes at the treading of the winepress. It is the initial squeezing of the fruit. The second process is the smashing of the grapes to derive the rest of the juice. We learned in chapter 63 verse 3 that Israel are like grapes ready for the winepress of God’s wrath, but the early juice drippings represent the remnant. Such early drippings were in fact particularly potent (Hosea 4.11). That is why men said, ‘Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it.’ So the remnant will be preserved as so often in Isaiah, because they have a God-given quality different from the remainder.
There is no longer a thought of Israel as The Servant, it is the faithful in Israel who are now ‘His servants’, and it is for their sakes that He will refrain from destroying all. It is thus made clear that large numbers will yet perish like Edom, but that in response to Isaiah’s pleas, and the work of the Servant/Anointed One, not all will perish. The holy seed, the ‘many’ for whom the Servant suffered will be spared which chapter 53.11, 12 highlights.
Our Holy Father God, Adoni Yahweh reveals His determination to fulfill His promises to the patriarchs, here represented by Jacob. Such continuing seed and the reception of the land as their inheritance were two foundation pillars of Israel’s belief patterns. Now He guarantees that He will fulfill both the promise of the seed and the promise of the land (Genesis 13.15; 28.13-14). They are the inheritors, and they will inherit it. And those who are faithful to Him, His servants, will dwell there.
Please take note the use of the plural ‘My chosen ones’, and ‘My servants’, Their destiny as the chosen Servant (42.1; 44.1) has been performed by Another, and through His redemptive work (52.13-53.12) they now carry on His work. Israel is to find its fulfillment in Him Who is the fulfillment of the ideal of Israel. It is He Who Is ‘Israel’, the true representation of Israel, which is why they are no more described as Israel. And they are no more the Servant, for they failed in that responsibility also, while God’s prime purpose in Abraham has been fulfilled in the Anointed One. The faithful, however, are still His chosen and still His servants.
Sharon was to the west and Achor to the east, thus the whole land is in mind. The promise is that once again the land will be fruitful. Sharon was first to be made a desert under God’s judgments (33.9), thus this restoration follows that event. The valley of Achor (‘troubling’) was the place where the sin of Achan was purged by his death (Judges 7.24-26), and had clearly become symbolic of trouble, for according to Hosea 2.15 that troubled valley was to become a door of hope when God began to act, and here it is to become a place where cattle could rest. So the troubled places will become blessed. His true responsive people will prosper. The picture indicates the future prosperity of His true people in terms that they would appreciate, and their final blessing in the new heavens and the new earth. Such blessings would be for those who sought Yahweh.
11 “But you are those who forsake the LORD, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni. 12 Therefore I will number you for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; Because, when I called, you did not answer; When I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight.”
On the other hand there is no guaranteed blessing for all. Those who forsake our Creator Yahweh God and forget His dwelling place (His holy mountain), indulging rather in idolatrous behavior, will be subject to judgment by the sword. And this will be because when He called they did not respond, but continued in their sinfulness and refused to do the things that would please Him. This happened again and again, and one outstanding example is the final destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the people under the Romans (Luke 21.24.
Fortune (Gad) was a widely worshipped Syrian god. Meni means ‘apportionment’ related to the affecting of destiny. Both gods were connected therefore with the affecting of destiny. It was all the more absurd therefore that they who were thought powerful enough to affect the future had to be wined and dined.
‘I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter.’ Note the play on ‘destiny’. It is Yahweh rather than these false gods Who can determine these people’s destiny. And instead of bowing to these false gods they will have to bow to slaughter.
The reason for their punishment is made clear. God called them and spoke to them, but they neither responded nor heard. Rather they chose to go against His will, doing what they knew Yahweh saw as evil, and refusing to do what they knew He would delight in.
So Yahweh’s answer to Isaiah’s pleas is that a remnant will be saved, an unexpected remnant (verse 1), but that large numbers will face His judgment because they go their own ways and refuse to respond to Him. In spite of his promises of a coming Deliverer Isaiah was well aware that much had to happen before He could do His work. But one thing he did know, eventually that work would be brought to completion. And he now closes his book with a vision of what is to come. The final vision of Isaiah centers on the fact that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Old things will pass away and all things will become new, just as he has constantly promised.
” 13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed; 14 Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit.
In the future it will be Yahweh’s servants who will enjoy all the good things, eating and being satisfied, drinking and having their thirst quenched, rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while the servants of these false gods will be hungry, and thirsty, and shamefaced, and sorrowful of heart and howling because their spirit is broken. Their revelry will become mourning and misery.
Every good which His true people will enjoy, will result in the opposite for those who reject Him. They who thought they had made a wise choice with their eating and drinking with the gods, their celebrations in the mountains and the valleys, their bawdy, wine-produced singing, their partying and their good times will now discover that their destiny is the very reverse of what they have enjoyed, while those who have been faithful to Yahweh will enjoy them to the greatest extent possible.
15 You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; For the Lord GOD will slay you, and call His servants by another name; 16 So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes.
Have you ever heard the statement, ‘If your ancestors knew about what you are doing they would be turning in their graves?’What is going on here is the ultimate of shame brought on a family. Look again what this verse says - ‘And you will leave your name for a curse (‘an oath’) to my chosen, and the Lord Yahweh will slay each of you.’ In the judgment that is coming on them, which will be individual slaying at the hand of Yahweh as previously experienced by the Edomites (63.1-6), they will leave their name behind, that which represents what they are, and to God’s chosen ones their name will be a name for cursing by (because it will be seen as so hideous). Their reputation will be gone. Their name will be a curse. The righteous on looking back on them will despise and reject them. (It is unimportant what the name was, what matters is that it represented them, and that it is now shamed).
Adoni Yahweh Father God will give His servants a new name. The renaming of His people, as He renamed Abraham (Genesis 17.5) and Jacob (Genesis 32.28), indicates a new beginning. They will no longer look back to what they were, nor to themselves as belonging to the people to whom they once belonged, who’s very name will be only usable for cursing, a sign of the contempt in which it is held. They will be a separated people, separated to Yahweh. They will be a new people, a new nation, and the faithful remnant as augmented by Gentiles (65.1) who will be grafted in among them. God will have a new chosen people, founded on a remnant of the old.
The remarkable fulfillment of this when they became known as ‘Messiah-men’ (‘Christ-men’ - Christians - Acts 11.26) should not be overlooked. They gradually recognized that they were no longer ‘Jews’, and turned their backs on the old Judaism, beginning anew as the Israel of God and as ‘Christ’s men’. And this new name meant that to them God was the God of Amen, the One Who was sure, and would answer and keep all His promises.
There seems also to be the suggestion that their being renamed will mean that God too will be seen in a new way as the God of Amen. But it will only be in a new way because the people had refused it before. For the name means the God Who is a ‘yes’ to His promises (2 Corinthians 1.20), Who is Faithful and True (Revelation 3.14), the One Who will keep the everlasting covenant that He has made.
So when His people in the future bless themselves or make a judicial oath it will be in the name of the One Who says ‘yes’ to His promises, which will emphatically change how they view their oaths, and the way they see their future. To ‘bless themselves’ signifies recognizing their part in the blessings of God, in the Abrahamic promises (Genesis 12.3; 22.18; 26.4). Now it will have a new meaning to them as they recognize that God is the ‘Amen’ to it all. They will have full faith in Yahweh, and doubt will have been done away.
At this new beginning all the old failures will be put behind Him, they will be deliberately hidden from His eyes. God will no more remember them.
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
There will not only be a new people and a new name, and a new trust in the God of Amen, the God of Certainty, but God will also create a new creation, new Heavens and a new Earth, and He will create a new Jerusalem. All is to be created anew. There is to be a totally new beginning. All previous references to the New Jerusalem must be seen in this light. The word for ‘create’ is bara’, a strong word used only of God as creating something new that was not previously there (compare 4.5; and see its use in Genesis 1.1, 21, 27). And we can add ‘out of nothing’, for no prior material is ever described. It stresses the greatness of the transformation.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 20 “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, but the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
This new ‘Jerusalem’, which will be where all God’s people will be, living in His presence, will be a place of joy and long life. God’s eye will ever be on His people and He will rejoice over them, and His joy will be in them. There will be no more weeping, no more crying, no more premature deaths, no more deaths before life has been fully lived. Isaiah is thinking of all the causes of grief for mankind, and declaring that they will be gone forever. No child will die in infancy. There will be no premature death. And the thought is not that the old man will finally die full of years, but that no man will come to such a state. There will be no old and dying men. Such tragedies will not occur at all in the New Jerusalem because no one will die. Death is not a happening there. There will be no mourning, no tears.
This is then followed by one of the most enigmatic statements in the Old Testament, on any interpretation.
‘For the child will die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old will be accursed.’ The application of the round period of a hundred years to both children and sinners should immediately make us beware of taking these phrases literally. This is teaching by exaggeration and contrast and symbolism. ‘The child will die a hundred years old’ does not mean that the period of childhood will be lengthened to that extent, for such an idea would be contradicted by the parallel statement (it would make the ‘sinners’ only children), and even in the days of extreme longevity men were having children, and therefore were adults, well below a hundred (see Genesis 5). It is indicating rather that there will be no such thing as a child dying young. The thought of such a death was so fantastic that it would only happen to a one hundred year old child that is it was something to be seen as totally incredible.
Would we really rejoice at, or approve of, the fact that parents are to see their children die, even if they have lasted for such a long period? Why is this any better in the long run than the child dying at birth? Surely the grief would be even greater. In days of extreme longevity such a death would be an equal tragedy to any death known today. We would simply be looking at tragedy on a longer scale. And yet this is supposed to be a place where there is no weeping and no tears.
We must therefore suggest that it is rather a statement utilizing exaggeration and saying that such deaths are now not to be thought of. It is stating the ridiculous. It is saying that so impossible will the thought of death be that if a child were to die it would not be until more than a whole lifetime had passed. Thus the fear of premature death, and indeed of any normal death, is seen as no more. It is saying that if such impossibility were to occur it could not be until long after the standard lifetime was past. But the reality, of course, is that it will not occur. There will be no more death. Death will have been swallowed up forever. The exaggeration reveals that it is not to be literalized. The idea to be extracted from it is that death is defeated.
A hundred years old was seen as ‘a long time’. Few people used such numbers precisely. But it was ten time ten. And ten indicated ‘many times’ (Genesis 31.7). Thus one hundred means ‘many times, multiplied by many times’, a period beyond thought, especially when thinking of ages.
And why if children are too literally die at a hundred is the sinner to be seen as accursed because he has lived that long? It would mean that for some a hundred years old is but childhood, while for others it is living a long time. If taken literally this would be totally contradictory. And surely in Old Testament terms living to a hundred would as indicating that the sinner was being blessed? And if the sinner dying at one hundred was seen to be accursed, would that not also apply to the ‘child’ who would also be seen as one who’s dying was accursed? Taking the words literally they are full of contradictions.
Nor can we see how having a child die at a hundred is any better than a premature death. This is supposed to be a statement of the joy of the New Jerusalem, not of its delayed pain. Isaiah is not saying that God has improved things slightly so that children die less quickly. He is declaring that all pain is now over. So any literal interpretation founders on the fact that having a child die at one hundred years old is no less a tragedy than for one to die at one year old. All that would have been delayed is the pain. And because there has been such a length of time in which to get to know the child the pain would be even greater. Thus it is clear that in fact death for such children is being seen as not possible. No child will die because life will then be such that only ‘one-hundred-year-old’ ones could die, and they are simply creatures of imagination.
Let’s take another look at the words, ‘And the sinner being a hundred years old will be accursed.’ This cannot mean that the sinner is cursed because he reaches a hundred, unless the idea is that he will reach it in a pathetic state. But such an idea does not tie in with the idea of longevity. It is much more likely that it is saying vividly that sinners would not want to live to a hundred there. That it would be unbearable for them, a curse to them - For such is this New Jerusalem that to sinners survival there could only be seen as a curse, and the longer the survival the greater the curse. In other words it is saying picturesquely and firmly that this is no place for sinners. They would not want to live even that long here; indeed they would not want to live here at all, for it is for those who are holy.
So in this New Jerusalem, death for the righteous will no longer be there as an enemy, while, for the sinner, extended life, if it were theoretically to occur because he had slipped through unnoticed, could only be a curse. He would not want to be living there. It will be no place for him. This is because it is most pure. (Revelation 21.27 in fact points out that sinners could not enter it. It is saying the same thing in a different way).
Thus the idea is of death being no longer a problem for the righteous; it could not happen until long after their lifetime, while it would be very desirable for any sinner who might squeeze in, because he would consider himself accursed not to die. (This also rids us of the contradiction that no child dies before one hundred but the majority of sinners do).
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; They shall not plant and another eat; For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
The perfection of the place is now described. We have seen before something of the pain people suffered when they saw all that they had labored for destroyed or taken away from them by invaders. That is again in mind here, together also with the consequences of natural disasters and the possibility of losing their land through debt caused by such calamities. Life had been a constant toil because of such experiences and they were regular occurrences.
But in the New Jerusalem this will no longer be so. Houses that they build will be safe to them, neither being destroyed by invaders nor taken from them to pay their debts; the produce of plants they plant will be for them to enjoy, it will be a place safe from invasion and calamity. The vineyard is used as an example because of the length of time before it became productive after planting. No matter how long it took all would be well. And everything would have a new permanence.
During the period between the planting of a tree and its final decease His people will be there to enjoy its fruits. There will be no interruptions, no vain labor, and no calamities. And trees often seem to go on forever. That too will be how people’s lives are. It is a deliberate portraying of Utopia.
This will be because they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh. Because of their response in righteousness to Yahweh they and their children are accounted as their offspring.
All these blessings are in terms of the ideal for the agricultural community. They are seeking to portray this ideal. Indeed the whole purpose here is to build up a picture of perfection, a picture of Paradise.
. 24 “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Such will be the New Jerusalem that Yahweh will be aware of all that His chosen are doing or are in need of. Even before they call He will answer them. As soon as they speak He will hear them. By this His daily concern for His own is revealed. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 verse 8 our Lord Jesus applied this to His own followers when He informed them that they had no need to pray for their daily need, ‘for their heavenly Father knew what they needed before they asked Him’
Please take special note of the contrast with verse 12 and with chapter 66.4. In verse 12 and 66.4 the people who claimed to be His but were not His revealed it by their unresponsiveness to God. When He called, they did not answer. When He spoke they did not hear. But for those who are His there is a glorious reversal. When they call on Him He hears them, As soon as they speak to Him, He hears.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
A lot of people misquote this verse. They respond about the lamb and the lion lying down together. What does the verse say again – ‘The wolf and the lamb. ‘In the new Jerusalem there will be no violence of any kind. Wolf and lamb will feed in the same pasture, the wolf no longer being carnivorous; the lion similarly will eat straw just as oxen do. Wild and domestic beasts will thus thrive together.
There will be one unchanging factor and that is the defeat of the serpent. The serpent will continue to eat the dust. The ‘eating of dust’ is a symbol of defeat and humiliation (Psalm 72.9; Micah 7.17; Isaiah 47.1) and crawling on the belly was widely known as something expected by kings of their humbled foes ( see also Psalm 44.25 where it symbolizes affliction and oppression). Thus this refers to the curse on, and the ignominious defeat of, the serpent (Genesis 3.14) as symbolizing the evil power that lies behind the serpent. There will be no mercy for the tempter. He will still eat the dust.
The description ‘holy mountain’ probably refers to the whole of Israel/Judah whose main settlement was on ‘the mountain’ which ran from north to south, seen as holy because it is God’s land, although it may refer to Mount Zion as God’s dwelling place. Isaiah and his readers receive the revelation in terms of their understanding, the new being described in terms of the old. But in 11.9 the blessing spreads out to the whole earth
It’s a nice way to end. Is it not?
