“A Nation Born at Once”
Isaiah 66:5-14
July 31, 2005
by C.W. Powell
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“1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven [is] my throne, and the earth [is] my footstool: where [is] the house that ye build unto me? and where [is] the place of my rest?
2 For all those [things] hath mine hand made, and all those [things] have been, 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.
3 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.
4 I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose [that] in which I delighted not.
5 ¶ 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.
6 A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompence to his enemies.
7 Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? [or] shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut [the womb]? saith thy God.
10 Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her:
11 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
12 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon [her] sides, and be dandled upon [her] knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 And when ye see [this], your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and [his] indignation toward his enemies.” (Isa 66:1-14 AV)
Last week we looked at the first several verses of Isaiah 66 in the light of Deacon Stephen’s defense in Acts 7. Stephen would be the first martyr of the Christian Church after that of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He had been accused of saying that Jesus of Nazarus would destroy the temple and do away with the customs that Moses had given to Israel. It was a false charge, of course, because the Jew had no understanding of his own religion, and had turned His temple worship into idolatry.
As we saw last week, there is no temple in which you can enclose God. He won’t fit into the boxes in which you put Him He fills the heavens and the earth. At the dedication of the Temple, Solomon said: “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!” (2Ch 6:18 AV)
Jesus said, Be careful how you hear. The accusation against Stephen was a most subtle and wicked slander be-cause it played right into the slander of the Jews. They conceived of God as something other than what He was, one who could be placated and pleased with ceremonies and the blood of bulls and goats. They did not under-stand the most fundamental attribute of God, that of His independence. What did He need of bulls and goats. The silver is His, the gold is His, the cattle on a thousand hills. Will He dwell in temples made with hands?
Even at the dedication of the Temple, Solomon made this point over and over. “Hear thou in thy dwelling place,” “Hear thou in Heaven…” and such phrases were used by him again and again in His prayer of dedica-tion, that is recorded in 1 Kings 8.
But they did not hear. “We are Abraham’s seed. We have the promises and the covenant. Through us God will bless the world. When Messiah comes he will reign over the whole world and this temple will be the center of it all. All the world will come to sacrifice to the God of Israel, and our king will rule the whole world. His kingdom will be forever and ever. Then the Gentiles will learn what obedience is and they will be ruled with a rod of iron and the God of the Jews will be blessed forever.” As with all idolatry, they spun a very clever web of plausibility, managing to put themselves at the very center of it.
So you must be careful how you hear. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. You will not be able to discern the slanderous accusations that the devil makes against the servants of God if your heart is not instructed in the knowledge of God. The Jews had their basic idolatry challenged by the de-fense of Stephen and they reacted as idolatry always does when confronted by the truth: in hatred, more lies, and in this case murder, for the blood of Stephen was shed that day by the most religious people of the day.
Reformed theology does not engage in proof-texting. Usually proof-texting distorts and corrupts the meaning. This is so common as to be laughable at times. The last time I taught Reformed theology I taught the great doc-trines of grace. One auditor said, “But what about the verse that says, ‘God is not willing that any should per-ish, but that all should come to repentance.’” “There is no such verse in the Bible,” I said. He looked very confused. I continued, “You think you quoted 2Pet 3:9, but you didn’t. The verse says ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ (2Pe 3:9 AV) That says something very different from what you thought you were quoting. It says that all the elect will come to repentance, and that is the reason that the Lord has not yet returned to judge the world.”
If you do not study Isaiah 66, then you will not understand the defense that Stephen makes. Having believed on Christ, who is the light of the world, the early Christian understood the Jews’ religion better than they did. We can imagine Stephen saying something like this, “Your Scriptures promise that when Messiah comes, he will suffer and die for sins, and the message of forgiveness and mercy will go to all the world. There will be no more temple at Jerusalem for offerings of praise and thanksgiving will be offered to God throughout the world, and there will be no more sacrifices of the blood of bulls and goats.” They heard what they wanted to hear, were outraged, retreated into their basic idolatry and brought Stephen to trial and to death. Be careful how you hear.
Stephen’s quotation of Isaiah 66 is a pointed to where the heart of his defense lies. So let us look again to Isaiah 66.
Vs. 1. God does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Vs. 2. God dwells with those of a humble and contrite heart, who do not tremble at ceremonies, but at the word of God.
Vs. 3. There ceremonies had become abominable, because they were not offered to the true God, but to an idol of their own fashioning. Not a grave image of course, but an idol image in their own hearts.
Vs. 4. They had chosen their own way, and now God makes His choice, to choose to bring horror upon them.
Now let us look at today’s Scripture: vs. 5-14.
Vs. 5. The true people of God would be a persecuted and despised people in the eyes of the Jews. They would be cast out as the blind man was cast out of the temple because he refused to denounce Christ for having healed him on the Sabbath day. Just as Stephen would be cast out, just as the apostles and prophets were slain, as Stephen said in his defense. The persecutors would do this in the name of the Lord, and would do in the guise of bringing glory to God, but God would vindicate them and make the pesecutors ashamed.
Vs. 6. The word of the Lord would come forth from Jerusalem, and it would come forth from the Temple, just as the Jews thought, but it would be a very different message than they expected. Let us look at another passage quoted by Stephen, that of Amos 5:
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18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I re-gard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.” (Am 5:18-27 AV)
Vs. 7,8. Here is the message that will come from Jerusalem and from the Temple: "A nation would be born at once." Please note:
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A. The travail of Israel was to bring forth Christ. This is what Israel was all about. God didn’t need the sacrifices and the ceremonies and the blood of bulls and goats, but He would send His only be-gotten Son into the world, and a nation would be born of Him.
B. Jesus had said this in John- “24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (Joh 12:24-25 AV)
C. Again:-
“30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.
31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.” (Joh 12:30-33 AV)
D. This nation was born on the Day of Pentcost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out. Hear the way Peter interpreted this event:-
“32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Je-sus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” (Ac 2:32-41 AV)
E. Also Peter himself on this matter of the nation born at once:-
“9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1Pe 2:9-10 AV)
This last from Peter is a quotation of Hosea, that we will look at at some future occasion, but it re-enforces the point that God revealed Himself to Israel as the God of the whole earth and that the ceremonies and temple were symbols of the true worship of God, but not the very worship itself.
- “24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
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A. God has kept His promises. He has brought forth Christ and the church in Him.
B. Israel did not abort, but fulfilled exactly what God intended for them.
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“33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to hus-bandmen, and went into a far country:
34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
35 And the husband-men took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.
37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those hus-bandmen?
41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvel-lous in our eyes?
43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.” (Mt 21:33-45 AV)
Application:
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A. The most important thing we can do is study to know the attributes of God, that we be not carried away by the slander of the devil.
B. Love Israel, because of the promises and purposes of God, but understand that she lies under the chas-tening of the Lord until she abandons her idolatry and turns to the Lord Jesus Christ. Her regathering will be the enrichment of the world, even more than her casting away.
C. Rejoice in the church of God which is found in all the world, among many people and nations. The church is a nation within the nations. Her master is the Lord Jesus Christ and Her rule is the Gospel of Christ. We are to love all those as David himself said: “For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.” (Ps 61:5 AV)
D. Let us love one another and follow the faith and commandments of our Lord Jesus.