Isaiah 66:14-24 ~ When you see this, your heart will rejoice
and you will flourish like grass; the
hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his
fury will be shown to his foes. See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots
are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with
fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment on all people, and
many will be those slain by the Lord. “Those who
consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is
among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will
meet their end together with the one they follow,” declares the Lord. “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to
come and gather the people of all
nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. “I will
set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the
nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers),
to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame
or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And
they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in
Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses,
in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain
offerings, to the temple of the Lord in
ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select
some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the Lord. “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will
endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will
your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another,
all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. “And they
will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the
worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched,
and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
Only God's servants and those obedient to God and His Word will rejoice under His protecting hand. His enemies and the enemies of the Cross will endure His wrath. God's judgment and wrath are exposed clearly in verse 17 and 18:
“Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow [disobedience],” declares the Lord. “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.
People were worshiping idols in gardens and performing special rituals. They were eating forbidden meat to purposely demonstrated there firm resolution and disdain for God and His commands and statutes. Because of this disobedience they would face God's wrath. The consequences of belief and rebellion are then neatly wrapped up in verse 22-24.
Those who believe will have a name for posterity or, "your name and descendants endure." Rebellion will ultimately cause death, suffering and everlasting torment. There bodies will be eaten by worms that never die and, "the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.” They will end up in Gehenna...Hell.
Here we see God's blessing and His wrath. It pivots on choices. There is no "happy-go-lucky Christ" here. Conversely, there is no hateful God/Christ here either for exhibiting His wrath and justified holy anger here. There is no "Buddy Christ" here. We see no "Jesus is My Homeboy" here. These images are degrading and frankly, are atrocious ways to view the One that was scourged, spit upon and crucified for you to be able to so casually make callous statements such as these. Its abuse of grace. It would be no different than you or I spitting on Him as He lumbered and staggered up the path to Golgotha. He's better than you and I...infinitely so. We would've never taken those nails in our hands or scourging for our enemies that hated us. We may be co-equals to the Father if we are in Him but make no mistake about it...it isn't because of anything we could possibly muster from that sin darkened core that resides within that we call a soul.
In Isaiah's closing we see a holy, sovereign, omnipotent and perfectly just God described with the power over life and death, blessing and curse, Heaven or Hell. Christ is indeed our friend as He is a friend of sinners...not not the "buddy" that we can just choose to ignore the way the modern culture paints Him out to be. We do not pray to Him as a Cosmic Santa, but rather the One that will sit in judgment on us from His throne on that great day, the "Day of the Lord".
He is Almighty God, The Great "I AM", He is אבא / Abba, but it is under the pretense that He is to obeyed and respected as a providing Father should be. He is pure light and their is no darkness in Him. He is the Alpha and Omega, not just the Beta, Delta and Gamma. He is the Holy One of Israel. He is the Transcendent One and He is עִמָּנוּאֵל Imanu'el. He is the Ancient of Days, not just the end of days. He is indeed loving and relation but at the same time He is infinite and incomprehensible. He's not your buddy, He's your Lord. He's not your homeboy, He's your King.
We need to learn respect and a sense of awe for the One who has control over diseases, injuries, demons, the weather, and even death. In our attempts to make Jesus the approachable friend in seeker-sensitive America we often strip Him of His overpowering awe and majesty and make Him a pushover or a doormat. Even though that is how He appeared the first time, He ended victorious anyway. What I know for certain is this...He will not becoming back as a meek slain lamb, He will be returning as the conquering Lion of Judah. Lions are incredibly powerful, have sharp claws and teeth that can tear meat from bone.
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