Year 9, Day 50: Isaiah 66

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Isaiah 66, the chapter in this prophetic book, ends with a bang.  Remember from where we’ve come.  The Hebrew people were drifting away from God.  They weren’t keeping the Law.  They weren’t staying close to God.  They were falling away from the ways of the Lord into their own desires and their own idolatry.  These people went into captivity and Isaiah is now giving them words for when the captivity has ended.  He’s setting the record straight.

What is it that God has to say through him?  He tells them quite clearly that it is humbleness that He prefers.  Of all the traits, characteristics, and qualities that God could lift up, humbleness is the one that gets the spotlight.

What is perfection to a perfect God?  What is sacrifice to a God who can create anything He wants?  What is a big temple to a God who calls the earth His footstool?  In fact, God compares the one who sacrifices like a murderer.  He compares the one who lifts up offerings as one who commits idolatry. 

Isaiah is telling the people that it is time they mature in the faith.  Straight obedience, when it isn’t rooted in the heart, doesn’t last.  Obeying laws for the sake of obedience doesn’t lead to anything worthwhile.  It is the heart of man that God is after.  It is an understanding of what we truly are that God wants.  He wants us to know our strengths and our failings.  He wants us to understand how much we need Him.  He wants us to understand how much better life is in Him and not just with Him.

This is the natural conclusion of the Old Testament.  God called Abraham because of his heart, but as generation after generation came about the people didn’t have the same heart.  When they were oppressed in Egypt, God called them out in spite of their rebellion.  He gave them the Law, but because their heart wasn’t in it they couldn’t keep the Law.  They continued to descend further and further into depravity until another captivity was brought about.  God’s point in all of this is that it is the heart of mankind that is important, not our external displays.

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