The Remains Of The Day (Of The Lord) (Isaiah 66:1-24)

At the end of Life of Pi, 16yr old Pi Patel tells two different versions of his ocean survival story to officials investigating the shipwreck.

⇉ The first account involves him surviving 227 days at sea in a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The hyena kills the zebra and later the orangutan. Richard Parker kills the hyena.

⇉ The officials do not believe his account. Pi retells the story. The animals are replaced by humans. The cook kills the sailor and feeds on his flesh. He then kills Pi’s mother, after which Pi kills him and uses his remains as food and fish bait.

At which point your book club disbands.

It’s a good thing that the Book of Isaiah does not have a bizarre ending. Let’s look at it: “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

On our way to this open burial site, we will first visit two Temples:

1. A Tribulation Temple in verses 1-9.
2. A Millennial Kingdom Temple in verses 10-24.

It is The Tale of Two Temples – one that God detests and one that He delights in.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Be Certain That What You Are Building Is According To God’s Preference, and #2 Be Certain That What You Are Building Is Affording God Praise.

#1 – Be Certain That What You Are Building Is According To God’s Preference (v1-9)

Isaiah’s ministry to Judah took place before Solomon’s Temple was destroyed. King Nebuchadnezzar would do the dishonor in 586BC. Jews were taken captive and brought to Babylon.

The Jews returned to Jerusalem after 70yrs of captivity. They rebuilt their Temple, the Second Temple, sometimes called Zerubbabel’s Temple on account of him being governor.

Jerusalem would come under Roman control. Herod remodeled the Second Temple, going all out. It was called Herod’s Temple. It was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD.

Which of these Temples is Isaiah referencing?

Neither. He looks forward and predicts another Temple. It will exist in the future 7yr Great Tribulation. We call it the Tribulation Temple.

Isa 66:1  Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?

Isa 66:2  For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD…

The LORD wasn’t anti-Temple. But you & I cannot build Him a Temple without His impetus and instruction and then assume He will put His presence there.

The same is true of your Christian life & walk; It must be biblical, Spirit-led, & in His timing.

Isa 66:2  … “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

Temple or no, God looks for tremblers:

1. They know their spiritual poverty.
2. They are “contrite,” i.e., they don’t think more highly of themselves than they ought.
3. They are pre-submitted to God’s Word.

At first I read it as tremors and thought, “Man, I’ve got this!”

We tremble when cold or weak. But we also tremble with excitement. It’s a romance word.

In your embrace, I tremble,

my heart a captive of your tender touch

Isa 66:3  “He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man; He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck; He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol…

They bring bulls and lambs, and the other prescribed things. They’d be horrified at what their sacrifices look like to the LORD. Can you see them bringing a dog and breaking its neck? That’s how awful their hypocritical worship was.

God is not pleased with the Tribulation Temple since the worshippers there are hypocrites. 

Isa 66:3  … Just as they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delights in their abominations,

Isa 66:4  So will I choose their delusions, And bring their fears on them; Because, when I called, no one answered, When I spoke they did not hear; But they did evil before My eyes, And chose that in which I do not delight.”

There is a principal of God’s discipline by which He steps back and gives us what we want. You’re delusional to think humanity can find a way without God.

The CEV reads like this in verse five – “Some of your own people hate and reject you because of me. They make fun and say, ‘Let the LORD show his power! Let us see him make you truly happy.’ But those who say these things will be terribly ashamed.”

An equivalent today, for us, would be for professing Christians to call us Jesus Freaks.

Isa 66:6  The sound of noise from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the LORD, Who fully repays His enemies!

There’s Tumult at the Temple! Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes, “The voice that the [unbelieving] non-remnant will hear is the voice of YHWH rendering recompense or judgment.”

Isa 66:7  “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; Before her pain came, She delivered a male child.

Isa 66:8  Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, She gave birth to her children.

We need to keep our metaphors distinct with careful reading:

• In the NT, the 7yr Great Tribulation is described like a woman having severe birth pangs over a period of time (Matthew 24:8).
• In our Isaiah passage, Israel is described as having no birth pangs, and delivering suddenly.

The birth in Isaiah is something else. Two things, really. One is political, and one is spiritual:

1. “Shall a nation be born at once?” Yes, it can, and in the case of modern Israel – it was born in a day. May 14, 1948. That’s the politics.
2. Who is “the male child?” Don’t answer yet! The “male child” born without birth pangs, “at once,” is also called in this verse, “children,” plural. Thus it isn’t Jesus. This is the new birth, the spiritual birth, of the Jews who flee Jerusalem ahead of the antichrist’s attack.

While holed-up in Petra, the prophet Hosea says they receive Jesus at once as Messiah & Savior. They are immediately born again spiritually. “Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight” (6:1-2).

Isa 66:9  Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the LORD. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.

“No” & “No.” Jesus will save the elect nation of Israel. “All Israel” who endure to the end of the Tribulation will be saved.

We – the Church – will be in Heaven while all this goes down on the Tribulation Earth. There are lessons for us involving building with or for God.

#2 – Be Certain That What You Are Building Is Affording God Praise (v10-24)

Isaiah mentions “priests and Levites,” “offerings,” and a religious calendar. These are all things associated with a Temple. The Millennial Temple is ordained by God. It is described in great detail by Ezekiel (chapters 40-48).

Isa 66:10  “Rejoice with Jerusalem, And be glad with her, all you who love her; Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her;

Isa 66:11  That you may feed and be satisfied With the consolation of her bosom, That you may drink deeply and be delighted With the abundance of her glory.”

Isa 66:12  For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream [In the future Millennium the Gentile nations of the Earth recognize Jerusalem as capital of the world & bring their abundance there] Then you shall feed; On her sides shall you be carried, And be dandled [bounced] on her knees.

Isa 66:13  As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”

Isa 66:14  When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, And your bones shall flourish like grass; The hand of the LORD shall be known to His servants, And His indignation to His enemies.

Isa 66:15  For behold, the LORD will come with fire And with His chariots, like a whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire.

Isa 66:16  For by fire and by His sword The LORD will judge all flesh; And the slain of the LORD shall be many [This is Second Coming language]

Isa 66:17  “Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves, To go to the gardens After an idol in the midst, Eating swine’s flesh and the abomination and the mouse, Shall be consumed together,” says the LORD [The “mouse” may refer to what is known as myomancy, the practice of reading omens from the behavior of rodents]

Isa 66:18  “For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall be that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see My glory [Throughout the 1000yrs of the Millennium, Gentile nations will come to Jerusalem to bend the knee to Jesus]

Isa 66:19  I will set a sign among them [We are unsure of the “sign,” but it reminds us that our God is mighty to save in every dispensation] and those among them who escape [Those who “escape” means Jews & Gentiles who endured to the End of the Great Tribulation. They escaped/endured in mortal bodies, as so they enter the Kingdom in those bodies] I will send to the nations: to Tarshish and Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory [These nations are literal, but they represent nations farthest away all over the Earth] And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles [People born in these far away locations the future Kingdom will have a sin nature & need to be evangelized]

Isa 66:20  Then they shall bring all your brethren for an offering to the LORD out of all nations, on horses and in chariots and in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD [Saved Gentiles will accompany Jews on pilgrimages to the Millennial Temple]

Isa 66:21  And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites,” says the LORD [Amazing – some Gentiles will serve as priests & Levites!]

Isa 66:22  “For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the LORD [In the last chapter we saw that in the Millennial Kingdom Jesus would restore the current Earth & heavens. After the thousand years He will create a new Earth and heavens]  “So shall your descendants and your name remain.

Isa 66:23  And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the LORD.

Temple worship will be established, complete with sacrificial offerings and a full religious calendar.

Will we bring offerings & keep the Sabbath and such? No. The Church had no such practices in the Book of Acts; why would we in the Kingdom? The Church was and remains distinct from the nation of Israel, and from Gentiles who are saved before & after the Church Age. We are not superior or inferior, and everyone is saved the same way – by grace through faith. But Jews, the Church, and Gentile nations remain distinct in the Millennium & eternity.

Isa 66:24  “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me…

“They” are the “all flesh,” i.e., the mortal inhabitants of the Millennium, who come to visit Jesus in Jerusalem. They will, while traveling, see the“corpses” of the Tribulation transgressors.

There are a few facts to consider before we can offer an interpretation:

• The Great Tribulation is 7yrs long. At the mid-point, 3½ yrs, the antichrist goes to the Tribulation Temple, says he is God, and demands to be worshipped.
• The Lord said, to the nation of Israel, “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:16). Most scholars suggest that they flee to Bozrah, to the rock city of Petra.
• They are pursued by the Satan-possessed antichrist.
• The Lord returns to Earth to Bozrah, where the armies of the antichrist have the Jews surrounded. They call out to the Lord, are born again.
• Jesus delivers the remnant and mounts a campaign back to Jerusalem, overcoming enemies as He goes.

In a previous study, we were made to understand that what we refer to as the Battle of Armageddon is really better understood as a longer campaign rather than a single battle.

From Bozrah to Jerusalem, Jesus single-mouth-ed-ly defeats the armies of the world.

The campaign we call the War of Gog & Magog, described in Ezekiel 38&39, takes place during this last part of the Tribulation^[1] – adding to the death toll.

It is difficult for us to grasp the extent of the carnage that will take place. The Bible refers to it as a wine press that squeezes out the blood of the Lord’s enemies. “Blood poured from the winepress, [reaching] as high as horses’ bridles, for a distance of [about 200 miles]” (Revelation 14:19-20).

In Ezekiel we read, “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. Indeed all the people of the land will be burying… They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them… And they will make fires of them for seven years.”

(What do you think – The Corpse Corp?)

This valley is also called The Valley of the Travelers, The Valley of the Passengers, and The Valley of Them Who Pass Through.

Isa 66:24  … For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

Are there eternal flesh eating “worms?” No. This refers to maggots. They don’t “die” is a way of saying that they have an abundant food supply. Bodies will be burned, too. But not by eternal fire.

Thus is not a look into Hades or the Lake of Fire. There is no mention of “souls,” only corpses. This is a mass gravesite. It seems to be an open grave since travelers can see the corpses.

You’ve undoubtedly seen pictures of the piled-up corpses of Jews from the Holocaust. Even with that evidence, there are those who say it never happened.

And guess what? At the end of the one thousand years, an innumerable number of unbelievers attack Jesus at Jerusalem – willfully ignorant of prophetic history, and with corpses to prove it.

I’ll close the Book of Isaiah with this appropriate quote: “The Christian watches with great interest the providences of God towards the Jews, knowing that their return to their land is a preparation for the fulfillment of much prophecy, and Jesus Christ’s coming. ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’”

Only The Bad Die Young (Isaiah 65:1-25)

“No, I am your father.”

“Soylent Green is people!”

“I see dead people.”

Each of those motion picture reveals took me completely by surprise.

There are a few surprise reveals in the New Testament, called “mysteries.”

Clarence Larkin explains: “The mysteries are eleven in number, eight of which were revealed to the apostle Paul. Of the remaining three, one was revealed by Jesus, and two were revealed to the apostle John.”

The biblical use of the word, “mystery” refers to some truth that had been hidden in the past, but was eventually revealed by God. In a sense, it is more like what we call a secret. It is a sacred secret until revealed by God at the exact right time.

Romans 11:25 was a sacred secret. “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

• Not made clear in the OT was that an unspecified but temporary period of judicial “blindness” would be a discipline for the nation of Israel rejecting Jesus.
• During that time, God will reach-out to “Gentiles” until their number comes to its “fullness.”

We are tasked to make known the sacred secrets.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 You Have A Share In History’s Greatest Mysteries, and #2 You Are To Share History’s Greatest Mysteries.

#1 – You Have A Share In History’s Greatest Mysteries (v1)

Tucker Carlson is a popular conservative political commentator and author. I caught a few minutes of him being interviewed. Referring to Christians who read & know their Bible, he said, “In the end when it really gets intense, like it is now, it’s Christians, it’s people who actually believe the Bible, who are the only ones with wisdom, who know what’s really going on. They’re not shocked at all.”

I’m not into speculating whether he is saved or unsaved. He is, however, 100% correct about Christians and the End Times. We do know what is going on.

Passages like chapter sixty-five remind us that we are in a flow of divine, providential history. It has its beginning in the Garden of Eden. It is going to never end in a glorious eternity.

Isaiah 65 involves the past and future history of Israel in the plan of God during three biblical dispensations:

1. Isaiah 65:1 is set in our present era. Scholars refer to it as the Dispensation of Grace. For one thing, without a physical Temple in Jerusalem, we can’t keep the Mosaic Law per se. We call this era, the Church Age. 
2. The seven year Great Tribulation will follow the Church Age. Jesus described it as trouble “such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21). It will affect everyone on Earth, but it is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble in the sense that God uses the tribulation to bring the nation of Israel to salvation. Isaiah 65:2-7 are set in the Great Tribulation.
3. Isaiah 65:8-25 are set in the 1000yr Kingdom of God on Earth that follows the Great Tribulation.

One more comment before we get into the text. There are a number of views on the End Times, and views within those views. A few of them have substance in that you can see how scholars arrived at them from the Bible itself. I’ve told you before that, officially, Calvary Chapel’s End Times teaching is PreMillennial PreTribulation Dispensational Futurism.

• PreMillennial – Jesus will return to Earth a second time before the Millennial Kingdom.
• PreTribulation – Jesus will resurrect believers from the Church Age before the seven year Great Tribulation. Almost simultaneously, He will transform all living believers on Earth. This is the rapture. The resurrected & raptured saints are taken to Heaven.
• Dispensationalism identifies various eras, or time periods, that are distinct from each other in the plan of God. The critical point that Dispensationalism makes is that the nation of Israel and the Church are distinct groups in God’s plan, and that they will remain distinct.
• Futurism is our insistence that the Bible is to be read normally. When it contains a prophecy that has not been fulfilled, we understand that it will be fulfilled. 

Getting now into the text before us, for better clarity, I want to read verse one in the International Standard Version (ISV).

“I let myself be sought by those who didn’t ask for me; I let myself be found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that didn’t call on my name.”

The Lord turns His attention towards the people who were outside of the covenants and promises to the elect nation of Israel.

The word for “nation” is the common word for Gentiles. From God’s point of view, all non-Jews are Gentiles.

This is the mystery, “that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The Gospel goes throughout the whole Earth, to Gentiles as well as Jews.

The last chapter in the Book of Acts records Paul, in Jerusalem, gathering together a group he called “leaders of Israel.” He shared with them that Jesus was their Messiah. They again rejected Jesus, and they rejected Paul. He then said, plainly, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (Acts 28:28).

The “fullness of the Gentiles” refers to the finish of the Church Age so that the Great Tribulation can begin. When the last person in this age believes the Lord, there will be a “shout,” the “voice of an archangel,” and a “trumpet” will sound, “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (First Thessalonians 4:16-17).

After announcing that God was going to save Gentiles, Paul “dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him,

preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31).

It’s an inspiring practical example of our activities in the Church Age: Rent, Receive, and Reveal.

• Rent – Whether or not we own anything in this material world, we should consider ourselves renters, having a light touch. Our ‘carnal footprint’ should be small. By carnal, I don’t mean sinful; I mean it in contrast to being led by the Holy Spirit.
• Receive – We have a commission to receive any and all people God brings to us, directly or indirectly. With the commission, we need the Lord’s compassion.
• Reveal – The Gospel, of course. But note: Paul talked about the Kingdom of God. He emphasized prophecy.

One more thing – perhaps the most important. Paul had “confidence.” In what? Certainly not in Himself! The word translated “confidence” means free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage, boldness, assurance. It means I am empowered by the indwelling God the Holy Spirit.

#2 – You Are To Share History’s Greatest Mysteries (v2-25)

Church Age… Resurrection & Rapture… Great Tribulation.

Isa 65:2  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;

Isa 65:3  A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; Who sacrifice in gardens, And burn incense on altars of brick;

Isa 65:4  Who sit among the graves, And spend the night in the tombs [grave soaking?]; Who eat swine’s flesh, And the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; [God wanted them to be separate, because they were special; they wanted to be like the surrounding nations, sinful]

Isa 65:5  Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, Do not come near me, For I am holier than you!’ [Self-righteous superiority] These are smoke in My nostrils, A fire that burns all the day [As opposed to the sweet aroma of true worship]

Isa 65:6  “Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will repay – Even repay into their bosom –

Isa 65:7  Your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” Says the LORD, [The idea isn’t generational curses of your ancestors falling unfairly on you. It describes the acceleration of sin in a community when each generation becomes increasingly desensitized] “Who have burned incense on the mountains And blasphemed Me on the hills; Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”

The consequences of sin had to be faced; God would pay them back in judgment for their idolatrous worship. The Assyrian threat and the Babylonian Exile were two of the ways He repaid His people. Ultimately it will be by the Great Tribulation.

Has God cast away His people? Certainly not! God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

All through her history, God always preserved a remnant of godly Jews. The next verses, 8-16, introduce us to the believing remnant of Israel that shall endure to the end of the Great Tribulation, and inherit the Kingdom of God.

Isa 65:8  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.

The nation of Israel is compared to a cluster of mostly rotted grapes. Some grapes are still good to make wine. That is the believing remnant within the nation.

Isa 65:9  I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, And from Judah an heir of My mountains; My elect shall inherit it, [In context, the “elect” refers to the nation of Israel] And My servants shall dwell there.

Isa 65:10  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.

Isa 65:11  “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. [These are proper names of heathen deities]

Isa 65:12  Therefore I will number you for the sword, And you shall all bow down to the slaughter; [i.e., the Time of Jacob’s Trouble] 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.”

Isa 65:13  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My servants [the believing remnant] shall eat, But you [the unbelieving Jews] shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, But you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, But you shall be ashamed;

Isa 65:14  Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, But you shall cry for sorrow of heart, And wail for grief of spirit.

Isa 65:15  You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; [This may mean that their name would be used proverbially, like that of Sodom]. For the Lord GOD will slay you, And call His servants by another name; [In 62:2, “The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, And all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, Which the mouth of the LORD will name”]

Isa 65:16  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.

I despise every time C3 PO says, “Thank the Maker.” In verse sixteen, the “troubles” of the Great Tribulation are over. To “bless yourself” means to thank God for your blessings. The one, true God of the Bible.

Isa 65:17  “For behold, I create new heavens and a new Earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Think about how wrecked the Earth & stellar heavens will be after the Tribulation:

1. The most severe earthquake ever recorded will cause cities to collapse and islands and mountains to disappear (Revelation 16).
2. The sun turns black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the moon becomes like blood, and stars fall to the earth as if figs were being shaken from a tree by a strong wind Revelation 6).
3. A third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck, turning a third of them dark. This results in a third of the day and a third of the night being without light (Revelation 8).

That’s a minuscule sampling of the destruction.

In 1989 the Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 11mil gallons of crude oil in Alaskan waters. They are still cleaning it up!

It won’t take Jesus long to restore the Earth & heavens.

Because this is a work that only God can perform, the Hebrew term bara, indicating a supernatural act, is used for “create.”

Daniel 12:11-12 reveals that there will be a seventy-five-day interval between the end of the Great Tribulation and the start of the Millennial Kingdom.

But wait. Don’t some Christians like to say, “It’s all going to burn?”

• The Millennial Earth will be restored.
• After the 1000yrs, there will be a complete recreation. The apostle Peter wrote, “The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the Earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (Second Peter 3:10).

Isa 65:18  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.

Isa 65:19  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.

The Millennium is utopian, but not perfect. You don’t need to look far to find an example. In just a moment we will see that there is death in the Millennium. But Jerusalem, with Jesus on its throne, will be a Joy-only zone.

I like the CEV for verse twenty: “No child will die in infancy; everyone will live to a ripe old age. Anyone a hundred years old will be considered young, and to die younger than that will be considered a curse.”

There will be blood in the Kingdom of God on Earth:

• Its inhabitants are mortal Jews & Gentiles who survive the Great Tribulation. Their offspring will be mortal, and therefore, possess sin natures.
• When the Millennium is described in Revelation twenty, Death is not completely defeated until after the thousand years.

No infant mortality; no abortion. No euthanasia or assisted death for seniors. As time passes, lifespans will increase. If you live to 100 today, it is considered amazing. A 100yr old will seem just a child in a thousand year kingdom.

Isa 65:21  They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Isa 65:22  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 [This description applies to Jews in the Promised Land. The Church isn’t looking forward to planting vineyards in the Holy Land]

Isa 65:23  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. [This has caused some to say that Jews born in the Millennium will all be saved]

Isa 65:24  “It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Isa 65:25  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.

When was the last time the serpent ate “dust?” At the ruin of creation. Things will have come full circle to the restoration of what was ruined.

It’s exciting that the Lord will answer our prayers before we finish speaking. Beyond excitement, there is endearment. In order to answer before we finish speaking, He must be constantly attentive to each one of us. In fact, this reads to me as though He knows us so well that He can complete our sentences

While answered prayer is wonderful, intimacy is more so.

One ClayNation, Under God, Impressionable, With Synergy & Atonement For All. (Isaiah 63:7-64:12)

What is the everyday object Biblical archaeology most depends upon?

Pottery.

David Chapman, Professor of Biblical Archaeology, writes, “Archaeologists get very excited about pottery as very few people elsewhere in the world do because it’s one of our main ways of dating.”

The potter & the clay is a biblical illustration.

Psalms, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Zechariah, Matthew, Romans, and the Revelation make use of the illustration. And of course, Isaiah.

Isaiah appeals to the potter working with clay four times, including once in our text: “We are the clay, and You our Potter; And all we are the work of Your hand” (64:8).

The long passage in Jeremiah provides the interpretation of the illustration. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it” (18:6-10).

• In the finish of chapter sixty-three we will see that the nation of Israel did “evil in [God’s] sight so that it [did] not obey [God’s] voice.” God therefore relented “concerning the good with which [He] said [He] would benefit it.”

• Then, suddenly, Isaiah’s vision is of Israel in the future. We are with the remnant of Jews who have survived the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Jesus is about to return to Earth to save Israel. They repent! God “Relent[s] of the disaster that [He] thought to bring upon [Israel].”

I’ll organize my comments around two attention-getting points: #1If Your Nation Is Unrighteous, Then God Will Relent Concerning The Good With Which He Said He Would Benefit It, and #2 If Your Nation Is Repentant, God Will Relent Of The Disaster That He Thought To Bring Upon It.

#1 – If Your Nation Is Unrighteous, Then God Will Relent Concerning The Good With Which He Said He Would Benefit It (63:7-12)

National unrighteousness is characteristic of Israel’s  history. Read the Book of Judges if you don’t believe me.

Isaiah starts by reminding his audience that the LORD would rather be blessing them.

Isa 63:7  I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD And the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.

Isa 63:8  For He said, “Surely they are My people, Children who will not lie.” So He became their Savior.

In the OT Book of Deuteronomy we read, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ‘Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments’ ” (7:7-9).

Despite the difficulties they might face, and the consequences of their sin, God would remain faithful to the covenants He had made to their ancestors.

Aren’t there worse things than lying? The word for “lie” can be translated, deceit or deceitfulness. Think of your kids. Lying is sin; deceitfulness is on another level. It is evil.

Isa 63:9  In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.

The “Angel” is none other than Jesus in a pre-incarnate appearance. When He so appears, we call it a Theophany or a Christophany.

The event descriptions seem to generally fit their time in Egypt, followed by their Exodus out of Egypt. Their Savior fully identified with them, redeemed them, and was their protector.

Isa 63:10  But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; So He turned Himself against them as an enemy, And He fought against them.

It isn’t a fight to destroy Israel. This match is a struggle with Israel to bring them to repentance. R. Kent Hughes calls it, “The grip of God’s relentless grace.”

The Jews “grieved His Spirit.” In the NT letter the apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus, he said, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice” (4:30-32).

The wilderness wandering of the Jews was the quintessential example of bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and malice. From the moment the Hebrews refused to enter the land of the giants until that generation died, they were grumblers & mumblers.

By those same behaviors we grieve the Holy Spirit Who indwells us. We’re told, “Do not.”

• Sometimes we say, I CAN’T not do them.”
• God says you CAN not do them.

Sin obviously grieves a Person with the first name “Holy.” I think what most grieves the Holy Spirit is a disbelief that He is your Helper, your Counselor, your Teacher. Of course you are weak, frail, prone to wander. Go to God, not the world, for grace.

Isa 63:11  Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying: “Where is He who brought them up out of the sea With the shepherd of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them,

Isa 63:12  Who led them by the right hand of Moses, With His glorious arm, Dividing the water before them To make for Himself an everlasting name,

Isa 63:13  Who led them through the deep, As a horse in the wilderness, That they might not stumble?”

Isa 63:14  As a beast goes down into the valley, And the Spirit of the LORD causes him to rest, So You lead Your people, To make Yourself a glorious name.

Through Moses, the LORD shepherded His nation, with the intent of pasturing them in the plenty of the Promised Land.

Isa 63:15  Look down from Heaven, And see from Your habitation, holy and glorious. Where are Your zeal and Your strength, The yearning of Your heart and Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?

The “me” is the nation of Israel. The 7^th century Jews were struggling with the problem of their suffering. “Where is God when it hurts?” “Why, God? “Why me?” His abundant love, expressed in His “mercies,” seem “restrained.”

The answer, in their case, is all too obvious: They were totally backslidden in sin.

What about us? What if suffering isn’t the consequence of our sin?

Some of God’s mercies are going to be severe mercies because we remain in our unredeemed bodies that interact with an evil world system.

Isa 63:16  Doubtless You are our Father, Though Abraham was ignorant of us, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.

• We might call Abraham the Founding Father of the nation of Israel.
• Israel was Abraham’s grandson and the father of the twelve sons who would be the twelve tribal patriarchs of the nation of Israel.

They seem to be complaining that God formerly helped Israel, but isn’t helping them now. If He really is Father & Redeemer, then prove it.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why have You made us stray from Your ways, And hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants’ sake, The tribes of Your inheritance.

A ton of ink is wasted trying to explain God ‘making’ a person ‘stray,’ and ‘hardening’ his or her heart.

Carefully note this: This is what the backslidders were saying to the LORD. These were not God’s words. It is their accusation. It is their false accusation. God does nothing of the kind.

Isa 63:18  Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.

The glorious, promise-filled life in the land flowing with milk and honey seemed a pipe dream. In their current predicaments, it seemed they were out of their land longer than they were ever in it! It would worsen:

• From the destruction of the Temple in AD70 until 1948, the Jews were dispossessed.
• Even though back in their land, adversaries are still treading down their Temple – by not allowing them to have their Temple!

Isa 63:19  We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, Those who were never called by Your name.

Another accusation hurled at God – He had disowned them. Have you ever hurled that one, terrible comment, meant to hurt someone? That is what Israel did here… To God.   

Israel has had a long history of unrighteousness.

It continues today. They are in their land, but in unbelief in their Messiah. In 2018 Israel passed legislation declaring that it was a Jewish nation. It is a powerful reminder that the Jews have not received Jesus as their Savior.

Is the United States a righteous nation?

No; not by any standard we might apply. I’m not talking about our founding, but rather our floundering. I’m talking about the Father, not the founding fathers.

People are asking, “Is God going to judge us?” He isn’t going to judge us… He IS already judging us.

This is what judgment looks like when God gives a nation over to the sin it demands.

#2 – If Your Nation Is Repentant, God Will Relent Of The Disaster That He Thought To Bring Upon It (64:1-12)

We are transported to the future, when the 7yr Time of Jacob’s Trouble is nearly ended. The antichrist’s forces have surrounded the Jews holed-up in Bozrah. It is a seemingly hopeless situation. They call upon the Lord, repenting of their sin. Wouldn’t you know it – God receives them, returns, and ends their enemies.

Isa 64:1  Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence –

Isa 64:2  As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil – To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!

This is future-talk. It started in 63:1-6. “Come down” is the cry. This is the Second Coming.

Isa 64:3  When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.

When did the Lord come down and mountains shake at His presence? In the future! The Lord and His prophets can speak of the future as if it is fulfilled.

Isa 64:4  For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.

In 6000 years of human history there has been no god or man comparable to the uniquely prophesied and qualified God-man, Jesus Christ. All the posers ask you to “act” for them – to work and sacrifice for them. There is only One who came as a Servant to save you. God waits, not willing any should perish.

Isa 64:5  You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned – In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.

Isa 64:6  But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Isa 64:7  And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

This is a spiritual 180 from the previous chapter. You probably recognize wording here that sounds familiar. That’s because the apostle Paul quotes it in the NT Book of Romans. This is the ‘Roman’s Road to Salvation’ in its unpaved beginnings: “we have sinned… No one calls upon [God’s] Name… our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”

Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

There is a fact about the Potter & the clay we sometimes overlook. The illustration is always, only used of God’s molding and shaping nations. It is not used of molding and shaping individuals.

This is not insignificant. Certain aggressive but disturbing theologies teach that the Master Potter makes some ‘people-pottery’ that will definitely be saved, AND He makes some ‘people-pottery’ that cannot be saved. If you object to that awful depiction of God, they will look at you with their cold, steely eyes and say three words they believe will render you subdued and compliant: “God is sovereign.” God’s sovereignty becomes like ‘nuclear fire’ in a game of rock- scissors – paper.

Of course God is sovereign! His sovereignty doesn’t mean God can behave in ways that are contrary to His nature. If something would be immoral for us to do, how much more terrible if God does it?

That approach to sovereignty reminds me of the famous Richard Nixon quote, “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

God is so sovereign that He can (and does) allow for my free will.

Isa 64:9  Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look – we all are Your people!

When has or will all Israel be saved?? At the Second Coming of Jesus.

Isa 64:10  Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

Isa 64:11  Our holy and beautiful temple, Where our fathers praised You, Is burned up with fire; And all our pleasant things are laid waste.

There are admittedly various times that these two verses can be said to have been fulfilled. One of those times is in the future Temple in the Great Tribulation. That seems to fit the context best here.

Isa 64:12  Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O LORD? Will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?

Dr. J. Vernon McGee writes, “The prophet closes this chapter with a question: Will God refuse to act? The remainder of Isaiah’s prophecy is God’s answer to this question. God rejected Israel only after they rejected Him, but it did not thwart His plan and purpose for them and for the Earth. God has carried through with His program, which is yet to be finalized.”

More than a few scholars suggest that this prayer in chapter 64 is the prayer of repentance that the Jewish remnant will pray while holed-up in Bozrah and under attack by the antichrist. We looked last week at a passage in Hosea that indicated they would repent, over a period of three days, looking upon the One they pierced as Jesus returns. All Israel will thus be saved!

The Master Potter has made it clear: “O United States, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “The instant I speak to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy the US, if you turn from evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. The instant I speak concerning the US, to build and to plant it, if you do evil in My sight so that you do not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit you.”

A Crush To Judgment (Isaiah 63:1-6)

“I am Groot.”

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1, StarLord gets annoyed because those are the only words spoken by Groot. Rocket explains,“He don’t know talkin’ good like me and you, so his vocabulistics is limited to ‘I’ and ‘am’ and ‘Groot,’ exclusively in that order.”

Actor Vin Diesel ‘voiced’ Groot. Since all he says is “I am Groot,” he did so each time with subtle differences in his tone of voice, its inflections, its timber, etc.

He recorded the line over a thousand times. Something I didn’t know – he additionally did the voice in 15 languages!  Maybe he earned the $54mil he was compensated.

If I had to choose a verse that communicated a great deal of information about God with an economy of words, Isaiah 63:1 would be in the top five.

“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

From beginning to end, from Genesis to the Revelation, creation to consummation, God has spoken to mankind “in righteousness mighty to save.” We see it in our text. Isaiah makes it clear that the Messiah will come to save a remnant of Jews, and when He does, He will establish the promised kingdom of God on earth with Israel as the spiritual and political capital of the Earth.

• Righteousness is mighty to save the Jews for all  eternity.
• Righteousness is mighty to save the Jews from all Earthly enemies.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 “Righteousness Mighty To Save” Is Your Only Eternal Hope, and #2 “Righteousness Mighty To Save” Is Your Only Earthly Help.

#1 – “Righteousness Mighty To Save” Is Your Only Eternal Hope  (v1)

President Ronald Regan was given the nickname, the Great Communicator.

The greatest communicator is the God of the Bible. His vocabulistics are unparalleled:

• His Word can be understood by a child, while simultaneously humbling the highest intellect.
• He chose, inspired, and sovereignly guided the biblical authors who were equipped by Him to write the very words of scripture. He did it without changing the author’s personality or understanding while doing so.
• He is constantly speaking without words, through His Creation, so much so that He says, “There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:3).

Isa 63:1  Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, This One who is glorious in His apparel, Traveling in the greatness of His strength? – “I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

“Righteousness” is a word that can be used different ways in different contexts. The good folks over at GotQuestions.org point out, “The Bible’s standard of human righteousness is God’s own perfection in every attribute, every attitude, every behavior, and every word. Thus, God’s laws, as given in the Bible, both describe His own character and constitute the plumb line by which He measures human righteousness.”

For our purposes today, think of righteousness as perfectness, perfection, being perfect as God is perfect, in your every thought, every behavior, and every word.

God is perfect. We are definitely not perfect. That is a problem; that is THE problem. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:23 & 10).

This is going to sound strange, but the people to blame are your parents. Not your biological parents, but your OG parents – Adam & Eve. All they had to do was not eat figs; how hard is that?? With a little push from the Devil, however, they ate.

We are just coming out of the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day season. Gifts were given to express love and appreciation. God is our Father, deserving of gifts. What do you give to God? Adam & Eve ought to have given Him obedience as a gift to

Show their love and gratitude.

God sought them out. The LORD had new vocabulistics. He  spoke words they had never heard before: Curse… Thorns… Pain… Toil… Sweat… Sorrow.

He also “spoke righteousness mighty to save.”

He said to the Devil, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15).

Scholars have labeled this the protoevangelium. It means the ‘First Good News,’ or, the “First Gospel.” The LORD promised to defeat the Devil, restore creation, and redeem mankind.

If you don’t see all that in the verse, it’s OK. The LORD let His plan be known progressively, over six-thousand or so years. These words in Genesis are foundational for what is to come. You can at the very least understand from the protoevangelium that Someone very unique & special was going to come. He would be sent by God, to resolve the cosmic conflict.

That Person was Jesus. He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).

He came as promised in Genesis – the Seed of the woman. How does that help us?

It enabled God to place the sins of the world on Jesus so that, in turn, His righteousness could be given those who believe Him and are thus in Him.

The apostle Paul gives us this summary of that spiritual transaction. He said, “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become [perfect].” (Second Corinthians 5:21).

“I speak righteousness, mighty to save.” God’s entire, wonderful, fragile but providence-guaranteed, plan of salvation is communicated in that phrase. He provides the necessary righteousness needed to be saved. He provides it for “whosoever will believe.”

Is there any other Almighty God Who became a man? One that was fully God and fully man? Jesus is your only hope for eternal life.

I came across a quote: “Our biblical hope is not a hope-so, it is a hope-sure.”

A passage in the NT Book of Titus extols our hope-sure: “Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

#2 – Righteousness Mighty To Save Is Your Only Earthly Help (v2-6)

Isaiah’s audience are Jews in Judah in the 7^th century BC. He excitedly wrote to them about the coming of their Messiah. Not His first coming. No, these are the vocabulistics of the Second Coming.

In His First Coming, Jesus made the nation of Israel a sincere offer to establish the Kingdom of God on the Earth. He came to His own, but they refused.

Since God must keep His unconditional promises to Israel, Jesus will come again, a second time. This time the Jews will receive Him.

Notice something in verse one. Jesus will come “from Edom, from Bozrah, with His garments stained crimson” (NIV).

Popular belief is that Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives to an immediate confrontation of nations in Megiddo. “Armageddon” is a compound word meaning Hill of Megiddo, hence the Battle of Armageddon.

What we call the Battle of Armageddon is better called the Campaign of Armageddon; It isn’t a single battle fought in one location.

Isaiah says that the Lord will return to Edom, and comes to Bozrah. Edom is southern Jordan, while Bozrah is the Hebrew name for the city of Petra.

In a great prophetic passage, Jesus alerts the Jews who will be living in and around Jerusalem to flee into the wilderness when the Antichrist desecrates their rebuilt Temple. Scholars suggest they will flee to Petra to be kept safe while the worst part of the Great Tribulation takes place on Earth.

Micah 2:12, “I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; Like a flock in the midst of its pasture They will be noisy with men.”

Don’t see Bozrah in that verse? It isn’t translated that way in the NKJV. The answer is found in the phrase “sheep in the fold.” That is a translation of the Hebrew word Bozrah. The Lord returns to Bozrah.

Something incredible happens in Bozrah. We read in Hosea 6:1-3, “Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.”

Over a three-day period, the remnant of Jews holed up in Petra will repent, returning to the Lord. The Bible tells us, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10).

The Jews will receive the Lord, Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul will later write, “all Israel will be saved.”

The Campaign of Armageddon looks something like this:

1. At the mid-point of the tribulation the faithful remnant of Israel heeds Jesus’ words and flee to the vicinity of Petra.
2. The forces of the Antichrist attacks the remnant.
3. The remnant remembers Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:39 and call for their Messiah.
4. Jesus responds and returns to the area of Bozrah to rescue His people and initiate world-wide judgment that will bring the Great Tribulation to an end.
5. Having rescued the remnant in the area of Bozrah Jesus then leads a campaign to rescue Jerusalem.
6. Jesus arrives at Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives from Bozrah.
7. The siege of Jerusalem comes to a sudden and spectacular end.

Isa 63:2  Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

Isa 63:3  “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes.

Jesus wasn’t talking about a visit to a winery where you can have a feets-on experience crushing grapes. He will be bloodstained from crushing the enemies of Israel. In the Book of the Revelation, it is described this way: “He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God” (19:13).

He isn’t upset that He will do it alone. No one else could. This is similar to the experience of the apostle John when it seemed like no one was able to take & open the scroll in Heaven. No one, that is, until Jesus stepped forward.

We understand the words “anger” and “fury” to derive from His righteousness. He was mighty to save, but these refused, and sought to take it out by attempting genocide against the Jews.

Jerry Bridges comments: “God, by the very perfection of His moral nature, cannot but be angry at sin – not only because of its destructiveness to humans, but, more important, because of its assault on His divine majesty. This is not the mere petulance of an offended deity because His commands are not obeyed. It is rather the necessary response of God to uphold His moral authority in His universe. And though God’s wrath does not contain the sinful emotions associated with human wrath, it does contain a fierce intensity arising from His settled opposition to sin and His determination to punish it to the utmost.”

Isa 63:4  For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come.

God is longsuffering, waiting to return because He does not wish that anyone would perish. There is coming a day when His longsuffering will – it must – end.

Gentile martyrs of the Great Tribulation “[Cry] with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed” (6:10-11).

His longsuffering waits, but it ends.

God maximizes opportunities to save by having perfect timing. He keeps time in our lives, too. By that I mean He is always on time.

Isa 63:5  I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me.

Is Buddha mighty to save? Confucius? Joseph Smith? Muhammad? Karl Marx? Vishnu? Krishna?

Isa 63:6  I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the Earth.”

One commentator noticed the following: “In one passage His wrath, in the other passage His righteousness. Both are available to every human being ever created. This is everyone’s personal choice – We must choose either Christ’s wrath or Christ’s righteousness! Have you chosen dear listener?”

If you are not in Christ, how do you plan on defeating Death when it comes? Especially if it comes suddenly? You need to be declared righteous believing in Jesus. He remains mighty to save.

Christian – What are you dealing with? Is it a season of blessing… or buffeting? Plenty… or want? Health… or sickness?

Christ’s righteousness is for more than your initial salvation. It is for your daily interactions in a hostile cosmos. This everyday help is your sanctification.

One of the things Jesus uses to sanctify us is the Word of God. To put it another way, sanctification is a result of obeying God’s Word.

Let’s use the illustration of a bad situation at work. Examine your own heart, to see if you are the problem. If you are… Repent and change your attitude.

Let’s say you are not to blame. When that’s the case, He is “mighty to save” can mean He will deliver you from the situation. It’s been my experience that Jesus more often wants to deliver you by going through the trial with you. When that is the case, He will speak to you, through the Word & the Spirit. He will speak your righteous response so that the world may see Jesus at work.

In one of the Airplane movies, the stewardess was having a hard time communicating with a passenger. He spoke jive. An elderly Caucasian woman came to the rescue, telling the stewardess, “I speak jive.” A hilarious exchange took place.

We “speak righteousness” in at least three ways:

1. By growing in the Lord after our initial salvation.
2. By sharing with unbelievers that God is mighty to save them, too.
3. And by reminding each other in our fellowship that He who has begun to perfect us has promised to complete the work.

My hope [and help] is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.