Isaiah: Merciful & Mighty; Week 3

Good morning, I pray that you all had a great week in the Lord and are ready to dive into God’s word today. This week we are going to finish up our short look at the book of Isaiah…because next week we are going to be turning to the book of Esther in the weeks leading up to Easter…and I did not intend for that to rhyme, but it does, so I’ll take it as a point for being creative. Anyway, 2 weeks ago we began Isaiah by looking at chapter 1, where the Lord was pronouncing judgment on the people of Judah…likening them to Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, last week we turned to Isaiah chapter 40: 1-11 and read some of the most quoted passages in the N.T....where God is promising to restore Israel and that His glory will, once again, be present for the world to see, through the people of Israel. This week, we are going to turn to the very last chapter of Isaiah (66) and look at verses 1 and 2…which has plenty of material for an entire sermon. It’s not often that I will just preach on 2 passages, but as you will see in a moment, the words of the Lord are quite powerful and very relevant for us today. You might be wondering why I’m not going to cover the most famous chapter in Isaiah…chapter 53....or maybe you aren’t. But, if you are, the reason for that is because I’m going to be using it on Easter…so, that is why. Let’s go ahead and pray, then we will get started in Isaiah 66.

PRAY

Just as a brief prelude to our passages, we have to understand that the events talked about by Isaiah would not happen for hundreds of years, so it can be difficult to lay out a specific timeline of these events. That said, the main purpose of the book of Isaiah was to warn the king and the people of Judah to obey the word of the Lord and to avoid making the mistake of their Northern brother’s and sisters. Isaiah chapter 66 is often viewed as a review of the previous 65 chapters. For example, when I have to write a paper for school, at the tail end of the paper, after I’ve presented all of my information, I write a conclusion…it’s the same with a sermon. A conclusion is the chance for the writer to briefly go over or briefly restate all they have said before. Chapter 66 is basically a summary of the previous chapters in Isaiah. The Lord starts out by talking about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and then ends the chapter by describing a day in which Israel will be at peace and their enemies defeated. Let’s go ahead and read our passages today.

Isaiah 66:1–2 “This is what the Lord says: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where could you possibly build a house for me? And where would my resting place be? My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being. This is the Lord’s declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at my word.”

Do you ever have the experience…when you read certain passages in the Bible, you look at them and just feel overwhelmed by the depth and richness of what the Lord is saying? I got that exact feeling when I read Isaiah 66: 1-2. I think that happens when the Holy Spirit allows us to gain but a small glimpse of the truth of God’s word. In those moments, God’s word ceases being just words on a page and becomes real and alive.

Before we start in on verse 1, I want to share an important cultural belief that was common in that area of the world. By that, I mean the entire ancient Middle-East, not just Israel.

In our series on creation, I talked about some of the other ancient societies that lived alongside Israel, and what their creation accounts were, in comparison to the Bible. Similar to that, all of those ancient societies would build temples to their gods. These temples were considered to be a physical link between heaven and earth, where the gods could reside amongst the people. For example, Esagila, was the most important temple complex in ancient Babylon, dedicated to the god Marduk (q.v.), the most well known and revered god. According to the old Babylonian scrolls, Nebuchadnezzar built it.

I tell you all of that to say that Temples were very important back then, and not just for Israel. Today, we will call this building “the house of the Lord” or God’s House, but we understand that we are only talking figuratively…not literally, as God is omnipresent, meaning, He can be anywhere he chooses. However, back then, these temples were thought to be the location by which God could come to the earth…it could only be done through the physical temple building. Keep that in mind as we examine verses 1 and 2.

Isaiah 66:1 “This is what the Lord says: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where could you possibly build a house for me? And where would my resting place be?”

As I mentioned a moment ago, the Israelites viewed the temple as the literal earthly home of the Lord…where his presence would manifest, in the holy of holies. Last week I talked about how once a year, during yom kipper, the high priest would enter the holy of holies and offer sacrifices. It was in the holy of holies where the glory of the Lord would manifest in the form of a cloud of smoke (I believe). Because of this, and just the way that culture was back then, the people thought that the temple was the only means by which God could appear here on earth.

The Lord opens up with a statement/declaration and 2 important questions for the people of Israel. In essence, God is saying that He is so overwhelmingly massive that nothing, including the temple is large enough to contain him or his presence.

I think that this is one of the rare instances in scripture, along with the creation account, where people today have a better understanding of what the prophets was trying to communicate to the people of Israel. We also have to understand that the ancient Israelites viewed the heavens differently than we do. When when we read in Genesis that God created the heavens and the earth in our minds, that means the universe and all of the planets and stars and everything. The ancient Israelites had no concept of such things. To them, the heavens or heaven was simply the sky and the earth was the ground.

Israel view of 66

To the Israelites, what God is saying here is that the sky is where the Lord sits, while the ground is where He keeps his feet....it still gives off the idea that the Lord can not be contained in a Temple, no matter the size. However, when I picture the image of the heavens as the Lord’s throne and the earth as his footstool, the images that come to me and probably all of us, in our modern times is different.

Modern View of 66

I bring all of that up, not because it is super important to understanding the overall point the Lord is trying to make, but to explain a bit of context of how Israel would have understood these words. As I said before, I actually think that today we better understand what the Lord was trying to communicate. Today we have words to describe how God is at all places at once…omnipresent, but back then, the Israelites would not have understood that concept.

With that in mind, let’s turn back to back to Isaiah 66…the Lord declares his omnipresence…then God poses 2 rhetorical questions, or questions that are not meant to be answered…rather, God is asking the people these questions, so the people can gain a better understanding of what God truly desires, rather than a physical building.

1. Where could you possibly build a house for me? “ & 2. And where would my resting place be?”

Both of these questions deal with the same subject....because God is omnipresent…meaning that He is in all places, at one time, are human hands able to build a true home and a true place of rest for the Lord? Again, today, we understand the idea of God’s omnipresence a bit better, but back then, deities were often viewed as literal beings…this is one of the reasons that idolatry was such a temptation for the people of Israel. The Egyptians had the pharaoh, which was the earthly form of the gods. Still others would worship the sun, which you can see with your eyes and feel on your skin, or the water, which you can see and touch. As I mentioned earlier, these societies would build massive temples dedicated to these deities, as a portal (almost) which the god could reside with the humans. If you recall the story of the golden calf, the Israelites had not been out of Egypt very long when God sent Moses up the mountain…the people began to fear and asked Aaron to build them a physical object that could represent God:

Exodus 32:1–4 (CSB) When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!” Aaron replied to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said, “Israel, these are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

It’s not like the Israelites were asking to build a physical representation of Baal…it’s clear that Moses had been that physical representation of God, but as soon as he left, they wanted something else. To ancient Israel , having a physical form of what they were worshiping was important…which again, is why idolatry was such a problem.

That doesn’t mean that no one understood what the purpose of the physical temple was supposed to be. King David was the first one who suggested building a permanent place fro worship, but God prevented him from building it....so, David’s son, Solomon was the one who built the temple. Over in 1 Kings, King Solomon had finally built the long awaited temple. After it’s completion, Solomon began dedicating it to the Lord.

1 Kings 8:26–28 “Now Lord God of Israel, please confirm what you promised to your servant, my father David. But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built. Listen to your servant’s prayer and his petition, Lord my God, so that you may hear the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today,”

Solomon clearly understood the purpose of the Temple and in a way, warned the people against making it an idol…which is kind of ironic, as Solomon struggle with Idolatry himself. That said, he did understand the purpose of the temple. Fastforward hundreds of hears the time of Christ and we can fin Jesus talking about the temple...

Unfortunately, Israel failed to understand what the Lord was trying to communicate here. We know that because hundreds of years later, in the book of Acts, Stephen, the first recorded Christian martyr used this portion of Isaiah when speaking with the Jewish leaders.

For a little bit of context, before I read it, what going on in acts 7 is that Stephen is appearing before the Jewish leaders after being arrested for professing faith in Christ. Stephen then gives a speech/sermon in front of these leaders where he quotes Isaiah 66. It’s a bit long, but it’s important.

Acts 7:44–50 (CSB) “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, until the days of David. He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house, but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What sort of house will you build for me? says the Lord, or what will be my resting place? Did not my hand make all these things?

What Stephen is saying here is that the Jewish leaders were so overly concerned with the actual temple, but ended up killing the very men that God send to warn them of their sin. Of course, Stephen is relating that to the Jewish rejection of Jesus. The living God was directly in front of them, but they crucified him. To the ancient Jews, the only way that God could manifest or speak to people was through the Temple. In other words, because the Jewish people did not listen to or understand what God was saying though the Prophet Isaiah, then ended up making an idol our of the Temple…the Temple because the most sacred and important place in Judaism.