Isaiah 66:1

This chapter ends the inspiring trilogy penned by Isaiah, all of them dealing with events certain to take place in Israel in the days following the death of the great prophet, such as the destruction of their nation, their captivity, and many other events reaching all the way down to the birth of Messiah, the establishment of Christianity, the call of the Gentiles, the second destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and even to the final judgment day itself.

All of the doodling engaged in by critics about how many authors produced these chapters, or particularly what dates should be assigned to various chapters, etc., is of no importance at all. The fundamental facts are indisputable, these being: (1) that every line of this great book was printed in the Greek language about 250 years before the Son of God was born, in what is called the Septuagint (LXX) Version. A vast number of the prophecies in Isaiah were fulfilled long after that date, absolutely destroying the critical dictum regarding the impossibility of predictive prophecy; (2) the subject matter, the vocabulary, the style, and the spirit of Isaiah dominate every paragraph of the whole prophecy; and (3) our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles had the utmost respect for the whole prophecy, fight down to this very last chapter, quoting from it, by inspiration adding to it, and by attributing it repeatedly to Isaiah. In our opinion, the critical enemies of the Word of God totally discredited both themselves and their system by their vain efforts to divide and discredit Isaiah.

A summary of this chapter must be especially heeded in the interpretation of it. Adam Clarke declared that, "These last two chapters relate to the calling of the Gentiles, the establishment of the Christian church, the reprobation of the apostate Jews, and their destruction executed by the Romans."[1] Lowth concurred in this analysis.[2] "This final chapter points to the final days of Judah and the coming glory of Zion in the new dispensation."[3]

Cheyne described the first five verses here as, "A declaration by Jehovah that he requires no earthly habitation, and that he is displeased with the service of unspiritual worshippers, followed by a solemn antithesis between the fate of the persecutors and the persecuted (Isaiah 66:1-5)."[4]

The big thing in this chapter is not fleshly Israel at all, but the Church which is the New Israel. Payne understood this, writing, "Here we have a warning to Jews that, `not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel' (Romans 9:6), and an appeal to all men, `Be not faithless, but believing' (John 20:27)."[5]

There were among the Jews of that period some who trusted the sanctity of the temple and the security of Zion as a guarantee of their salvation without regard to their wickedness; and these lines are directed against such thoughts.

Isaiah 66:1-4

"Thus saith Jehovah, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what manner of house will ye build unto me? and what place shall be my rest? For all these things hath my hand made, and so all these things came to be, saith Jehovah: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word. He that killeth an ox is as he that slayeth a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as he that breaketh a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as he that offereth swine's blood; he that burneth frankincense, as he that blesseth an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations: also I 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 that which was evil in mine eyes, and chose that wherein I delighted not."

"What manner of house will ye build me? ..." (Isaiah 66:1). Some have construed this paragraph as revealing God's displeasure with the Jewish Temple. However that may be, there is no doubt that in Israel, the more discerning souls had long been familiar with the truth that "God dwelleth not in temples made with hands." The martyr Stephen quoted this passage (Acts 7:50,51); and Solomon, upon the dedication of the temple he built, said, "Will God indeed dwell on earth? Behold, the heaven and heavens of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded" (1 Kings 8:27). Christ called it a "den of thieves and robbers"; and it will be recalled from 2 Samuel 7 that the idea of building God a temple was never God's idea, at all, but was associated altogether with human origin in David. If it had been God's design, he would never have commanded its destruction twice. And yet, in Haggai, we learn that God commanded the rebuilding of the temple, that, no doubt, being due to the fact that, in their condition, they needed such a device, because of their fanatical preference for such things.

"He that killeth an ox, as he that slew a man ..." (Isaiah 66:3).

This means that a man who is without poverty of spirit and not having a contrite heart who offers an ox, "is not any more pleasing to God than a murderer would be."[6] The following major clauses in Isaiah 66:3,4, are reiterations of the same thought in different terminology.

Kelley pointed out that there is another interpretation of this passage, making it, "The most violent rejection of the Temple cultus to be found in the Old Testament. It places the sacrifice of an ox, etc., on the parity with the murder of a man."[7] We reject this view, because God could not have been but pleased with one who offered an ox as a sacrifice, if offered from an humble and contrite heart and according to the Law of Moses. In our studies of the prophets, we have frequently encountered the writings of scholars who try to make it out that God cared nothing for the observance of forms, sacrifices and ceremonies, but only for "social justice." This is a false view. What God condemned was insincere and hypocritical worship. God indeed is concerned for "social justice"; but, in the final analysis, all moral and social justice derives from the holy commandments of God, properly honored, respected, and obeyed.