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Scott's Reference Library
Isaiah 65:1-9
Sunday Between June 19 and 25 (Proper 7) C (First Reading) June 21, 1998
Isaiah 65:1-9
"I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'
[2] All day long I have held out my hands
to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
pursuing their own imaginations--
[3] a people who continually provoke me
to my very face,
offering sacrifices in gardens
and burning incense on altars of brick;
[4] who sit among the graves
and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;
[5] who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me,
for I am too sacred for you!'
Such people are smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that keeps burning all day.
[6] "See, it stands written before me:
I will not keep silent but will pay back in full;
I will pay it back into their laps--
[7] both your sins and the sins of your fathers,"
says the Lord.
"Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains
and defied me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
the full payment for their former deeds."
[8] This is what the Lord says:
"As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes
and men say, 'Don't destroy it,
there is yet some good in it,'
so will I do in behalf of my servants;
I will not destroy them all.
[9] I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah those who will possess my mountains;
my chosen people will inherit them,
and there will my servants live.
(NIV)
Isaiah 65:1-7 (The calling of the Gentiles, and the rejection of the Jews)
The Gentiles came to seek God, and find him, because they were first sought and found of him. Often he meets some thoughtless trifler or profligate opposer, and says to him, Behold me; and a speedy change takes place. All the gospel day, Christ waited to be gracious. The Jews were bidden, but would not come. It is not without cause they are rejected of God. They would do what most pleased them. They grieved, they vexed the Holy Spirit. They forsook God’s temple, and sacrificed in groves. They cared not for the distinction between clean and unclean meats, before it was taken away by the gospel. Perhaps this is put for all forbidden pleasures, and all that is thought to be gotten by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Christ denounced many woes against the pride and hypocrisy of the Jews. The proof against them is plain. And let us watch against pride and self-preference, remembering that every sin, and the most secret thoughts of man’s heart, are known and will be judged by God.
Isaiah 65:8-10 (The Lord would preserve a remnant)
In the bunch of unripe grapes, at present of no value, the new wine is contained. The Jews have been kept a distinct people, that all may witness the fulfilment of ancient prophecies and promises. God’s chosen, the spiritual seed of praying Jacob, shall inherit his mountains of bliss and joy, and be carried safe to them through the vale of tears. All things are for the display of God’s glory in the redemption of sinners.
(Matthew Henry Concise Commentary)