Isaiah 65:11 - Meaning and Application

Here the different states of the godly and the wicked, the Jews who believed and those who still would not believe, are set against each other, like life and death, good and evil, blessing and curse.

I. Here is the terrible fate of those who kept on in idolatry after the return from Babylon, and in unbelief after Christ’s gospel was preached. Notice, first, what doom is threatened here: “I will number you for the sword like sheep for slaughter, and there will be no escape, no resistance; you will all bow down to it,” (Isaiah 65:12). God’s judgments come in an ordered way and are carried out exactly as appointed. Those who fall by the sword are the ones counted out to it, and no others. Though the sword seems to strike one person as easily as another, it still knows its limit and will not go beyond it.

God’s judgments also come with force that cannot be resisted. The strongest and boldest sinners will be made to bow before them, because no one ever hardened his heart against God and prospered. Next, notice the sins that bring them under this sentence. Idolatry was the older sin, as in (Isaiah 65:11): instead of seeking God and serving him as his people, they turned away from the Lord, rejected him, and cast him off to follow other gods. They forgot God’s holy mountain, meaning both the privileges it gave them and the duties it placed on them, and they burned incense on the mountains of their idols (Isaiah 65:7). They abandoned the one living and true God.

They set a table for that troop of gods that the nations worshiped and poured out drink offerings to that numberless crowd of idols. Those who thought one God was too few never thought dozens or hundreds were enough, but kept adding more and more, until they had as many gods as cities, and their altars were as thick as piles of dirt in a plowed field (Hosea 12:11). Some think Gad and Meni, which we translate as a troop and a number, were actually the proper names of two idols, like Jupiter and Mercury. Whatever they were, their worshipers spent freely to honor them. They prepared a table for them and filled bowls of mixed wine for drink offerings. They would starve their families rather than be stingy in their worship. That should shame those who worship the true God and give so little.

Infidelity, or refusal to believe, was the sin of the later Jews (Isaiah 65:12). “When I called, you did not answer” points back to the same charge in (Isaiah 65:2), where God says, “I stretched out my hands to a rebellious people.” It also applies to those who rejected the gospel. Our Lord Jesus himself called out, standing and crying aloud (John 7:37), but they would not hear or answer. His arguments did not persuade them, and his warnings and offers made no impression on them. He warned them plainly about death and ruin, and he offered them life and happiness, but they despised both.

Yet even that was not all. “You did evil before my eyes” means they did it openly, not by accident or carelessness, but on purpose. “You chose what I did not delight in” means they chose what God utterly hated. It is no surprise that those who will not be persuaded to choose what is good keep choosing and chasing what is evil. This shows the evil of sin. It is hateful in God’s sight, yet people still do it before his eyes, in his presence, and in contempt of him. It also goes against God’s will. It is choosing, on purpose, what we know will displease him.

II. The seriousness of this doom is shown by comparing it with the happy state of those who came to repentance and faith. The blessedness of God’s servants, and the miserable state of those who rebel against him, are set side by side so they may deepen each other, (Isaiah 65:13-16). God’s servants can count themselves happy, and forever thankful to free grace, when they see how miserable some of their neighbors are for lack of that grace, hardened and likely to perish forever in unbelief. They should also remember how narrowly they escaped being among them (see Isaiah 66:24).

It will also add to the pain of those who perish to see the joy of God’s servants, whom they hated, insulted, and despised. It will hurt them especially to know they could have shared that joy if they had not ruined themselves by their own fault. That made the rich man’s torment in hell worse, because he saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his arms (Luke 16:23). See also (Luke 13:28). At times, God’s providence makes this kind of difference between good and bad people even in this world, and the success of the righteous becomes a painful sight to the wicked (Psalm 112:10). It will certainly be so on the great day. Then people will say, “We thought his life was foolish and his end disgraceful, but now he is counted among the saints, and his place is among the chosen.”

Now, the difference between their states comes down to two things. First, it differs in comfort and satisfaction. God’s servants shall eat and drink. They will have the bread of life, enough to feed on forever, and they will be richly supplied with the goodness of God’s house, lacking nothing truly good for them. Heaven’s happiness will be an endless feast to them. They will be filled with what they now hunger and thirst for.

But those who set their hearts on the world and make it their happiness will be hungry and thirsty, always empty and always wanting more, because the world is not bread. It may leave people overfull, but it never truly satisfies. In fellowship with God and trust in him, there is full satisfaction. In sinful pursuits, there is only disappointment.

God’s servants shall also rejoice and sing for joy of heart. They have steady reason for joy, and whatever sorrow comes their way, faith gives them enough comfort to bear it. As faith is active and alive, they have hearts ready to rejoice, and their joy becomes their strength. They will rejoice in hope, because that hope will never put them to shame. Heaven will be a world of lasting joy for all who now sow in tears.

On the other hand, those who forsake the Lord shut themselves out from true joy. They will be ashamed of their empty trust in themselves and in their own goodness, and of the hopes they built on that trust. When the happiness they had imagined for themselves falls apart, what shame will fill their faces! Then they will cry out from sorrow of heart and howl from deep trouble, perhaps in this life, when laughter turns to mourning and joy to heaviness, and certainly in the life to come, where the torment is endless, unrelieved, and without remedy, nothing but weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth forever. Compare the two: “Now he is comforted, and you are tormented.” Which side will we choose to be on?

Second, their states differ in honor and reputation, (Isaiah 65:15, Isaiah 65:16).

The memory of the righteous is, and will be, blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot. The names of idolaters and unbelievers will be left under a curse. They will be loaded with shame and made permanently infamous. Their names may even be used as examples of evil, or as a warning in curses.

This will also serve as a warning to God’s chosen people. They should fear falling under the same judgment that came on the Jewish nation, and they should fear perishing in the same unbelief. The curse on those whom God rejects should make his people stand in awe. The Lord will completely destroy them and cut them off as a people. They will no longer live as a nation, and they will not be gathered back into one again.

But the name of God’s chosen people will become a blessing. “He will call his servants by another name.” The children of the covenant, those bound to God by his promise, will no longer be known simply as Jews, but as Christians. Under that name, all the promises and blessings of the new covenant will belong to them. This new name will be honorable, and it will not belong to one nation only. People all over the earth will use it in blessing.

God will have servants from every nation, and all of them will be given this new name. They will bless themselves in the God of truth. That means they will honor God in their prayers and in their solemn oaths, when they ask for his favor and when they appeal to his justice as Judge. This is part of the respect we owe to God. We must bless ourselves in him, meaning we must count ourselves rich enough and satisfied if we have him as our God. It matters greatly what we take comfort in and what we use to value ourselves.

Worldly people bless themselves in the many goods of this life (Psalm 49:18; Luke 12:19). But God’s servants bless themselves in him, because he is fully enough for them. He is their crown of glory and beautiful diadem, their strength and their portion. They will also swear by him, and not by any creature or false god. They will bring their cases to his judgment, since all judgment comes from him.

Second, they will honor him as the God of truth, the God of Amen, which means “true” or “sure.” Some take this to refer to Christ, who is himself the Amen, the faithful witness (Revelation 3:14), and in whom all God’s promises are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). In him we must bless ourselves, and by him we must swear allegiance to the Lord and make covenant with him. The one who is blessed in the earth is blessed in the true God, for Christ is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20). Long ago it was promised that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Some read it this way, “He will bless himself in the God of the faithful people,” meaning God as the God of all believers, wanting no more than to share in the blessings they enjoy and to be dealt with as they are dealt with.

Third, they will honor God as the one who brought about this blessed change in their lives. They will count themselves happy to have him as their God, because he has made them forget their former troubles. Those troubles are swallowed up by their present comfort. They are hidden from God’s eyes, which means they are completely removed. If anything of their trouble remained, God would still keep his eye on it, out of compassion and care. They will no longer feel those sorrows, because God will no longer see them in that way. He speaks as if he makes himself easy by making them easy, and so they will gladly bless themselves in him.