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The Abominations of a Dead Worship and The Birth of the New Church
v. 1. Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool, a majestic declaration of His almighty power and rule; where is the house that ye build unto Me, and where is the place of My rest? The Lord desires neither the Temple nor the worship of such as have forsaken Him; they are an abomination in His sight.
v. 2. For all those things hath Mine hand made, everything that men might offer to Him was His even by virtue of His creation, and all those things have been, saith the Lord, heaven and earth with all their creatures having been brought into being by the word of His power, wherefore the hypocrites and believers in name only have nothing upon which they might pride themselves; but to this man will I look, such a one the Lord will regard with favor, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, whose heart is filled with genuine repentance, and trembleth at My Word, who stands in awe of God's holy Word and will and shuns a dead orthodoxy as well as a religion of works. Upon such a person the Lord looks with merciful compassion, him He accepts with a full and free expression of His grace. The loathing which the Lord feels with regard to a mere external observance of the forms of religion is now set forth.
v. 3. He that killeth an ox, in an act of sacrifice which is nothing but a dead custom, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck, as if he insulted the Lord by the sacrifice of a dog; he that offereth an oblation, a drink-offering, as if he offered swine's blood, the sacrifice of which was forbidden in the Law of God; he that burneth incense, with a heart not turned to the Lord in true faith, as if he blessed an idol. The Lord feels nothing but the deepest loathing and horror of the sacrifices and the worship of the apostate Jews. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, different from those prescribed by God's holy will, and their soul delighteth in their abominations, that being their condition of mind.
v. 4. I also will choose their delusions, picking out and appointing to them misfortune, and will bring their fears, all the misery that men dread, upon them; because when I called, bidding them come to repentance, holding out to them the riches of His grace, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear, but they did evil before Mine eyes and chose that in which I delighted not. Cf. Isa_65:6-7 Thus the Lord sets forth and rebukes the abomination of a dead worship. He now turns to the believers, His children, and announces to them the full glory of the Gospel comfort.
v. 5. Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His Word, in a wholesome awe, in the reverence engendered by a childlike faith: Your brethren that hated you, the hypocrites and godless people whom the Lord has just exposed, that cast you out for My name's sake, for in opposing the Lord they also became open enemies of His confessors, said, in giving expression to the bitter mockery of their hearts, Let the Lord be glorified, let Him reveal Himself in a miracle of punishment upon them! These scorners would find that the Lord would indeed glorify Himself upon them. But He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed, so Jehovah comforts His people. The sentence may also be constructed to read, in the jeering call of the unbelievers, Let the Lord by all means glorify Himself, that we may see your joy! the Lord's retort being: They shall be brought to shame. The revelation of Jehovah's glory in founding and establishing His Church in the Messianic era is now described.
v. 6. A voice of noise from the city, of a great uproar, a voice from the Temple, the seat of Jehovah, a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to His enemies, on the great day of vengeance, the time of deliverance of His children, which is so often referred to in Isaiah's prophecies.
v. 7. Before she, Zion, the bride, the Church of the Lord, travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
v. 8. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? The event to which the Lord has reference is unheard of. Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Is a whole land or nation thus brought into being? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, with the first show of labor, she brought forth her children.
v. 9. Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? so that the birth is not completed, saith the Lord. Shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb? saith thy God. This description fits all the great crises in the history of the Church, the birth of the Christian Church, the reformation of the Church in the sixteenth century. When traditions and customs obscure the true life of the Church and bring about a condition of dead orthodoxy or of false teaching, the Lord comes with His mighty, merciful intervention and brings about a rebirth, which renews His Church to an extent that makes it almost a new creation. What the Lord has once undertaken He carries out to His own glory and that of His Church.