Will you please turn to the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 66?
Isaiah 66:1-2:
Thus saith the Lord, 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 the Lord:
but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and that trembleth at My word.
Verse 5:
Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word:
Your brethren that hate you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, have said,
Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy;
but it is they that shall be put to shame.
Verses 7-9:
Before she travailed, she brought forth;
before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once?
for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord:
shall I that cause to bring forth shut the womb? saith thy God.
Verses 22-24:
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord,
so shall your seed and your name remain.
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.
And they shall go forth, and look upon the dead bodies of the men that have transgressed against Me:
for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched;
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
We have been taking out some of the passages in the book of Isaiah and meditating on them. We find that Isaiah was one who knew the salvation of the Lord in such a marvelous way that, when we read the book of Isaiah, it is almost like reading the New Testament.
Isaiah is a prophet, and a prophet is one who knows the mind of God. In his prophecy, he reveals to us what is in the mind of God.
Isaiah shows us not only Christ, our Redeemer; he also imparts to us the spirit of redemption.
When we come to this last chapter, it is like the summing up, the consummation, of all the prophecies that he has prophesied before.
You remember that in the first chapter of the book of Isaiah, God calls upon the old heaven and the old earth to hear and to bear witness to the fact that, in spite of all God’s love, the children of Israel rebelled against Him.
You remember, in the first chapter, it is said:
The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master’s crib:
Israel doth not know,
My people doth not consider.
God loved His people very much, and yet they rebelled against God. God called upon the heaven and earth to bear witness to this.
But when you come to the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, you find God has made all things new. There is a new heaven and a new earth, and the beloved of the Lord dwells there.
They failed, but God never fails. Whatever He has purposed for His people, in spite of themselves, He will accomplish to His glory. And that certainly should give us great comfort.
Now, in this last chapter, we would like to point out just a few things. Number one: What is the eternal purpose of God concerning His people? What does God really desire in His people?
No doubt, you will find in the Bible that God desires to dwell among His own people. God wants to find His rest in His own, and this thought runs through the whole Bible.
In the very beginning, after God created Adam, God put him in the garden of Eden, and God came and fellowshipped with him.
When the children of Israel were in Egypt as slaves, God raised up Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt in order that they might have a tabernacle. With that tabernacle, God was able to dwell among His redeemed.
After the children of Israel entered into the promised land, God chose David and Solomon to build Him a temple in which His name was placed.
So you find that God’s purpose with His people has been, and still is, to dwell among His people.
Yet, does God really want a temple? Does God really look for a house built with stones?
It is true that God called Moses to build Him a tabernacle. It is true that God chose David and Solomon to build Him a temple. And how the children of Israel looked upon this temple! They considered it as everything to them, and they should have.
Their view of the temple was such that it became almost an obsession to them. It became a deception to them. It even became a superstition to them.
They put so much emphasis on the temple that they thought, as long as they had the temple, as long as they had the sacrifices going on, as long as they had the priesthood, everything was fine. Everything was all right.
They put their trust in the temple, in their services, and they thought, “What could God desire more than a house? What could God ask more than these sacrifices?” As long as they had the temple and these sacrifices, God should be happy with them. God should bless them, and God should be with them.
It became an obsession, a deception, a superstition.
But does God really want an earthly temple, a physical house? The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. God is greater than the universe that He created. If the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, how will a little house—even built with precious stones and gold—accommodate Him?
Here, in the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, God says, “The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool.” Heaven is where He reigns. The earth is where He carries out His will and His authority.
In a sense, you find that heaven and earth are His office, His court. That is where He exercises His authority. That is where He carries out His will. It is His office. The whole universe is His office.
But neither the heaven nor the earth is His home, His rest, that which He is really after.
God is not looking for a physical house. In Old Testament times, it was just a shadow; it was just a type. Even with the children of Israel, God was not looking for merely a physical temple. God is looking for a people whose spirit agrees with the meaning of that temple. When that spirit is absent, even the temple is nothing.
So here you find God speaking through the prophet Isaiah:
The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool:
what manner of house will ye build unto Me?
and what place shall be My rest?
Do you think that just by building a great temple, that is enough for Me? Do you think that this is the place of My rest?
What God is really looking for is this: “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word.”
Dear brothers and sisters, what is God’s house? Where is God’s rest? Not in the physical, but in the spiritual; not with temples made of stones, but with living stones.
A man with an afflicted and contrite spirit—God will build His home with that kind of spirit. Wherever God can find an afflicted and contrite spirit, God will use that as material to build His house. It is only with that spirit that God can find His rest. This is the eternal purpose.
Brothers and sisters, we are the redeemed of the Lord. Thank God for His redemption. But what is our spirit? What is the condition of our spirit? What is the attitude of our spirit?
Do we exhibit a contrite and afflicted spirit before the Lord, or do we have a proud and arrogant spirit? Are we self-righteous, or do we humble ourselves before the Lord? What kind of spirit do we have?
God cannot build His house with a proud and arrogant spirit. The Bible says God rejects the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.
What is an afflicted and contrite spirit? A spirit that is afflicted—what does it mean by that?
It simply means a spirit that can be touched by God and by His word: a spirit that is meek and lowly, a spirit that is humble.
Blessed are the poor in spirit:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This is the foundation stone of the building of God’s house: the poor in spirit.
Not in the sense that there is nothing spiritually, but in the sense that, in spite of all that God has given to us, our spirit is yet so poor. That is to say, we are not contented, self-satisfied. We do not consider ourselves as having arrived.
Instead, because of the greatness of His grace, we humble ourselves even lower. We confess that we know nothing, we have nothing, we are nothing.
Blessed are the poor in spirit:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
How often we find among Christians a proud, self-righteous, arrogant spirit. With a little grace that they know, they think they know everything. With a little mercy that they have received, they think they have arrived.
Brothers and sisters, it is to the man with an afflicted and contrite spirit that God will look upon.
Why afflicted? It simply means that when the word of God comes to that person, it reaches him.
It does not just go in one ear and out the other, but the word of God reaches him. He trembles at God’s word. He is wounded, afflicted, and brooded over by God’s word. His conscience is sensitive. His heart is open.
To that kind of spirit—and because he is afflicted—he comes right. He repents before God.
Do you think that we do not need to repent? Some think that only unbelievers need to repent: “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus.” That is true. But in the Bible, you find how often the word comes to us that we need to repent.
We need to repent again and again before God. When His word smites us, we need to repent before Him with a contrite spirit.
You remember David in Psalm 51:17:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.
God does not look for a sacrifice of lamb or bull. God is looking for the sacrifice of a broken spirit: a person who does not stand arrogant before God, but a person who bows down, broken down before God.
This is the material for the building of God’s house.
Remember the story of Job. He was a perfect man. He was righteous above all others during his generation. Yet somewhere in his spirit, there was a self-righteous spirit—the spirit of the Pharisee.
Because of that, God allowed Satan to attack him. Because of that, his spirit was afflicted to the extent that one day he cried out:
I had heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear;
but now mine eye seeth Thee:
Wherefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.
Brothers and sisters, that is an afflicted and contrite spirit. When that spirit is present, the presence of the Lord is manifested.
This is where God will rest. As long as we are proud of ourselves, as long as we are arrogant, God cannot rest.
But when God finds a spirit that is afflicted, broken, and contrite, even God comes into rest. Not only does God come into rest—you also come into rest.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we are arrogant, self-righteous, and proud, do we have rest? We do not. We become restless.
But when we are afflicted by the Lord, when we are humbled before the Lord, and when we really yield ourselves completely at His feet, we come into rest. Wonderful thing! Marvelous experience! We come into rest.
And in that rest, God too comes into rest. Dear brothers and sisters, this is what God is looking for. This is His house. This is His rest. This is the material with which He will build His home, in which He will dwell forever.
Number two: What will happen to those with an afflicted and contrite spirit, who tremble at the word of God?
Now, do we tremble at the word of God? When we hear the word of God, are we able to maintain our integrity? When we hear the word of God, are we able to stand erect with our heads up?
Oh, when we hear the word of God, we tremble. Why? Because His word smites us. His word finds us out.
What will happen to those who tremble at God’s word? What will happen to those who have an afflicted and contrite spirit?
We may say that God will use them as material for the building of His house. But what would happen to these people? We may think, surely they will be greatly blessed by God. Surely they will manifest grace and joy. Surely the whole world will admire them. Surely those who are of the Lord will look up to them and try to imitate them.
But not so.
What would happen to those who tremble at God’s word?
Your brethren that hate you, that cast you out for My name’s sake, have said,
Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy;
but it is they that shall be put to shame.
In other words, those who have the spirit of the Lamb will not only be persecuted by the world, but even by their own brethren. How strange it is!
Instead of being admired, instead of being looked up to, your brethren will hate you. They will cast you out.
They will ridicule you and say, “Let the Lord be glorified. You say you want to glorify the Lord. Where is the glory? In what respect have you glorified Him? You say you want to please the Lord. Where is your joy?”
You will be misunderstood. You will be ridiculed and mocked at. You will be persecuted and even cast out. That will be your treatment.
A slave cannot be greater than his master. Our Lord, our Master—how He was persecuted by the world, cast out by the world, hated even by His brethren in the flesh!
Do you think we who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth will fare better? We will receive the same treatment.
Oh, brothers and sisters, do not think that because you love the Lord, because you tremble at His word, because you allow His word to do His perfect work in your life, because you have a contrite spirit, therefore you will be honored and respected.
You understand? You will be troubled. You will be despised. You will be misunderstood. You will be cast out for the name of the Lord.
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Number three: With such treatment, is it all in vain? Not so.
Before she travailed, she brought forth;
before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once?
for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord:
shall I that cause to bring forth shut the womb? saith thy God.
This is the travail of Zion. Zion in the Scripture always stands for the overcomers, as Jerusalem stands for the whole church.
This is the travail of Zion. Zion has to travail in order to bring forth a man-child. If there is no travail, there can be no birth. Spiritually, this is also true.
It is through the travail of the soul of our Lord Jesus that the church is born. It is through the travail of the overcomers that the church is brought into maturity.
Brothers and sisters, all the sufferings that you suffer for the sake of Christ are not in vain. They are not just sufferings; they are travail.
As Zion travails, it will bring forth a man-child. That reminds us of Revelation 12. The woman was travailing, and out of the travail a man-child was born. The man-child was destined to rule the world with a rod of iron.
As the man-child is born and caught up to the throne, there will be war in heaven, and Satan will have no place in heaven. He will be cast down upon the earth.
Brothers and sisters, the travail of Zion is essential.
We may think that Zion travails long and hard. Not so.
Before she travailed,
she brought forth her children.
You know, brothers and sisters, to our feelings, especially when you are in travail today, you would think that the time is so long. A day becomes a month, a month becomes a year, or maybe a century.
But we find in the Bible:
For yet a very little while,
He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.
Brothers and sisters, the travail of Zion is short. It is not long. It is so short, as if before she travails, the child has come.
Do you think God will give conception and not let it be brought forth? Certainly not.
Oh, that Zion, the daughters of Zion, may be willing to travail for the purpose of God. Oh, that the daughters of Zion may be comforted that their travailing is but for a short while.
It is so short that before she travails, she brings forth. Thank God for that.
Brothers and sisters, it is through the travail of Zion that Jerusalem is brought back into the blessing of God. Therefore, you find in Isaiah 66:12:
For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream:
and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side,
and shall be dandled upon the knees.
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you;
and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
The overcomers in the church travail for the whole church. Because of their travail, the church is brought into maturity, that the Bridegroom may come to claim His bride.
Oh, brothers and sisters, this is tremendous.
Lastly, you find God is working steadily toward His full purpose. As God apprehends for Himself a company of overcomers—those who have an afflicted and contrite spirit, those who tremble at His word—as those who are called by God enter into travail, through their travail God will bring the whole church into maturity.
When the church is fully grown, the Bridegroom will come back to claim it as His bride. Then judgment will follow very speedily upon the nations, and there will be the millennium.
The millennium will soon be past, and there will be the new heaven and the new earth, even eternity.
Brothers and sisters, He who has purposed in the beginning shall surely perform it. This is the conclusion of the book of Isaiah.
Let us pray.
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee, because Thy purpose can never fail. O, how we praise and thank Thee. Man may fail, but God never fails.
We do praise and thank Thee that it does not depend upon us, but it does depend upon Thee. We thank Thee, Lord, that Thou art calling us to be a people with an afflicted and contrite spirit, a people trembling at Thy word.
O Lord, if it means travail, we praise and thank Thee that it will not be long, and that Thou wilt bring forth.
We do praise and thank Thee that we can look forward to the day when the old heaven and the old earth shall pass away, a new heaven and a new earth shall appear, and a new city—the holy city, New Jerusalem—shall descend, having the glory of God.
O Lord, Thou art to be worshipped by Thy people and by the whole world forever and ever. In Thy precious name. Amen.