Isaiah 66

Wesley: the highest heaven is the place where I shew myself in my majesty (Ps 11:4; 103:19; Matt 5:34). Hence we are taught to pray, Our Father which art in heaven. The earth is my footstool (Matt 5:35). Can there be an house built that will contain me? Where is the place wherein I can be said to rest in a proper sense?

The Father in heaven is not boxed in the temple. House first; Stephen (Acts 7:49) then the gospel church. Shared christology with Calvin: heaven his throne; he is a Spirit.

Calvin: they flattered themselves in sins under confidence in sacrifices and the temple. This confidence is diabolical; they frame an idol when they shut him up in the temple. Heaven is his throne so we may raise our minds above the world; yet he protests he is with us. Worship must be spiritual to correspond to his nature (John 4:24). Stephen (Acts 7:49) and Paul (Acts 17:24) apply it: God dwells not in temples made with hands.

He is not confined; ceremonies without the heart are a mockery. Same question, Where is the house?; the rest named in Psalm 132 is not a prison for his majesty.

Wesley: they were not only made by God, but kept in being by him. Look—yet God will look with a favourable eye to him that hath a broken and contrite spirit, whose heart is subdued to the will of God, and who is poor and low in his own eyes. Trembleth—who trembleth when he hears God’s threatening words, and hears every revelation of his will with reverence.

The contrite may still be looked on; trembling at the word is reverence, not terror without hope. Judah; the gospel still looks to that man.

Calvin: ceremonies are empty when men think they satisfy God by them. He made all these things; he has no need of external worship (Ps 50:10). He looks to the humble, contrasted with the splendor of ceremonies. Trembling at the word is the obedience of those who reverence him, not the terror of those who flee. All reverence we owe to God must be paid to his word. Though wretched in abasement, we are happy because the Lord looks upon us.

“Look”—inward purity and the word, not the array of the house. Same contrite spirit; faith yields obedience and lays aside lofty claims.

Wesley: Solomon, Prov. 15:8, comments: the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. The prophet is not reflecting upon idolatrous worship, but formal worship: those who in a formality worshipped the true God by acts which he had appointed. These services were no more acceptable than murder, idolatry, or the most horrid profanation of his name. Own ways—they live as they lust. Delight—they take pleasure in their sins.

They perform the appointed acts with wicked hearts. Altar; the church still refuses that delight. Shared ground with Calvin: they have chosen their own ways.

Calvin: all the sacrifices of the nation are of no value when they think God is satisfied with a deceitful appearance. He does not absolutely condemn sacrifices, but their blemishes. No sacrifices are acceptable but those which proceed from a pure heart. They mixed Gentile ceremonies with the Law. Streams from a muddy fountain cannot be clean. Choice and desire reveal obstinacy: they devoted their heart to what opposed his commandments.

The thing appointed, the heart refused. Same ox like a slain man; intention does not make invented or hollow worship clean.

Wesley: they have chosen to mock and delude me; I will chuse to suffer them to delude themselves; they have chosen to work wickedness, I will chuse the effect. Their fears—the things which they feared. Did not hear—God accounts that those do not hear who do not obey his will.

They could have answered; he called, they did not listen. Harsh treatment matches their choice. He is not surprised they refused. Judah; the church still hears when I called. Common reading: they chose that in which I didn’t delight.

Calvin: I will choose their delusions—I will scatter the clouds they spread, so that their delusions shall be visible. I will bring upon them their terror. Because I called, and ye did not answer: they sinned through deliberate malice rather than ignorance; those to whom the word is proclaimed are condemned more severely. To hear is to obey. Before mine eyes they sinned as if to provoke him. He condemns foolish devotions, not only gross crimes.

The word was near; they shut the door. Same unanswered calling as 65:12; what they choose, he abhors.

Wesley: you—that truly fear God. Your brethren—by nation. Cast you out—of their synagogues, of their city, and some of you out of the world. For my name’s sake—for your adherence to my law. Glorified—thinking they did God good service (John 16:2).

The small company that fears the word, hated by national brothers. Synagogue first; gospel church next. Either reading: they shall be put to shame.

Calvin: he addresses the true worshippers, a small number, as formerly “bind the testimony among my disciples” (Isa 8:16). The mark is trembling at the word. He calls the mockers brethren by concession; this internal war with hypocrites is not new. Casting you out is tyranny of the many. Let Jehovah be glorified is their sneer or false confidence; he will be seen to your joy, and they shall blush.

God arms himself against enemies within the household of faith. Same cast-out remnant; God appears for believers’ advantage and the destruction of those who laughed.

Wesley: the expression of a prophetical ecstasy, as if he said, I hear a sad and affrighting noise; it comes not from the city only, but from the temple, wherein these formalists have so much gloried. There is a noise of soldiers slaying, and of the poor people shrieking. Of the Lord—not in thunder, but that rendereth recompence to his enemies. Thus he seems to express the destruction of the Jews by the Roman armies, as a thing at that time doing.

Temple, later Rome’s stroke, then any house that gloried in form. Shared ground with Calvin: recompense from the temple itself.

Calvin: God hath not threatened in vain. It may relate to Babylon, whose destruction was the Church’s deliverance, but he is more favorable to domestic foes nourished in the Church’s bosom. From the temple, their lurking-place of false confidence, his voice shall come forth. A mitigation: the same terror may not discourage the believing servants of God.

An armed word where the mild word was scorned. Same uproar from the city; hypocrites shall hear a tumultuous voice, and believers receive the fruit of patience.