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Are you bound for a home in heaven?
The Context and The Question Fate, or final judgment, is the context of Isaiah 66:1-6. Your fate will not be decided by a jury of 12 of your peers. Your final judgment will not be under the authority of a clergyman or a church. Each one of us will be evaluated and judged by God, and by God alone. God will ask, "Where is my house?" Or more specifically in verse one, "Where is the place that I may rest?" Verse two is a clue to the correct answer. Verse three reveals those who are part of the problem, not the solution. And verses four through six reveal the terrible fate of those who tear down the house of God rather than build it up. The house that belongs to God The original audience that heard Isaiah's message would have immediately thought of the Jewish temple. Ever since they crossed the wilderness with a tabernacle, the Jews dreamed of a temple. King David planned it, King Solomon built it, and King Nebuchadnezzar tore it down. A second temple was rebuilt, then remodeled, then razed by the Romans. Will a third temple take its place? Let me make you a simple promise and back it up with this text. As God looks down from heaven, and as the son of God readies again to come to earth, he is not looking for a temple, at least not one made with human hands. God is looking for the house that belongs to him, and that house is the human heart. The house, or the heart, that belongs to God is "humble." This term speaks of one who is needy, knows it, and cries out to God to fix it. What is the one thing that you don't have that you must have? If you could ask God for only one thing, what would that one thing be? Happiness? Money? A boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife? How about salvation. The "humble" are the sinners transformed into saints through the gift of repentance and faith. Their hearts become a house where God finds an eternal resting place. The house, or the heart, that belongs to God is "contrite of spirit." Contrite literally means crippled. Saved people are always wounded and changed. Remember when Jacob became Israel in Genesis 32:24-32? His conversion left him crippled and different for life. It still does. Real Christians look a lot more like Mother Theresa than Benny Hinn. Real soldiers for Christ struggle to carry the cross in the battlefield of this life, constantly crying out for God's help so that they can help others. And they know that the most direct source of help for the heart is found in God's word. The house, or the heart, that belongs to God "trembles at my word." How can a man wake up on Sunday morning and not seek out a place to publicly worship the great God and Savior Jesus Christ? How can a man write checks all month and not make out one for the support of the church and the propagation of the gospel? How can a man habitually lie, or engage in sexual immorality, or let his Bible collect dust on the shelf? A heart where God is not can ignore God's word. But the heart where God has found a resting place trusts completely in God's son and trembles with conviction at God's word. This is the temple God is looking for, forever. An earthly temple, no matter how extraordinary, is something a man can build for God. But a holy heart, a redeemed soul, a true house of God, is something God builds for a man. Do you have one? Are you a house that belongs to God? The hypocrites that do not belong to God There are those who belong to God. They are described in verse two and in many other parts of the Bible. In our day they are those who are saved by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. They prove with their fruit that Jesus is at the root of everything in their lives. They are a house for God and are bound for a home in heaven so wonderful that Isaiah doesn't even make a attempt to describe its glory in this text. Then there are those who are not mentioned in this text at all and who do not belong to God at all. They are simply the unbelievers, or the believers in false gods and false religions. While believers will get what they don't deserve, unbelievers will get what they do deserve. Ignorance will be no excuse. But the bulk of this text deals with the third group. They are the ones who believe they belong to God when in actuality they are the farthest from him. They engage in religious activity which they believe builds up the house of God. However, they are only trying to build up themselves. Ironically, they are tearing down both. No group makes for more bad judgments against the church today, and no group will face a harsher judgment from God than the hypocrites spoken of here by the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah points out how they regularly worship, or offer "sacrifices." He notes how they bring an "offering" when it is convenient, and publicly come to burn the "incense" of prayer. But secretly they "hate" true Christians and thwart the influence of true believers by trying to "exclude" them with harsh words and hypocritical actions. The text needs no amplification in telling their fate.
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