Blessed Servants of the Lord

My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts. . . .

Isaiah 65:14

There are only two kinds of people – those who are God’s joyful servants and those who are his enemies. In Isaiah 63 and 64 we see how the people of Israel repented of their sins and cried out to God. Now, in chapters 65 and 66, we see God’s response to his people: salvation for those who truly repented, and judgment for his inveterate enemies.

The church on earth will always be a mixture of God’s repentant servants and his recalcitrant enemies. As we study this passage, we will examine our own lives to see whether we are servants of God or servants of the devil.

Whose Servant Are You?

Romans 10:9 tells us, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Such a confession can be made only by those who are enabled to do so by the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians 12:3 declares, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” This does not mean that one cannot simply mouth the words “Jesus is Lord”; people do so all the time. It means that only those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit will repent truly and confess in sincerity that the risen Jesus is their Lord.

Have you made such a confession? Do you love God and joyfully submit to his regulative word? Are you a true servant of the Lord? If so, you will serve Christ exclusively, eagerly seeking to know his will and do it. Like Samuel, you will say, “Speak, Lord, your servant heareth.”

Isaiah 64:5 says the Lord comes “to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember [his] ways.” Note, God helps those who gladly do right! To be a servant of God is the greatest privilege we can have; thus, we will serve him with joy. Therefore, we must examine ourselves. Are we God’s servants, both by confession and by conduct? Or are we his enemies, merely pretending to be his servants? The eyes of the Lord are like blazing fire; he knows who are his. I implore you to surrender to the Son of God and become his blessed bondservants today.

The Way of the Wicked

In the first chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy, God levels a case against his rebellious people: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me” (Isaiah 1:2). Now, at the end of the book, he declares, “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people” (65:2). This is a posture of prayer; all day long the Lord was pleading with his obstinate, rebellious people. As creatures, the people were supposed to be praying to God, but here we see the Lord begging them to repent and be saved.

Have you experienced such pleading? It may be coming through your pastor, through your parents, through your friends, or through God’s word. God is asking, “Why would you die? Why would you be damned? Why would you be lost? Repent and turn from your evil ways.”

If we respond to this plea and turn to God, he will forgive our sins. But what was the response of the Israelites? Verse 2 says they “walk in ways not good.” Psalm 1 clearly warns us not to walk in the counsel of the wicked. We are not to walk in the broad way of human autonomy. But that is exactly what these people did. Although they knew the ancient way, the straight way, the way of life, they deliberately chose to walk in ways that were not good.

Verse 2 also says the Israelites were “pursuing their own imaginations.” They chose to follow their own evil thoughts, not God’s. Genesis 6:5 states that “every inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil all the time.” Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jesus himself said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19). Yet these people chose to pursue their own imaginations and follow their own deceitful hearts.

Romans 1 describes such people: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (21-25). This is exactly what we read in Isaiah 65. Instead of worshiping the true and living God, they deliberately worshiped idols in the very presence of God. Thus God says they were “a people who continually provoke me to my very face” (v. 3).

The Worship of the Wicked

Because these people were following their own evil desires instead of obeying God’s word, they came up with their own ways of worship. Refusing to worship God in Jerusalem, which God had designated as the official place of worship, they worshiped their fertility deities among the trees and in the gardens. Instead of obeying the true God, they worshiped “deities” they could manipulate. Isaiah 65:11 says they “spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny.” They were wining and dining their gods to obtain favors from them. Indeed, the goal of all idolatry is to put pressure on the gods to bless the worshiper.

But we must remember that these Israelites were not just any people; they were the chosen people of God. And as such, they not only had God’s law written in their hearts, but they also had the Scriptures. Psalm 147:19-20 says, “He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation.” Yet here we see Israel rejecting the written word of God and following the lunacy of their own twisted imaginations.

Not only did they worship in unauthorized places, but they also worshiped in unauthorized ways. They ate forbidden food, such as pigs’ flesh. They worshiped false gods rather than the covenant Lord who appeared to Moses – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Isaiah 8 also describes how God’s people denied the biblical way and chose to listen to demons instead: “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land” (vv. 19-21).

The Lord had expressly prohibited consulting the dead through spiritists and mediums, warning that those who did so would be cut off (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6). Yet these people continued in their evil practices. Isaiah 1:28-31 reveals the consequence of such disobedience: “But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish. You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen. You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.” This is speaking about eternal judgment.

These people rejected the truth and embraced a lie. Refusing to worship the true and living God, they eagerly worshiped demons instead. In fact, they were proud of their idolatry! In Jeremiah 44:17 we see how brazenly the people of God worshiped demons, saying, “We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.” This was the exact opposite of what the Holy Scriptures required.

Did these people know the right way? Yes. In Jeremiah 6:16 we read, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.'” But they no longer wanted to walk in the ancient way. Abandoning the Scriptures, they left the church that proclaimed the gospel and preached about sin, repentance, and salvation only through Jesus Christ. Jeremiah urged them, “Return to the good way, the way of blessing, and walk in it.” But the people did not heed Jeremiah’s advice. Verse 16 tells us their response: “But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.'” What wickedness!

Every time a person sins against God’s revealed will, he is provoking and mocking God and challenging him to a duel. Let me assure you, God will take up the challenge, and the sinner will lose.

The Deception of the Wicked

Ironically, even while engaged in such great sin, the sinning person imagines that he is not doing anything wrong. In fact, he thinks he is more spiritual than God himself. The late Professor Edward J. Young, a great scholar of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary, interprets Isaiah 65:5 in this way: This wicked Israelite is telling God himself, “Keep away! Don’t come near me! Do not approach me, because you are unclean. I alone am holy.” To the depraved mind, good is evil and evil is good. (Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Volume III [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972], 504).

God told Moses not to approach him because he is holy and Moses was sinful. For the same reason, the people were told in Exodus 19 not to approach the holy mountain, lest they die. But here a wicked man says to God, “Don’t approach me. You are unclean, but I am holy.” This is the utter perversion to which God abandons the wicked – he becomes twisted in his thinking.

Such a person mocks the Bible and the triune God. He mocks the miracles. He speaks about a closed continuum, detesting a God who intervenes in history. He opposes any idea of hell or sin or guilt or atonement or a second coming. He rejects the teaching of divine creation, the fall, and redemption, instead imposing his own twisted view of reality upon the word of God. He eagerly does what the Bible prohibits and refuses to do what it prescribes.

The wicked Israelites were unresponsive to their covenant God. In verse 12 God says, “For I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.” This is deliberate provocation by choosing not to answer God’s call.

Why did these people not come and say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”? Because they were not God’s servants; they were servants of the devil. In John 8:44 Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.” This is a simple test to find out whether you are a Christian or not: Whose desire are you doing? Are you performing the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures, or are you doing your own thing? People do either the will of the heavenly Father or the will of their father, the devil.

The Destiny of the Wicked

But a day is coming when the children of God will be differentiated from the children of the devil. The sheep will be separated from the goats and the wheat from the chaff. What will happen to rebels on that day? Will their idols, Fortune and Destiny, come to their aid? No. These people have irritated God, and they will experience his wrath. (PGM) In Isaiah 65:5 God says, “Such people are smoke in my nostrils.” Then he declares, “‘See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps – both your sins and the sins of your fathers,’ says the Lord. ‘Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds'” (vv. 6-7).

God will deal with all rebels. First, he will judge them, and that judgment is certain. “It stands written” means it is decreed. Revelation 20:12 tells us that “books were opened” and “another book was opened.” Everything that we have done while in the body is recorded. Thus, if you have not already trusted in Christ, I plead with you to do so today; if you are a servant of Christ, then rejoice that God has called you to this high honor.

Furthermore, this judgment is personal. God says, “I will. . . .” It is not an angel who will judge us; it is God himself. The Lord whom we have offended will personally deal with every rebel who provokes him to his face. God says he will pay back in full measure. There is no diminution; full punishment will be given to each sinner. And though he may call on the hills and the mountains, “Fall on me!” they cannot hide him from God’s wrath.

At the final judgment, no idol can help us. The Sovereign Lord of all creation says, “I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter” (v. 12). No one can escape from the personal, infinite, holy, transcendent God. Every rebel must appear before the Judge on his throne.

The Blessed Servants of the Lord

According to the covenant God made with his people, there is an eternal curse for those who violate the covenant and eternal blessing for those who keep it. The final verses of Isaiah speak about this: “‘As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure. Form one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord. ‘And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched.'” (Isaiah 66:22-24). This is a description of hell. Jesus spoke more about hell than anyone else in the Bible, and he quoted this in Mark 9.

We must always keep in mind the eternal destinies that await every individual: eternal life with God in heaven or eternal death away from God in hell. Galatians 6:7 tells us, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” Only God’s servants shall be blessed.

Who, then, are the servants of God? They are those who confess with their mouths that the risen Jesus is Lord. They are those whose pleasure it is to hear and do the will of God daily. They are those who pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” They are the covenant keepers, the elect of God.

In this passage, Isaiah uses seven different terms to define God’s people:

1. My servants (vv. 8, 13). When Isaiah uses “servant,” it refers to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who fully obeyed God by his death on the cross; he uses “servants” to refer to the people of God who obey the Lord as Jesus did.
2. Descendants (vv. 9, 23). We are the descendants of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:10 says the Servant will “see his offspring.” When Christ died on the cross, he gave birth to a host of people called his offspring. If you have trusted in Christ alone for your eternal salvation, then you are his offspring, on whom God looks and rejoices.
3. Heirs (v. 9). God says, “I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them.” So Paul declares in Romans 8:17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.”
4. My chosen ones (vv. 9, 22). Jesus Christ is the chosen One, and in him we too are chosen. He did so not because of any good in us, for we were rebels by nature and objects of God’s wrath. But for his own reasons God chose us to be holy and blameless before the creation of the world. In Jesus Christ we are chosen to live with God forever and ever. What a great privilege this is!
5. My people (vv. 10, 19, 22). We are not our own; we are God’s people, bought with a price. And because we belong to Jesus, we must live holy lives; our bodies are not for sin. We are God’s possession, God’s treasure, and therefore he cares for us continually. He provides for us, protects us, guides us, and loves us. God calls us “my people, who are called by my name” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
6. A people blessed by the Lord (v. 23). In Numbers 22:12 God told Balaam, “You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.” In Jesus Christ we too are blessed, and we are blessed forever. Yes, people will try to curse us, but they can never succeed. Ephesians 1:3 says God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The Lord has blessed us both for now and for all eternity.
7. A remnant (v. 8). “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and men say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is yet some good in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all” (65:8). The image here is that of a cluster of grapes that has gone almost all bad. But there are one or two good ones left, so God says, “I will not destroy them all; I will save the one or two.”

The vast majority of people will not be saved, but God always saves a remnant. Isaiah 10:22 says, “Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return.” And God said to Elijah, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel – all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal” (1 Kings 19:18). This idea is also found in the New Testament: “So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). Though we may be surrounded by people doing all sorts of wicked things, we must stand for truth and worship God. Be different! Be separate! Be holy! Be Bible-believing! Be God-loving! Be light in the world! God says of the remnant: “I will not destroy them.”

Choose Whom You Will Serve

When God’s people were in Egypt, God made a distinction between them and the servants of Pharaoh. There was light in Goshen, but darkness everywhere else; there was life in Goshen, but death in the rest of Egypt. God is once again going to make a distinction. He will differentiate his servants from Satan’s; for one, there will be blessings, but for the other, curses.

So we read, “Behold, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit” (vv. 13-14).

God is saying to the wicked, “‘My servants’ will be given a new name, but your name will be accursed. ‘My servants’ will be blessed, but you will be put to death. ‘My servants’ will forget all their troubles, but you will remember all of yours. ‘My servants’ will dwell in the new heaven and the new earth, where there will be no more weeping, sorrow, or tears, no more loneliness, death, or parting, where there will be total security and total peace, and, finally, no more enmity. ‘My servants’ are going to enjoy life with me, eating, drinking, rejoicing, and having eternal fellowship with me.” And I believe people in hell will be able to know what God’s people are enjoying in heaven, just as the rich man of Luke 16:23 did, and that will add to their eternal misery.

There is a way of life and there is a way of death. I pray we will not create our own reality, for the religion of our depraved imagination will only lead to destruction. It is the religion of the broad way, the way of hunger, thirst, shame, wailing, and brokenness of spirit forevermore. The way of Jesus is the way of obedience, forgiveness, and salvation. It is the way of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Those who mourn over their sin now will rejoice later. Those who are brokenhearted and of contrite spirit now will soon leap for joy. Time is short. Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve – idols of Fortune and Destiny, idols of your own depraved imagination, idols of personal peace, power, and affluence, idols that cannot save you from everlasting destruction . . . or the living God, the Lord of the covenant. Serve Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sinners, who rose from the dead, who reigns in heaven, and who shall come again to pay in full all who defy and provoke him. And when he comes, he will create a new heaven and a new earth for his servants to dwell with him in eternal happiness.

If you are still an enemy of God, I pray you will become a servant of Jesus Christ. Choose life! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.