Isaiah 66:14, commentary and pictures

When what God has promised is seen fulfilled, His people rejoice and are made new and vigorous, while His care for His servants and His anger against His enemies are openly revealed. The promise belongs to the gospel vision reaching to the work of the Messiah and the glory of His reign, including the new earth and its capital, the destruction of sin and sinners, and the everlasting dominion of God's children. Its rejoicing and renewed strength take place at the Lord's coming, in the resurrection and change when the dead are redeemed from the grave and with the living remnant receive immortal and glorified bodies like Christ's. At that same coming the indignation is the final judgment in which the Lord comes with fire and the ungodly are slain and none are left, at the beginning of the thousand years. It also shows that the Sabbath will continue in paradise restored and the redeemed earth.

Context and Plain Sense

Isaiah 66:14 belongs to the second part of Isaiah, chapters 40-66, given through Isaiah, whose name means Jehovah is salvation. He prophesied between 760 and 698 B.C., beginning as a young man in the reign of Uzziah and continuing through Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, with tradition extending his work into the reign of Manasseh, by whom he was martyred. The crucial times in Judah in which he prophesied were typical of the great days to come. He is the Gospel prophet, and no other Old Testament prophet speaks so much of the last days, the sufferings and work of Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of glory ahead. It belongs to the gospel prophecy from chapter 40 onward, which has less local setting than the earlier prophecies and looks toward the future, carrying forward to the sufferings of Christ and the glory of His reign. Its promise of joy and renewal for God's servants, with God's hand known toward them and His indignation toward His enemies, fits Isaiah's themes of deliverance from Babylonian exile and deliverance from sin through the Messiah, themes sometimes interwoven while the vision can focus especially on the Messiah and God's spiritual kingdom.

The prophecy containing it includes the new earth and its capital, the destruction of sin and sinners, and the everlasting dominion of God's children. It points forward to the times of the Lord and the glorious triumph of God's children at the end of the Christian age. The verse is one separate scene in a rapidly changing panoramic vision with only a general relation to the scenes around it, not a link in an ordered chain like the prophecies of Daniel and John and the prophetic discourses of Christ which are plainer and easier to follow. Because the transition from one scene to another is often very sudden, the time when it applies cannot be known from its place in the chapter but only by comparing it with other plain texts of Scripture.

It promises that those who see the fulfillment of what God has promised will rejoice and be renewed, with hearts rejoicing and bones flourishing like an herb. It declares that the Lord's care and favor will be evident toward His servants, while His indignation will be evident toward His enemies. Its image of flourishing describes the righteous thriving like growing plants in the pure atmosphere and redeemed earth of the new creation when they see their deliverance and the restored creation.

Fulfillment at Christ's Coming

The rejoicing of heart and flourishing of bones, with the Lord's hand made known toward His servants and His indignation toward His enemies, takes place at the Lord's coming and the destruction of the wicked at the beginning of the thousand years. When God's people see those events fulfilled they rejoice and are renewed, while the verses that follow show this to be a final judgment in which the Lord comes with fire and many are slain. The indignation toward His enemies is the destruction of all the ungodly in the seven last plagues. Christ smites the nations and rules them with a rod of iron, breaking them and dashing them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and the remnant are slain with the sword of Him that sits upon the horse, so that none are left.

The verse describes the joy and renewal of Zion's children when they see God's promised deliverance fulfilled, applying to the resurrection and change of God's people. The dead are redeemed from the grave and join the living remnant in going up to Zion to dwell in Jerusalem, where they rejoice as children with their mother, and the Lord's favor toward His servants and indignation toward His enemies become manifest. The rejoicing heart and flourishing bones is when Zion's children are manifested after the second coming, when a nation is born at once because the earth casts out her dead and the dead in Christ rise first. They are wakened by the trumpet and the voice of God roaring out of Zion, as the voice of the Lord roaring from on high in the day of recompense to His enemies. Then and not till then are they dandled upon her knees and nourished by the tree of life in the midst of Zion, and this new birth is the resurrection or the change to immortality.

The birth of Zion's children comforted in Jerusalem is the resurrection at the second coming of Christ, when the rejoicing and renewed bones mean the disciples as members of Christ's body coming forth into new and eternal life. They come forth with immortal and glorified bodies like Jesus' glorious body, reflecting the image and glory of Christ. The hand of the Lord toward His servants and His indignation toward His enemies mean God glorified in all His saints at the same time He renders anger and rebuke on the wicked when the Lord comes with fire and chariots like a whirlwind. This takes place at the last trump, when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God in flaming fire to take vengeance, the dead are raised incorruptible and the living are changed, and this birth by the Spirit is the only birth that gives entrance into the kingdom of God.

The verse describes the condition of the people of God after they are received into the holy Jerusalem at the coming of Christ. It shows their rejoicing and delight in the abundance of her glory as children of the Jerusalem above which is the mother of all, in contrast to the old earthly city which is in bondage with her children. It harmonizes with the signs showing the end is near and with the proclamation of the warning message so God's people are not in darkness. It harmonizes with Christ's coming when the righteous dead are raised and the living changed to go with the Lord to the Father's house, and with the great day of God's wrath when all the wicked are slain and the earth lies desolate without a living man for a thousand years. It harmonizes also with the close of the thousand years when the city of God comes down to earth, the wicked dead are raised and destroyed by fire, and the earth is melted, purified, and made the everlasting home of God's people.

Doctrine and Christian Life

The verse speaks of the perpetuation of the Sabbath, showing that the Sabbath will exist in the new earth. It is evidence that the Sabbath will continue in paradise restored. The promise of rejoicing and flourishing belongs to that restored Sabbath-keeping order.

The hand of the Lord becoming known toward His servants points to a future time when His servants will learn how much good was done by a few words of courage. Words spoken in the right way at the right time bring great encouragement to those depressed through long dark years of trial, and their full effect will then be understood. In the last days those who keep the commandments of God will suffer affliction and persecution for the truth and will need patience. Patience is needed not in prosperity but under afflictions, while the Lord's hand will be revealed in favor toward His servants and in indignation toward His enemies at the coming of Christ to reap the harvest of the earth.