Behold Me

““I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said: Here I am, here I am, to a nation that was not called by My name. I spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the wrong path, following their own thoughts… Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on My entire holy mountain,” says the Lord.” (Isaiah‬ ‭65‬:‭1‬-‭2‬, ‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

We are rapidly reaching the end of our time together in Isaiah. We have just one more chapter after today. When we began this study in January 2024, I was extremely hesitant and almost fearful of attempting to teach and preach my way through Isaiah’s prophecies. Looking back, I don’t think I could have asked for a better result. God has been moving and working in our church and I am very excited about what lies ahead for us.

When people study prophecy they often get lost in the weeds and miss the real purpose of what God is telling us. We want to read prophecy and discover some long lost secret about what is going to happen to us tomorrow. Those are the weeds I mention and we often like wading around in them looking for prophetic gold. But one of the golden rules of Biblical interpretation is that a passage cannot mean today what it never meant for those to whom it was written – context is everything. “First of all, you should know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬-‭21‬ ‭HCSB‬‬)

So how do Peter’s words relate to this week’s study in Isaiah? In every way and then some. One of the most common methods used today in Bible studies and small groups is to ask one another what the focal verse means to each of them. To understand HOW it should be understood and WHAT it should mean to them must be tied back to what God meant when He was speaking to the original recipients of those words. Then once we have studied and understood the original meaning, we can relate the teaching, the principles, and the practices to our own lives. That is precisely what I have attempted to do throughout our Isaiah study and I hope you’ve noticed.

This week, we reach one of those far reaching prophecies that Isaiah received from God and shares with us. If you haven’t done so, I would suggest you go read the entire chapter because you’ll need the context. I only cited the first few verses from the beginning and ending of the chapter, above. It begins, “I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said: Here I am; here I am, to a nation that was not called by My name.” Some scholars feel these words reference rebellious Israelites. I think it is painfully obvious they are wrong and this illustrates my point above, we are asked what it means to us and we often try to make scripture support our beliefs instead of allowing scripture to overwhelm, conquer and define our beliefs.

The people who sought God without asking and who found Him without seeking Him are the Gentile or pagan nations, you and me. (Unless I have some Jewish friend reading my words – if I do, message me please. I’d love to connect with you.) Notice how God responds, “Here I am; here I am” and it can also be translated “Behold me; behold me.” The pagan nations had chased after their own gods for century after century and millennium after millennium. They weren’t interested in and often mocked Israel’s God and His religious worship. Yet, He is the only God who EVER gave definitive evidence of His existence, power and love for man. We weren’t looking for God, but He bursts onto the scene and into our lives and boldly declares: “BEHOLD ME!” Hang onto that idea, we’ll come back to it. 

Next, God begins to lament about a rebellious people – His people. Some question the historical context for these rebellious acts and seek a specific incident. Is this pre-exile rebellion or post-exile rebellion? Let me state the obvious, I am NOT a scholar on the book of Isaiah but let the words say what they say. I may not know the specific historical context, but I know human nature and past experience with God’s people leaves little doubt that they had and still have a tendency to rebel against His will. By the way, so do you and I. 

But notice how He laments, “I spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the wrong path, following their own thoughts.” To spread out one’s hands is an act of prayer. God is speaking or praying over them. Let that sink in a bit. I think this is akin to what we find in Romans, “In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭HCSB‬‬) God is groaning over our disobedience and rebellion.

He goes on to describe the ways in which they rebel against Him by sacrificing in gardens, burning incense on bricks, sitting among graves, camping out in secret places, eating pork and polluted broth. They’re even arrogant in their holiness as they tell God to keep back, “I am too holy for you!” All of these practices are an abomination to the God of Israel. This isn’t something He will overlook. Instead of the sweet smell of His people’s prayers and worship it is offensive “smoke” in God’s nostrils from a fire that burns all day long.

So, how should we understand these words because they do seem to be directed at God’s people, Israel? We can learn an extremely valuable lesson from these principles. God determines the proper way to worship and relate Him, we don’t. We don’t have to fully understand the why in order to be obedient in the who, the how and the what. We are faced with this very challenge in the modern church. I’m not talking about music styles, church governance, or even Bible translations. I’m talking about us being obedient believers who seek to do God’s will and not our own. Who seek to worship Him in the way He deserves and demands instead of in ways that affirms our feelings and satisfies our desires. 

As many of you probably realizes, we are facing a crisis in the modern church. We seem to believe that we can live, act, worship and relate to ourselves and each other in whatever way(s) that make us happy, fulfills our needs or keeps us relevant  and attractive to our culture. In many ways, we’ve abandoned Biblical Christianity for a more socially acceptable but false version of it. The New Testament writers warned us about the dangers of false teachers and teachings. Teachers who would teach us only things we wanted to hear but are completely devoid of truth. Tickling our ears instead of satisfying our souls (see 2 Tim. 4:3). 

But the truth is, we’re not following God when we’re pursuing our own goals, hopes and dreams. We’re not following God when we’ve mapped out our own path. We’re not following God when we define our worship and the church’s mission around our own needs and desires. That’s like the people in this passage who are defining worship their own way and ignoring God’s commandments and laws. In a similar fashion, our culture is offended by the fact of Jesus’ stated exclusivity in John 14:16, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬ ‭HCSB‬‬) 

Many churches have begun abandoning Biblical theology in order to retain their attendees and donors. Yes, I intentionally said attendees and donors. Many of these churches and their leaders are more interested in human success than Biblical faithfulness. They’ve stopped preaching Biblical truths and have begun delivering self-help slop and feel-good talks (I can’t bring myself to call them sermons). In that context, they most likely have attendees and donors and not real Jesus disciples or followers. But churches have never been given the mandate to be successful in these things. But we have been given a mandate, “seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness” and then the things we need will be provided. Not the things we want, the things we need. Not our success, His success. Not our mission, His mission. Not our kingdom, His kingdom. 

Then in verse 8, God gives us an analogy about a bunch of grapes. The bunch has been harvested but some of the grapes are rotten and some are still good. Instead of throwing out the entire bunch, He will use the good grapes and build a legacy of

faith through them and cast out or throw away only the bad grapes. This is very similar to Jesus’ parable about the wheat and tares. An enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat but instead of burning the field, it was decided to let them grow alongside each other and separate them at the harvest. Simply put, God is the only one who has the right to judge because He’s the only one who is righteous. But don’t miss the fact that He has every right to judge us because we aren’t righteous. So many in our world are convinced they are the masters of their own fortunes and the 

This is what the entire message of Isaiah’s prophetic vision is about, our unrighteousness and God’s provision to make us righteous. We aren’t inherently good or righteous, we’re made righteous because of the work of God’s Servant. But we live in the midst of others who haven’t pursued God and been made righteous by the His Servant. God is letting us live in the midst of this “split” culture, for now.  We have those who love, pursue and have been made righteous through the Servant’s sacrifice living side-by-side with those who haven’t. God isn’t tossing the entire bunch aside, He’s collecting those who are “good grapes” and using them to achieve His mission and  build His kingdom. 

I must tell you though, my soul grieves over those grapes that are destroyed. But I need you to see why they’re destroyed. It isn’t because God is capricious or spiteful. It is because God knows His path is the only path that leads to truth and life. But our world no longer desires God’s truth, it desires its own truth. Notice in verse 11, the people abandon Him and seek “Fortune” and “Destiny”. I’ve often referred to God as Creator in these pages and He definitely is that. But He is so much more than just the One who creates life, His is life itself. He is both its origin, its existence, its purpose or goal and its destiny. To seek “Fortune” and “Destiny” in anything or anyone else is to reject Him and launch out on your own.

In the beginning of this passage, we hear God say “Here I am” or “Behold Me”. To reject Him is to replace His “Behold Me” and replace it with your own “behold me”. He explains that in verse 12, “I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not hear; you did what was evil in My sight and chose what I did not delight in.” That is the basis for the rottenness in those grapes that will be tossed aside and destroyed. Instead of beholding God, being in awe of Him, pursuing Him and discovering life in Him, they see only themselves (behold me) and are in awe of who and what they see. They pursue their own path and find life in their own fortune and destiny. That is the ultimate rejection. To be given the chance to be personally known and loved by the One who created you but to reject Him and be satisfied in your own self is the greatest sin against Him.

The final part of this chapter details the benefits for those who will see God and pursue the life He desires for them. But it also describes the loss that those who reject Him will suffer. God’s servants will eat, drink, rejoice, shout for joy and be given a new name. But those who pursue their own fortune and destiny will hunger, thirst, be put to shame, cry out in anguish and lament (or mourn) out of a broken spirit. They will leave their name behind and be destroyed by the LORD God. When we seek to define our own destiny, our own fortune (or treasure) and pursue our own path in life then we lose our true identity. When we fail to see God (Behold Me) then we will also fail to see our true selves. When we see only ourselves (behold me) then we are unable to see God and His truth. 

Do you want God’s blessing? Then pursue God and the blessing of His truth. The things you pursue in this life will determine what you will receive in the next life. He’s going to create a new heaven and a new earth (v. 17-25). The choices you make in this one will determine your blessings and your place in the new one. If you love and want God, then you will get your desire fulfilled but if you despise and reject Him, then you will get that desire fulfilled. Will you stand in awe of the God who has revealed Himself and His love for you, Behold ME! Or will you stand in awe of the god you’ve created of yourself and your love of self, behold me. 

It all depends on who you see when you look in a mirror. If you see yourself as a unique creature made in God’s image then you’ll see Him and pursue life in Him – Behold Me! However, if you look in that mirror and see a creation of your own making, who is set on seeking your own fortunes and your own destiny then you’ll only see yourself and never see Him – behold me. 

Who do you see?