Fan The Flame (Day 150)
Isaiah 66v24 “and they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against Me, the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
Well, this is it, the final daily devotion. Can you believe we have gone through 150 of these together? Isaiah has led us into new depths in his book to reveal the beauty of God’s character. The profound and prophetic have come to the surface many times and through all that we have read and studied together, it’s comforting to know that He is, and always will be sovereign over the schemes and plans of men. I am amazed how many times God speaks prophetically in this book about the end times and events leading up to it. I think in many ways we have only scratched the surface of this book.
A lot of Jews have found this last verse to be very negative so they choose to end this chapter with the beautiful, positive statement in v23 “all flesh shall come and worship before Me” says the Lord. Some scholars argue that the last verse is tagged on to this great prophecy, but we can’t just cut this verse off because we don’t like it.
The gospel divides saint and sinner, true worshippers, and idolaters, those who submit to God and those who rebel. Jesus quoted this text three times in Mark 9v43-48. It is showing what Hell will be like for the one who has turned away from God’s amazing grace. The rebel’s conscience will continue to work in hell. In Isaiah 48v22 it says “There is no peace for the wicked” says the Lord. Here is the reality of eternal life without God which people choose in rejecting Christ. Gehenna was the public rubbish dump where bodies of criminals and animals were thrown. This dump was southwest of Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom where the worms did not stop eating and fires did not stop burning. Jesus used Gehenna eleven times to describe Hell.
Isaiah finishes his incredible prophecy with prophecy. Just as the people in Jerusalem were aware of Gehenna, the Redeemed in the New Jerusalem will be aware of the ultimate destination of the lost. They will be aware of death and the wages of sin and will loathe it. They will also be joyful of eternal life – the gift of God that has come through Jesus Christ our Lord. The distance between verses 23 and 24 of Isaiah 66 could not be greater, it is Heaven and Hell.
Luke 16v26 says “and besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.”
Thank God that at the heart of Isaiah’s message, there is a Messiah who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities and by His stripes we are healed.
The glorious, unmistakable fact remains, the great barrier to hell is the Cross of Calvary. To just pass by it would be a very foolish, stupid thing to do as this means eternal separation from God, forever.