Isaiah 65:1-16: The LORD Says to You, “Here I Am!”

The LORD responds to His people’s prayer by reminding them that He was ready for them to seek and find Him in the ways that He had chosen to reveal Himself to them. Even as He spread His hands out to them, they engaged in all kinds of idolatrous practices that made them smoke in His nostrils. To His servants who respond to this rebuke in repentance, the LORD promises that He will be faithful to His remnant. To the wicked who continue to see after the LORD in their self-chosen ways, however, the LORD reveals that they never knew Him or listened to Him at all; they shall be put to shame. Nonetheless, the LORD will be faithful to His servants; they receive His blessing through faith in the Servant, His Son, Jesus Christ. Rev. Shawn Linnell, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Blair, NE, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Isaiah 65:1-16. "The Fifth Evangelist” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through Isaiah 40-66. Though Isaiah lived one hundred years beforehand, he writes to the people of God in exile in Babylon to assure them that their God reigns and will rescue them through the work of His servant. These promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, whose work Isaiah proclaims vividly seven hundred years beforehand.