Isaiah 66:24 – And they shall go forth , and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die , neither shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
Doctrine: In the text, we see Isaiah contrasting the everlasting blessedness of the redeemed in contrast to those that are eternally miserable. From this text, I posit: One – that those in a glorified and heavenly state are in full view of those that are in a wretched condition and; Two – that the sight and review of miserable souls in torments causes no anxiety to the redeemed.
The overall theme of Isaiah’s text shows Israel under judgment for disobedience to the word of God and following His statutes. The book opens with the vision of Isaiah declaring that Israel does not know their Sovereign and King and has not considered the One who has cared tenderly for them and strengthened them through their tribulations. It was the will and plan of God to bring His own people from Egypt after many years of bondage and show His glory to mankind through the preservation of His own.
As the narrative takes us through the plagues of Egypt and the subsequent delivery via the Providence of the Hand of God, we see that the pharaoh which suffered the personal loss of his firstborn in Exodus 12 asking the Israelites to leave, plundering the Egyptians in the process but still having favor in their sight verse 36. It was in the open and before the eyes of all men in Egypt that day that the LORD had delivered Israel out of bondage.
Throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament, it is not unlike GOD to deliver His own from affliction in the sight of those that had tormented them, and even with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, there were upwards of two hundred witnesses that had seen Jesus in the flesh after the crucifixion. When GOD works, Isaiah 43:13 shows us that “Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?” and what GOD does is not hidden or done in secret, but before the eyes of men so that all may know to glorify the LORD of glory.
One: To our point of that those in a glorified and heavenly state are in full view of those that are in a wretched condition, we shall look at Luke 16 &cf. where Jesus accounts the death of a certain rich man and another certain beggar named Lazarus. As Jesus is accounting this to the listeners, he is using the term of a certain two people, which may have been known to the listeners at the time he is accounting this. Had Jesus spoken a parable, he would have not used the term of a “certain” man, leaving us to the idea that both persons would have been known and contemporary to the hearers. In chapter 15 of Luke Jesus is seen addressing the publicans and sinners while his disciples were with him. At the beginning of chapter 16 we see Him addressing His disciples also, and it is not shown whether these chapters represent two separate times or a single discourse, but we do know that the disciples were in His hearing.
In the account of Lazarus in Luke 16 verse 23 we see the rich man now in his state of misery seeing Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham afar off. The rich man in torments makes requests of Abraham but to no avail as in Abraham’s reply to the rich man in hell in v.31 that they have Moses and the prophets and to hear them, and even if One had arisen from the dead they would not have been persuaded.
It is from this account that the Savior shows that the occupants of the miserable place of hell have the ability to see in full view the blessedness of the saved and redeemed as they are being comforted. It is not enough that they are in full view of the damned, but that a great chasm has been fixed between the two and they are afar off so that the rich man in his torments clearly understands that under no course would he ever be allowed to attain to the blessedness of the beggar resting blessedly in the bosom of Abraham. It is in this scripture from the lips of Jesus that we know for certainty that the damned will be able to view the blessed yet be unable to attain their blessedness making their misery complete, and while there is only one account of this type in scripture, one accounting of this from the mouth of the Son of God cannot be measured against all of the wisdom over the ages of mankind; the accounting of this from Jesus is truth because His Word is Truth.
This is also a picture of the redeemed and the unbeliever – they are separated and far off from each other as objects of either the blessedness of GOD or the displeasure of Him. Those that are under condemnation are dead in trespasses and sin, and those that are being redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ are alive evermore – and the difference is such that scripture makes the distinction of using the words live and dead as we have experientially understood these two terms from our daily lives.
Two: Now that we see the validity of the point that damned souls can see the blessed, we must now turn our attention to those that are in a blessed state viewing the misery of the damned. A scripture in Isaiah 66 is showing us of the new heavens and the new earth. GOD has redeemed His own, and they are now in a blessed state. The nature of our time with Him will be spent in worship and blessedness. Isaiah shows us in verse 18 that all men will be gathered together to see the glory and brilliance of the LORD of Glory in His abode ruling the new heavens and new earth. There are verses here that tell mankind that there will be nowhere to hide on the eventual day where the sin of man is reckoned against his soul.
In Isaiah’s 66th chapter, GOD is telling of those He regards, and those that He will not- and how the actions of those that will be damned testify against them. The contrasts brought about in the early part of the chapter show the magnificence of our LORD and Creator, that the heaven is His throne and the earth is a mere foot stool for Him; and further asks what man could contribute or build for His glory and majesty. There is nothing that man can build for the glory of GOD nor can the hand of man create anything that compares to those works that were spoken into existence eons ago by His Word, and the life that still continues into the nostrils of mankind thousands of years after our Creator breathed the breath of life into one soul. Man withers and fails absolutely before the LORD of glory!
There is one thing that our chapter in Isaiah notes and the one thing that the LORD will have regard to: that is the man that is poor and contrite in spirit and trembles at the Word of GOD. All of the efforts of religion and doctrines will not suffice when the LORD is looking for a poor spirit and the regard and obedience to His Word. Further more in the same chapter, we see the regard that the LORD has for those that are poseurs in religion: the actions of those showing religious fervor without faith in the author of salvation are seen as those that thinking they are going through religious motions – and in this case the act of an animal sacrifice of an oxen – to be seen as the equivalent sin of committing murder. It is a humble thing to draw near to Jesus, and every effort should be made in being certain that our heart is right before GOD.
The ungodly are also at peril of having their eyes blinded when they refuse to hear GOD. Hebrews 12:25 warns that not to “refuse Him that speaketh.” There is a day of hearing both from GOD and from the Word of GOD, but there will come a day that GOD will refuse to speak to your heart because you have refused to consider and hear His Word any longer. We see from Isaiah 66:4 that when GOD had spoken to you, the refusal of GOD was in your heart, and you closed your ears both to His Word and the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to you in love. GOD will speak in love calling you only so long, then GOD will speak to you in His anger and hot displeasure. Furthermore, this verse shows that GOD will chose things that bring a delusion to you – “I will choose their delusions” because you “chose that in which I delighted not”. Deuteronomy 32:36 is telling you that “their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” GOD Himself is choosing that day that has decided in His heart He has had enough of you and your refusal of Him, and those days are coming faster by every moment that you draw in breath as His enemy. In John 7:6, Jesus said “My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.” The end purpose of these verses is the Glory of God – whom has glory in Himself, yet is glorified in all things. He is glorified in the elect as well as those not elect, and even in those in Isaiah 66- all things work toward His eternal glory – and to display His glory to all souls including the redeemed and other inhabitants of Heaven.
When GOD comes, He will come in fury and anger – verse 15: “For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire”. Today, GOD is speaking with Truth, Grace, and Love, although it will not always be so, as there is coming a day that GOD is preparing for and his arrows are bent toward you because He has pleaded with you long, and spoke to you quietly and lovingly for a long time, but that day is drawing to a close for you because you have made yourself an enemy of the Most High GOD. Holy GOD has said “If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me, Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.” Deuteronomy 32:42-43. GOD shows mercy to His own people, and will torment those who do not belong to Him.
The torment and everlasting destruction of those who reject GOD and His Christ will be a matter of display and a reason for celebration. Consider Isaiah 66:22-24 “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
There will come a day where part of the worship of GOD will be reviewing the ongoing ruination of those that transgressed against GOD by refusing Jesus Christ. We do not understand yet and have a limited capacity for fully knowing what it means to refuse Christ, and the heinousness of the sin of rejecting GOD, His Son Jesus, His Word, every prodding and conviction of the Holy Spirit – but a day will come for the redeemed of Christ to fully recognize and see the value of being in Christ. The redeemed will share in God’s holy perspective, loving what He loves and hating what He hates. This includes a perfect hatred for sin as rebellion against God, rather than a personal animosity toward individuals.
Days of celebration are set by the LORD where the reprobate who can already see the redeemed are also viewed by those upon whom Christ set His affections, and this is not an occasion of sadness, but a joyful celebration. One may say “if I see my relative in hell, that will spoil heaven for me.” Nonsense. You will be in Heaven and in the presence of the resurrected Christ Whom is sitting on the right hand of the Father in glory, and you will experience complete joy without the mixture of sin and the flesh that now burdens us. You will have perfectly Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” and have the ability to see sin for what it was, and how by God’s grace you were saved by faith in Christ.
You will know and understand how every joyous word written in the Bible was written for you and for your benefit, and how every curse against the ungodly carried a full penalty of the payment for sin. You will see sin the way that GOD always saw it, and have the same perfect hatred for sin and those that sinned against GOD, and you will not feel disappointment in their everlasting pain and destruction. As Heaven is the ability to see God in all His Glory, your beatific view will not be dimmed by the punishment of the wicked. In 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 –“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are your’s; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your’s; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” If indeed all things belong to the believer – including things to come – then the punishment of those that disobeyed and rejected GOD’s Christ are also a benefit to the redeemed, else GOD would have withheld something from His children. Judas Iscariot has been in torment for 2000 years, and should bring the believer peace and awe to see the perfect justice of God displayed in the retribution of those who rejected Christ, knowing that His judgments are holy and righteous. In John 6:60, the disciples remarked that the teaching of Jesus was a “hard saying; who can hear it?”
There are many hard sayings in the Gospel, and in John 6 after hearing hard sayings of Christ, “many” of His disciples “walked no more with Him” according to verse 66. Not all scripture is pleasing to the ear, and causes the believer to come to conclusions that are contrary with the world and flesh; all scripture is profitable for the called in Christ Jesus including the verses that are not easy to reconcile- and many Christians stumble with difficult passages because it requires the believer to reconcile beliefs that run contrary to their inward feelings. Our inward feelings may change, but the Truth of the Gospel is unchanging.
But why is it thus? Is it unfair to have the blessedness of the redeemed in heaven seen by the damned, and is it equally unfair to have the saved in Christ watching the suffering of the damned? Our guidance is here in Romans 9: 9-23
“9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,”.
In these verses we see why GOD does this at all. It is for the good of the good. GOD has prepared vessels beforehand “fitted” for destruction with the capacity to endure eternal flame and torment that He may make known His blessings onto the redeemed. Is it fair? Absolutely it is, as it’s the plan of a Holy GOD to visit everlasting blessedness onto those who are called by His Name, and He will eventually prepare a body for you capable of enduring the blessings of Heaven, as well as preparing you an everlasting home promised by Jesus Christ Himself.
While a difficult doctrine that causes believers to tremble, the redeemed in Christ should consider it all joy that the future state of the believer includes seeing the heinousness of sin, those rejected by GOD, and what the redeemed have been eternally saved from. Romans 5:8 reminds us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, demonstrating God’s love even as His justice is magnified. His love still extends to mankind today. Amen.