Isaiah 65:2-5 All day long I have held out my hands to an
obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—
a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices
in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among
the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh
of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat; who say, ‘Keep
away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are
smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.
Comment
The fires of hell are fed by God's anger against sinners. But it seems
both in Old in New Testament God's most outstanding enemies were religious
hypocrites. They say here, ‘Keep away; don’t come
near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ while at the same time worshipping
foreign gods and violating God's commands. But what would compel such people
into this kind of behavior? It seems they think they are holy. It seems
they think they are good and religious people. Afterall why would they
waste their time in religoius pursuits? It was because they pursued their
own imaginations. They made up ideas about God, about what God wanted them
to do and about their status before God. They followed the imaginations
of their heart.
There are many such religious people today. Muslims are among them in
their man-made religion and in their devotion to their fabricated god Allah.
And so are Jews who have rejected the Son of God and by doing so have rejected
the Father. And yet many among them reckon themselves religiously superior
to the rest of the world. But they are little different than Muslims in
this sense. But even in the Christian community are those who tares among
the wheat, children of the devil, who take on the name and say the words,
but in their imaginations create their own doctrines suitable for their
chosen lifestyle contrary to the teachings of the Bible. These are kindling
for the fire.
Therefore beware pursuing your own imaginations. Granted there is the
issue of interpretation and the appropriateness of application, but we
must learn to conform our ideas and lifestyle to the Bible, as unimaginative
as that may be. For one's imaginations are often simply a function of the
desires of flesh. Imagine that!