Isaiah 65:2-5
Author: Steve Amato
Keywords: bible study,bible, isaiah

Translations: 简体中文 繁體中文

## Imagine That!

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!

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