Isaiah chapter 64 - 3rd John

The sixty-forth chapter of Isaiah opens with a plea by Isaiah for God to “come down”.

“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.” (Isaiah 64:1-3)

These three verses would support a lengthy treatise by themselves, but that would be the subject of another writing at another time. I include it here simply to show that it is not going to be a part of this comparison. The last verses of this chapter will be treated in this same way.

They speak of the future desolation of Jerusalem, Zion and the temple, and together they have been used herein to connect this chapter to the letters written by John because they speak of a time following the destructive events of A.D. 70 at the hands of Rome. (It is possible if not probable that they also speak of the Babylonian destruction circa B.C. 600 which is covered in the notes on the three letters of John as a group.)

“Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?”
Isaiah 64:10-12)

The scope of our analysis here has therefore been narrowed to Isaiah 64:4-9 which says:

“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.” (Isaiah 64:4-9)

Isaiah’s words are very clear as to the total depravity of man. We read that man has sinned and will continue to do so, even though he is saved. Isaiah says in verse six that the things we do that we think are righteous, are in reality, just filth in God’s eyes.

He continues by saying that our iniquity has taken us away, just like a tornado. We see that it is not in man’s nature to lift himself up to take hold of God, and that we do not even call upon Him of our own accord. For all of this, God is “wroth” and has “hid” His face from us.

The passage also speaks of the goodness of God, and the passage closes with a plea that God not remember our iniquities nor be “wroth” forever, on the grounds that we are but the clay in His hands, and that we are His people after all.

Isaiah 64:5 and 3rd John 11 will be the focal points of this analysis. We look first at Isaiah 64:5

“Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.” (Isaiah 64:5)

Word origins are important and interesting. The original meaning of words can help us to understand what is being said when we read what someone has written. For example, why do we call a get-together of two or more people “a meeting”? We attend church and say that we have been to a meeting. Why?

Answer: Because we met someone there. It need not even be the first time we meet them. ‘Meeting’ denotes seeing someone in person; face-to-face so to speak. If we speak of a ‘meeting of the minds’ we are trying to communicate the idea that our minds are together. There is a sense of unity, the idea of fellowship and association.

Isaiah says that God meets the person who “rejoiceth and worketh righteousness”, but in this same passage, Isaiah says that what we think is righteousness is not righteous in the eyes of God, so, what does Isaiah mean by “worketh rightwousness”? He defines his meaning in the words that follow after that comma; “those that remember thee in thy ways”. In other words; God meets the person who rejoices in God and remembers God. Now, what does Isaiah mean by “meetest”? What is God doing when He meets someone?

Scripture tells us that no human being has ever seen God, so, this is not saying that God comes to your house and sits on you sofa and has a cup of coffee with you. The Holy Spirit is conveying the idea that God has fellowship with the person who rejoices in God and remembers God. God meets us in that way, and on those terms. Is our sinlessness a prerequisite for this meeting? Not according to the rest of the verse we’re reading.

“behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.”

God is angry at our sin, but according to this verse, we are going to keep on sinning, and God is going to save us anyway. Our being saved is not contingent upon our eliminating sin from our behavioral patterns. It is contingent ONLY upon our ‘meeting’ Him.

This concept is consistent with the Christian claim of salvation through a up-close-and –personal relationship with God. It is the foundational doctrine of the New Testament, so, let’s move on to John’s third little letter which opens with a greeting to one believer.

“The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3rd John 1-4)

This letter was not written to the unbelieving world, and John states his message in terms that apply to the believers, not to unbelievers, so, when we come to verse eleven, and we read the following, it means something different that it might to an unbeliever. Note that John is still addressing his message to the “beloved”.

“Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.” (3rd John 11)

John had just spoken in the two previous verses concerning the particular evil that he now refers back to in this verse, namely, the ill treatment of missionaries by Diotrophes, one of the believers in the same local church body as was Gaius.

“I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” (3rd John 9-10)

In the last sentence of verse eleven, John says;

“He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.” (v11b)

Has anyone ever seen God? NO! What is John saying here when he says that those who do evil have “not seen God”? Those who do good have NOT seen God in the way we normally would think of seeing someone. John is saying that those BELIEVERS who persist in that which is evil (you can use whatever evil you want to think of here) have not seen God, so what does John mean by “seen God”?

Do you see what I mean? How many times have you asked this question? How can someone ‘see’ what you mean? They can’t see what you mean. They can get their mind close to yours on an idea, but they are not seeing with their eyes. Nor can they see in the present what you just laid out for them a few minutes ago.

It would be better to say; are you seeing what I mean, but that’s now how we word it, and that’s not how John worded it in his statement to Gaius. John’s words convey a continuing condition rather than an idea that is only present tense or only future tense or only past tense.

He writes; “he that doeth evil hath not seen God.” “Doeth” can be past tense as well as continuing into the present and possibly into the future.

John says; He who is involved in some evil is not seeing God, and John is not talking about seeing with the human eyes. He is talking about relating to God, and having fellowship with Him, and in verse eleven, John says that in order to have relationship with God, we must not plunge ourselves into evil, but rather seek after and do as much good as we can. Verse eight bears this out.

“We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.”

“Fellowhelpers to the truth”? The evil in which Diotrophes was involved was refraining from supporting the missionaries who were taking the “truth” to the Gentiles. We usually thing of the truth as some sort of absolute in the area of knowledge, but in this case, the “truth” being take to the Gentiles was Jesus, who is the Christ, the Savior of the world.
Now read verse eight again.

“We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.”

The opposite of Diotrophes’ evil would have been for the believers to support the effort of the missionaries and thereby have fellowship with Him who is The Truth. It is about fellowship with God; “seeing” Him on a regular basis; knowing Him, and that was a big part of Isaiah’s message in chapter sixty-four.

“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways:” (Isaiah 64:4-5a)

The Holy Spirit inspired both Isaiah and John, and they both wrote what He gave them to write. I wonder if they had had each other’s texts if they would have seen the connection between chapter sixty-four of Isaiah and the third letter of John? They are connected.