This section introduces judgment into the mood of hope that pervades this section describing Israel's glorious future (65:17-66:24). Oppressors of the godly remnant will not prosper nor will those who depend on externals for their relationship to God.
66:1-2 Yahweh reminded His people that He is sovereign over His universe (cf. 65:17). They should not assign too much importance to the temple and its service since they built the temple for God (cf. 2 Sam. 7:4-14; 1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 11:4; 103:19; Jer. 7:12-14; 23:24; Matt. 5:34-35). It was a symbol of Him. They should consider more important that He had created all things Himself (cf. Acts 7:48-50). It is people who are not self-assertive or preoccupied with their own rights but rather who delight in the Lord's word that He favors (cf. Exod. 20:18-21; Luke 18:9-14; 23:39-43).
"If cult is performed to curry favor with God, to satisfy God's supposed needs, and thereby get something for ourselves from him, we should shut the doors of the temple at once and abandon the whole thing. But if our attitude in worship is the opposite of such arrogance as to think we can do something for God, and is instead the humble recognition that we can do nothing either for or to him (afflicted), the awareness that we deserve nothing but destruction from him (broken in spirit), and the desire to do nothing other than what he commands (trembles at my word), then the expression of such a spirit through the medium of ritual and symbolic worship is entirely pleasing to God."730
"The Lord's priority is the individual who has a trembling reverence for his word."731
66:3-4 The person who relies on ritual to satisfy God is repulsive to Him. The Lord regards the slaying of sacrifices by such a person as no better than murder. There is no difference to Him between the sacrifice of an acceptable lamb or an unclean dog when a person relies on ritual. A grain offering can be as abominable to Him as offering a swine's blood. Burning incense with such an attitude is just pagan worship (cf. 43:23-24; Jer. 7:21-22; Amos 5:21-25; Mic. 6:6-8; Mal. 1:10; Matt. 23:27).
"The most sacred exercises of true God-given religion are like the worst of sins when they are divorced from humility of spirit."732
Such worshippers chose to worship God as they pleased rather than as He pleased, so He would deal with them as He pleased, not as they pleased. He would do this because they proved unresponsive to His words and insensitive to His desires.
66:5 The Lord addressed the faithful who did tremble at His word (v. 2). He would put to shame their ritualistic brethren who hated them for their reality and excluded them for emphasizing genuineness. Those who obeyed God's word would find great joy and comfort in that word.
These two groups of Israelites emerged clearly following the return from exile, but they also existed in Isaiah's day (cf. 5:19; Luke 6:22; John 16:2). One group worshipped God for His sake and the other for their benefit. The ritualists challenged the "spiritual"to find their joy in the Lord while not really believing that obedience was the key to that joy. God promised that as they had shamed their spiritually sensitive brethren so He would shame them in the end.
66:6 God would intervene with a word announcing and affecting judgment. The superficial worshippers had called for God to act (v. 5), and He would. They had called on Him to give them the comfort they thought He owed them (cf. 57:18). He would give them what they deserved, but it would be judgment rather than comfort. These were enemies of His, not His true worshippers.
