And I, -- their works and their thoughts [are before me]. ... [The time] cometh for the gathering of all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.
Isaiah's last chapter ends with fire, sword, and judgment on all flesh — and then with a promise to gather every nation and language. Two questions follow: what does it mean that God knows their works and their thoughts, and when does this gathering happen?
The verse opens with what God knows: their works and their thoughts. One writer places this line among the passages that show the Lord reads the heart.
The Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, showed His knowledge of the thoughts of men's hearts (Matt. 9:4; Luke 5:22; Luke 11:17); for He is the One who "searches all hearts and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts" (1 Chron. 28:9; Ps. 94:11). And the psalmist, feeling this knowledge, throws open his heart for divine inspection, saying, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 139:23-24).
When does this gathering happen, and how? One commentator gives a rule for reading passages like this one.
Turn now to Isaiah 66, where the glory of the Lord is also spoken of. When we look at these passages that people quote so often, it is always an excellent plan to read the context. Here fire and sword bring in the glory of the Lord... The glory of the Lord here comes with the execution of judgment; there is nothing of the gospel at all.
Some have objected that the nations listed in the next verse — Tarshish, Tubal, Javan — had long since heard of the God of Israel, so this must describe the spread of the gospel rather than a future event. That objection is answered directly.
Vitringa argues on verse 19 that no future call of the nations can be meant here, because those named have long since known the God of Israel. That argument seems to have no real force. For even the Christian world will then have fallen away from the faith (2 Thess. 2). And besides, hearing the Lord's fame and seeing His glory point to the display of Himself that He will then make here below. How few people look for the future as God's word describes it!
"All nations and tongues" recalls the day God divided human speech and scattered the nations. One writer asks whether that judgment still stands.
Long ago the Lord scattered the nations (see Gen. 11). That was judgment on a bold move of theirs. They all had one speech and one language, and they tried to make themselves independent of God. And has He reversed that judgment? There is indeed an appointed time when it will be reversed. Jerusalem will be a centre. The nations will flock to Zion, there to see the King in His beauty.
If judgment is that severe, who survives to fill the earth in the coming reign? This verse and the next one answer that.
I have often found people unable to understand who will fill the earth during the millennium, seeing that the Lord comes with such terrible judgment on the wicked. If we examine Isaiah 66, the difficulty disappears... The way this happens is described there too: God sets a sign among them, and sends those of them who escape out to distant nations, to peoples who have not heard His fame or seen His glory, and they declare His glory among the nations. So while those who have heard and rejected the gospel will be destroyed, those who have not heard, and so have not rejected it in the same way, will then hear and be saved.
The gathered nations do not just arrive. A Sign stands among them, and one writer follows the chapter through to what comes next.
Inside the city — now lifted up as the royal city of the Great King, the holy city of the Lord — we see His glory displayed, and God sets the Sign among them. Yes, they will bring the children of Israel to His holy mountain Jerusalem as an offering, and some of them will be taken for priests and Levites (v. 20). And all flesh will come to worship before Him, says the Lord (v. 23).
- Known — God opens with what He knows: works and thoughts alike. Nothing about the nations is hidden from the One who gathers them.
- Gathered — What He knows, He acts on. He gathers the nations with fire and sword, not with gospel preaching; read the verses around this one and you find judgment.
- Reversed — What God scattered in judgment, He gathers again at Zion. "All nations and tongues" undoes the old division, and the nations flock to see the King.
- Sent — Those who survive the judgment become the messengers. Peoples who never heard God's fame hear it from those who escape, and they are saved. That is how the earth fills in the age to come.
- Worshipping — The end of the chain is worship. God sets a Sign among them, brings Israel home from every nation, and all flesh comes to worship before Him.
And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow; to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
Isaiah 66 closes the book with the Lord coming in fire to judge all flesh. Then a mission goes out to the ends of the earth. Two questions follow: what is the "sign" God sets, and who are the "survivors" He sends?
The verse sits inside a scene of judgment, yet it turns toward mercy. One writer points to what happens in the middle of that day:
But in the middle of this terrible day of His anger on the nations, the prophet hints that the Lord will give some sign. At that sign, it may be, there will be repentance and a turning of heart, and then an escape out of this day of wrath. This is striking. This is a remnant from the nations brought to the Lord, as at the eleventh hour.
Among whom is the sign set? One writer places it in the middle of Israel, and finds the messengers there too.
It will be in the middle of Israel — the newborn nation, so richly blessed in their Messiah — that the Sign of God will be set. The Sign will stand in supreme sovereignty and divine excellence on display, drawing by its grace those who come with worshipping hearts to see His glory. Israel's survivors will carry the news over the world. Having come out of all nations, they will be well fitted in word and wisdom to bring it to all.
Commentators differ here. Bellett, quoted above, takes them as spared people from among the judged nations. Others take them as a spared remnant of Jews, sent out after the judgment.
After this judgment, carried out either by the Lord in person, or by the Jews as His instruments, comes the gospel of the kingdom, in which the glory of Him who has come to reign is declared. This is a message of peace, and it goes out to all the nations. The messengers of this gospel are probably Jews. The escaped ones referred to here are a spared remnant of Jews.
The places named come from the table of nations in Genesis. Javan stands behind the peoples of the coasts and islands.
Fourth son of Japheth, and father of Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim. "From these came the distribution of the isles of the nations." Genesis 10:2, 4; 1 Chronicles 1:5, 7. Matching this is Isaiah 66:19, where God sends His messengers to Javan, to the islands far away, where He will make His glory known.
The phrase "who draw the bow" points to peoples known for archery. One writer traces these bowmen to Africa:
Those who spread west of the Nile were archers, as we learn from Isaiah 66:19 and Jeremiah 46:9, where the African peoples seem to be listed and described in this way.
Some read the verse as already fulfilled in the Christian era. One writer answers by pointing to who is being gathered now:
All this is clearly not the same as the gospel or its effects, but stands in the most certain and obvious contrast with it. The offering now is characteristically of the Gentiles, as we see in Romans 15:16, and as experience shows. Jews are no doubt converted now as ever, but they are relatively rare. The prophet is looking at the day when "all Israel will be saved."
Kelly also answers an old objection to taking the verse as still future:
The argument that no future call of the nations can be meant here, because those named have long since known the God of Israel, seems to have no real force. For even Christendom — the professing Christian world — will then have fallen away. Besides, the hearing of Jehovah's fame and seeing His glory refers to the showing of Himself that He will then make here below. How little people look for the future according to God's word!
If judgment falls so widely, who is left to fill the earth afterward?
So those who have heard and rejected the gospel will be destroyed. Those who have not heard, and so have not rejected it in the same way, will then hear and be saved. At the flood only a very small remnant came through the judgment alive, but that small remnant soon repopulated the earth. In the same way the remnant of Israel, brought through the judgments, will carry the good news of the kingdom to those who have not heard.
A people once walled in becomes a people sent out:
They had a priesthood within, but no ministry going out. Their system was not a missionary one; rather, they were walled in. But we should not forget that the day is coming when they will be, in the truest sense, a missionary people.
- Judgment first. The verse follows the Lord coming in fire; the sign is set in the middle of that day, not before it.
- Mercy next. The sign brings repentance and escape "at the eleventh hour" — judgment itself leaves survivors.
- Sending after that. God sends those spared to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, Javan and the coastlands far away — nations that have never heard His fame.
- Reach without limit. The names come from the table of nations in Genesis, so the mission runs to the outer edges of the known world.
- Result: a filled earth. Those who never heard will hear and be saved, and a people once walled in becomes a missionary people.