Isaiah 65:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He identifies these individuals as those who provoke me, for they have long burned sacrifices before me. How can they conceal their actions when God perceives all? As stated through one of His holy prophets, “I am the God who draws near; I am the Lord, says the Lord, and not a God who is far off. What can be hidden from me?” (Jeremiah 23:23) and “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). Thus, if nothing is concealed from Him, how could those lighting incense in altars, or in groves, atop mountains, or beneath oaks, think they could escape His sight? There is no other sanctuary than the temple set apart for me. He remarked about Jerusalem through the prophet Jeremiah, “What right has my beloved to be in my house when there are so many abominations?” (Jeremiah 11:15). Holy Scripture often characterizes idols as abominations. The Lord observes that these individuals engage in revelry in the groves, meaning atop mountains, beneath oaks, and under lush tree canopies, as recorded (Hosea 4:18). They offer sacrifices in a manner reminiscent of the practices of the Gentiles, to certain spirits they refer to as nymphs, gamadriads, and oreads. They are termed not real, he states, not because evil spirits do not exist, but because those beings are not deities, despite the misguided understanding of those who offer sacrifices to them.

In their sacrilegious practices, they offered sacrifices in gardens and burned incense on bricks, intertwining immorality with idolatry and lust with their offerings. Rather than building a singular altar of unhewn stones as prescribed by God, they splashed blood from their sacrifices upon burnt bricks and upon the earth. This description holds a physical aspect, yet spiritually, every heretic stirs the Lord’s anger, presenting unclean sacrifices through their erroneous teachings—sacrifices that lack permanence and wither away quickly, much like gardens that bloom briefly, catering only to fleeting bodily pleasures. To such it is said: "All flesh is hay, and all its glory is like the flower of grass." However, the word of the Lord, preached in the churches, stands forever (Isaiah 40:6-8). Nebuchadnezzar, disapproving of such gardens within his vineyard, shed blood under the wicked king Ahab (1 Kings 21). It was indeed contrary to decency for a paternal inheritance to perish and for vineyards that provide joy to be cut down, yielding instead fruits of vice and pleasure. Among the Greeks, there exists a saying from a much-respected sage who labels the fleeting pleasures and opulence of the world as the gardens of Adonis. Heretics too make inscriptions on stones as they try to solidify their deceptions through dialectical artistry, constructing their arguments in orderly fashion, supported, as they claim, by mathematical proofs drawn upon dust and written on bricks. The Septuagint mentions "Demons which do not exist," an interpretation not found in the Hebrew; this can be understood to mean that, both literally and spiritually, the demons—now utterly devoid of God’s presence—and the sects of heretics lack truth and fade into nothingness, resembling mere shadows. Thus, Esther also implores the Lord, "Thou shalt not commit Thy heritage unto them that exist not" (Esther 4), and the saint petitions in the psalm, "Loose me, that I may rest before I depart, and to this I will not be" (Isaiah 38:14). For whoever, in this mortal body, fails to obtain forgiveness for sins and abandons true life, perishes from God's sight and ceases to exist, even while enduring their own torments.

This people provokes My anger before Me.' Indeed, the Jews, who possessed the prophecies and had long anticipated the coming of the Christ, failed to acknowledge Him, and not only did they not recognize Him, but they also rejected Him. In contrast, the Gentiles, who had not known of Christ until His apostles arrived from Jerusalem, proclaimed Him, reported the prophecies, and, with joy and faith, turned away from idols, surrendering to the living God through Christ.