Isaiah 66:20: “And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations upon horses and chariots and in litters and upon mules and upon swift beasts to my holy mountain Jerusalem saith the Lord as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.”
This verse is a reference to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after coming out of captivity. I tend to disagree with a view that this represents the Jews entering the church as that is done by faith. This is showing a return by various modes of transportation. It is a return after years in exile. The Jews had lost their homes, homeland, and all their possessions. Perhaps many of us can relate to Israel being in captivity. Yet, they did return from their captivity as an offering in a clean vessel.
It is interesting that this return would be considered an offering. The word used for
offering is minchah. This word comes from a questionable root. The masoretic text pointed this up to indicate the root as manach which means a gift or offering. However, I tend to agree with many rabbis who believe the root word should be nuch which means a rest or a pleasant sweet smelling aroma. It could also mean a delight or pleasure. I tend to go with nuch as the root word because it would fit with the words clean vessels. Hence the return from exile in clean vessels is not an offering to God but a pleasure to God.
One modern translation renders the clean vessel as ceremonial clean. Such a rendering ignores the culture of that day. A clean vessel or biyeli tah was just a common vessel in oriental culture as it is today. A potter often made vessels for honorable use as well as dishonorable use. Say you go to the potter and ask to purchase a vessel. He will ask you if you want to use it to go to a fountain to fetch water. If that is the case he will give you a vessel of honorable use (II Timothy 2:20). This is a vessel which will give out pure water to quench the thirst of visitors or strangers. If you go into the house of a peasant you will find three vessels, two large vessels which hold about five gallons of water and one small vessel. You will be instructed to take the small vessel and pour water for one of the large vessels. Both large vessels look the same, but one is for honorable use and contains pure water. The second vessel is for dishonorable use, it contains used or stale water. It appears to look like the vessel of honorable use, it too holds five gallons and has two handles. You may not be able to tell the difference, but the potter can tell and he will explain to you the difference. The vessel of dishonor receives much but gives out very little. This is the empty vessel of pleasure that is mentioned in Jeremiah 22:28. After a while this vessel of dishonor becomes slimy and develops an odor. At this point it is placed in the backyard as sort of a garbage can and becomes known as the abominable vessel as mentioned in Isaiah 65:4.
The vessel of honorable use gives out life giving water to thirsty travelers. It is handled by many unclean hands and before long its looks are marred but its nature has not changed it continues to give out life giving water. Soon the vessel is taken to the potter who will scrap it and file it to remove all the uncleanness that accumulated over time by being handled by dirty hands. After being scraped and filed, the vessel is then returned to the furnace and burned where it comes out clean without and within so it can again be put to use to give out life giving clean and pure water to thirsty travelers. This vessel is known as a clean vessel or the Biyeli Tah.
Do you remember a time when you first became a believer? It seemed liked every prayer you prayed was answered and sometimes instantly. Now you face a real need and when you pray it appears like there is silence from heaven, God does not show up at that eleventh hour, you don’t seem to experience that deliverance. Instead you end up like Israel in captivity. Then you find yourself asking God, “Why? What did I do that was so wrong, why am I being driven into captivity?”
Perhaps Isaiah 66:20 is telling you that you are that honorable vessel that has faithfully been giving out the water of life for many years, but over those years you’ve been picked at by many soiled hands. During these many years these unclean hands have soiled this vessel with attitudes, guilt, failures, pride, and all sorts of uncleanness. Maybe your vessel is being sent back to the divine Potter to be scraped, filed and put back into the furnace so that the fires turn it back into a clean vessel for His pleasure and may again serve an honorable use of giving out life giving water.
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