Isaiah 66:2 - Is God Looking Your Way?

Isa 66:2 (KJV)  For all those things hath mine hand made, and
all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I
look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth
at my word.

Isa 66:2 (NRSV)  All these things my hand has made, and so all
these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the one to whom I
will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my
word.

Isa 66:2 (TEV)  I myself created the whole universe! I am
pleased with those who are humble and repentant, who fear me and obey
me.

Isa 66:2 (NCV)  My hand made all things. All things are here
because I made them," says the LORD. "These are the people I am pleased
with: those who are not proud or stubborn and who fear my word.

Isa 66:2 (CWB)  Haven't I created the whole universe and
everything in it?  Didn't I speak, and all creation came into being?  What
I really look for are those who are humble and penitent in spirit,
who listen in awe to my word and are eager to do my bidding.

What satisfaction can the Eternal Mind take in a house made with
men's hands? God has a heaven and an earth of his own making, and
temples of man's making; but he overlooks them, that he may look with
favour to him who is poor in spirit and serious, self-abasing and
self-denying; whose heart truly sorrows for sin: such a heart is a living
temple for God. [Matthew Henry]

True repentance occurs when we begin to see sin from God's point
of view - when we see the way our sin has broken his heart.
Perhaps the idea that God's heart can be broken by our sin is new to
you.  In Gen.6:5-6 we are told, "Then the Lord saw that the
wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry
that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart"
(NASB).  God was so disappointed with what he saw that there was a grief
or sorrow in his heart.
Jesus also was brokenhearted as he wept over Jerusalem.  "O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to
you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a
hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"
(Lk.13:34).  God's heart aches over our sin.  It alienates us from him and
from our fellow believers.
If we want to have victory over sin and turn our lives
wholeheartedly over to God, then we must see our sin from God's perspective.
No sermon on hell can ever change a person's heart like seeing the
grief sin has brought to the heart of the One who created us.  We must
ask God to show us what our sin does to him.  As we do this and
begin to understand his great love for us, despite how much we have
hurt and grieved his heart then we will want to turn away from sin
and let God give us new desires with new ways of living.  [Floyd
McClung; Time with God devotional SB mod re Psa.51:17]