65:3
God held out His hand to the people of Israel, but the people provoked God, and did so brazenly. They did this by sacrificing to idols. The gardens were one of the places where idol worship took place. “Altars of brick” can mean “incense altars”, common features of the “high places” where much idol worship took place. So they worshipped useless idols instead of the living God who could genuinely save them.
65:4,5
Graves were places where idol worship or maybe consulting the dead took place. They ate meat that was expressly forbidden in the Law. They considered themselves to be sacred, so sacred that they told others to keep away. In truth they were utterly profane themselves. They were, in fact, an offence to God.
65:6,7
“I will pay back in full”. God does not overlook sin. There is a very clear statement here that Israel would have to pay for her sins, especially for their idol worship. Sin cannot be ignored, and any understanding of the gospel that thinks it can is wholly inadequate, not to say wrong. That is why the concept of substitutionary atonement is so important. Justice was done on the cross because the penalty for our sin was paid in full.
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