17 “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
20 No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young man shall die a hundred years old,
and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
and dust shall be the serpent's food.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord. – Isaiah 65:17-25 ESV
As we saw in yesterday’s blog, God gave the faithful remnant of Judah His assurance that they could expect Him to do something new. And here He gets specific. He tells them that the day is coming when He will create new heavens and a new earth. While this statement most likely left the people of Judah scratching their heads in wonder, it would have reminded them of the very first verse in the first chapter of the first book of the Pentateuch: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 ESV). Their God, the one who created earth and heavens as they knew it, was going to re-create all things. And the point seems to be that the same power used to form the universe out of nothing was behind the promise to do a new thing for them. If God could create the universe ex nihilo, literally, out of nothing, and He had plans to create an all-new heavens and earth, then fulfilling His promises to the faithful remnant would prove to be no problem.
God assures His people that one day He will replace the old, sin-damaged universe with something new and pristine, and there will be no longing for what used to be. God is going to make all things new, including the city of Jerusalem and the heart of every person who lives in it. The apostle John describes the vision he was given of this new Jerusalem.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. – 21:1-2 NLT
And the prophet Ezekiel records the promise concerning God’s renovation or recreation of the hearts of His people.
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
“And you will live in Israel, the land I gave your ancestors long ago. You will be my people, and I will be your God.” – Ezekiel 36:26-28 NLT
This news was meant to bring joy to the people of Judah. As they faced the prospect of a coming invasion by Babylon, their hopes for the future looked bleak. But God was letting them know that He had a much better plan in store for them. He knew something they didn’t know. He had insights into their future to which they were blind and oblivious. And His pronouncement concerning the recreation of the heavens and earth, the city of Jerusalem, and the hearts of His people, was meant to encourage them. He wanted them to know that He was in full control of their fate and that they had reason to rejoice, rather than to despair.
God describes a day when there will be no more sorrow or tears. The painful results of living in a fallen and sin-fractured world will be non-existent. Infant mortality rates will rise dramatically because babies will no longer die just days after birth due to disease. Rather than experiencing premature and unexpected deaths, people will live to ripe old ages. In fact, God states that the average lifespan will be “like the days of a tree” (Isaiah 65:22 ESV). And people will live their extended lives in homes they have built and harvest grapes from the vineyards they have planted, without any fear of invasion from outside forces.
No longer will they have to fear that all their hard work will be in vain. There will be no enemies to confiscate their goods or plunder their property. And the older generation won’t have to worry about the next one squandering their inheritance through misfortune or misbehavior. God’s blessing will span the generations.
For they are people blessed by the Lord,
and their children, too, will be blessed. – Isaiah 65:23 NLT
Think about the sheer magnitude of this promise. It means that there will never be another occasion for anyone to write or read the following words:
And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. – Judges 2:10 ESV
When God states that they will be His people, and He will be their God,” He means it. And He gives them an example of what that new relationship will look like.
“I will answer them before they even call to me.
While they are still talking about their needs,
I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” – Isaiah 65:24 NLT
No more broken fellowship due to sin. No more unanswered prayers because of unfaithfulness and infidelity. They will enjoy the same kind of unhindered fellowship with God that Adam and Eve experienced in the garden before the fall. The entire creative order will be restored to its former pre-fall glory, with even the animosity between animals and mankind removed.
But all of this amazing imagery begs the question: When will all of this take place? It is easy to deduce that what God is describing here remains as yet unfulfilled. We still live in the same fallen world and experience all the pain and suffering that accompanies it. The descendants of the peoples of Judah and Israel live in the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, but it is safe to say that they don’t experience the things promised in these verses. They are surrounded by enemies and plagued by the constant threat of attack. In his commentary on the book of Isaiah, Franz Delitzsch states:
But to what part of the history of salvation are we to look for a place for the fulfillment of such prophecies as these of the state of peace prevailing in nature around the church, except in the millennium? (Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah).
God is describing a future day that remains as yet unfulfilled. It will part of the Millennial Kingdom established by Jesus Christ when He returns to earth in His second coming. In that day, all that God has promised will be fulfilled. His Son will set up His Kingdom on earth, will He will reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem for a thousand years. And, as part of that Kingdom, a remnant of the people of Israel will return to the land and be restored to a right relationship with God, just as these verses have promised. But it is important to note that this future physical and literal manifestation of Christ‘s Kingdom will be the culmination of the spiritual aspect of His reign that began with His first advent.
When God invaded the darkness of this world through the incarnation, the Kingdom made its entrance into the world. Jesus was just as much the King then as He is now and will be when He returns. But His subjects, the Jewish people, rejected Him as their King. They refused to acknowledge Him as who He claimed to be, the Son of God and their long-awaited Messiah. But their rejection of Him did not in any way diminish the reality of His right to be King of kings and Lord of lords.
He rules and reigns in the hearts of all those who have placed their faith in Him as their sin substitute and Savior. It is true that those of us who call Him Lord do not always submit to Him as such. We don’t always allow Him to be the King of our lives. But when we do submit to His authority over our lives, we experience the blessings that come as a result. We enjoy the peace that comes with submission to His will. We experience the joy that accompanies obedience to His commands. We have the privilege of knowing, in part, what it will be like in those future days. We get to experience a foreshadowing of the promises yet to come. As the apostle Paul put it:
Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 NLT
All that God has described in these verses reflects the love of God. He has expressed His great love for mankind through the gift of His Son. And, one day, He will send His Son again, as a further and final expression of His love, renewing the world He has made and restoring mankind to a right relationship with Himself. And God punctuates His promise with the following statement:
“In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.
I, the Lord, have spoken!” – Isaiah 65:25 NLT
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