Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 141st episode. In this episode I want to continue our study of the book of Isaiah. We are in chapter 65. This chapter brings us closer to the conclusion of Isaiah’s prophecies. The climax of his visions directs our attention as far forward as the new heavens and the new earth. This means the created order after Christ’s work of redemption is complete. The gospel of Christ functions to separate the wheat from the chaff – the precious from the vile. All of the prophets including Isaiah bore witness to Christ and His judgment of the world. Throughout the New Testament this prophetic judgment manifests itself as the rejection of the Jews and the bringing in of the Gentiles. Christ came unto His own and His own rejected Him. Many of the Jews who rejected Jesus were among the religious elite. There is no better example in history to warn us that piety will not save a person whose heart turns away from God.
This chapter anticipates the Gentiles’ response to the gospel call. Isaiah reflects on the rejection of the Jews for their arrogance and unbelief. Though many Jews rejected Christ, there were some who didn’t and these made up the remnant of God’s people whom He brought forward into His Church. This chapter discusses the judgments God had reserved for the Jews who would not turn to Him. It also goes into some detail concerning the blessings God had in store for the Christian Church – blessings which would be its joy and its glory. All of these elements are brought to us by Isaiah in the form of Israel’s captivity in Babylon. There was a division among the Jews between which ones feared God and which ones didn’t. For those who continued to walk in faith, God would rectify their sins and reserve blessings for them in the future. Let’s begin with verses 1-7:
Isa 65:1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name.
Isa 65:2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;
Isa 65:3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;
Isa 65:4 who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
Isa 65:5 who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
Isa 65:6 Behold, it is written before me: “I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their lap
Isa 65:7 both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together, says the LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I will measure into their lap payment for their former deeds.”
According to the Apostle Paul, this passage points to the Gentiles accepting the gospel while the Jews rejected it. Paul thought it was very bold to lay this charge at the feet of the Jews. After all, they fancied themselves as God’s chosen people. The idea that God’s chosen people would reject Him was a prophecy so improbable the religious elite likely scoffed at it. But the fact that Isaiah directed this accusation at the Jews was also a great offense to their national pride. Interestingly enough, God predicted this offense through the words of Moses way back in Deuteronomy chapter 32. He warned Israel that if they provoked Him to anger by worshiping idols then they would face the jealousy of watching foolish nations be accepted into God’s Kingdom while they were rejected. Gentile nations were considered foolish because before the gospel they were mostly pagan and godless. The Gentiles had no claim to fame in belonging to the heritage of Abraham. But since they opened their hearts to God and the Jews didn’t – they were accepted and the Jews were not.
This change of affairs would have been quite striking had you lived during this time. Before Christ the Gentiles didn’t seek God at all. They were like a nation far off from the holy land – and they suffered precisely the kind of difficulties you would expect of societies who had to push on deprived of a relationship with God. They had no effective prayer to speak of and when they did pray it was directed at idols made of wood and stone. After Christ, the hearts of Gentiles were sufficiently prepared to begin asking questions about their Creator. The preaching of the gospel was an invitation for these Gentiles to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and to call on the name of the Lord.
By human standards we tend to seek the approval of successful and aristocratic people. We might think praise from the religious elite would carry more significance than praise from the common Gentiles. But this was not so with God. God was positively thrilled and He took great pleasure in being sought after by the Gentiles. It brought great glory to God for people who had once been lost in godlessness to seek Him out and ask for Him. God rejoices over the least of us as much as He does the greatest – and maybe even more in some instances. There is great joy in heaven when a sinner who was lost comes to repentance.
This change of fate for the Gentile world didn’t begin with the Gentiles – it began with God. He anticipated their prayers with His blessings. The Gentiles were able to come to know God because God first knew them. They were able to seek after God because God first sought after them. This idea is called prevenient grace. You’ll often hear people say that you must seek God in order to find Him – and this is true. Your relationship with God is predicated on your willingness to be close to Him. If you don’t desire to be close with God then you won’t be close with God. If you do not wish to seek Him then your attention will be captured elsewhere. But the very first initiation – the preparation of your heart to receive the gospel – is an act of God and not an act of humanity. We are only able to love God because He loved us first while we were yet sinners. The Gentiles didn’t know it, but God was near to them all along. The preaching of the gospel simply illuminated their spirits to this eternal reality.
The welcoming of the Gentiles reveals something very important about the character of God. You must understand that these people had never made a profession of religion – and yet God gave them the advantage of divine revelation. He showed Himself to them. He invited them in to take comfort in Him and receive the benefits of His blessing. God cares far more about the condition of your spirit than He does the status of your religion. Religious ceremony has always been a mechanism used to improve the condition of your spirit. Religious ceremony is meant as an aid to help a poorly calibrated spirit, it was never purposed to function as evidence of an already well-calibrated spirit. This means your religiosity is not a reliable representation of the condition of your spirit. It’s possible to be a wicked person who is also very religious, and in this case your ceremonies are an abomination in the sight of God. God wants your spirit.
The apostles were sent from place to place to preach the gospel. They were like heralds of the divine revelation – messengers for God. The preached for the Gentile world to behold God, to turn to Him, and to fix their minds upon Him. The gospel of Jesus Christ constructed a spiritual bridge these Gentiles could cross to enter the Kingdom of God. The same bridge stands for all of us today. We walk through the narrow gate that is Christ and are welcomed in to admire God and adore Him. We are presented with the opportunity to direct our attention away from the idols we have made and onto the God who made us. For the first time in history the Kingdom of God exploded into reality for all people to behold with an eye of faith. Before the gospel the Gentiles were not godly people and had not experienced the mercies of divine faith. Before the gospel you and me occupied this same reality of being stuck in a temporary life that slips away with each passing moment. But Christ in His love came to each of us and called for us to look unto Him, that we may be saved. The gospel of Jesus Christ takes those who were not a people and makes them children of the living God.
For ages the Jews had been a people who were near to God. But Isaiah’s prophecy, looking ahead to the time of Christ, pictures them as being cast off and set at a distance. This was particularly true of the Jews who lived at the time of Paul. They were the religious elite responsible for crucifying the very God they claimed to serve. God Himself courted Israel to divine grace through the prophets, through the incarnate Christ, and through the preaching of the apostles afterwards. God called His people and no one listened. He stretched out His hand and no one heeded. Not only did God beckon for Israel to follow Him, but He was also ready to embrace them with the blessing He had stored up for them. All they had to do was accept it. But they crucified Him. Christ on the cross had His arms spread open and stretched forth – as if to embrace repentant sinners by His grace. God’s grace is patient and He does not grow tired of waiting for His people to return to Him. Even those who find God in their final moments are welcomed in with open arms.
Many of the Jews who lived during the time of Christ dismissed the gospel invitation as contemptible nonsense. They were a rebellious people who sought after their own gain. Their personal aspirations and wicked motives caused them to reject the counsel of God. When you meditate on people being cast off by God, it’s important to remember that these people are not rejected for no reason. Their character is bad but being a bad person isn’t all it takes to sever your relationship with God – it’s how you respond to the knowledge of your fallen nature.
The Jews during the time of Christ did not respond as one would expect of people who traditionally belonged to God. They were very strong-willed and marched forward in whatever direction they saw fit. They didn’t care about God’s will for them so they pursued their own thoughts and desires. Many of them knew the difference between right and wrong but they paid no respect to it. The Jews who lived during the time of Christ followed their own corrupt hearts. Following your heart is generally a bad idea because the human heart is desperately wicked. When you follow your heart the road you end up walking down is wrong and unsafe – not to mention the fact that it often leads to a dead-end of nihilistic meaninglessness. God had given them His word concerning what was best for them – but they refused to listen and instead did what they thought best.
But it wasn’t just arrogance and lack of respect for authority which plagued them. They were also very provoking against God. Their sins grieved Him and their hardened hearts vexed His Holy Spirit. Not only did they pay no regard for His authority, but it seemed as if they actively designed on how they could make Him their enemy. Their transition into darkness merely paused at disrespect for authority – as they continued to decline it evolved further into downright hatred of authority. The idea of justice sparked defiance in their hearts. They made these affronts against God continually – over and over again.
Isaiah referenced their own sins and the sins of their fathers when explaining why God cast them off. When it came to their predecessors the most provoking sin was idolatry. Idolatry is a wicked sin because it sets yourself and your children up for failure. There’s good evidence to suggest many children grow up believing precisely what their parents believed. God warns about this passing of beliefs in the first commandment concerning idolatry – saying the iniquity of idolaters is passed down to the third and fourth generations of those who hate God. If you don’t take the time to sort out your own beliefs then you’re going to make life much harder for your children than it needs to be. Fortunately the opposite is also true in that good beliefs transmit equally as well if not better than bad beliefs.
Idolatry was the black hole that made up the center of gravity for much of Israel’s sins. Seventy years in Babylonian captivity helped relieve this idolatry, but even generations long after the exile fell into the trap of other disorders. The same part of human nature which fuels idolatry fuels things like forsaking the Church for your own personal flavor of Christianity. The Jews forsook God’s temple and sacrificed in gardens and groves. This wasn’t out of necessity either – it was more an issue of wanting to do things their own way because they disliked God’s institutions. They built altars out of brick and tile so that they could burn incense to whatever deity they chose. Sometimes the Israelites constructed altars on the rooftops of their houses so they could make sacrifices to the heavenly bodies and other false gods. Various forms of dark arts like necromancy cropped up in Israel and Jews could be seen spending their time among the graves trying to commune with the dead. Some of them used witch-doctors and mediums in an effort to consult evil spirits which they thought haunted the sepulchers.
Before the gospel of Jesus Christ Israel was given instruction on various dietary regulations. God made specific distinctions between clean and unclean food sources. These regulations were likely object lessons designed to begin the delicate work of building obedience into the people. You have to learn how to walk before you can run. As with many other commandments, the Israelites often failed to follow these dietary regulations. For example, they ate pork when they were instructed not to. In the gospel accounts Christ sent the evil spirit out of the man and into the herd of swine. There wouldn’t be a herd of swine to begin with if pigs weren’t being raised as livestock. These dietary regulations strike us as silly today and that’s because they are silly today. The new covenant of Christ has made clean what was previously unclean. God’s people have sufficiently developed away from neolithic barbarism that our obedience can now be worked in more nuanced ways. But the premise behind the dietary laws remains the same. There are certain parts of life and codes of conduct which God has deemed unclean or undesirable. While these are not mortal sins they remain sins nonetheless. It’s a dangerous game to proudly play in these areas. Undoubtedly we all still taste these sins, but it’s crucially important that we maintain the wrongness of these things and aspire for better ways.
Of all the iniquity which made up the character of the religious elite during the time of Christ, there was perhaps nothing more damning than their pride and hypocrisy. Jesus repeatedly condemned them for this. The Pharisees were arrogant and projected themselves as being pure as the driven snow. Their self-righteousness was so palpable they didn’t want sinners to be anywhere near them, lest their fake purity be polluted by the filth of commoners. The religious elite viewed themselves as higher than other humans, thus they frequently demonized the average person. They held others to the fire without mercy while failing to live up to their own standards.
The Pharisees believed they were as good as they should be, as good as they needed to be, and better than any of their neighbors. But to God they were odious, offensive, and foul. If you want God to become your enemy, there is seldom a better way than to exalt yourself in proud conceit while reviling your neighbors. That’s what it looks like to break the two greatest commandments. A narcissistic view of yourself attempts to dethrone God and make yourself your own ontological referent for perfection. Once you’re completely high on yourself, you stop loving your neighbors and instead persecute them for sins you yourself are guilty of. I always tell Christians that everyone is ugly if you look close enough. You always need to keep this in mind so you don’t make the mistake of deifying another person or yourself. Humility and the fear of the Lord are among the greatest qualities of a true Christian.
People who think like Pharisees do not go unchallenged by God. You might see holier-than-thou types get away with it for a while, but eventually God always brings them down. Although God’s grace provides His patient silence on this matter, He has promised that He will not remain silent forever. Just think about how damning pride is. Pride infects your spirit and turns you into a person who could be standing directly in front of Jesus Christ and fail to see Him. This is what happened with the Pharisees. They were so proud of their religiosity they not only failed to see God, but they crucified Him. When you abuse religion to glorify yourself or to become lost in your own self-righteousness, your arrogance masked as great professions of faith serves only to speed up your condemnation.
Israel’s own sins were enough to condemn them, but when you factored in the sins of their fathers the outlook got a lot worse. The blood of the Old Testament martyrs was a witness against unrepentant Jerusalem. The altars setup in the high places used for burning incense and worshiping idols were a witness against unrepentant Jerusalem. Going as far back as Abel, God will reckon with humanity for every injustice and for every act of evil. The only pathway out of this judgment is through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement on the cross. As we walk through life on earth it can be easy to think wicked people get away with crimes. Sometimes evil people pass away without ever facing justice in this world. But God has promised that our own iniquities, as well as the iniquities of our fathers will never be forgotten unless covered by the righteousness of Christ. God will deal justice to His enemies as well as His false and treacherous friends. You do not want to find yourself standing before the throne on your own merit – and thanks to the selfless love of Jesus Christ, you don’t have to. Let’s read verses 8-10:
Isa 65:8 Thus says the LORD: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all.
Isa 65:9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.
Isa 65:10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me.
After all this consternation regarding the Israelites it can be tempting to think God just dispensed with all of them. But this is not so. God knew the content of each individual’s heart and He kept back a remnant made of those who did not bend the knee to deception. This has been true throughout history when the Jews faced judgment and it will be true in the future when Christ returns. A remnant of the Jewish people will be brought to embrace the Christian faith. It is for this remnant’s sake that the tribulation during the end times will be shortened. If it was not shortened it would carry on with such intensity that no flesh would be able to endure it.
When God is dealing with a population of people a good way to think about it is a vine-dresser examining a grapevine. The vine may have been scorched by sin so badly that on first glance all the fruit is withered and dead. The proper action would be to cut down the vine and remove it. But if God, when examining the vine, sees even one little cluster of grapes which are still holding onto life then He holds back from destruction of the vine. God counts this little cluster – as small as it is – as a blessing on the vine. This little cluster of grapes is a blessing which represents hope for a better tomorrow.
I always maintain that human beings are fallen and deeply flawed, but it’s also true (and it may even be more true) that each of us has a divine spark inside of us. Each of us has a capacity for good which might be limitless. People who do what they can to manifest this goodness are a blessing to the places where they live. They are the little cluster of grapes holding onto life when all else has withered. Sometimes God spares entire cities and whole nations for the sake of a few good people who reside there. As a Christian, you should aspire to be a light in the darkness who brings Christ into a world which does not know Him. By shining the light of your divine spark you may end up being the reason God chooses to spare many others.
So we know there was a remnant among the Jews whom God preserved from destruction. What do such people look like? They were faithful servants of God. If you notice someone in your community who acts as if they are a faithful servant of God – regardless of how religious they are – you should know this person is an asset to the entire collective. Their faithful conduct is helping to preserve their own sphere of influence and it’s likely rippling out into yours. The good who exist among the bad are also those who seek God. The purpose of their lives is to glorify God and they’ve made it their own business to call upon Him. God restrains His wrath for the sake of those who seek Him. Those who seek God shall find Him, and with Him they shall find bountiful blessings.
Among these bountiful blessings include joyful residence with God. For the Jews this meant coming home from exile back to their own land. For us it means incorporation into the Church by way of faith in Christ. Israel had the promised land to inherit and to inhabit. In the holy mountains of Jerusalem they made their refuge, their rest, and their residence. The same is true for us in heaven. There is a place made and reserved for us in God’s heavenly kingdom. We will dwell there and we will be at home there. It’s actually possible for a person to go all through life without really ever having a home. But if you invest your faith in Christ, you can be certain that you have a home in heaven with God. You have an inheritance that is not corruptible. We pass through life as through a vale of tears, but we can trust in Jesus that He will carry us safely to what’s waiting for us on the other side. Our eternal home is a place we will peaceably enjoy. There will be none to disturb us or to make us afraid. Jesus is the door we all must walk through to arrive in heaven. In this place we will lie down in green pastures and be led beside still waters. In this place goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let’s read verses 11-16:
Isa 65:11 But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
Isa 65:12 I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.”
Isa 65:13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;
Isa 65:14 behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.
Isa 65:15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord GOD will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name,
Isa 65:16 so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.
This passage gives us a clear comparison between the godly and the wicked. We see the fate of the faithless as well as the blessings of God’s chosen ones. It is a story of life and death, a moral choice between good and evil. Isaiah’s prophecy concerned two categories of unbelievers. First were the Jews who God brought home from Babylonian exile. These were delivered by the hand of God yet persisted in their idolatry after they got home. Second were all of those who continued in infidelity after the preaching of the gospel of Christ. This would have included the religious elite who rejected Christ, as well as all people throughout history who have turned away from God’s salvation in favor of following their own evil paths.
There are several things we can learn about the perfection of God’s judgment from these verses. We can see that His judgments are executed according to His perfect will – they are more certain than gravity and they will not be adjusted apart from the blood of Christ. His judgments are also perfectly precise, those who fall to the sword are numbered down to the individual and not a single one is left out nor are any wrongfully included. God’s judgment is irresistible. Even the strongest and most dominant sinners will melt under it. Over the vast expanse of time and space there has been none who hardened their heart against God and prospered.
Isaiah went on to describe some of the sins for which Israel faced judgment. Their ancient and most troubling sin was idolatry. The Jews repeatedly turned away from God to worship idols. God had given them so many blessings and He articulated which obligations were necessary in order to maintain these blessings. But they rejected and disowned God in favor of burning incense upon the mountains of their idols. Israel routinely forsook the living God so they could put their faith in objects. And one idol was never enough for them. They continued adding false gods to their pantheon of idols until they had more gods than they had cities. Altars were built everywhere and became as thick as heaps in the furrows of the field. The idolatrous Jews wouldn’t pay a single thought to God, while they spared no expense in honoring their idols. They would sooner watch their families go hungry than they would reduce their food offerings to invented deities.
During and after the gospel of Christ, Israel was guilty of the sin of infidelity. Jesus came to earth and called for His people but they didn’t answer. Christ stretched out His hands on the cross for the well-being of rebellious humanity. Despite His calls for repentance Israel failed to hear Him because they did not recognize His voice. The Jews remained unconvinced when they witnessed Him because they did not know God. Christ has given all of us fair warnings of judgment alongside a miraculous offer of eternal happiness. In addition to rejecting Christ, the religious elite also consciously worked evil right before God’s eyes. Many of them embraced sin and allowed evil to consume their identities. Sin is toxic. Sin has the power to transform you into the kind of person who finds God contemptible. Embracing sin causes you to act in rebellion to God’s will and to carry out these actions directly in the sight of God without fear.
Isaiah does something interesting in this chapter in the sense that he compares the fate of the obedient with the fate of the rebellious. He sets the blessedness of those who serve God over against the woeful condition of those who defy Him. It’s not uncommon for Christians to look upon the deplorable state of unrepentant sinners and feel a profound sense of gratitude for having narrowly escaped it themselves. God’s grace hits home with much more impact once you realize what your life would have looked like without it. On the other hand those who have hardened their hearts look upon the joy of a Christian with grief, hatred, and disdain. They can see the bliss they have rejected. Witnessing this blessedness and knowing it could have been theirs adds to their misery. The torment of the rich man in hell was made worse by the fact that he could see Abraham and Lazarus far off in heaven.
Knowing Abel was a godly man and watching Abel prosper drove Cain to murder him. The wicked find comfort when a prosperous person achieves success through illegitimate means. It gives the wicked person an excuse for not being prosperous himself. But when a godly person becomes prosperous as a consequence of his obedience to God, this person becomes like a walking judge of the wicked. The wicked-hearted can hardly be in his presence without feeling their own poor decisions magnified in the reflection.
In heaven God’s people will be blessed in comfort and satisfaction. They will have the bread of life to feast upon continually and the goodness of God’s house will abundantly replenish them. It will be a place where we will lack no good thing. When you walk through life you constantly need to arrive at the next satisfaction. The hunger and the thirst never depart from you. But the happiness of heaven is like an everlasting feast where you will finally be filled with that which your spirit longs for. It’s a good idea to pursue this spiritual satisfaction in the present moment. If you set your heart on temporal pleasures you’ll discover that you’re always hungry and you’re always thirsty. You might even get stuck in a negative feedback loop where you continuously have to increase your sins in order to distract yourself from your spiritual condition. The void you’re trying to fill can only be satisfied by communion with and dependence on God.
It’s true that Christians suffer tragedy and grieve just like anyone else in this life. The difference is Christians also have constant cause for joy and this joy becomes a tremendous source of strength. The faithful Christian never has to fear encountering a grief so difficult they have nothing with which to allay it. Those who follow God can rest assured that their hope is not in vain and therefore they can rejoice in their hope. In a fallen world the faithful often see through a veil of tears just the same as everyone else. But heaven is a dimension of everlasting joy. Contrast Christian hope with the confidence of unbelievers. Those who turn away from God invest their souls in vanity. Forsaking the Lord causes you to shut yourself out from all true joy. It puts you on a path which can only lead to shame and disappointment as you realize the futility of your own righteousness and of the hopes you built upon it.
The wicked promise themselves a future of bliss without having the sense to acknowledge fundamental reality. It’s a form of self-flattery and often a mechanism used to escape the spiritual thirst which can only be quenched by the fountains of living water which emanate from God. A naive person marches merrily through his or her constructed world until the real world punches through and flattens them. At that point they either rebuild their worldview on the foundation of truth or they become stuck in pit of misery and dysfunction. The wicked person rejects God in order to build their own eternity. So God allows them. It’s a self-evident historical truth that human attempts to live without God consistently result in either idolatry or toxic nihilism. If our efforts at building a temporal life without God lead to such troubling outcomes, what is the outcome of our efforts to build an eternity without Him? It is sorrow of heart, vexation of spirit, and endless frustration. The presence of God is heaven which brings everlasting joy and comfort. Those who choose to take up their eternal lot without Him will have to deal with what’s left once His presence departs from them.
The eternal condition of the righteous and the wicked is not the only difference between them. How their names will be remembered is also different. The memory of those who humbly serve God will be blessed. The name of the wicked shall rot and the memory of idolaters will be left as a curse. Individuals who wage war on God end up becoming examples of how not to do it for the people who live after them. The name of the wicked becomes a barometer for measuring other wickedness. Those who follow God will stand in awe of His judgment as it rains down on those who defy Him. The name God has given us as Christians represents a blessing for those around us. We should do our best to live up to that. When people hear that Christians are coming they should rejoice and praise God for His goodness. One of the great things about becoming a Christian is that you join a family which is known all across the world. The place you come from may not honor you but inside the Christian Church you will discover the dignity you’ve always had.
Those who follow God understand their relationship with God is enough to make them rejoice. A Christian is satisfied in God. A Christian seeks fulfillment in God and keeps God as his or her highest interest. By comparison worldly people try to satisfy spiritual needs with things which aren’t spiritual. Searching for everlasting meaning apart from God is an expedition doomed to failure and disappointment. A Christian honors God through his or her prayers and seeks the favor of God. Christian obedience means desiring the righteous justice of God as the supreme Judge. Christians know that God’s judgment is perfect and therefore we wish for nothing more than for God to decide what He deems best. We honor Jesus Christ as the God of truth and we recognize His name as the only name worthy of worship.
Maybe most importantly is how Christians find blessing in their humble obedience to God. We know who we used to be and we have a clear understanding of who we would become had it not been for the transformation God’s Holy Spirit worked inside us. When we walk into the presence of God we will completely forget our former troubles. Our former troubles will be swallowed up in the comfort and magnificence of His glory. God endures our difficulties alongside us as we walk through life on earth. This means He doesn’t shy away from looking at the things which cause us pain. In heaven God’s eyes will no longer look upon these things and if God no longer considers them that means they trouble us no more. Our easy, joyful existence with God will bring great happiness and satisfaction to Him. God loves to bless us and His blessings bring us great satisfaction. Let’s read verses 17-25:
Isa 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
Isa 65:18 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.
Isa 65:19 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.
Isa 65:20 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.
Isa 65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 65:22 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.
Isa 65:23 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.
Isa 65:24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.
Isa 65:25 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.
Part of this prophecy was fulfilled when Israel returned home from their captivity in Babylon, but the entirety of it points to what happens when a person becomes a Christian and how things will be during the triumphal reign of Jesus Christ. We experience intimations of the new heaven and new earth when we experience the grace and comfort of Jesus. When you receive the gospel and invest your faith in Christ, your spirit becomes baptized with the Holy Ghost. The old version of yourself passes away and God transforms you into a new creation. When you become a Christian, God redeems you by forgiving and forgetting your former troubles. In the future when God redeems the entire creation all who belong to Jesus will forget the former world and it will no longer come into our minds. When you experience the comfort and blessedness that attends a relationship with God, all of the things you used to depend on for comfort seem as nothing by comparison. In heaven the grief which once felt too difficult to bear will be swallowed up in joy and lost forever.
The new world which God has in store for His people will be so magnificent that not a single one of us will remember the old one. When you think about the vast grandeur of the cosmos it’s hard to imagine a Being so powerful as to have created it Himself. But the truth is God’s power is more than sufficient even to let the old universe pass away and to create a new one in its place. The depth of God’s knowledge is unsearchable, the wells of His power are inexhaustible. We understand suffering is baked into the fallen reality we presently inhabit. But happiness will be endemic to the new order God intends to create. In the new creation all of life will be reconciled to God. There will be no such things as disease or predation. Everything will exist in perfect harmony. It’s hard to imagine what this place will be like but we know it will be so different from our present experience as to be called new heavens and a new earth. In Revelation God said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And indeed He is.
God promises that we will be glad and rejoice forever in that which He creates. The new heaven and the new earth will bring new joy to the Christian Church. The life we live right now is a mixture of great joy and terrible grief. But when we pass away we will enter into the joy of the Lord. You can think of moments in your life when you have sorrowed in the Church. Maybe supposed Christians betrayed you or you experienced great wickedness inside the walls of a church. Maybe the church is where you went to have it out with God over a dark tragedy which befell you. In heaven the Church will be a source of great joy. The Church in the Kingdom of God will be so pleasant and so prosperous that all of God’s people will rejoice in it. It’s also true that God Himself will find great joy in the Church. Understand that God has suffered your afflictions alongside you – He is not a distant God. By and by He will rejoice with you after you have finished the race. The Scriptures promise the sound of weeping shall be heard no more in God’s Kingdom. Heaven is what it means to be in the presence of God abiding in His intended order. Heaven will be the uninterrupted tranquility of perfect happiness. In the presence of God all tears shall be wiped away.
One of the most difficult parts of life is enduring the untimely death of loved ones. Whether it’s murder, accident, or sickness, untimely death has caused humanity to cry since the beginning. The reason we suffer death in this life is because sin entered the world. Without Jesus sin and death reign over us. But Christ has conquered both sin and death, meaning if we abide in His righteousness then we too will have everlasting life. When children and others die young, it’s natural for us to think they’ve missed out on necessary development. But the truth is each one of us who dies in Christ will rise again at full age. Each one of us enters into eternity as the being God originally intended for us to be.
You can tell the difference between those who grow old with wisdom and goodness versus those who grow old while never getting enough of this world to satisfy them. The wise are acquainted with God and His salvation so a significant part of their spirit desires to depart in peace. The unwise sinners can live to be a hundred without any sign of divine favor or blessing. It’s important to remember old age does not shelter you from the judgment of God. It doesn’t matter how long or short our lives are – what matters is how we chose to live them. An old person who continues to live a life of unrepentant sin simply has more time than others to store up wrath against himself. An elderly sinner who is without Christ has more sins to answer for than the sinner who died young. But the good news is it’s never too late to repent and accept the grace of God.
Throughout Israel’s difficult history there were often moments where the people would build houses and farm crops for themselves only to watch their enemies plunder them. Isaiah’s prophecy looks ahead to when Israel came home from exile and was able to enjoy the fruits of their own labor. This idea points to the peaceful nature of heaven which will allow the work of our hands to prosper. This concept of securing the fruits of your labor and living in such peace as to be able to enjoy it is particularly relevant to us right now. There are countless stories of business owners who for no fault of their own are losing their livelihoods. The nefarious behavior of a rogue state on the other side of the world has caused a global pandemic which is robbing people of their life’s work. One of the difficult realities of this life is that you can do everything right and still have your future taken from you by outside forces. This is why it’s so important to invest your spiritual well-being in Jesus and not in earthly things. But in heaven these kinds of injustices simply won’t exist anymore. Our prosperity in Christ Jesus will be secured to us and we will have the peace to enjoy it.
One characteristic of Christian living is to enjoy the work of your hands when it is honestly gained. It’s good for your spirit to work for your living rather than abuse others for your own advantage. You should know the heart to enjoy the fruit of your own labor is a gift of God’s grace – it’s not something to feel guilty about. If you happen to live a long life filled with moments of enjoying this prosperity then you should count this longevity as a gift of God’s providence. I’m not suggesting you make prosperity your reason for living – to do so would be to make an idol out of money. But I’m saying self-flagellation for the sake of making yourself appear holy to others is not the right way to live. If you’ve loved God and given your first-fruits to Him, if you’ve loved your neighbors and looked after them, then you should enjoy the rest of what you’ve earned by your honest hard work. The good gifts and the times of prosperity we experience in this life come from God’s grace and are typical of the spiritual abundance we will receive in Jesus when we enter into eternity. There will be no force in heaven or on earth capable of taking away this spiritual abundance or disturbing the peace which attends it.
A major part of the blessings given to us in this life are good children with whom we can share our own prosperity. It’s a God-honoring thing when the new generation rises up to partake in the blessings of their fathers. Whether or not this happens depends on the spiritual quality of the new generation. Solomon had a bleak outlook regarding the passage of his wealth to the next generation because he thought they were foolish. It’s not uncommon for a prosperous generation to neglect the responsibility of properly raising up the next generation. This comes back to bite us because the new generation increasingly controls our own affairs as we grow older and they enter into their prime. This generational corruption actually constitutes one of the most challenging problems facing the western world today. Our prosperity has lulled us into complacency and now a young army of neo-Marxist anarchists threatens to undo everything the western world stands for. As Christians we should aspire to raise up generations who will not bring forth trouble because they are trained to walk in truth. If we do this then God will provide for them and bless their times with peace. The new generation will bear Christ’s name as successors to ourselves in the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Christians who do their best to walk in truth and live their lives with God-honoring righteousness will have close correspondence with Him. If you humbly surrender yourself to God then He will anticipate your prayers with the blessings of His goodness. This doesn’t mean you will always get what you think you want. It means God will work in your life what is necessary to bring you the best outcome. King David was close enough to God to openly confess his sins and take heart in the knowledge that God forgave him. The father ran into the field to embrace the prodigal son even before the son made it back home. These are high expressions of God’s readiness to hear prayer and to help us. For those who love God and keep His commandments, God answers their prayers before they are finished speaking them. Sometimes it’s just hard for us to understand or to hear the answer. God’s readiness to stand in the gap for us is most gloriously illustrated by Christ on the cross. Jesus acted as Mediator between humanity and the Father – choosing to die for us while we were yet sinners.
Christians who humbly submit their lives to God will have close correspondence with Him but they will also have close correspondence with their neighbors. Isaiah’s prophecy looks ahead to the perfect Kingdom of Jesus Christ and shows us how there will be no more predation. The wolf and the lamb will graze together. But this illustration also signifies the value of loving your neighbor. It’s not uncommon for Christians to be as lambs who live among wolves. The world is a dangerous place and full of wicked people. But when you commit your life to loving others you stand a very good chance of converting people away from evil. There are stories of hardened Islamist war-fighters who stepped away from jihadism because of how Christians loved them. There are also countless stories of children who went terribly wrong because their parents refused to love them. Love does a lot for communicating the gospel and bringing lost people home to the Kingdom of God. Perhaps love does more than anything else when it comes to these efforts.
God transforms hearts through the love of others. Paul was once a Pharisee who persecuted Christians, but Christ met him on the road to Damascus and totally transformed his heart. The life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ was an act of such tremendous love that it opened an avenue for peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. Under the unifying message of the gospel, both the Jews and the Gentiles could join hands in worship of the Good Shepherd. When we enter into heaven we will see there are no more enemies of the Church and members within the Church will no longer quarrel with one another. There will be none to hurt or destroy in all of God’s holy mountain. The hearts of all creation will be transformed when living in the presence of Jesus Christ’s sovereign rule. Those who enrich themselves by abusing others will either allow their hearts to be transformed or they will be kept out of God’s heavenly house. The redeemed will learn to live by honest gain and be satisfied with what they have. The thief will steal no more but instead choose the higher road of producing good things. The lion will lay down with the lamb, fully docile and obedient to the good will of the Lord.
Satan shall be chained and prevented from hurting anyone anymore. He is the great enemy of the Church. For ages Satan has glutted and regaled himself with the precious blood of the saints. It is at Satan’s hand that Christians have been persecuted. It is at Satan’s hand that Christians have been deceived and warped into persecutors. Satan is responsible for the corruption of souls and the eternal ruination of spirits. But when the divine work of Christ is finished and He re-establishes His perfect Kingdom, Satan will be confined to the dust – a sentence which was promised as far back as the beginning of Genesis. Individuals who choose rebellion against God surrender themselves to the captivity of Satan. They become venomous, deceptive serpents just like him. They become children of lies because they give themselves over to the Father of lies. But these people will be conquered as well and sentenced to the same fate as their corrupt spiritual leader. They will be subdued and Christ shall reign as King. All the enemies of Jesus Christ will be made as His footstool and cast out from heaven. But those of us who have fought the good fight and did our best to live lives of humble obedience, of Christlike righteousness, and of self-sacrificial love shall enter into the joy of our Master. In this place there will be no more tears. In this place there will be no more grief and no more pain. In this place there will be none left to hurt or destroy. In this place we will be who God always meant for us to be. Goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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