Growing Old

Growing Old Isaiah 65:17-25

1. The Prophet Isaiah is helping the people to understand there is a better Day

• The first part of Isaiah chapter 1 Through 39 pronounce judgement and doom

• But The Book or prophet also offers Hope. Isaiah promises that the Lord himself will give a sign: “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel” (7:14). We will remember that prophecy very soon as we celebrate the birth of Christ. Isaiah is the first to offer the good news of Immanuel, the child whose name means “God is with us.”

2. Isaiah’s Prophecy also tells the people there is a better time coming Judgement & Doom ceases

• There is a time of peace coming “wolf shall live with the lamb; the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the lion will feed together, and a little child shall lead them”

3. Isaiah tells us there is a day of growing Old

• There will be a time of longevity of life 20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old person who does not live out a lifetime, for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

• Journalist Jonathan Rauch writes:” The average American 65-year-old can expect to live another 18.5 years.” An American child born today has a good chance of living to age 95, or even older. Surprisingly, says Rauch, the “first person to live to age 150 may have already been born.”

• Psalmist shares there is a time for growing old. The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” – Psalms 92:12-14

4. As we grow Old, does not have to be a period of disability and decline.

• Infant mortality was extremely high in the ancient world, and long life was rare.

• But God clearly wants people to enjoy good health for many years, even to age 100 and beyond.

• God told Jeremiah “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”

• Jesus told John to write “.Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

5. As we grow old Isaiah claims can be a time of meaningful activity and engagement.

• “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit,” says God through Isaiah (v. 21). Like “the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (v. 22).

• Is this referring to the time of what is called the millennial Kingdom?

• Never again will someone be robbed of the fruits of their labor.

• If you build a house, no one will steal it from you. You will inhabit that house.

• If you plant vineyards, no one will steal the fruit of it. You will eat their fruit.

6. Isaiah tells us there is a better day, a better time, a day of growing old again, and Isaiah tells us there is an Eternal Day

• In the Eternal Day God says, “17 For I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

• In the Eternal Day there will be eternal Bliss 18 But be glad and rejoice forever

in what I am creating, for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy and its people as a delight.

• In the Eternal Day No More Heart Ache 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it or the cry of distress.

• In the Eternal Day there is Eternal Peace 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;

the lion shall eat straw like the ox, They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

• In the Eternal Day we will be a Blessed People But The serpent Food shall be dust

• Note the Eternal Day for the Serpent but the serpent—its food shall be dust!