Have you ever had one of those days you would like to forget? It might be a time your alarm did not go off and then you spilled coffee on your shirt or worse yet while rushing you spilled coffee on your computer. Then you go out to your car and a tire is flat. All this before 8:00 AM.
It is one of those days that you would like to go back to bed and just wake up to a new day. You would like to start all over and forget any memory of that day.
In this passage God speaks to His people about a new day coming. They could forget about the past difficulties. God speaks about a new heaven and a new earth. This good news provides a fitting climax to the book of Isaiah.
There is a future with hope. A day is coming when the struggle with evil will be over. A glorious destiny awaits those who are faithful to God. We can forget our troubles and wake up to a new day.
Isaiah 65:17-66:2
“See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
20 “Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the LORD.
Chapter 66 This is what the LORD says:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
Where is the house you will build for me?
Where will my resting place be?
2 Has not my hand made all these things,
and so they came into being?”
declares the LORD.
“These are the ones I look on with favor:
those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
and who tremble at my word.
This passage speaks of a golden future. God will create a new heaven and a new earth. God is the only one who can create something from nothing or make the universe new. It is a coming age so wonderful that it erases the memory of the old.
This future is reminiscent of the former paradise of the Garden of Eden. It is a hit of that time on Eden before sin entered and wreaked havoc in every realm of life.
This passage gives us a description of the conditions after the return of Christ. (Come Lord Jesus!) This passage is poetic, not like the doctrinal section of Isaiah. We don’t need to press each word of it for a literal meaning.
Isaiah is looking into the future so he tends to blend together the coming of Christ we know as the life of Jesus and the second coming of Christ.
In the New Testament Peter looks ahead to this day Isaiah describes 2 Peter 3:13. In talking about the second coming of Christ Peter gives us a reminder that God is not slow in keeping His promises. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
It is John in Revelation 21 that gives us the most detailed description of the new heaven and new earth. That is where we read of the pearl gate and the streets of gold of heaven. Sorrow and death are eliminated and replaced by joy and gladness. Those who inhabit the new heaven and new earth have reason to rejoice forever.
In Genesis 1:1 the creation is a perfect past, God created. In Isaiah here the verb is a continuous present, God is creating and this will culminate in a new day. This is descriptive of a fully comprehensive work. Everything about and below (heaven and earth) is made new.
It will all be new and different than what is now. Those who will inhabit this new creation are God’s people. There will only be the redeemed of the Lord there. You won’t hear the sound of distress there, only of joy.
God will be glad and rejoice in what he will do. The creation and those who dwell there will be a joy and delight to God. The normal experience of sadness will be reversed. What a new day to put sadness behind us. There will not be the sadness of a premature death.
Infant mortality will be erased and there will be long life. It brings the idea of the age of the patriarchs when people like Noah lived hundreds of years. Now that is the “old time” religion.
That some people die at a ripe old age has cause some people to think this passage is different than what Peter and John describe in the New Heaven and New Earth. But Isaiah is speaking with poetic language here. If you press the idea that there are deaths then it would be hard to reconcile no more sadness.
Isaiah gives us a description of the new day of exile for Israel but it goes beyond that to a cataclysmic new day at the time of Christ’s return. There is a description of prosperity in that new day. People live in vineyards they planted and houses they built.
Contrast that to the curse of disobedience Deuteronomy 28:30. The image is reversed. “You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.”
This new day has a promise of peace. There is a close relationship between God and His people. Even before they call God answers. The problem of evil is gone in the new day. There will be nothing harmful and destructive.
For believers in Jesus the best is yet to come. Your future is bright! The new Zion is described were believers dwell with God.
In Isaiah’s day the people thought God’s dwelling was the temple. No earthly abode can contain God. God rules in heaven using earth as His footstool. God is Omnipotent, all powerful and He cannot be limited. We cannot build a house that can contain God.
There are attributes God desires from His people. “Those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
and who tremble at my word.” We should come to God with a spirit of submission, with a humble heart and with brokenness. We are called to be the people of God obedient to His Word.
Are you ready for the new day?
