The New is Coming
Isaiah 65:17-25
You know, Terri and I have gotten so sick and tired of all the things we were seeing and hearing coming through our television that we cancelled our expensive satellite subscription and purchased much cheaper subscriptions to Hulu and Amazon. All the new programs we were seeing on TV began to include story lines and characters that promoted foul language, sexual deviancies, immoral viewpoints, and perverted lifestyles, and we simply didn’t want to see any of that stuff in our home.
And all the news outlets, well good grief, all of them are prompted to say the same things regardless of what channel they’re working for. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, it didn’t matter, someone, somewhere, was pulling all the chains and pushing all the buttons so that everyone said the same things, over and over. They weren’t news outlets anymore, they were someone’s propaganda machine, and were and still are promoting that person’s or that groups anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-God agenda.
So, we turned them off. We didn’t want to see or hear them anymore. We decided that with Hulu and Amazon (and of course, there are a lot others channels now) at least we could control what came through our TV and into our house and into our minds. We started watching the older shows again. Shows we knew that had a wholesome bent. But you know, I didn’t stop with the TV shows from just a few years ago, I started watching some of the shows I grew up watching as a kid. TV shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan’s Island, Petticoat Junction and even some older ones like the Dick Van Dyke Show, Ozzie and Harriet, the Andy Griffith Show, and others like those. I don’t care if they were black and white because I grew up watching black and white. What I care about is the content. They were funny, decent, and they taught good moral values and respect. They are far better than anything we see on TV over the last 2 decades.
But something I’ve noticed since watching all these older TV shows that I watched when I was a kid is that more and more I wish our world would go back to those days. The good ole’ days when no one was confused about what sex they were. The good ole’ days when kids said yes sir and no sir and generally showed respect toward others. The good ole’ days when the police was such a respected institution that you taught your kids to find a policeman if they needed help. The good ole’ days when my mom and dad were still alive, vibrant, and had the answers to my questions and a solution for whatever I needed. I still intensely miss them.
There is something in each of us that from time to time, makes us want to go back to the way things used to be. We reminisce and wish we could go back home. Have you ever noticed that as a race we tend to think that way back when was far better than right now. Our tendency is to think our golden age was in the past. Our heroes lived a long time ago.
Even ancient people like Plato looked upon the past with longing. For example, he spoke of a beautiful island continent beyond the Pillars of Hercules and the gates of Gibraltar. It was an ancient civilization of noble people, and it was filled with great beauty, glorious technology, peace, and triumph. But it sank into the bottom of the sea and was never seen again. Plato had a view of a past that was great but now long gone.
As men, our greatest dreams were fulfilled long ago. Our golden age was yesterday, but what we find in the Bible is just the opposite of that. Whenever the prophet speaks or the preacher preaches, the word of the Lord always points us forward toward a more glorious future. The great age that is yet to come, and the people we meet in the scripture lived their lives in undying hope and everlasting optimism of either getting there, or attaining to it one day.
Genesis closes with the death of Joseph, and it tells us that he made his brothers promise to take his bones back to his home in the Promised Land because Gen 50:24 …God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." There is a great day coming for the people of God! He is going to visit His people.
Moses, faced with the decision of God that he would die alone in Moab, and He would never set foot again in the Promised Land. He said to his people that Deu 18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, God has a greater prophet, a great Hero who is still to come!
Jeremiah lived to see his people taken into captivity and his homeland destroyed. The nation was in ruins and the land was filled with rubble and laid waste. But he sent word to the captives in Babylon saying Jer 29:10 …After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. God will visit you. There is a greater day coming. Lift up your hearts and your heads—the golden age is still before us!
The apostle John lived to see the Roman army destroy Jerusalem in 70 AD, but above the wasteland of that destroyed city he saw Rev 21:2 …the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Always in the word of God, the Holy Scriptures, the golden age is still to come!
Our heroes are to appear in the future. There’s a wonderful era of God’s grace yet to come. So, lift up your hearts. Live in triumph and victory. Live in hope and optimism, because our greatest and most glorious days are yet to come. Our golden age is in front of us.
Now, there’s a reason why apostle, prophet, and the man of God always speaks in terms of future glory, victory to come, and triumph lying before us, and that is because it’s all a work of God. He is the one that’s doing it. Not us. Him alone. God’s personal pronouns are “I” and “My” because it’s all His and no one else’s! In verses 17-19 of our text today, He tells us that Isa 65:17 …"I create new heavens and a new earth, Isa 65:18 …be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, Isa 65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people;
The whole thing, it’s a work of God—it’s a creation of God. Now it used to be that a popular view of the end times was called post-millennialism. They believed that God’s people were going to preach and witness the new world order into existence. The preaching of the gospel would spread, the kingdom of God would grow, and eventually we’d usher in the millennium ourselves. We’d bring in a new society, a new order, a new economic system, and new political life, a new nation. The golden era would be brought in by the efforts of men.
But the very fact that our world is getting more and more depraved shoots this post-millennial idea down. There are more infidels, more pagans, more unbelievers, more lost souls in the world today than there ever was. After 2,000 years of Christian history, our world in increasingly lost, increasingly violent, increasingly filled with wars and rumors of wars. The whole world is in the grip of sin, crime, violence, and death.
Even Paul warned Timothy 2Ti 3:1-5 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, (3) unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, (4) traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5) having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! Folks, we’re not getting better, we’re getting worse!
But we have hope. We have the hope of the gospel. Hope of God’s election. Hope of God’s calling. Hope in the saving power and great love of our Lord and God! Because even though things are going to get bad—very bad, we also know that God has always had a remnant. There will always be those who love God, who serve the Lord! So, listen to what we have hope for…
Isa 65:17-25 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. (18) "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. (19) "I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. (20) "No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed. (21) "They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. (22) "They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. (23) "They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them. (24) "It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. (25) "The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.
You know, earlier I spoke of our tendency to reminisce, to look longingly on the past and wish it were like that again, but folks, what God has in store for those who love Him is so much better than anything they’ve ever experienced that reminiscing will be over and done with. No one will do it. We’re told that, Isa 65:17 …the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. During the millennium, everything that God remakes will be so glorious that the former world will fade into the past and shrink into insignificance.
What we read here in Isaiah is a picture of a vastly improved earthly experience. It’s not heaven. It’s more like heaven on earth. It’s the kingdom of Christ where He will rule on earth for a thousand years. So, the new heaven and the new earth Isaiah speaks of, I think means that the whole system is so greatly changed and improved that it’s as if everything were totally recreated. And I say this because we know from John’s revelation that there will be a new heaven and a new earth that is created by God after the millennium, and it will usher in a new eternity. I don’t think that God will be creating a new heaven and a new earth twice. Of course, He could if He wanted too though.
But it’s also possible that Isaiah is mixing his metaphors where he begins with the new heaven and earth in eternity in verse one, but then switches to the millennium in the very next verse. But whatever the case may be, everything will be changed, and no one is going to be nostalgic for the past.
It’ll be a place that’s free of weeping and sorrow because long life will be the order of the day. A lifespan of 100 years or more will be so commonplace that if someone should die before 100 years then everyone will look upon them as if they were cursed for some reason. Verse 19 speaks of the 100-year lifespan, but verse 22 also speaks of the lifetime of a tree and how God’s chosen will live long enough to wear out everything they’ve built. So, that’s a long time. We’ve got trees all over the world that have been around for thousands of years.
We also won’t have to worry about enemies raining on our parade either, because we’ll be able to enjoy the fruit of our labors. Where Isaiah says Isa 65:21-22 …they shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. (22) "They shall not build, and another inhabit, They shall not plant, and another eat; all this is reminiscent of not only when the Israelites entered the Promised land under Joshua, and took over the land and the lodgings of it’s former inhabitants, but it also speaks to the still to come and more recent experience of having their own homes and property taken away from them and given to others when they will be taken into captivity. Folks, there are not many things more disheartening than spending your life working and building something, only to have it taken away from you and your family. Our own government does this through death taxes, but in the millennium, these things will be long gone.
Children will be born into prosperity. In other words, even up to less than 100 years ago, children who didn’t survive birth was fairly common. Many of those who did survive never made it to their 2nd birthday. But stillbirths and infant death will no longer be a fear. And our relationship with Christ will be such that even before we call to Him, He will answer. Now, can you imagine that? Isa 65:24 It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
You know, I’m sure that all of us have experienced the power of prayer, but I’m equally sure that all of us have also experienced the frustration of prayer too. Sometimes we wonder if God really did hear us. More than once I’ve felt that my prayers rose to the ceiling and then bounced right back down to me. Many times, if we get an answer, it’s not the one we wanted or expected. Other times we might find ourselves trying to pray but not knowing how—or maybe we’re just mouthing empty words that just don’t express the longings of our heart.
Or, and this has happened to me several times, but maybe we pray and fall asleep like the disciples did in the garden, or we want to pray for someone who’s requested it, and then we forget. We fail to follow through on a promise we’ve made. But what this verse suggest to me is that whatever our inadequacy in prayer may be, it will be no barrier to communicating with God! He is able to understand our clumsiest prayers, and even the unspoken requests of our heart.
And you know, the NT tells us something very similar. Paul wrote that Rom 8:26-27 …in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; (27) and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Many years ago, when our youngest son was 2, started having seizures, so we rushed him to the ER. No one could figure out what was going on. The doctors and nurses worked on him all they could, but eventually had him life flighted from the hospital in Portales, NM where we were living at the time, to St Mary of the Plains hospital in Lubbock. By the time Terri and I got to the hospital, the doctor told us that our son’s brain had been without adequate oxygen for such a long time that if he pulled through this, there was no doubt in his mind but that he’d be mentally disabled. He specifically called it retardation. He said the only question he had about this is how severely disabled he would be.
Of course, Terri and I were heartbroken, and I can remember standing next to Daniel’s little hospital crib, trying my best to hold back the tears, and wanting so badly to pray, but I just couldn’t. All I could do was say, “Oh God, Oh God…” over and over. But then a song came to mind, and I began to sing what I could remember of it, over and over again. That song became my prayer because I had no other words. I was in such grief, all I could do was sing…
“When peace like a river, attendeth my way.
When sorrow like sea billows roll.
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, It is well, with my soul.
It is well. It is well.
with my soul!”
Friends, to this day I cannot sing that song without choking up because it holds such strong emotions for me. But know this—God knew the thoughts of my heart even before I did. He knew the cry of my soul before I could even verbalize it, and He answered my prayer in a powerful way! Daniel became conscious a day or two later and he was released from the hospital a day or so after that, which was only a couple days before Christmas that year. Today, the only evidence of his troubles is a long scar on his leg from the emergency surgery which caused his little leg to swell up really huge.
Oh beloved, God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts, and to those who love Him, the promise is Isa 65:24 …that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Oh, praise God! Glory in the highest! I believe to this day that this was not only a promise to the Jews who would return from the captivity…and it is not only a promise to all who will enter into the millennial kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…but it is also a promise to everyone in every generation who loves the Lord, that He will hear us when we call out to Him, and He will answer!
And I’ll tell you right now, brother, sister—that sounds pretty much like paradise to me! The new is coming for His people, but in some ways, the new is already here for those who believe in Him and love Him.
Do you love Him? Have you given your heart and life to Him? If not, will you do it today? He has promised that He will make you into something brand new if you do.
Invitation
