The Creation of a
New Heavens & Earth, An Eternal Universe
17 For
see, I am creating new heavens and a new earth—so wonderful that no one will even
think about the old ones anymore. 18 Be glad; rejoice forever in my
creation. Look! I will re-create Jerusalem as a place of happiness, and her
people shall be a joy! 19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and in my
people; and the voice of weeping and crying shall not be heard there anymore.
20 No longer will babies die when only a few days old; no longer will men be considered old at 100! Only sinners will die that young! 21-22 In those days, when a man builds a house, he will keep on living in it—it will not be destroyed by invading armies as in the past. My people will plant vineyards and eat the fruit themselves—their enemies will not confiscate it. For my people will live as long as trees and will long enjoy their hard-won gains. 23 Their harvests will not be eaten by their enemies; their children will not be born to be cannon fodder. For they are the children of those the Lord has blessed; and their children, too, shall be blessed. 24 I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers! 25 The wolf and lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw as the ox does, and poisonous snakes shall strike no more! d In those days nothing and no one shall be hurt or destroyed in all my holy mountain, says the Lord” (Isaiah65:17–25 TLB).[1]
A. God
Paints a Glorious Picture of The Future, A Picture Where This Corrupt Universe
Will No Longer Exist (V. 17).
That God has the
power to create a new heaven and new earth is undeniable, for He created the
first heaven and earth. However, note this wonderful fact: in the new heaven
and earth there will be no destructive earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados,
floods, or any other force of nature going awry, killing people, devastating
lives, and destroying so much property and land. In addition, a new heavens and
earth will mean the erasing of all bad experiences. As the verse says, all the
past troubles of life will be forgotten and hidden from God’s eyes. And it is
clearly stated in verse seventeen that the citizens of the new world will not
remember the horrible evil, sufferings, and troubles of the former world.
Neither will these bad experiences even come to mind—not ever. All things will
be new in the new world, including the lives of its citizens who are the true
believers and followers of the Lord.
V “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Co. 5:17).
V “And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are
true and faithful” (Re. 21:5).
V “Behold, the former things are come to pass,
and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them” (Is. 42:9).
V “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall
spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Is. 43:19).
V “Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not
ye declare it? I have showed thee new
things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them” (Is. 48:6).
V “Because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes. For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Is. 65:16–17).
B. In
The New Creation There Will Be What Scripture Calls the New Jerusalem (V. 18).
The Holy City will be
recreated by God and established as the capital of His new world. Jerusalem
will become a delight, a joy for the citizens of the new world (62:7; Re.
21:2).
C. All
The Citizens of The New World Will Be God’s People, Those Who Have Trusted
Christ as Their Personal Savior.
Thus, life in the
new world will be entirely different from life in this present world. A totally
fresh, exciting existence is pictured:
1)
The citizens of the new world will be the
joy of the Lord. Note that He calls them “My people” (v. 19).
God will take great delight in His people, rejoicing over them. Apparently, God
is going to be revealing the exceeding,
incomparable riches of His grace to His people throughout eternity (Ep.
2:4–10; esp. v. 7). In demonstrating these riches of His person and His
grace expressed through Christ, God will stir a response of love, praise, and
worship from His people. In this, God will take great delight.
V “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ep. 2:4–7).
2)
The citizens of God’s new world will not
weep or be sorrowful anymore (v. 19). All pain, suffering,
distress, grief, and mourning will be gone. There will be no cause for crying,
no cause to feel sad or unhappy, or upset. No longer will there be evil or
trouble in the world. Lawlessness, immorality, and violence will be totally
eliminated. Imagine! Peace, security, love, joy, and health will be the
continued experience of everyone within the new world.
V “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the
throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters:
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Re. 7:17).
V “And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Re. 21:4).
V “He will swallow up death in victory; and the
Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it” (Is. 25:8).
V “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Is. 35:10).
V “Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall
return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain
gladness and joy; and sorrow and
mourning shall flee away” (Is.
51:11).
V “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall
thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and
the days of thy mourning shall be ended” (Is. 60:20).
V “Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all” (Je. 31:12).
3)
The citizens of the new world will not
experience the power of death over their lives (v. 20; also see “rejoice
forever,” v. 18; “weeping … no more,” v. 19; and 25:7–8). In the new
world, no one will die early, neither child nor adult. And no person will fail
to reach the age of 100. If a person should die before reaching 100, he would
be considered under a curse (20c).
Although most
commentators feel this verse applies to the Millennial reign of Christ on
earth, the interpretation does not seem to fit in the context of these verses.
These verses seem to be dealing with the new heavens and earth, the eternal
world that God is going to create in the future. It seems far better to interpret
or understand the present verse dealing with death as a symbol or metaphor, which is a striking way to get
a point across. A metaphor is simply a figure of speech in which one thing is
stated as if it were another. Today, as in Isaiah’s day, few people live to be
100. So, the number 100 symbolizes or
represents an unending life. Note that the citizens of the new world will
“rejoice forever” (v. 18) and “sorrow … no more” (v. 19).
If Isaiah was saying in verse twenty that people will die in the new world,
then he would be contradicting verses eighteen and nineteen. Isaiah would also
be contradicting his earlier statement that God will “swallow up death in
victory” for the sake of His people, and that He “will wipe away tears from off
all faces” (25:7–8). Note how the earlier Scripture (25:7–8) ties
together the conquest of death with the wiping away of tears, just as they are
tied together in the present Scripture. The conditions of the new world will be
eternal and wonderful, so wonderful that if a sinner should live there (an
impossibility) and fail to reach 100, he would be considered cursed. Perhaps
this is the meaning of this statement or perhaps Isaiah was saying that if a
sinner were to live in the new world and “escape detection for a century, the
curse would still search him out and destroy him.”1 Another
possible way to word what Isaiah is saying is this, “Within the perfect
environment of the new world, 100 years would be a very short life. Within the
perfect world, even a sinner would be considered cursed if he lived only 100
years.” Of course, there will be no sinners in the new world, the new Jerusalem
(15c). Death will have no more power over God’s people, and sin with all
of its temptations and entrapments will no longer fill people’s hearts.
V “For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
V “He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him” (Jn.
3:36).
V “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man
keep my saying, he shall never see death” (Jn. 8:51).
V “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die. Believest thou this?” (Jn. 11:26).
V “To them who by patient continuance in well
doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life” (Ro. 2:7).
V “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death” (1 Co. 15:26).
V “For our conversation [citizenship] is in
heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who
shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself” (Ph. 3:20–21).
V “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Ti. 1:9–10).
V “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (He. 2:14–15).
4)
The citizens of the new world will be
assigned responsibilities and be engaged in meaningful work (v. 21).
Note these two facts:
Ø
First, Jesus Christ taught that believers
would be made rulers over many things.
V “His lord said unto him, Well done, good and
faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Mt. 25:23).
V “And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful
and wise steward, whom his lord shall
make ruler over his household, to give them
their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Of a truth, I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath”
(Lu. 12:42–44).
V “Ye are they which have continued with me in
my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed
unto me” (Lu. 22:28–29).
V “And he said unto him, Well, thou good
servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority
over ten cities.… And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities” (Lu. 19:17, 19).
V “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them,
and judgment was given unto them: and I
saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for
the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon
their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years” (Re. 20:4).
V “And there shall be no night there; and they
need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light:
and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Re. 22:5).
Ø
Second, Scripture teaches that believers will
judge or supervise the world and the angels (1 Pe. 1:4).
V “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?… Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?” (1 Co. 6:2–3).
5)
The citizens of the new world will live
and work in peace and security (v. 22). No longer will they
suffer the loss of their homes, farms, or businesses. No enemy will oppress or
assault them, threaten their lives, or steal from them. For the Lord will
establish peace and security throughout the new world. A person’s days and life
will be as stable and secure as the days and life of a healthy, strong, and
towering tree.
V “And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Lu. 2:13–14).
V “These things I have spoken unto you, that in
me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world” (Jn.
16:33).
V “For the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Ro. 14:17).
V “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who
hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ep. 2:13–14).
V “And, having made peace through the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Col. 1:20).
V “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the
earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the
chariot in the fire” (Ps. 46:9).
V “And he shall judge among the nations, and
shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more” (Is. 2:4).
V “And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely” (Ho. 2:18).
6)
The citizens of the new world will live
in a transformed, perfect world (v. 23). No longer will there be
inefficiency and wasted labor. Problems at work, disappointments, frustrations,
pressure and distress, sorrow and failure—all the difficulties that crowd a
person’s life will be eliminated in the new world to be created by God. Neither
will children be doomed to trouble, either physically or morally. There will be
no lawless youth or gangs nor any adult criminals. The citizens of the new
world and all their descendants will be a people blessed by the Lord.
V “But we all, with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord” (2 Co. 3:18).
V “For the law made nothing perfect, but the
bringing in of a better hope did; by
the which we draw nigh unto God” (He.
7:19).
V “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pe. 1:4).
V “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up. Seeing
then that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy
conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day
of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look
for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pe. 3:10–13).
V “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more
sea” (Re. 21:1).
V “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Is. 65:17).
V “For as the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed
and your name remain” (Is. 66:22).
V “And it shall come to pass in the day that
the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the
hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve” (Is. 14:3).
V “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God
doeth it, that men should fear before him” (Ecc. 3:14).
V “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity,
nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for
they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid” (Zep.
3:13).
V “In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack” (Zep. 3:16).
7)
The citizens of the new world will have
constant, unbroken fellowship and communion with the Lord (v. 24).
The relationship between the Lord and His people will be so close that even
before a believer calls out to Him, He will answer, and as the believer speaks,
the Lord will meet the need.
V “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in
you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (Jn. 15:7).
V “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Ro. 8:29).
V “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear,
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2).
V “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth” (Ps. 145:18).
D. When
God Creates the New World, Nature Itself Will Be Transformed (V. 25).
Nothing on earth will
cause pain or destruction (v. 25; 11:6–9; 30:23–26; 65:25; Eze. 34:25–39; Ho.
2:20–22). A radical change will take place in the very nature of animals,
transforming them from being wild and ferocious to being tame and peaceful. The
wolf and the lamb will feed together as will the lion and the ox. Even the
snake or serpent, a symbol of Satan, will be harmless and no longer feared by
so many. However, the snake will continue to feed on the dust of the ground, as
prophesied in Genesis 3:14–15.
V “For I reckon that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature
itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now” (Ro. 8:18–22).
V “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den” (Is. 11:6–8).[2]
A New Earth.
“For See, I
Am Creating New Heavens and A New Earth—So Wonderful That No One Will Even
Think About the Old Ones Anymore.” [3]
The idea is
that God will be sure to take care that a man’s surroundings match the man
himself. He will have a new earth for regenerate men. He will have heaven for
those who can be “holy still.” The fundamental idea of the verse is that nature
itself must be transformed to be in harmony with regenerate Israel. Long life
shall be one of the marked peculiarities of the “new earth.”
Cheyne quotes
the following similar passage to ver. 20 from the Book of Enoch:
“And they
shall not be punished all their life long, neither shall they die by plagues
and judgments; but the number of their days shall they complete, and they shall
grow old in peace, and the years of their happiness shall be many, in
everlasting bliss and peace, their whole life long.”
Some take this text as a poetical representation of the new condition into which the returned exiles entered; and in that view we have an ideal picture of what ought to have been. We, however, take the more general principle that God makes a new earth for the new-born man; everything to him becomes new. And God makes a new earth for his sanctified Church—does make it, in a sense, now, and will make it, in a larger sense, by-and-by. In what sense, then, can we be said to want a “new earth”?
I.
NOT IN THE SENSE OF A CHANGED WORLD OF
THINGS.
It is not possible for
us to conceive of anything better, more restful, more satisfying, than this
paradise of earth, which God has made and decked for us, with its hills, and
vales, and streams, and seas, and flowers, and trees, and hoar-frost, and
harvest-fields, and spring-time greenery, and autumn tinting. We love our
earth, fair earth, and do not want it changed.
“’Twas
a fair scene—a land more bright
Never
did mortal eye behold!…
Those
valleys and their fruits of gold
Basking
in heaven’s serenest light;
Those
groups of lovely date trees bending
Languidly
their leaf-crown’d heads,
Like
youthful maids, when sleep descending
Warns
them to their silken beds;
Those
virgin lilies, all the night
Bathing
their beauties in the lake,
That
they may rise more fresh and bright
When
their beloved sun’s awake.”
(T. Moore.)
We can,
indeed, only conceive of heaven as like earth, all of it as beautiful as some
of the earth is to us. Poetry anticipates that
“There,
on a green and flowery mound,
Our
weary souls shall sit.”
And Scripture
figures heaven as a city in a paradise. No sense of wanting relief from the
ever-exquisite associations of earth comes to us. Even earth’s dark things, her
night, her winds, her storms, her winter, are precious to us, and we scarce
would have them otherwise.
II.
BUT IN THE SENSE OF A CHANGED WORLD OF
BEINGS.
There are lands where
“…
every prospect pleases,
And
only man is vile;”
and it is just
that “vileness of man” which has made earth so sad, life so bitter, and death
so terrible. Could we clear the human race away, as with another flood or fire,
and start again the cleansed earth with a race in whom righteousness should
dwell, then, verily, we should want no other heaven—earth would be heaven.
Illustrate
these points:
1. The good
man makes a new earth of his sphere.
2. The good
parents make a new earth of their home.
3. The holy
Church helps to make a new earth of social life.
4. The
well-principled statesman tries to make a new earth of the nation.
5. Those who
believe in God and know his redemption strive to make a new earth of the sorely
smitten heathen lands.
We all want that new earth in which holiness shall be everywhere—holiness the glorifying sunshine that makes earth to be summer-time always; holiness shall jingle from the very bells of the horses. Call that new earth what you may please, it will be heaven. —R. T. [4]
1st Pic by Relentless Jess. Anchorage, AK
d 65:25
snakes shall strike no more,
literally, “dust [not men!] shall be the serpent’s food.”
[1] Taylor, Kenneth Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible,
Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
1 J. Alec Motyer. Isaiah. “Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries.” (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1999), p. 399.
[2] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 2005. Isaiah: Chapters 36–66. Vol. II. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.
[3] Taylor, Kenneth Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible,
Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
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