As the book opened with an emphasis on judgment (chs. 1-5), so it closes with an emphasis on hope (65:17-66:24). Amid judgment, Israel could have hope. Reference to new heavens and a new earth form an inclusiofor this final section of the book (65:17; 66:22).
God not only will be faithful to His promises in spite of Israel's unfaithfulness (63:1-65:16), but He will demonstrate His ability and desire to provide righteousness for sinful humankind by creating new heavens and a new earth. Most of this section describes God's renovation of creation during the Millennium.
65:17 This verse is an overview of what follows. God announced, in substantiation of everything He had said since 56:1, that He would create a restored and renovated universe. Things will be so much better than they are now that people then will not even think about things as they used to be (cf. Rom. 6:14; Rev. 21:4). This should motivate God's people to obey Him in the present. Not only would God perform another Exodus, bringing Israel out of Babylon and into the Promised Land, but He would also create another Creation.
Isaiah described the future generally as a new heaven and a new earth. In the New Testament, we have further particularization of what this will involve: the making of all things new for those in Christ presently (Gal. 2:20), the millennial kingdom (Rev. 20:4-6), and the "eternal state"(2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). Thus Isaiah's use of "new heavens and a new earth"is not identical with the Apostle John's (Rev. 21:1). What Isaiah wrote about this new creation is true of various segments of it at various stages in the future; it is not all a description of what John identified as "new heavens and a new earth,"namely, the eternal state.
"The designation new heavens and a new earthis applied to the Millennial kingdom only as a stage preliminary to the eternal glories of heaven (the New Jerusalem of Rev 21; 22)--just as Pentecost was to be regarded (Acts 2:17) as ushering in the last days,' although it occurred at least nineteen centuries before the Second Advent."721
65:18 This new creation is a cause for ceaseless hope and rejoicing among God's people. The new Jerusalem would be a place of rejoicing in contrast to present mourning, and its people would be eternally happy (cf. Rev. 21:9-22:5).
65:19 God Himself would also rejoice in the new city and in the new people in that new city. Isaiah wrote many times that God presently lamented over old Jerusalem and her inhabitants (e.g., 24:7-12). Weeping and crying would end in that new city (Rev. 21:4).
65:20 Specifically, death will not have the power that it has had. Infant mortality will be virtually unknown, and people's life spans will be much longer. This seems to describe a return to conditions before the Flood, when people lived hundreds of years (Gen. 5). In short, one of the sources of sorrow and weeping, namely, death, will suffer defeat. Christians need not fear the second death even now. Believers alive in the Millennium will live longer on this earth than they do now, but they will die.722And in the eternal state even physical death will be gone.
". . . verse 20 expresses a double thought: death will have no more power and sin no more presence."723
"This prediction requires the conditions of an earthly city, where babies are born and older people die (even though the average lifespan [sic] is to be much prolonged)."724
65:21-22 Likewise there will be abundant safety and plenty when God brings new life to the world (cf. 17:11; Lev. 26:16; Deut. 28:15-46; Amos 5:11; Zeph. 1:13). Again, people will live longer, longer than other of God's creations such as trees and their own "creations"such as buildings and bridges that normally outlive them (cf. 40:6-8).
"What a promise, to have the time to do something right and then the opportunity to enjoy it to the full!"725
Note that people will continue to work. The blessing of work will characterize the messianic age, though people will not have to labor as they did under the curse (Gen. 3:17-19).
65:23 Life will not be futile or frustrating, labor will amount to something, and children will be born for productive lives rather than for tragedy. This is true in one sense for the Christian now (cf. Rom. 8:28; 1 Cor. 15:58), but it will be true in a larger sense for all the redeemed in the future. Isaiah identified three generations of the blessed of the Lord in this glorious future state. This reflects the truth that the basic unit of society is the male and female couple, not the individual (cf. Gen. 2:18, 23-24).
65:24 Perfect communication with God will be another blessing of this peaceable kingdom. Christians already enjoy good communication with Him (Matt. 6:8; 1 John 5:14-15), but in the future it will be even better.
"What greater privilege than to have a God whose love is so great that He answers before one calls to Him!"726
65:25 Another cause of present weeping that will end is nature, which is sometimes harmful. In the future it will not be harmful because the effects of the Fall will have been erased. Nature will no longer be man's enemy. The Lord's curse on the snake, which has only been fulfilled figuratively so far--snakes do not literally feed on dust now but on plants and animals--, will find complete fulfillment (cf. Gen. 3:14).727This is a hint that the change will come because of the "seed of the woman"described earlier in Isaiah as the Servant, Messiah (cf. 11:6-9).
"The only point in the whole of the new creation where there is no change (cf. verse 20fg [sic]) is in the curse pronounced on sin, which still stands (cf. Gn. 3:14)."728
No evil or harm will come to anyone or anything in all God's holy kingdom (cf. 66:22).
Isaiah revealed several new things for Jerusalem in this section. Joy would replace weeping and crying (vv. 18-19). Longevity would replace sorrow and death (vv. 20-23). Answered prayer would replace God's previous silence (v. 24). And universal peace would replace violence (v. 25).729
The kingdom in view in this passage, and in chapter 66, is not just the millennial kingdom. It is the kingdom that God will bring into existence through the redemptive work of His Servant. Since the King has come, some features of this kingdom are present in the world today. But since the King has yet to come to accomplish fully His work of redemption, many features described here will be seen after His second advent. Part of these changes will take place on this earth during the Millennium. Other changes will happen when the Lord creates completely new heavens and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). How do we know that all that Isaiah predicted is not fulfilled in the present age through the church, or in the Millennium, or in the eternal state? The New Testament provides a more specific description of which of these promises will be fulfilled when and in what ways.
This section introduces judgment into the mood of hope that pervades this section describing Israel's glorious future (65:17-66:24). Oppressors of the godly remnant will not prosper nor will those who depend on externals for their relationship to God.
66:1-2 Yahweh reminded His people that He is sovereign over His universe (cf. 65:17). They should not assign too much importance to the temple and its service since they built the temple for God (cf. 2 Sam. 7:4-14; 1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 11:4; 103:19; Jer. 7:12-14; 23:24; Matt. 5:34-35). It was a symbol of Him. They should consider more important that He had created all things Himself (cf. Acts 7:48-50). It is people who are not self-assertive or preoccupied with their own rights but rather who delight in the Lord's word that He favors (cf. Exod. 20:18-21; Luke 18:9-14; 23:39-43).
"If cult is performed to curry favor with God, to satisfy God's supposed needs, and thereby get something for ourselves from him, we should shut the doors of the temple at once and abandon the whole thing. But if our attitude in worship is the opposite of such arrogance as to think we can do something for God, and is instead the humble recognition that we can do nothing either for or to him (afflicted), the awareness that we deserve nothing but destruction from him (broken in spirit), and the desire to do nothing other than what he commands (trembles at my word), then the expression of such a spirit through the medium of ritual and symbolic worship is entirely pleasing to God."730
"The Lord's priority is the individual who has a trembling reverence for his word."731
66:3-4 The person who relies on ritual to satisfy God is repulsive to Him. The Lord regards the slaying of sacrifices by such a person as no better than murder. There is no difference to Him between the sacrifice of an acceptable lamb or an unclean dog when a person relies on ritual. A grain offering can be as abominable to Him as offering a swine's blood. Burning incense with such an attitude is just pagan worship (cf. 43:23-24; Jer. 7:21-22; Amos 5:21-25; Mic. 6:6-8; Mal. 1:10; Matt. 23:27).
"The most sacred exercises of true God-given religion are like the worst of sins when they are divorced from humility of spirit."732
Such worshippers chose to worship God as they pleased rather than as He pleased, so He would deal with them as He pleased, not as they pleased. He would do this because they proved unresponsive to His words and insensitive to His desires.
66:5 The Lord addressed the faithful who did tremble at His word (v. 2). He would put to shame their ritualistic brethren who hated them for their reality and excluded them for emphasizing genuineness. Those who obeyed God's word would find great joy and comfort in that word.
These two groups of Israelites emerged clearly following the return from exile, but they also existed in Isaiah's day (cf. 5:19; Luke 6:22; John 16:2). One group worshipped God for His sake and the other for their benefit. The ritualists challenged the "spiritual"to find their joy in the Lord while not really believing that obedience was the key to that joy. God promised that as they had shamed their spiritually sensitive brethren so He would shame them in the end.
66:6 God would intervene with a word announcing and affecting judgment. The superficial worshippers had called for God to act (v. 5), and He would. They had called on Him to give them the comfort they thought He owed them (cf. 57:18). He would give them what they deserved, but it would be judgment rather than comfort. These were enemies of His, not His true worshippers.
The mood now reverts back to hope (cf. 65:17-25). In contrast to all the bereavement and deprivation that Jerusalem had experienced and would yet experience (cf. 26:16-18; 37:3; 51:18-20), the ultimate future of the city and its inhabitants remained bright.
66:7 The subject of this prophecy is Zion (v. 8). As a pregnant woman, Isaiah pictured Zion delivering a baby without pain. She would give birth to a boy before she began experiencing labor pains. This is, of course, the opposite of what usually happens. This may be a prophecy of Messiah's appearing before the Tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble (Jer. 30:7; cf. Gen. 3:16). It may also be a prediction of joy and delight coming to Zion in the future. However, in light of the next verse, it seems that the boy is the nation of Israel.
"Israel's return to the land will be so remarkably quick that it will be like a woman giving birth to a son before (v. 7) or as soon as (v. 8) she has any labor . . . pains."733
66:8 Such a reverse order of things seems incredible. Nevertheless, Israel would come (back) into existence quickly and painlessly. This would be a supernatural work of God. It will happen at Messiah's second advent. He will recreate Israel as a nation after Antichrist and the combined Gentile nations of the world have sought to destroy her (cf. Dan. 11:40-45; Rev. 12). However, the whole rebirth of Israel from the Exile to the Millennium may have been in the prophet's vision. Similarly he saw the whole recreation of the earth as a whole (65:17-25).
66:9 God promised to bring the nation of Israel to birth. Her emergence as a nation in the future might appear impossible, but Yahweh would accomplish it (cf. Zech. 12:10; 13:1; Rom. 11:26).
66:10 God called Jerusalem's friends to rejoice with her at the prospect of her bearing a nation in the future. God would do for Jerusalem what He had done for Sarah and Abraham, namely, give her a supernatural birth. Jerusalem's friends had formerly mourned her condition because God had called her enemies to trample her down (cf. 5:5-6; 49:19) and because she could not be righteous in herself (cf. 57:18; 59:9-15a).734
66:11 As a new mother, Jerusalem would be able to nourish her newborn. The city would supply the needs of her inhabitants and would comfort them with contentment and fulfillment (cf. v. 13; 40:1). The godly would draw strength from Jerusalem in the future.
66:12 The Lord would extend peace (Heb. shalom) to Israel as a constantly flowing river. He would bring glory from the nations to her, glory that she had sought in the wrong ways in the past, and Israel would enjoy preferential treatment from Him.
66:13 God would comfort Israel as a mother comforts her child by the way He would deal with Jerusalem in blessing.
"Isaiah changes the figure. Not only as children sucking the mother's breast does God comfort His people, but also as a mother comforts her grown son."735
66:14 The result would be that God's people would see His supernatural work, would rejoice in it, and would receive strength from observing it. His servants, the godly among His people, would appreciate that God Himself had revived Israel. But He would punish His enemies.
This pericope concludes the sections on the culmination of Israel's future (65:17-66:24), Israel's future transformation (chs. 56-66), Israel's hope (chs. 40-66), and the whole book, Yahweh's salvation. As 56:1-8, it clarifies the difference between being a true servant of the Lord and one of His enemies, a rebel.
"God does not deliver his servants so that they can revel in the experience of sharing his glory (cf. chs. 60-62). Rather, he delivers them so that they can be witnesses of that glory to the world (cf. 6:1-10). . . . This book is not about the vindication of Zion, but about the mission of Zion to declare the God whose glory fills the earth (6:3; 66:18) to all the inhabitants of that earth (12:4; 51:5; 60:9; 66:19)."736
66:15 Yahweh coming with fire in chariots like whirlwinds is a picture of Him coming in judgment against His enemies (v. 14; cf. Zech. 14:3).
66:16 The judgment in view in verses 15-17 seems to be the one that will take place when Messiah returns to the earth (cf. Matt. 24:22; Mark 9:48; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 19:11-21).
"Perhaps it is justifiable to say that in the world of nature God judges through fire and in history through the sword, but too sharp a distinction must not be made."737
66:17 Those who pursue ritualistic idolatry then (cf. 65:3) and follow the false prophet of that day will come to their final end (cf. Rev. 13:11-18; 14:14-20; 19:17-19).
". . . when people cease to heed the word of revelation, it is not that they then believe nothing but that they will believe anything--gardens, pigs, and rats included."738
66:18 The Lord knows the works and thoughts of rebels against His will, and He will assemble them all to witness a display of His glory. At Babel, humankind assembled to display its own glory (Gen. 11:1-9), but God will bring all the rebels together to witness His glory. The church's preaching of the gospel is hardly the fulfillment in view. It is rather the return of Christ to the earth and the judgment of the nations then (cf. Matt. 25:32).
"Vv. 18-24 have a close affinity with Zech. 12-14, so much so that one could consider the Zechariah passage to be an expansion on these verses in Isaiah."739
"In New Testament perspective, this final section [vv. 18-24] spans the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ: his purpose for the world (18), his means of carrying it out (19-21), the signset among the nations, the remnant sent to evangelize them (19) and the gathering of his people to Jerusalem' (20) with Gentiles in full membership (21)."740
66:19 God promised to set a sign among His people (cf. Exod. 10:2; Ps. 78:43), the Israelites. This probably refers to the Cross, which He would raise up before He brought judgment on the world at the second advent.741Then the Lord would send survivors of His people among the nations to proclaim His glory. This may refer to the 144,000 Jewish missionaries that God will send throughout the earth during the Tribulation (cf. Rev. 7:1-8; 15:1-4). The nations mentioned include Tarshish (Spain), Put (Libya), Lud (western Turkey), Meshech (archers?), Rosh (Russia), Tubal (eastern Turkey), and Javan (Greece).742
66:20 The message having gone out, the Gentiles would escort the Israelites back to the Promised Land and the holy city of Jerusalem as a thank offering to the Lord (cf. Zech. 8:23; John 11:52). Evidently many Israelites will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ during the Tribulation and will return to their ancient homeland to worship Him (cf. 11:10-16). Jews will evangelize Gentiles (v. 19), and Gentiles will evangelize Jews.
"The only offering brought in a container was the firstfruits (Dt. 26:2). The converts of the nations come as the firstfruits of the harvest of the world--not a token of what will yet come but as that which is notably holy and peculiarly the Lord's."743
66:21 Evidently the Lord will make some of these converted Gentiles leaders in His worship (cf. 56:5-6). He would accept Gentile believers as freely as Israelite believers and would bless them with equal privilege in His service.
". . . all the nations will in fact be blessed through Israel (cf. Gen. 12:3)."744
66:22 Just as surely as God would create new heavens and a new earth (cf. 65:17), so He would preserve the Israelites (cf. 1:2; Gen. 12:1-3).
66:23 In the future, all people left alive after the Lord's judgments, Israelites and Gentiles, would worship Him continually in the new Jerusalem (cf. chs. 25-26; Zech. 14:16-21).
66:24 The worshippers would be able to view the corpses of those whom the Lord will judge. This probably includes those killed in the battle of Armageddon and those sentenced to eternal damnation. The picture is of Jerusalem dwellers going outside the city to the Hinnom Valley where garbage and corpses burned constantly, where worms (corruption) and fire (holy wrath) were always working (cf. Matt. 5:22; Mark 9:43; Luke 12:5). As those who worship God rejoice before Him perpetually, so those who rebel against Him will die perpetually (cf. Matt. 25:46).
"Perhaps the most enduring lessons from the Book of Isaiah are the reminders that (a) there is a God, (b) He is coming back, and (c) our eternal destiny is determined by our response to Him in this life."745
