Isaiah 65:19-25 – The Perfect Ending

Translation and Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 03 Aug. 2008

 

Translation
18. Instead, be glad and rejoice until forever in that which I am creating,

for look at me creating Jerusalem to be a joy and her people a gladness!

19. So I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people,

and they will not hear again in her a voice of weeping or a voice of crying.

20. There will not again be from there a nursing-child [living merely for] days

or an elderly man who does not fill out his days,

for it would be the child who dies a centenarian,

and the one who falls short of being a centenarian would be a lightweight.

21. And they will build houses where they will dwell,

and they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22. They will not build and another dwell;

they will not plant and another eat,

but as the days of the tree will be the days of my people,

and my chosen will wear out the stuff made by their hands.

23. They will not grow tired for nothing

and they will not bear children for dismay,

for they will be the seed of the ones Jehovah has blessed, and their offspring will be with them!

24. And it will be that before they call, even I myself will answer;

while they are still speaking I - even I - will hear.

25. The wolf and the lamb will pasture as one,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox,

and as for the serpent - dust for his food.

They will not cause evil or cause corruption in all the mountain of my holiness,” says Jehovah.

 

(American Standard Version is used for passages outside Isaiah)

 

Introduction:

·         “And they lived happily ever after.” We love it when stories end that way! This natural inclination to hear a happy ending was built into us by God to foreshadow the perfect ending He has in store for His people.

·         Commenting on this quality of fairy tales, J.R.R. Tolkein, wrote in his Epilogue to the Essay, Tree and Leaf, “...The peculiar quality of the ‘joy’ in successful Fantasy can… be explained as a sudden glimpse of… underlying reality or truth… The Evangelium [or Gospel, which Tolkein describes in terms of the “Incarnation” and the “Resurrection”] has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the ‘happy ending.’ The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed...”

·         Last week, my thesis was that Isaiah 65 is primarily speaking of heaven and only secondarily of the foretastes of heaven that Christians get on earth. I also mentioned how the curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are specifically rolled back for God’s true servants.

·         In vs. 13-18 we saw some blessings already:

1.      “my servants will eat… my servants will drink… my servants will rejoice” (v.13)

2.      “my servants will sing out from goodness of heart” (v.14)

3.      “He will call His servants another name” (v.15)

4.      “the first troubles will be forgotten” (v.16)

5.      God is “creating new heavens and the new earth” (v.17)

6.      You are being “created to be joy… and gladness”

7.      The list continues in v.19:

 

I.       Curses Annulled (vs.19-25)

8.      God “will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in [His] people” (v.19a)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Deut. 28:63b  “… Jehovah will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you...”

b.      Rev. 21:3  “And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God:”

9.       “and they will not hear again in her a voice of weeping or a voice of crying.” (v.19b)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Deut. 28:65  “…you will find no ease… but Jehovah will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul…”

b.      These sounds of weeping and crying can be heard throughout the earlier part of Isaiah from the Philistines (14:31), Moabites (15:2-8), and Israelites (26:17) – even king Hezekiah when he was sick (38:3), and Isaiah wept with grief over sin and over God’s punishments (16:9; 22:4,12).

c.      Yet Isaiah exhorts God’s people that there will come a time when such sadness will cease: Isa. 30:18 “happy are all who wait for Him. 19 For a people will dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem. You will certainly not weep; He will certainly be gracious to you…”

d.      That time will be in heaven: Rev. 21:4  “and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes… neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more... “

10. There will not again be from there a nursing-child [living merely for] days or an elderly man who does not fill out his days, for it would be the child who dies a centenarian, and the one who falls short of being a centenarian would be a lightweight. (v. 20)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Deut. 28:20  “Jehovah will send upon you cursing… until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, whereby you have forsaken me.  21  Jehovah will make the pestilence cling to you, until He has consumed you from off the land...”

b.      A year and a half ago, my friend Kevin and his wife rushed to the hospital to deliver their twins. Little Nathan and David were born with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and they were so damaged from their circulation problems in the womb that they died the day they were born. My friend Kevin said all he could do was weep and hold his babies as they literally died in his arms. Everyone on earth who has lived a few decades has exper­ien­ced or knows someone who has experienced the death of a child. What a wonderful promise that there will come a time when premature death will never occur again!

c.      This verse goes on to talk of people “filling out” the years of their life such that if some­one died at 100 years old, they would be considered to have died young and would have some stigma attached to their reputation – the word “sinner” is even used here in the KJVs.

d.      Wait a minute! Does verse 20 tell us that people will be dying – albeit at an old age – in the midst of this time of blessing when there will be no more weeping or crying or dead babies or stealing or hunger or thirst or shame? Is it saying that there will be people still sinning in heaven?

e.      There are two ways to answer this question:

                                                              i.      The Millennial/Chiliast positions answer the question by saying that this describes the last thou­sand years of this earth’s history (Mill = 1,000 in Latin, Kil/Chil=1,000 in Greek) where God’s goodness becomes dominant in the world – either through an earthly reign of Jesus on earth (Pre-Mil) or through the ascendency of the church to dominance in the world before Jesus returns (Post-mil).

1.      A thousand-year period is spoken of in Revelation 20, and many of the passages in Isaiah and elsewhere speak of a future time of goodness while naming earthly places such as Jerusalem and Mount Zion, and so forth.

2.      In the Millennial view there will be a time when life on earth will be better because Jesus (or godly men) will be in power and will bring God’s justice and peace to bear on our world in a way that has never happened before.

3.      For instance, medical science could be freed from the humanist ideology that bogs it down, and new ways of extending life found, such that people might live for hundreds of years again like they did before Noah’s flood.

4.      In this view, there can still be sin and death in the millennium, even though it is dying out.

5.      This is the position that Franz Delitzsch took, and in his commentary on Isa 65, he berated “anti-Chiliasts” for being blind to such an obvious interpretation as the millennium.

                                                            ii.      The Amillennial position answers the question by saying that this is figurative language:

1.      John Calvin seems to have taken the position that this is exaggerated language describing our current life on earth:

a.      The promise of Exodus 23:25-26  was “And you shall serve Jehovah your God, and He will bless your bread, and your water; and I will take sickness away from your midst.  26  There shall none cast her young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.” Some Christians take these promises of Isaiah like we take the Proverbs: as a general rule those who obey God are blessed and those who don’t are cursed, but it is not a universal rule – there are exceptions to the rule, for some Christians are barren, some go hungry under oppressive governments, and some die young.

b.      Calvin wrote on this passage (as you can see in our bulletin) that our sin shortens our lifespan through diseases caused by things like anxiety instead of trust in God.

c.      However, with the promise of an end to sadness, and end to premature death, an end to theft (in v.22), and the transformation of lions into vegetarians, I cannot see that this describes the age we are living in. I believe it has to refer to heaven.

2.      A careful reading of v.20 does not rule out the possibility that this could still be describing the perfect conditions of heaven:

a.      Any significant limitation of death must also deal with the source of death, and that is sin. “The sting of death is sin...” (I Cor 15:56) It seems logical that if all premature deaths are removed as the first half of v.20 states (which would mean no more problems in childbearing and no more war) then sin must have been removed. The only condition under which there will be no more sin, will be in heaven.

b.      Note that death is the “last” thing to be abolished in I Cor. 15:25, not something that is abolished earlier on in order to afford a thousand years free of untimely deaths. (cf 2Ti 1:10, Heb 2:14)

c.      Amillenialists believe that the thousand years is a symbol for a long period of time rather than a literal thousand years, and that this time period describes the era we are living in now which began when Jesus ascended to heaven and began to reign at the right hand of God sitting on the throne in heaven.

d.      The word for “sin” here in v.20 is the Hebrew word which means to “miss the mark.” So it is possible to translate this verse “He who misses the mark of being 100 years old” – this is how the NAS and NIV render it, and I have found at least one other translation dating back to the 16th century which also goes this route.

e.      The Septuagint translation, dating back to 200 BC, divides the sent­ence differently so that the reading goes, “The child will have 100 years, and the sinner who dies 100 years old will also be cursed.”

f.        The word translated “cursed” in most versions is the Hebrew word for “light/trifling/of little account.”

g.      The way the verse is worded does not promise that there there will be sinners or that there will be people being cursed in this new order, but rather that if there were such as thing as a sinner or someone who didn’t live to be 100 years old, they would be of little account. So logically, if there were no sinners or if no one ever died at all, this verse would still be true.

h.     I believe that this verse is speaking in poetic language of the eternal life that we will experience in heaven.

i.        This is the position of Dr. Frank Barker under whose teaching I grew up, and I am inclined toward this position because I do not see a clear-cut teaching in the Bible of a specific thousand years of intermediate time between our current age and the age to come.

3.      In saying all this, I believe that we enjoy foretastes of these heavenly bles­sings as we experience God’s everlasting life, His peace, and His joy, and this passage could well support a combination of some things we exper­ience now in Jesus Christ as well as things we will experience in heaven.

f.        Whether you believe in a millennium or not, the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is in heaven where the book of Revelation (21:4) tells us, “death will be no more…”

11.  “And they will build houses where they will dwell, and they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They will not build and another dwell; they will not plant and another eat”(vs. 21. & 22a)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Deut. 28:30 “… you will build a house, but you will not dwell therein: you will plant a vineyard, but you will not use it.”

b.      Isa. 5:8 “Woe, those who extend house with house, they adjoin field with field until there is no more place, and you are made to dwell alone in the inner part of the land. 9. Jehovah of Hosts is swearing in my hearing, ‘Many houses will become a desolation, and good houses without inhabitant.’” (cf. Zeph. 1:13)

c.      In Isaiah’s day, the Assyrian army conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and its capitol city of Samaria. The houses that the northern Jews had built and the vineyards they had planted were taken over by the Samaritans that the Assyrians re-settled into the area. The Chaldeans would invade later, then the Greeks, then the Romans, and so on, wave after wave of invaders in the land.

d.      I’ve had to move my primary residence about 20 times. Army folks can relate to moving a lot. It really wears on you to settle in to one place and then move as soon as you’ve settled in.

e.      But we’re not in control of the job market; things can change and force you to move on. I was just talking to a civilian friend who works at Fort Knox – they decided 2 weeks ago that they did not need a forestry specialist anymore and gave him a two week notice. He’s looking for a new job and hoping he won’t have to move.

f.        That’s why we, along with God’s people throughout history,  “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He has prepared for them a city…  For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come.” (Hebrews 11:16,13:14)

g.      In heaven we will have that abiding place: Revelation 21:10-11  “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,  11  having the glory of God: her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as crystal:”

12. “as the days of the tree will be the days of my people, and my chosen will wear out/long enjoy/make full use of the stuff made by their hands.” (v.22b)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Deut. 28:20  “Jehovah will send upon you cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand unto to do…”

b.      You’ve seen how much work people put into renovating a house and then they sell it. The last house we lived in we built a chicken coop, started a garden, landscaped the front yard, added a ceiling to the porch and fixed up the deck and made untold little fixups throughout the interior of the house, then the landlord said we had to move out because he wanted to sell the house. I didn’t get to enjoy what my hands had made or use those things until they were worn out. It felt like such a waste - so unfair.

c.      On the other hand, a tree doesn’t move around; it stays put and grows for a long time. Bristlecone pine trees have been dated at thousands of years old.

d.      Psalm 1 says, “1 Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers:  2  But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; And on His law he will meditate day and night.  3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
We see a little bit of this in this life, but the fulfillment will be in heaven where, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6)

e.      You want to long enjoy the work of your hands? Try “reigning [as a ruler] forever,” like it says you will in Rev. 22:5b!

13. “They will not grow tired for nothing” (v. 23a)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Lev. 26:20  “and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.”

b.      Part of the reason why we toil/labor/grow tired in vain is that we work for the wrong goal – for our selfish interests, to get glory for ourselves or to get security for ourselves:

                                                              i.      In Isa. 30:7, the Jews were working hard to develop a military alliance with Egypt to save them from the threat of Assyria, and God told them it was for “nothing.” They were looking to secure themselves from God’s punishment, but it was pointless, because they couldn’t prevent God from punishing them. All the money they sent to Egypt did not good.

                                                            ii.      Isa. 62:8-9 “Jehovah has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength,  “I will never again give your grain to be food for your enemies, nor will sons of foreigners drink your grape-juice for which you toiled, for those who gather it will eat it and praise Jehovah, and those who collect it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”

                                                          iii.      Notice that the promise of enjoying the fruit of labor is attached to the spending of that labor in what will result in the worship of God! (cf. Isa. 49:3)

                                                          iv.      John Calvin wrote, “We must not fix our whole attention on these transitory blessings, but use them as ladders, that, being raised to heaven, we may enjoy eternal blessings.”

c.      In heaven, the curse will be rolled back and there will be meaningful work to do to serve God: Revelation 22:3-4  “And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall serve Him.”

 

 

14.  “they will not bear children for dismay for they will be the seed of the ones Jehovah has blessed, and their offspring will be with them!” (v. 23b)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Deut. 28:32  “Your sons and daughters will be given unto another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day...” (cf. Hosea 9:12)

b.      This bearing of children for calamity/trouble/misfortune/cursing/terror has to do with losing children to calamities such as natural disasters or wars. Isaiah used this word in chapter 13:8 and 21:3 to describe the terror of the Babylonians when Cyrus’ army conquered the city.

c.      In the case of the Jews, the young men of Jerusalem were taken away as captives to Babylon. How their parents must have grieved, but the parents had rebelled against God, and this was their punishment for their sin. (cf. v. 12.)

d.      But a time of bearing children and seeing them blessed was coming:

                                                              i.      54:1 “Sing, barren one – she has not given birth; Break forth into song and cry aloud, she [who] has not been in labour, for the children of the desolate one are more than the children of one who has a husband, says Jehovah. 2. Enlarge the place of your tent, and your bedroom curtains, they will stretch them out! Do not hold back! Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3. For right and left you will burst forth, and your seed will take over the nations!” (cf. 49:21)

e.      Who are the “blessed ones”?

                                                              i.      These are the same ones who “bless themselves in the God of truth” v.16 – true worshippers of God rather than fake worshippers – theologians would call them the “invisible church.”

                                                            ii.      Abraham was one whom Isaiah called “blessed” in 51:2, for in Genesis 12:13 God blessed him and destined him to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

                                                          iii.      Isaiah prophecied of that blessing reaching the gentiles in 61:9 and 19:25.

f.        The apostle John was to write many years later “I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4)

g.      The way the Hebrew text here is worded, it is ambiguous whether it is saying that the descendents of God’s people will be with their parents or that the descendents/offspring will be blessed along with their parents. I think that emphasis falls upon the former, that true servants of God can look forward to our children being with us in heaven.

15. And it will be that before they call, even I myself will answer; while they are still speaking I - even I - will hear. (v. 24.)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Leviticus 26:17 “I will set my face against you…”

b.      Isa. 1:15 “when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from them; and although you multiply prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood.”

c.      Why won’t God listen? v. 12b “because I called and you did not answer; I spoke and you did not heed, but you did the evil in my eyes, and you chose that in which I did not delight.”

d.      But Isaiah has written earlier: Isa. 58:9 “If you will turn away from your midst the yokes, the thrusting of the finger and the speaking of iniquity…Then you will call and Jehovah will answer… He will say, ‘Here I am!’” (cf. Jeremiah 33:3, John 1:48)

e.      Isa. 30:18 “happy are all who wait for Him. 19 … He will certainly be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; as He hears, He answers you”

f.        Delitzsch commented on this verse that the more our will is conformed to the will of God, the more we will experience this phenomenon of God answering before we can even get the request out of our mouths. In heaven we will be perfectly attuned to the will of God and will experience this completely!

 

 

16.  “The wolf and the lamb will pasture/feed/grace together/as one, and the lion will eat straw like the ox” (v. 25a)

a.      Covenantal Curse rolled back: Lev 26:22  “And I will send the beast of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle”

b.      Wolves & lions are wild beasts that eat sheep, not pasture together with them! (Jer. 5:6, Isa. 31:4)

c.       Last October, a couple living in Boulder, CO heard a growl outside and then a yelp from their dog. They stepped outside and discovered that a mountain lion had one of their dogs in its mouth and was trying to yank the dog free of its chain and carry it off. Colorado’s standards for “greenbelts” that require paths for wildlife across residential areas has resulted in increasing numbers of such reports of wild animals. Apparently this particular rogue lion had killed other dogs and even a small horse that fall. (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14298666/detail.html)

d.      Having wild animals prowling around in our neighborhoods is listed by God as a curse, no matter what the National Wildlife Federation says, but in heaven predators will be harmless:

e.      Isa. 35:8 “And there will be a highway and the road, and it will be called “The Way of the Holy” ... 9. There will not be a lion, and a ravenous beast will never go up on it - such will not be found there, but redeemed ones will walk. 10. And the ransomed of Jehovah will return, and go to Zion with singing - everlasting joy upon their head.”

f.        Verse 16 here is the only other place in the Bible besides chapter 11 (which we read responsively) where it talks of the wild animals being peaceful in the context of heaven. Perhaps there will be animals in the new heavens and earth - animals unaffected by our sin, nature no longer groaning and awaiting our redemption, but enjoying the new order of heaven along with us and our children.

17. “‘and as for the serpent - dust for his food. They will not hurt/harm/spoil/cause evil or destroy/harm/cause corruption in all the mountain of my holiness,’ says Jehovah.” (v.25b)

a.      This goes back to a much more ancient curse than the one with Moses. This goes back to the Garden of Eden when, “Jehovah God said unto the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life:” (Genesis 3:14)

b.      “Lick the dust”

                                                              i.      This was a sign of humiliation and servitude (Micah 7:17), and this was part of the curse put upon Satan.

                                                            ii.      The book of Revelation (20:10) tells us that Satan will not be redeemed but will be cast into the lake of fire. The curse will never be undone for the devil as it will be for God’s chosen servants.

                                                          iii.      We will never have to be on guard again for that devil who “prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8).

c.      Rev 21:27  “and there shall in no wise enter into it [the heavenly city] anything unclean, or he that makes an abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of life.”

 

III. What difference does all this make?

 

C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Great Divorce wrote of heaven, and while I believe that Lewis was off-base for believing in purgatory and for believing that people could be saved who do not know Jesus, I appreciate this poem from the end of the book about one of the women in heaven:

 

“The Happy Trinity is her home: nothing can trouble her joy.

She is the bird that evades every net: the wild deer that leaps every pitfall.

Like the mother bird to its chickens or a shield to the arm'd knight: so is the Lord to her mind, in His unchanging lucidity.

Bogies will not scare her in the dark: bullets will not frighten her in the day.

Falsehoods tricked out as truths assail her in vain: she sees through the lie as if it were glass.

The invisible germ will not harm her: nor yet the glittering sun-stroke.

A thousand fail to solve the problem, ten thousand choose the wrong turning: but she passes safely through.

He details immortal gods to attend her: upon every road where she must travel.

They take her hand at hard places: she will not stub her toes in the dark.

She may walk among Lions and rattlesnakes: among dinosaurs and nurseries of lionets.

He fills her brim full with immensity of life: He leads her to see the world’s desire.”

 

Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions

 

Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons