For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
Isaiah's closing chapters answer a cry for God to act, and God's answer goes past anything repair could achieve: He will create. Two questions follow: when does this happen, and how can the old world be forgotten?
The word "create" carries the weight here. The promised joy is not the old world patched up. It is something God makes, and one writer links that to the language of the New Testament:
In the prophets, the joys of the promised kingdom go with the arrival of what is absolutely new and created by God, not with the repairing of the old things… Nothing can be newer than a created thing. And the principle is true in Christianity, just as it will be in the coming millennial day. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
Isaiah does not spring this on us. He speaks of "new things" much earlier in the book too, and one writer reads the two passages together:
If you read Isaiah 42:8-16, and then Isaiah 65:17-18, it seems plain that we may call Isaiah the prophet of the new things. Between these two passages we get the prediction of the great and glorious basis on which the new things will securely rest.
The promise covers the heavens as well as the ground under our feet. One writer explains the change above by who holds power there:
At present the heavens are the seat of Satan's power, as Ephesians 6:12 shows. They will be in a new condition when those evil powers are cast out, and heavenly saints are installed, as we know from the New Testament that they will be. When the Messiah acts as "the Arm of the Lord," and His rule reaches to the ends of the earth, it will be a new earth indeed. Compared with it, the old order will be so horrible that men will banish it from their minds.
The next verse turns to Jerusalem and her people. Many commentators take that as pointing to the thousand-year reign of Christ, not to eternity. One writer sees the promise as a single line with two ends:
The true key to this is that the predicted change from present things begins at the start of the day of the Lord. It is only complete before that day gives place to eternity… So the beginning of the day of the Lord will be a first instalment of "new heavens and a new earth," when the LORD creates Jerusalem to be a joy and her people a gladness. But the full accomplishment waits for the close of the millennial day. Then God will make all things new to the fullest: the present earth and heavens not only shaken but dissolved, the sea gone forever, and a new heaven and a new earth appearing, where righteousness dwells.
Commentators differ on the emphasis. Some read the verse as already pointing to the eternal state, and take the forgetting of the old heaven and earth as a hint of "the abounding excellence" of what replaces them (J. G. Bellett).
Three verses later Isaiah says how long people will live. One writer takes verse 20 as decisive against reading this promise of eternity:
Death is not completely gone in the state of things mainly in view for our prophet. It is exceptional, but it still exists as an instrument of judicial punishment. Man will then fill out his days, which he has never yet done — not even before the flood, not even Methuselah himself… In eternity death does not exist.
One writer measures how far the New Testament carries Isaiah's promise:
These words are taken from God's promise to Israel… But though similar language is used, the New Testament vastly expands its meaning. The state of things in the millennial age differs so much from what went before that it is described figuratively as a new heaven and a new earth. But the context shows the change is only from the present condition of the world to the far more blessed condition it will take on, in body and in character, under the reign of Christ. That is the scope of Old Testament prophecy. The New Testament brings us to the shores of the boundless eternity beyond, and tells us to gaze on the new heaven and new earth of that unending age.
- Create. The promise is not the old world mended but something made — and nothing is newer than a created thing.
- Ground. Isaiah is the prophet of the new things, and between his first announcement of them and this one stands the great and glorious basis they rest on.
- Reach. New heavens too — Satan's powers cleared out above, Christ's rule extending to the ends of the earth below.
- Timing. The change begins at the day of the Lord and is complete only when that day gives way to eternity. Verse 20 still records deaths, so the first stage is not the last.
- Result. Next to the new, the old order looks so horrible that men banish it from memory — and the New Testament stretches these words to an age where death does not exist.
But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
Earlier in this chapter God divides the rebels from His servants. Now He turns to what He will make. He calls for gladness that never ends — gladness in one object: what He creates.
The command fixes the object of the rejoicing before it names the emotion. One writer draws out why the prophets tie the coming kingdom to the word "create":
In the prophets, the joys of the promised kingdom come with something completely new, which God creates. They do not come with the patching up of old things. […] Nothing can be newer than a created thing. And the principle holds true in Christianity, just as it will in the coming millennial day. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Another writer applies this to the faithful remnant of Israel:
But they, the remnant, are to rejoice in what Jehovah creates; the restoration of the old is utterly rejected. […] Jerusalem becomes their joy.
Does "Jerusalem" here stand for something else? One writer answers plainly:
These prophecies speak of the future reign of Christ in His kingdom. Zion really means Zion, and Jerusalem means that very city, now trampled underfoot. See that, and everything becomes plain. […] Notice how careful Scripture is to show that all this blessing flows from Jerusalem as the centre, since it is the place of His throne.
This promise sits beside "new heavens and a new earth", so when does it happen? One writer treats the two as stages of one work, spread across the millennial day — the thousand-year kingdom:
Here is the true key. The change from present things begins when the day of the Lord opens. It is complete only before that day gives place to eternity. […] So the start of the day of the Lord will be a first fulfilment of "new heavens and a new earth", when Jehovah creates Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. But the full and final fulfilment waits for the close of the millennial day, when all things will be made new to the fullest.
The rest of the chapter marks this scene off from the one in Revelation:
For instance, we read, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17). Yet look at the context, and we soon see that this passage hardly has Revelation 21:1-5 in view. The prophet goes on to speak of the new conditions in Jerusalem in the millennial age, when death may possibly still take place. In the scene pictured in Revelation, death is gone for ever.
The city is not merely made happy; it is created to be joy. That language is read as an act of divine power, on the level of raising the dead:
It will indeed be like "life from the dead." […] It is resurrection power. It is new creation work, though not, of course, in the complete sense in which the church knows it in Christ.
The invitation is addressed to people God has just distinguished from the proud in the same chapter:
The oppressing hypocrites say they are holier than the others (Isa. 65:5), but God says they are smoke in His nose. […] The Lord is at hand with judgment for the wicked and with full blessing for His servants. "The former troubles" shall be forgotten; they shall be blessed in the God of truth. He then says to them, "Be glad and rejoice forever"; "I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness."
The gladness commanded here is answered by God's own, as the next verse shows:
What a beautiful word this is! His people rejoice in Him and He rejoices in them. Jerusalem has become at last the place of joy and peace, and Jerusalem is His joy.
- Create — this joy rests on something God makes new, not on the old put back together. The same principle marks anyone in Christ today.
- Jerusalem — the writers take the city and her people literally. The very city now trampled down becomes the centre from which blessing flows.
- Stages — the change begins when the day of the Lord opens. It is complete only when that day gives way to eternity. Death still appears later in this chapter, which sets the scene apart from Revelation 21.
- Power — turning a ruined city into gladness takes resurrection power. One writer calls it new creation work.
- Mutual — God calls His servants to rejoice for ever. He delights in them in return.