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.
And I will rejoice over Jerusalem, and will joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
Isaiah 65:19 is God's answer to a city that had known nothing but tears. Two questions follow: what kind of joy is this, and which Jerusalem, and which age, does He mean?
The verse sits inside a promise of new heavens and a new earth. One writer ties the word "create" to the power that raises the dead:
It will indeed be like "life from the dead." It will be like "the new heavens and the new earth" which the Lord will make (Isa. 66:22). "Behold," He says, "I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy" (Isa. 65:18). It is resurrection power. It is new creation work, though not, of course, in the full sense in which the church knows it in Christ.
So the joy is in what God makes, not in a rebuilt version of what stood before:
But they, the faithful remnant, are to rejoice in what Jehovah creates. Restoring the old is rejected altogether. Then comes the new birth of the people, in the remnant, and Jerusalem becomes their joy.
Commentators differ over whether these words describe the reign of Christ on earth or the eternal state. One writer explains the change as beginning early and completing late:
The true key is this. The promised change from present things begins at the start of the day of the Lord. It is only complete before that day gives way to eternity. This alone, as Scripture plainly shows, will reconcile all the passages that deal with the subject… The beginning of the day of the Lord will be an early accomplishment of "new heavens and a new earth," when Jehovah creates Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. But the absolute fulfilment waits for the close of the thousand-year reign.
Another writer weighs two answers to the difficulty this raises:
In Isaiah, the promise clearly comes with statements that belong not to the everlasting state but to the millennial period. Building houses and planting vineyards can have no place in the everlasting state. Sin and death, to however limited an extent, are found in the state the prophet describes… Some judge that Isaiah 65:17 refers to the actual new heavens and earth that follow the burning up of the present ones. In the verses after it, the prophet turns back from that final prospect to the thing that most resembles it — the millennial state. Others judge that Isaiah has no eye to the literal heavens and earth after the thousand years, but speaks only of the millennial state.
The promise lands on the city that had wrecked itself:
Jerusalem has destroyed herself, but her help is in God. She is stained with blood, but the blood will be washed away… She is now desolate and rejected, because she rejected Jesus. Yet one day she will be greeted as "the home of righteousness, the mountain of holiness," and called "the Lord is there"… Up to now Jesus has known her as the place of His tears and weeping (Luke 19). Here she has become the place of His fresh springs and of His singers.
The joy has a source, and the source is a throne:
The moment we see that these prophecies speak of the future reign of Christ in His kingdom, and that Zion really means Zion, and Jerusalem means that very city, now trampled underfoot, everything becomes plain. See how carefully Scripture shows that all this blessing flows out from Jerusalem as the centre, because that is where His throne is.
The chapter has already split the nation in two. God's promise goes to the servants that others threw out:
Just as proud leaders who claim to be Christian today throw the best believers out of the church, so these men cast out the real servants here (Isa. 66:5). But the Lord is at hand with judgment for the wicked and full blessing for His servants. "The former troubles" will be forgotten, and they will be blessed in the God of truth. He then says to them, "Be glad and rejoice for ever."
- Created — Jerusalem's joy is made, not recovered. It is new creation work, and the old is not restored.
- Given — the joy is God's own: He rejoices over Jerusalem, and He calls her people to be glad for ever.
- Centred — the gladness flows out from Jerusalem, because that is where His throne is.
- Received — the servants others cast out are the ones told to rejoice for ever.
- Staged — many read this as the reign of Christ on earth, since sin and death still appear in the verses that follow. Commentators differ over how it fits the final new heavens and new earth, but all agree the weeping ends.
There shall be no more thenceforth an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not completed his days; for the youth shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.
Isaiah paints Jerusalem remade in joy, yet the scene still holds dying and a curse. So when does this belong, and why is there any death in it at all?
The chapter opens with new heavens and a new earth, so many read it as heaven itself. But the details rule that out. The scene belongs to the millennium — the thousand years when the Lord reigns on earth — and Jerusalem and her people stand at its centre.
The whole description here suits the millennium rather than eternity. I have already pointed out the special place of Jerusalem and her people. That alone is enough to prove it. The new Jerusalem does keep a lasting character of special glory. Even so, the New Testament is explicit: on the new earth, all such distinctions as an earthly city or people melt away for eternity.
Death in the picture settles it. Another writer sets the scene against the closing vision of Revelation.
When we look at the context, we soon see that what Revelation 21:1-5 predicts is hardly in view in this passage. The prophet goes on to speak of the new conditions that will hold in Jerusalem in the millennial age, when death may still take place. But in the scene pictured in Revelation, death is gone for ever.
Isaiah promises that no old man will fail to fill out his days. One writer takes that as human life reaching its full span for the first time.
Man will then fill his days, which he has never yet done — not even before the flood — no, not even Methuselah himself. No one has yet lived across ten centuries. This will be the rule for the righteous who are alive on earth when the Lord reigns for the thousand years… And he who dies at a hundred years old will be a sinner under some express curse.
Why call a hundred-year-old a child? One writer works it out as a ratio against the length of life in that day.
Count a man's life now at seventy years, and a tenth of that is seven. A tenth of man's life then, of a thousand years, would be one hundred. So a hundred years then would stand for only the age of a child, as seven years does now.
Today death is the rule. That changes under Christ's reign, though other troubles remain.
In the millennium there will be death, not as the rule, but as the exception. Death, though only inflicted as a judgment, will not be quite stamped out yet. There will also be the need of healing, as we gather from Revelation 22:2 and Ezekiel 47. There will even be judgments from God where needed, as is plain in Isaiah 65:20, Isaiah 66:24 and Zechariah 14:17-19.
The second half of the verse is a check on a rosy view of that age. One writer names the mistake.
What makes it so hard to understand is that many have a false idea of the millennial age. They picture it as "righteousness dwelling" on the earth instead of "righteousness reigning" over it… The eighteenth psalm looks ahead to that time and says, "The strangers shall submit themselves to Me." The margin gives that word as "lie," or "yield feigned obedience." They submit to superior power, not in heart.
(Those words from Psalm 18 follow an older translation than the ESV.) So the verse cuts both ways for people who submit outwardly only. It gives them the long life of that age, and takes it away the moment they sin.
This passage shows two things. Even those who are not born again will enjoy long life, if they submit to Christ's rule. But they will be cut off if they sin.
Does anyone die in that age except by judgment? One writer says the text does not settle it.
So it is clear that in some cases God will inflict death during the millennium as a judgment, and sinners cut off in that way will of course be raised for condemnation. But is it just as clear that death will happen only as a judgment? No doubt people in Israel will live very long lives. Yet we are not told that this reaches the other nations. Nor are we told that even in Israel death comes only as a penalty.
- Reign, not rest. This is Christ's reign on earth, not eternity. Jerusalem and her people still hold their own place.
- Reign restores. Under that reign, life reaches its full measure at last. No one has yet lived out his days — not even Methuselah, the longest-lived man in Scripture.
- Reign rescales. Dying at a hundred is like dying in childhood — what seven years is to a life of seventy today.
- Reign restrains. Death stays on only as a rare event and a judgment. Zechariah and Isaiah 66 name other judgments of that age.
- Reign exposes. Righteousness reigns over the earth; it does not yet dwell in it. Outward submission buys long life, but the sinner is cut off. Commentators differ on whether death then is only ever a penalty.
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof
This verse promises something ordinary and very human: work a person gets to keep and enjoy. Commentators read it as a picture of settled, secure life on earth, which raises three questions — when, for whom, and why such simple things need a promise at all.
Some read this promise as a description of heaven. One commentator places it firmly on earth.
This picture of what the Lord can do is glowing and beautiful. But it belongs to the earth and to an earthly people. It is not the eternal state. It is a day of tremendous glory, when death will be the exception and life the rule.
Some have read Zion in these chapters as the church. One writer tests that against the text.
Some have claimed that in these chapters Zion means the church. But when all the joy has come, "Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me." That is impossible, if Zion is the church. What! The church forsaken while its joy is at its height? Read Isaiah 49:14-23. Read Isaiah 62 too, which also applies to Israel. And read Isaiah 65:10-25, where these blessings are plainly earthly — blessings the earth has never yet known.
One writer traces the need for this promise back to the ground itself.
In that day man stands in the happiest and most blessed relationship with God possible. God Himself will act for him then. We have already looked at Genesis 3, where the curse came in. Adam, the head of creation, fell, and for his sake God cursed the ground. It did not yield its increase. It is by the sweat of the brow that man has had to earn his bread ever since.
For a disobedient Israel, the opposite was true.
When disobedient to God, an Israelite might build a house and never live in it. He might plant a vineyard and never enjoy its fruits.
This verse reverses that, line by line.
Such a promise only holds if the right hands hold the power.
All this is sweet and worthy of God. Yet it is not heavenly or eternal in the full sense, though it is a foretaste of final blessedness. In it God vindicates His character on earth, and His faithful promises to Israel there. Power will then be on the side of righteousness, and God will openly destroy the works of the devil here below. Not even disappointment will be known. And the long-groaning earth, freed from its labour pains, will yield her increase.
Two questions remain: how far the change goes, and how long it lasts. The same writer answers both from Amos.
The curse is to be removed entirely. It was partly eased in Noah's day, but it will be completely done away in Messiah's day. Look at Amos 9: "I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine... I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God."
- Curse. Since Adam, the ground has fought man and bread has cost him sweat. Against that background, a house you live in and a vineyard you eat from is a promise worth making.
- Reversal. Disobedience once meant building a house and never living in it, planting a vineyard and never tasting it. This verse undoes that.
- Ownership. The blessing is earthly and it is Israel's — a nation, a city, a land, not the church and not heaven.
- Security. It holds because power will be on the side of righteousness, and God vindicates His own character on earth.
- Permanence. Planted in their land, never uprooted again — the work of their hands enjoyed, not lost.
they shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
This promise belongs to Isaiah's picture of a restored Jerusalem, where God's people keep what they build and plant. Two questions decide how we read it: who are "my people" and "my chosen," and how long are "the days of a tree"?
The ESV says "my chosen." Older translations say "mine elect," and the writers quoted here use that word. They tie it to Israel's future restoration.
When God again restores Israel into blessing it will be a remnant that will be chosen, whom He calls His "elect." Isa. 65:9, 15, 22; Matt. 24:22, 24, 31; Rom. 11:28.
The same word links this verse to Jesus' promise to gather His elect in Matthew 24.
The Jewish elect are scattered to every quarter. So they must be gathered when the time comes for the Son of man to be present on the earth. Scripture plainly calls them His "elect" in Isaiah 65:9, 15, 22, and in Matthew 24:31.
Isaiah announces new heavens and a new earth a few verses earlier. Yet the same passage still speaks of death and sin. So one writer reads it of the millennial earth: the thousand years of Christ's reign.
When Isaiah speaks of "new heavens and a new earth" (Isa. 65:17), he refers to the renewed, millennial earth. A quick reading of the passage will prove this. It speaks of Jerusalem in a very distinct way. It speaks of the possibility of death: "The child shall die a hundred years old." And it speaks of sin: "The sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed."
Commentators differ over how far the promise stretches. Some see it beginning with the thousand years and reaching further:
It begins with the day of Jehovah. That day of the Lord lasts one thousand years. At its close God will create the new heavens and the new earth. The complete fulfilment comes when the eternal ages begin.
The second half of the verse explains the first. Long life means people keep enjoying what their own hands made.
"The days of a tree" means, as the next clause shows, the wonderfully long life of that time: "my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands." This period is one of blessing and peace everywhere. But Scripture keeps us from thinking that evil has stopped. In this very passage we see judgment fall on the open sinner. He will be cut off in childhood, because a hundred years will be only youth in that day. So the passage shows two things. Even people who are not converted will enjoy long life, if they submit to Christ's rule. And they will be cut off if they sin.
Another writer marks off this age from eternity.
Death is not completely gone in the state of things our prophet has before him. It is exceptional, but it still exists as an instrument of judgment. Man will then live out his full days, which he has never yet done — not even before the flood. ... In eternity death does not exist.
Losing your house and harvest to a stranger was once the penalty in Israel's covenant for turning away from God. This verse promises the reverse.
This is just the fulfilment of the promises God made to His people, on condition that they observed and kept His commandments (see Deut. 28:1-12). The same chapter shows the contrast. God warns them that if they turned aside from His statutes and laws, others would eat the fruit of their land and all their work. (v. 33.)
One writer looks further back, at the curse itself.
The curse is to be removed entirely. It was partly eased in the day of Noah, but it will be completely cancelled in Messiah's day.
One writer looks past the security to the happiness itself.
I believe they will then have an enjoyment of natural happiness that we can hardly imagine... The happiness of the saints on earth will be in passing on full joy and blessing to others through Christ. Their joy will not only be in receiving blessing. It will be in having the mind and joy of the one who blesses.
- Chosen — "my people" and "my chosen" are a restored Israel, the same elect gathered when the Son of man is present on the earth.
- Curse — losing house and harvest to strangers was the penalty for turning from God's commandments. This verse undoes it, and the curse itself goes with it.
- Length — "the days of a tree" means long life. A hundred-year-old is still a youth, and death becomes rare: a judgment, not the normal end.
- Limit — this is the millennial earth, not eternity. Sin and death still appear in it. Commentators differ on how far the promise reaches beyond it.
- Enjoyment — long life exists for lasting possession. It brings a natural happiness we can hardly imagine, and joy that flows out to others.
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for terror; for they are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring with them.
Isaiah 65 closes with God describing a renewed earth. Verse 23 promises that work and family life will no longer end in loss. Two questions decide how we read it: who are the people spoken of, and when does this happen?
Everything here turns on who Zion is. One writer weighs one common answer against the chapters themselves.
Some have claimed that in these chapters Zion means the church. But when all the joy has come, "Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me." That is impossible, if Zion is the church. What! The church forsaken while it is rejoicing? Read Isaiah 49:14-23. Read Isaiah 62 too, which also applies to Israel. Then read Isaiah 65:10-25, where the blessings can only be earthly blessings — the kind no one has yet seen on earth. In that day God Himself will rejoice over Jerusalem.
This blessing is glorious, but it has a limit. One writer marks where the limit falls.
Now, sweet and worthy of God as all this is, it is not heavenly nor eternal in the full sense, though it is a foretaste of final blessedness. It is God's vindication of His character on earth and of His faithful promises to Israel there. Then power will be on the side of righteousness, and the works of the devil will be destroyed here below for all to see… And the earth, which has groaned so long, will be set free from its pain and give its harvest.
Fruitless work is not how God made the world. It began when God cursed the ground, and this verse announces the reversal.
God will remove the curse from the earth. In that day He will change the very look of things here. Man will stand in the happiest and most blessed relationship with God possible, and God will graciously undertake for him then. We looked earlier at Genesis 3, where the curse came in. The head of creation, Adam, fell, and for his sake the ground was cursed. It did not yield its increase. Ever since, man has had to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.
Losing the fruit of your own toil to someone else was a warning God once attached to disobedience. The reversal of that warning carries a lesson for God's people in any age.
First, the fruit of his own labour should be enjoyed. This is simply the fulfilment of the promises God made to His people, on the condition that they observed and kept His commandments (see Deuteronomy 28:1-12). That same chapter shows the contrast. God warned them that if they turned aside from His statutes and laws, others would eat the fruit of their land and all their labours (v. 33). And let us not forget that there is a sense in which this may be true now of the children of God. If they ignore His word and live for themselves, God will often step in and deal with them in their circumstances. How many have decided to get on in the world! They laboured long and hard to secure their aims. Then, just as the goal came in sight, all the fruit of their toil suddenly disappeared.
The reason given in the verse is not their skill or their effort. They are a blessed people, and that standing rests on something already done for them.
Israel will then be known and honoured as the righteous nation of Jehovah — His elect (Isaiah 65:21-23). Their work will prosper, because they will themselves be standing in the full results of what God had done for them. This came through the gracious obedience of the Just One, even to death.
This promise also shows how God feels toward His people. One writer draws from it a lesson about prayer.
God promises that His people will not labour in vain, and that He will answer them before they call and hear them while they are still speaking. Such is God's disposition towards His children. We can and ought to feel perfectly sure of it. Prayer is the expression of dependence; it is also the expression of confidence… When we have God's word that He will hear and answer, who among His people would dare to doubt it?
- Blessed first. The promise rests on a reason: they are a blessed people, standing in what God has done for them through the obedience of the Just One, even to death.
- Blessed ground. Because they are blessed, God lifts the curse that fell on the soil for Adam's sake, and the earth that has long groaned gives its harvest.
- Blessed work. Because the ground is blessed, labour keeps its fruit. No one else eats what you planted — the very loss God warned of if His people turned aside from His word.
- Blessed children. Because the work is blessed, no child is born for calamity — the descendants share the parents' blessing.
- Blessed limit. All of this is earthly and belongs to Israel and Jerusalem — glorious, a foretaste of final blessedness, but not heaven itself and not eternity in the full sense.
And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Isaiah 65 ends with a promise about a coming age. God will answer His people as they speak, and even before they open their mouths. That raises two questions. When does it take effect? Can anyone taste it sooner?
The verse sits in a picture of the coming kingdom. Ordinary life there — houses, vineyards, harvests — is free of loss. One writer puts this promise above all the rest, and finds two gifts in it.
So they will enjoy earthly blessings to the full: houses, vineyards, fruit. Above all, they will be in close touch with Jehovah their God. So much so, that He will not only hear them while they are still speaking to Him. He will answer their desires even before they express them by calling on Him. This shows that a place of remarkable nearness to Him will be theirs.
The "new heavens and a new earth" of verse 17 are not the final eternal state. The details of the passage show why.
When Isaiah speaks of "New heavens and a new earth" (Isa. 65:17), he means the renewed millennial earth. Even a quick reading of the passage proves it. It speaks of Jerusalem in a very distinct way. It speaks of the possibility of death: "The child shall die a hundred years old." It speaks of sin too: "The sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed."
Earlier in the chapter God speaks of calling and answering too. There the roles are reversed, and the words are a charge against the people. God also divides the nation as a whole from the faithful few within it.
"Therefore I will destine you to the sword… because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear… So the Lord God says: Behold, My servants (the remnant) shall eat, but you (the nation) shall be hungry."
One chapter holds both: a people who would not answer God, and a people He answers before they speak.
The promise is future. Yet one writer argues God is already at work on the answer, ahead of the cry that will ask for it.
Isaiah 65:24 is a wonderful verse, and it is being fulfilled under our very eyes. The Jew does not know how God is preparing the answer to their bitter, urgent cry. That cry will come in a future day, when as a nation they will realise their awful sin in refusing their Messiah and murdering the Son of God.
One man knew this long before the age it belongs to. Elijah stood alone among enemies, and his answer came at once.
Elijah proved the truth of Isa. 65:24. Israel must wait for this blessing until the glorious age when "the wolf and the lamb shall feed together." Elijah had it while facing a whole pack of wolves with their teeth still sharp! It is good to have to do with God. His answer to the lonely man's prayer was prompt and decisive.
Commentators also apply the verse to answers that come late. God hears at once, even when the reply takes time to arrive. Daniel prayed for three weeks before the answer reached him.
You may not get the answer at the moment. Yet you can be sure that He hears you every time you speak (Isa. 65:24). For three whole weeks Daniel humbled himself and prayed to God, but the answer came only when the three weeks were finished. Yet God's messenger tells him that from the first day he set his heart to understand and to humble himself before God, God heard his words. God sent out the answer, but the power of the enemy held it back for twenty-one days.
The verse gives no method to follow. It shows what God is like toward His own.
Such is God's disposition towards His children. We can and should feel completely sure of it. Prayer is the expression of dependence; it is also the expression of confidence. There must be faith in it, and faith is confidence. When we have God's word that He will hear and answer, who among His people would dare to doubt it? That is why we are urged to "pray without ceasing."
- Nearness — the promise is about closeness more than speed. God answers His people's desires before they voice them. That shows how near to Him they will stand.
- Nearness restored — earlier in this chapter the nation would not answer when God called. The closing promise reverses that failure in the remnant He spares.
- Nearness dated — the setting is the renewed earth of the coming kingdom. Death and sin are still possible there, so this is not the final eternal state.
- Nearness previewed — Elijah and Daniel show the principle at work ahead of that age. God answered Elijah at once. He heard Daniel on day one, but the answer took twenty-one days to arrive.
- Nearness relied on — the verse shows God's settled attitude to His own. So prayer is an act of dependence and confidence, and it never has to stop.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah.
Isaiah 65 closes its long promise of new heavens and a new earth with one picture. Hunter and hunted feed side by side, and the serpent stays in the dust. Two questions follow. Is this poetry, or a real change in nature? And why is one creature left out of the blessing?
The chapter promises new heavens and a new earth. But how far does that promise reach here — to eternity, or to a renewed earth under Messiah's reign?
The prophet clearly sees the vast change that comes when Messiah reigns in power. He sees in it the introduction and sure pledge of the new heavens and earth, not the absolute fulfilment. Revelation 21:1-8 makes this plain and certain. There we find no earthly Jerusalem, and no people in flesh such as Isaiah describes. There is no infant of days to die, and no more curse to carry out. The wolf and the lamb will feed together in the future kingdom over the earth. There the lion will eat straw like the ox. And there dust will be the serpent's food, the one remaining mark of disgrace.
The animals are not decoration in this promise. One writer ties the moment of their release to the appearing of God's children in glory.
Nothing could be plainer: the appearing of the sons of God is what ushers in the deliverance of creation. When that moment arrives, Israel will be restored, the Gentiles made happy, and all mankind blessed under the reign of Christ and His saints in glory. And there is more — creation itself will be set free. Will creation not be free then? Even the tribes of savage beasts will have stopped devouring each other, and the most savage and venomous of them will be the harmless playmates of the little child.
Is this a picture of something else, or a promise about real animals? One writer answers from how exact the wording is.
A figurative sense does not fit the exactness of the language. The plain grammatical or literal sense agrees with Old Testament prophecy and New Testament doctrine. Why should anyone think it incredible that God, in honour of the reign of Jesus, will change all living nature — not only its face, but its habits and bent? He will free the creature from the bondage of corruption under which it now groans.
The wolf comes first in the list, and what it does to sheep explains why.
They are very destructive among the sheep, worrying and destroying more than they can eat. This makes the wolf a fitting emblem of the wicked, who trouble the sheep and lambs of God's flock, and even creep in among them. The wolf and the lamb living together shows, among other things, how great the change will be in the millennium.
Every other animal shares the peace. The serpent does not, and the reason reaches back to the garden.
There will be one solemn exception to this general deliverance — the serpent. "Dust shall be the serpent's food." The reason is not far to seek. Under this form the tempter seduced our first parents, and so brought in all the misery; God will never overlook or forget this. The curse pronounced in Eden will not be revoked in this case.
Kelly makes the same point, and adds who else is meant to keep it in mind.
Even in the joy that covers everything else, God cannot forget this. He would have men remember it too, at the very time when that active spirit of evil can no longer do his damage.
The last line places the peace in God's holy mountain. That centre is not a wall but a source.
In His holy mountain fierce beasts become tame, and children lead them. Snakes lose their venom, and infants play with them. Israel stands in their appointed place, and blessing goes out from them to the nations around. The holy mountain is the greatest effect of the King's presence, but the glory shines out to the farthest circle. Even the lifeless creation rejoices in it. The places where judgment once lay heavy join the song that creation, freed from the bondage of corruption, will then raise.
- Reign — the scene belongs to Christ's kingdom over the earth. It pledges the eternal state, but it is not yet the full thing.
- Release — creation now groans, and it goes free when the sons of God appear in glory.
- Real — the wording is exact, so take the change in animal nature as it stands, not as a symbol.
- Remembered — the serpent alone keeps its Eden sentence. The origin of all the ruin is never forgotten.
- Radiating — the peace centres on God's holy mountain and spreads out from there to the nations.