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.