This is a bitter-sweet ending to our Isaiah study. Actually, Isaiah’s ending, like the ending of the Canon, is also bitter-sweet. It is bitter for all engaged in hypocritical worship (Isaiah 66:3). It is sweet for all true worshippers described in Isaiah 66:2. The rest of the chapter describes what will happen to people in either category. In Isaiah 66:4, 15-16, 22-24 we see visions of complete destruction and complete deliverance. Isaiah ends (Isaiah 66:24) where it began (Isaiah 1:2): the subject of rebels and rebellion. And all this drives us to make sure that we are the worshipers who will inhabit God’s new heavens and new earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to become a child of God. Christ’s sacrifice is seen in His perfect life where He is the contrast to those described in Isaiah 66:4 and also in His substitutionary death for sinners (cf. Isaiah 66:15-16 and Christ suffering under the fiery wrath of God for our sakes). All along, Isaiah has been urging us, like Peter, to be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure in light of His return. This response will help us slow the tide of the Church becoming more and more like society and less and less like the Savior.
Category Archives: vision
Isaiah 65:17-25 Theology Through Visions of the Future
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Isaiah 65:17-25 contains a wonderful picture of the new world God will create for His people to inhabit. Your theology will probably lock you into either a millennium or eternal state understanding of the description. But do not let those systematic categories detract from Isaiah’s purpose. Long before Peter urges Christians to holy living in light of God’s return, Isaiah does the same. The description moves back and forth between the new creation and marred creation. God knows that His children will read this description and desperately want to inhabit His new world. Isaiah 65:23 describes the type of person who will live there. Cf. Genesis 17:7 and Isaiah 53:10. This person was described repeatedly as God’s “servants” in Isaiah 65:13-14. Isaiah is ending as he began: urging all professing Believers to give proof of their faith through obedience to the Word of God (the opposite of rebellion). The Gospel is prefigured in Isaiah 65:20. On the cross our Savior was the accursed sinner, dying the death we should have died. His death and resurrection life opens the door into God’s new world for all who genuinely believe.