Far, far better things ahead

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Sermon for Midweek of Advent 1

Isaiah 65:17-25

After writing so much about earthly Jerusalem, and Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and even about the first Advent of the Christ, Isaiah finally moves fully beyond everything earthly to describe heaven for us. But how can God really describe heaven to those who only know earthly realities? It’s like trying to describe colors to a blind person, or music to someone who is deaf. So, how does God describe heaven in this second-to-last chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy? He describes it in terms we can understand, in earthly terms, using earthly imagery and comparisons. That means we shouldn’t get too hung up on those earthly images. Because the main thing we’re to come away with after reading Isaiah 65 was summarized well enough by C.S. Lewis: “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

When we talk about the next life, we often just use the word, “heaven,” by which we mean, the spirit realm which is invisible to us, but where God dwells visibly with the saints and angels. When a believer in Christ dies, it’s appropriate to talk about their soul going to heaven. But when Christ comes again, it’s a much more physical kind of existence that’s described, which makes sense, because there is going to be a physical resurrection of the bodies of all the dead. So what’s next for believers? The Lord describes it here as “new heavens and a new earth.” Peter describes it the same way in his second Epistle: Let us wait for and hasten the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Think of all the beauty and goodness that still remains in this creation. Think of all the ugliness and suffering and meaninglessness in this world. Lump it all together, and realize that God has determined, none of it is worth preserving. None of it is worth keeping. He has far, far better things in mind for His children. So much so that, as he says here, the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. That doesn’t mean literally that we won’t be able to remember anything from our life on this earth. It just means that, once you see the new heavens and the new earth, you won’t, for one second, think back and long for the life you had here. There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people;

It’s worth noting that God makes it clear, twice, that He is the one creating the new heavens and the new earth. We don’t create it. We don’t bring it about. We don’t make it happen, as if the Church were responsible for renewing this sinful world and building a glorious kingdom of God on earth. No, everything here will be destroyed, and God Himself will create the new world. And He calls on His people to rejoice in it! Because it will be a place filled with joy and peace and everything good.

He promises here to create a new Jerusalem. Obviously that can’t be a reference to the current Jerusalem that exists here below, because everything on earth, with the earth itself, will be destroyed. Nor can this be a picture of the Christian Church as it exists here on earth, because here the Church still has its share of false brothers and false teachers who are not a joy, but a scourge on the Church. No, this is the New Jerusalem, the new city of God, the perfected home of God’s children where righteousness dwells, where no unclean thing can enter, where there is nothing to interrupt or detract from the joy that God and His people will share together.

No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

Remember, the Lord is not giving us a literal description of heaven, as if there will be infants or death in the new creation. He’s using earthly comparisons to show us how much better it will be. First, there’s no more weeping, no more stress or distress, because there’s nothing there to cause weeping or distress. Think of all the things that make you weep for sorrow here: guilt, betrayal, mistreatment, loneliness, emptiness, sickness, pain, and, maybe the biggest culprit of them all, loss. But all of that will be a thing of the past. He gives us the example here of the terrible tragedy of the death of an infant or of a young person, a major cause of suffering here. No such tragedies will occur in the new world that God will create.

More examples follow. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity. These descriptions remind us of the curses that Moses commanded Israel to pronounce on themselves, if they should turn away from the LORD God and His covenant and His promised Messiah. Building houses that others would inhabit. Planting vineyards without being able to eat their fruit, etc. Israel experienced those curses here below, and all people on earth know what it is to labor in vain, because no one is immune to the curse that God placed on this creation in the Garden of Eden. But in the next life, the curse will be lifted, and God’s people will no longer labor in vain.

For they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The blessings of the new creation are entirely, 100%, the result of God’s goodness toward us, God’s blessing upon us, which He has poured out on us already through the Lord Jesus. He is the One who has set the slaves free and has made us sons of God and coheirs, together with Him, of this blessed eternal inheritance, where God will no longer seem distant, where God will no longer appear not to hear, where faith no longer needs to be tested and children no longer need to be disciplined, but where God will be right there with us, providing for every need before we have to ask.

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

There may or may not be animals in the new creation. This verse simply pictures for us the perfect peace and safety that will be there. Things that are dangerous and destructive on this earth will not be dangerous and destructive in heaven. No prowling lion. No wolf stalking its prey. No violence or killing or death. No enemies trying to destroy God’s people. No sinful nature to drag us down.

What about the devil? Will the ancient serpent be able to enter the heavenly garden and ruin it, as he once entered Eden and ruined everything in that first paradise? And dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. Neither Satan nor his offspring will be able to tempt or harm God’s children anymore. Satan and his offspring will forever remain under the curse, and we, God’s children, will live in security without anyone or anything to ruin it, ever.

It’s hard to imagine an existence like that, isn’t it?, surrounded as we are by the effects of sin and death. Is it any wonder that God tells us over and over again in Scripture to get our focus off of this earth, to be more concerned with heavenly things than earthly things? Is it any wonder that He pleads with us to hold to the teachings of Scripture as if our entire blessed future depended on it? Because it does! Satan even now wants to rip all of this out of our hands, but as St. Paul says, the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. So hold on a little longer. Hold onto Christ Jesus and His Gospel and don’t cling too tightly to this world. Because there are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. Believe that truth. And use it to help you bear up under all the difficult things here. Because the end of those things is in sight! Amen.

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