Straight Talk
Opening Prayer
Lord, ever shield us from adopting a holier-than-thou mentality.
Read ISAIAH 65:1–7,17–25
“I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
To a nation that did not call on my name,
I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
2 All day long I have held out my hands
to an obstinate people,
who walk in ways not good,
pursuing their own imaginations—
3 a people who continually provoke me
to my very face,
offering sacrifices in gardens
and burning incense on altars of brick;
4 who sit among the graves
and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
and whose pots hold broth of impure meat;
5 who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me,
for I am too sacred for you!’
Such people are smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that keeps burning all day.
6 “See, it stands written before me:
I will not keep silent but will pay back in full;
I will pay it back into their laps—
7 both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,”
says the Lord.
“Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains
and defied me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
the full payment for their former deeds.”
Isaiah 65:17-25 New International Version (NIV)
New Heavens and a New Earth
17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
20 “Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.
21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Come before God with humility: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar” (Psa. 139:1,2).
Do you really want God to answer? What if he says what you deserve to hear? Will any pleading change his mind? Or is prayer just a calming reflection, drawing on what is within you?
Our practice of prayer indicates our theology. It also reflects how secure we feel in God’s love and forgiveness and how certain we are that he is active in our world without treating us as puppets or chess pieces to be manipulated. In answer to Isaiah’s prayer, God reassures the people that he hears them, despite their resistance (2) and wavering faith, and he even repeats his promise of the coming messianic age (17–25).
This vision does not involve the abandonment of the old heavens and earth but the old as reconstructed by its original Designer. Jesus’ disciples were slow to realize this, even after his resurrection (Acts 1:6). The serpent reference (25) reminds us of what was lost in Eden, but the vision is neither a return there, nor an exclusively Jewish nation. Perhaps it is because I was once a city planner that I love how Revelation describes the new heavens and earth as a city, coming down to earth (Rev. 21:1–4). Jerusalem on the holy mountain (19,25), once a glorious citadel but now a ruin, is to be restored figuratively to become a place of shalom for all people—peace, stability, plenty, harmony. Similarly, God does not abandon us but takes the very things we have used to defy him and remakes them into something glorious and worthwhile.
Paul quotes Isaiah 65 to reveal God’s inclusion of believing Gentiles as well as Jews in the messianic kingdom. This new Jerusalem is not an ethnic or a political entity but one formed by a response of faith that declares “Jesus is Lord” (Rom. 10:9,19–21).
Apply
The wolf and the lamb together? A restored city? Ponder what shalom means in your life and community.
Closing prayer
Lord, Your people eagerly anticipate the new earth and new order of things that You have in store.
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