More than a few of us have, no doubt, stood singing at church camp, heard the leader say, “This is what we’ll be doing for all eternity,” and thought, “Man, that seems a bit boring.” Then, all of the sudden you’re filled with guilt, thinking that it’s only a lack of spiritual maturity that makes you think singing throughout eternity in one big mystical congregation of people would be boring, and so you begin to play along. And the guy next to you turns and says, “Man, isn’t that great!” To which you respond, “Yeah, can you imagine anything better!?” And throughout the rest of your life you struggle, knowing you’re supposed to get excited about what awaits us but struggling to get excited about eternal singing in your mystical existence.

This leads us then to ask, “Are we really thinking of eternity rightly?” We know we’re saved from God’s eternal wrath in hell, but are we really saved to some mystical experience that involves singing every second? And, if so, how do we rejoice in that? “Especially,” we might ask, “How do we rejoice in it when it’s so far removed from this physical heaven and earth we now know and from the physical labors, etc. that we are involved in every day?” I mean, did God simply fill our time prior to his return with delighting ourselves in a world and number of physical tasks that are simply meaningless and only functioned to hold us over until we get to the real pleasure for which he designed us, namely, singing?

The good news we can know this morning is that neither our text in Isaiah nor other places in Scripture paint our ultimate hope as a mystical existence in which we’re singing all of the time. Rather, Isaiah paints a very physical picture of what awaits God’s people, but it is indeed better than anything we now know.

This final section of Isaiah (65:17-66:24) helps us answer a number of questions about eternity that we may have in our minds. Specifically, however, it answers at least four questions: 1) what awaits God’s people as our final hope (or, as I have asked, “What are we saved to?”), 2) who are those who will be found pleasing to God (and so enter into this great hope), 3) how will God’s people be cared for (i.e. our needs met) throughout eternity, and 4) where will God’s people come from (i.e. what nationalities, etc. will make up God’s people) and what will become of his enemies? These questions are in some ways basic questions, but they are questions we need to know and questions the text this morning helps us answer. Therefore, I want this morning to try to answer these questions from our text, then to show how these realities fit with God’s work of summing up all things in Christ, and finally to look at how we should apply this text to our lives. Thus, let us first turn to answering these questions, beginning with: What are we saved to? or What awaits God’s people as our final hope?

Our ultimate hope is a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth (65:17-25)

Just as history begins with the words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” eternity will begin with the words we see in Isaiah 65:17, namely, “For behold I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.” Isaiah gives us a picture of what awaits us as we are resurrected from the dead, and it is not a picture of us mystically floating around singing, but actually echoes the words of God when he first created the heavens and the earth.

The picture here in Isaiah 65:17-24 is not a picture that’s unrelated to the first heavens and the first earth, that we now know as we look outside these windows. It actually seems to be much like it, only better, for the presence of sin and its effects are removed altogether. It is indeed a cause for rejoicing, as we see the New Jerusalem and the circumstances therein (65:18).

As we walk through the text we see that God will delight wholeheartedly in the city and its people (19a), that there will be no more weeping (19b), that there will be no more death (20)¹ , we will enjoy the fruits of our labor (21-22), our children will not know calamity (23), God will hear us and answer before we call (24), and there will no longer be threat of violence, even in the animal world (25). Again, this is a picture of a heavens and earth much like we see before the Fall, it is a picture of the world we know now only new, only redeemed from sin and its effects.

So what awaits God’s people as our final hope? The answer is a new heavens and a new earth, a new creation. This is not a mystical existence of perpetual singing but a restarting of history, an eternal history will sin will have no effects. It is a kingdom where we will live and dwell and work and delight in what God has redeemed, walking the new earth with Christ as our King, even eating with him. That’s what awaits us, and that is a cause for rejoicing.

But who are those people who will be found pleasing to God and so enter this great hope? That question is answered in our next section.

It is only those who have humbled themselves before God and his Word who will be found pleasing to the Lord and so enter into this blessed hope (66:1-6)

Isaiah turns from this declaration of a new creation to God speaking of his greatness and who is pleasing to him. In some sense, I think Isaiah is driving the reader to ask who could possibly be pleasing to this great God so as to dwell in his presence forever. His answer is found in these six verses.

Again, in verse one the Lord declares his greatness, declaring that heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool, and that he cannot be contained by anything man has made, for everything that is has been made by God’s own hand (66:1-2a). Then, however, he tells the one who gets his attention, proclaiming, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (66:2b). This is the person whom the Lord finds pleasing, the one who is humble, broken at his own condition, and who trembles before the Lord’s Word, realizing its truth and authority.

It seems, however, that this described very few of Isaiah’s original hearers. Thus, in verses 3-4 God points out that their offerings are performed while their souls delight in their own abominations (3b). Thus, though they slaughter an ox, present a grain offering, and make a memorial offering of frankincense, it is like they are killing a man, breaking a dog’s neck, and offering pig’s blood (i.e. things condemned). For ultimately offerings from an unclean heart become unclean offerings. Thus, God declares that he will punish them, for they have done evil in his sight (4). In fact, they have hated those who have truly followed the Lord, and they will be put to shame. The sound of the Lord’s judgment against them will, therefore, go out from the temple (5-6).

I’ve learned by watching my son that one’s mere actions or words do not always demonstrate one’s heart. At times, I’ve heard him say “sorry” in a manner and tone that would have been comparable to him declaring, “I’m glad I rebelled, and it delights my soul to scorn your instruction.” And there are times he even carries out the actions of obedience, stomping his feet along the way so that he might as well have ignored obedience altogether. This is the picture here in this text, and it is a good lesson for us.

God is not simply pleased with those who do all the external things rightly, for one can even carry out external obedience with a rebellious or self-righteous heart. Rather, God is pleased with the one who is broken over his condition, humble before him, and who trembles at his Word. God is pleased with one who has been given a new heart to love him, and delight in him, and serve him in wholehearted obedience. That is one who is pleasing to the Lord. Therefore, my prayer is that we examine ourselves even today to make sure we have been given such a heart.

But, now, we might ask, “If a new creation awaits those who are contrite, humble, and who tremble at God’s Word, then how will those people be cared for throughout eternity?” Does history somehow restart but we are on our own, caring for ourselves, trying to make it ourselves? No. Rather, we see that …

God will personally and intimately care for, supply for, and comfort his people (66:7-14)

In verses 7-9, God compares this city being inhabited with a woman giving birth. He points out that Jerusalem will give birth without pain, the land be filled in a moment, and that God will do what is impossible to make it happen, for he has been the one orchestrating this the whole time.

It seems that these verses point us to the reality that this glorious creation will not be uninhabited, but will be filled with a people that God will bring to himself in an instant. This might be a reference to the return of Christ, when he will speak and a multitude will be raised from their graves to dwell with him in his kingdom forever. But what is for sure is that Jerusalem will have many sons, many inhabitants for eternity.

But, again, how will they be cared for and comforted? The Lord answers in verses 10-14. He calls the people to rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, for Jerusalem will supply their nourishment even as a mother provides for her nursing infant so that he will have an abundance (10-11). But starting in verse 12, we see the real cause of supply and comfort; it is the Lord himself.

Isaiah writes in verses 12-14, “For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the LORD shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.’”

God is making very clear that he will give to us in that new city what we need – even the glory of the nations will flow into it like an overflowing stream. God will care for us and comfort us even as a son is comforted by his mother, and his hand will be known to us. This is not the picture, as Oswalt points out, of God involved in our lives but keeping himself at “arm’s-length.” Rather, we know his hand as he cares for us.

In our culture it seems that for many people God is this cosmic Santa Claus. He would not send anyone to hell because he could not possibly be angry. He is there simply to meet our desires, eager to pour out every creaturely comfort we could imagine. And his response to sin is simply to chuckle and say, “Oh, boys will be boys, won’t they?” But that is not the picture of Scripture, and it is not the picture that we saw even in Isaiah 6, as Isaiah saw God on his throne, with the cherubim declaring he was holy, holy, holy. That vision made Isaiah utterly aware of his own sin and know he was only worthy of death in such a God’s presence.

And I think we’ve done a decent job laboring to change that culture in this church, striving to ensure that we know God is greater than us, above us, and perfectly holy so that he exerts a righteous anger towards sin. However, with that said, without sacrificing his holiness in any way, God is not beyond caring for us and loving us. In fact, he does love us deeply and demonstrated that in sending his Son to die for us while we were still sinners, still his enemies. Indeed, it is only when we consider his holiness that we do see the full weight of his love for us. For the God whose presence Isaiah could not stand to dwell in is pictured in Isaiah 66:7-14 as comforting and providing for his people throughout eternity so that his hand is not foreign to them but known by them. This is a reason to rejoice and look forward to what awaits us in eternity.

But, finally, we might ask, “From where will these people that God will care for come?” or “Who will make up this group?” and “What will become of his enemies?” The answer is that …

God is gathering for himself this people (his people) from every nation that they might be his people while his enemies are awaiting a judgment fitted to their rebellion (66:15-24)

In this final section, Isaiah continues to talk about something that he has spoken of throughout out text this morning to which I have not yet drawn attention, namely, the judgment of God’s enemies. It is indeed clear that God’s enemies will be judged in the end with a judgment fitted to their rebellion.

In verses 15-17 Isaiah declares that the Lord will come in fire “to render his anger in fury,” writing, “For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many” (15-16). Those who have rebelled against the Lord, Isaiah declares, “Shall come to an end together” (17). God’s enemies will be judged, and their number will be many.

However, at the same time, God will glory people from every nation and language, he declares in verses 18-23, who will see his glory, who have not yet heard of his fame or seen his glory, who will become priests in the Lord’s house, and who will worship him forever (which is the meaning, I think, of them worshiping him new moon to new moon and Sabbath to Sabbath). Isaiah declares that there are a people who have not yet even heard of the Lord, yet from them he will gather a people for himself, that they might dwell in this new heaven and new earth, that he might care for them and comfort them, a people whose hearts are humble and contrite before him and who tremble at his Word. And yet, as verse 24 reminds us, such hope does not mean there will be no judgment, for even these will be aware of the judgment of God’s enemies, and the sight of their judgment will be a reminder of the horrid nature of sin, a reminder of what they were saved from, and it will be “an abhorrence to all flesh” (24).

Thus, we’ve had our questions, answered, but as Christians, we must ask, “How does this text relate to Jesus?” Therefore, let us note that all of these answers we’ve given this morning are wrapped up in him. Indeed, every promise that God gives to and through Israel comes to and through Christ, who is himself the true Israel. Therefore, these promises of which we read this morning are no exception.

It is Jesus who has ushered in this new creation, his kingdom, declaring even with his own coming that his kingdom has come. And it is only in bowing before Jesus, confessing him as Lord and believing that God has raised him from the dead that one can be said to be humble and contrite before the Lord, trembling at his Word. Also, it is through Jesus that the blessings and cares of God come to us, for all things have been created for and given to his Son, with whom we have been united by faith. Therefore, we have been made co-heirs with Christ. And, finally, it is Jesus’ work of dying and rising from the dead that makes gathering a people possible, it is Jesus who has commanded us to be the means by which they are gathered as we declare the gospel to the whole world, and it is Jesus who will return to judge the living and the dead.

Therefore, what must be our response to the text this morning?

1) Be humbled before Jesus Christ this morning and confess him as Lord so that you might be among his people and not his enemies when he returns.

2) As Christians, long for that new creation and live your life now in reality of what awaits. That is, keep in mind there is eternity waiting for us as we are tempted to seek the temporary and passing pleasures of sin.

3) Be a part of God’s work of gathering a people from himself from every tongue and nation by being obedient to the great commission in speaking the gospel to others.

4) Finally, let us passionately devote ourselves to seeking Christ’s glory and honor in our lives and in this world, for is not the God whom we see in the text this morning worthy of such?

May we therefore show our right response to his Word as we come to the table this morning. Amen.

¹ Though the text does sound like we will die (only not before a long-lived life), I think it is a poetic way of saying that death will be no more. After all, Scripture ultimately will tell us in 1 Corinthians 15 that death will be swallowed up in victory, something that Isaiah himself had foretold in Isaiah 25:8 saying that the Lord would swallow up death forever.

A NEW CREATION, ITS INHABITANTS, AND ITS LORD