New Heaven and New Earth are coming

Introduction

For the past few weeks we have been looking back at Old Testament prophecies and learning from them. Last week we looked at how what God was bringing forward was greater than the previous Temple. Today we look at something else promised by God: a new heaven and earth.

Isaiah Conditions

At the time Isaiah writing this prophecy, both Israel and Judah have been exiled. They have lived quite a while through the judgment and punishment for their sins and for breaking the covenant with God. Justice had been and was being carried out as promised in the covenant. The period of time Isaiah is writing about is a shift from being ruled by the cruel Babylonians to something new God was bringing forth. If we recall, Assyria and nation known for their cruelty was the nation that overthrew Israel and only Judah remained. While Assyria was used for carrying out judgement against Israel, the Babylonians were used to carry out judgment against Judah was also proceeded down the path of breaking covenant with God. There was no stopping this nation and they had cruelly enforced their rule and way over both the land and the people that used to be the people of the promised land.

The picture of what was at the time was pretty bleak. People looked back to the old days and mourned and lamented for what was. Yet God still promised mercy and grace that while the old is gone, there will be a better new in the future.

Current Conditions

If we look at our current conditions, we might be tempted to draw parallels that the state of our church is in decline. We too mourn for the good ole days when things were great and when the church was the center of the community and family.

In some ways we can say the church is somewhat facing its own season of turmoil in trying to sort out what is God and what is human will. In some ways, we mourn and lament what we have lost because things are not what they used to be and we cry out to God, when O God will we experience restoration? We too need God to usher in a better future for the church.

New of Isaiah

What happened during this period that Isaiah is writing about is the time when the Persian empire overthrew the Babylonians. The empire that was hostile and cruel towards Israel was conquered and the Persians made possible a return to Jerusalem. Cyrus, prophesied by Isaiah was the Persian ruler God would use to turn suffering of God’s people into a new hope and new life.

No longer were they subject to the rulers who destroyed their lives and homes but now they were blessed by the Persians to return and rebuild a new home and a new Temple. While we read is Ezra and Nehemiah about this, it was all orchestrated and done by God’s hand. In this passage in Isaiah, God is the one intervening and acting. It is no longer others being used but God himself that is creating the new future. This new future was no longer about the punishment and being subjected to other’s cruelty but that they would be in a new future where the tables were turned and they could once again be a people in the promised land.

It was not to rebuild the old life but to enter into a new future God was creating for them.

New Church Today

Today was find hope in the same way God brought a new future for the Israelites by intervening. Today we find hope that despite all the suffering and sin we see corrupting the world around us, including the church, we still can find hope in God creating a new future for us.

Picture with me what that might look like. What would it look like where God stepped in and restored the church? What might the pilgrimage look like where we leave the old behind and enter into that new future? While the Israelites were exiled, God brought them back from exile and into a new future where they no longer were forced to other’s wills but instead found God personally stepping in to create a new future of hope. We too look forward and pray for a new future of hope.

While it may look like the end of this earth and that judgment is upon us, don’t focus on that part. There are so many factors beyond our abilities to see and comprehend that as Jesus said, nobody knows that appointed time but God. What I am driving at is focus less on the predicting and more on the new future with God.

One day the idealistic heaven and earth described by Isaiah here will be put in place. The old sin and corruption will be permanently removed and the new creation will be fully perfected by God. I look forward to that new day when we all will be in the new heaven and earth and experiencing the pure joy of God’s perfection in our being.