Isaiah 65

Intro

Group Intro

- Goal

We are to eagerly hunger for spiritual nutrition in greater degrees - Spiritually mature

Regardless of your background or where you are in your relationship with Jesus, you are called to grow

- What we do

Scripture

Prayer

Community

Review

Book So Far

The mystery of glorification and suffering of the servant

The servant’s life of suffering

The purpose of suffering -

Substitutionary atonement

Resolves the tension of the OT - God is Just and the Justifier

The servant’s death of suffering - No complaint, willing

Mystery revealed

This was God’s plan - Not just an angry old man

Sin was taken, but righteousness is also given

Leads to this restored people

Out of His unique, ultimate suffering, Christ is uniquely, ultimately glorified

Lesson Intro

With a wondrous truth like this, what is left to be said? We have seen the core of the gospel, why Jesus came, how to be made right with God. Is that not enough?

In some ways it is hard to imagine what more needs to be said after ch.55 concludes. Why did Isaiah add anything more? What more could be added to the promises of return to the land and the forgiveness of sin by the pure grace of God? ... Something about the theology of chs. 1-55 is not complete. - Oswalt

Last Lesson

Particularly in the reformed tradition, it is easy to focus exclusively on justification in the chain of salvation. But that is one link.

Questions brought up and addressed in 56-66

How should we now live? In what way and by what power?

Who receives this grace?

Will it extend past the traditional recipients? How will it reach them?

Will this grace mean it is ok to be apathetic?

In historical terms, what was the purpose of the exile and return?

We saw that people who would typically be kept away from the temple worship (Eunuchs & foreigners) be welcomed with extravagant blessing

The great temptation of the return will be to rest in the glories of unconditional election and strong hope. But to do that would be to miss the point of election and to frustrate the hope. Oswalt

There is ultimately a tension in the book that needs to be resolved

7-39 - Live a righteous life because sin brings destruction

Not all, but those who are characterized as keeping the Sabbath

40-55 - You will receive grace that depends on nothing

Wrong answers to this problem

We see how justification, God’s work on the cross, impacts our lives as believers (sanctification)

Can I be elect and then live however I want?

Am I back to square one?

Lesson Intro

Are those who have been delivered from their sins by the grace of God simply doomed to profane God's name again? Oswalt

To bring back the starting question of , How will this sinful, broken Israel be that holy Israel fulfilling God's mission?

Characteristics of a waiting people (Motyer) in 56-66

Positive characteristics -

This is the year of the Lord's favor - the year of Jubilee

Good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, comfort all who mourn - bad situations will be made good

Called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified - we will stand like 300yr old live oaks as a testimony to God

Strangers shall tend your flocks, but you shall be called the priests of the Lord - We will have our needs met and we will focus on God and doing his work, fulfilling our purpose

Negative characteristics -

Thoughts

Your hand are defiled with blood, your lips have spoken lies

Human inability for holiness is contrasted with God’s ability to glorify them

There is a final glory in the future in , 62 , & 65

The mixed life of God’s people now

The Christian life has more tensions, more gray areas, seeming contradictions

This comes from living between the already and not yet

To be more precise, it is not so much gray as it is black and white mixed together

Truth mixed with error

WCF 25.5 The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error: and some have so degenerated, as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth, to worship God according to His will.

Not endorsing or accepting error, but acknowledging its presence

Intro Question

It is not just churches, but denominations, our grasp of theology, our lives and relationships

Comes from two sources

Some is false teachers

Wolves in sheep’s clothing -

Nearly every NT book addresses false teachers

Some is immaturity and the nature of living in between Calvary and Zion

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Do you feel this tension inside you? Do you see this tension in the church? So what are we called to do as wait for heaven in the middle of this tension? What will God do?

We would indeed be blind not to observe that 56:1 reflects precisely where the church stands today: looking back to the once-for-all redemption at Calvary (52:13–53:12) and awaiting a final divine act which will rescue the church from sin, failure and opposition and deal finally with any and every counterforce. Motyer

Read ,

The Climax of History

Isaiah has been working through three streams of thought since out last passage of 56

The worldwide extension of God’s people

Judgment on false worshippers in and out of God’s people

Salvation of the faithful remnant of God’s people

He is building up this concept of an ultimate judgment

There are two groups of people separating out

It used to be those who were Israelite and those who were not

Now it is a different criteria

Where is your loyalty

There are those who rebel, who have false worship, who oppose God

And those who seek God and are His chosen servants

These groups sometimes are outwardly similar

We are used to nominal Christians, or short term imitating christians

But there is not underlying life of repentance or life of service

We get used to this mixing, this confusion, this uncertainty

How do you handle this?

But there is a coming separation where this confusion will end. The identities of people will be made clear

Jesus says that when He comes in glory, then He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. -

There is a different destiny for each

My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry

My servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry our for pain

& 41

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Isaiah (and the OT) is filled with temporary judgment and blessing, but here we see that there is a permanent destiny

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Lord’s people are set alongside others who are either compromisers or outright pagans. But it will not always be so, for the Lord will bring his servants into a new heaven, a new earth and a new Zion, while a dreadful judgment awaits the rest. Undeniable grimness sits alongside unimaginable glories; both alike are the word of the Lord. We have before us as plain a forecast of the implications of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as chapters 1–37 offered of his birth and chapters 40–55 of his cross. - Motyer

And in light of this building climax, God is about to reveal the final conclusion

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Abrahamic connections - This is fulfilling the promises given to Abraham

A new name is given - v. 15

This is fulfilling the promises given to Abraham

Blessing is brought - v. 16

Tied to a land promises - v. 16

This is the ultimate point

Not just of Isaiah but of everything

The Bible, of Eden, Abraham, Israel, It is the point of the church, your life, and all of creation

Motyer, J. A. (1996). The prophecy of Isaiah: an introduction & commentary (p. 522). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

For Behold!! - v. 17-18

What? - New heavens and a new earth

Cross references - all very similar to Isaiah or borrow the imagery

- The skies shall roll up like a scroll

v. 10 - it will come like a theif

The heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved

v. 13 - We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth

Rev

20:11 - On the judgment day The earth and sky fled away

21:1 - There is A new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away

21:2 - There is a Holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, like a bride adorned for her husband

The rest of the book describes this new Jerusalem

It is massive - essentially covers the earth

God will dwell with man

No more tears or death

Mankind bringing their wealth and glory to the city

The curse of is revoked and the garden of Eden fulfilled - Tree of life restored for example

It is a new creation

Just as God made everything, He is remaking everything

New heavens & a new earth

Totality of the universe

Heavens not equal to God’s throne room - what we would call space or the universe

This new creation isnt a spiritual realm

This world is called an earth

This is a New Jerusalem coming down from heaven

We will see more characteristics below

Pattern of total renewal

Behold I am making all things new - Rev 21:5

Old things will be forgotten

Matches God’s forgetting in v. 16

Implies that is not an incapability to remember, but an overshadowing by a greater truth

New things will be rejoiced over

Will see in the next section

So what is this world like?

Isaiah 34 - The skies shall roll up like a scroll

v. 10 - it will come like a theif

I “‘think” that it is not the same creation (not just a renewal or sanctification of this world)

The heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved

v. 13 - We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth

But it is a physical world in some way

Parallels to our bodies

Rev

It is what the garden of Eden should have become

God dwelling with an earth full of His people

God’s people ruling peacefully over creation with work and relationships

What will this look like?

Grand and poetic language is used here, but is also vague and limited

Isaiah will talk through characteristics, but be careful not to press details too hard

Thing we have no real capacity to understand can be expressed only through things we know and experience - Motyer

Isaiah will talk through characteristics, but be careful not to press details too hard

The Curse Unraveled and Blessing Restored

20:11 - On the judgment day The earth and sky fled away

21:1 - There is A new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away

21:2 - There is a Holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, like a bride adorned for her husband

The rest of the book describes this new Jerusalem

It is massive - essentially covers the earth

God will dwell with man

No more tears or death

Mankind bringing their wealth and glory to the city

The curse of is revoked and the garden of Eden fulfilled - Tree of life restored for example

The Curse Unraveled and Blessing Restored

Lord of the Rings

Sam awakes after the final battle and the ring is destroyed

“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?" “A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.”

“Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What's happened to the world?" A great Shadow has departed," said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.”

This is what Isaiah begins to work through, each curse, one by one, will transformed into blessing

The curses

Covenant curses in

v. 30 - You shall build a house by you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.

v. 33 - Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people

V. 39 -

The original curse in

The covenant curses are just a expansion of this original curse

Separation from God and His blessings - Adam and Eve were driven out of the gardeon

Separation in their relationships

Curse on the labor of man -

Work and the rebellion of nature

Cursed is the ground because of you; … thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; … By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

Curse on the labor of woman

Family and relationships

I will multiply your pain in childbearing… Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.

But here we will see the curses one by one unraveled

Covenant intimacy - v. 19

God is going to rejoice in his people

Instead of the disgust and anger that Jersualem has brought him over and over

Covenant relationship - He will be their God, and they will be His people

No sorrow - v. 20

No weeping or distress - Internal turmoil of the curse

Broadly there will be no more cause for pain or sorrow

No tears, no death, no mourning, no pain, for the former things have passed away - Rev 21:4

No death - v. 20

All stages of life currently experience death, and it is always bitter

In the future, death will be no more

Note that this is poetic language

Fruitful work - v. 21-22

Note the breadth of economic stability and properity

Houses - domestic property/finances

Vineyards & their fruit - Work and fruitful labor

No longer futility in work

No more invasion sweeping it away

No more thorns and thistles

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?

Instead enjoy the work of their hands

Family - v. 23

No death of children

Miscarriage/still born

Also carries the image of children who die later

All that work and physical and emotional investment ends up for naught

Instead there will be familial continuity

Not implying there will be more children born in the new earth

Instead it is all the family across generations united in body of Christ

This extends to all human relationships

There is no temporary christian relationships

All the brokenness of relationships and community will be restored

Spiritual blessing - v. 24

Instead of prayers going unheeded

They will be answered before being asked

Creation at rest - v. 25

Already seen creation is no longer rebelling against man’s effort to “tend the garden”

Predator and prey at peace and rest

In hope the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now - Rom 8:21-22

Fundamental reordering - Indeed there will be not hurt or destruction even among the animals

Yet one curse is not lifted - v. 25

One curse not lifted

The serpent’s curse from is not revoked - On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life

God’s redemption is a hostile victory over evil and sin, not weak acceptance of it

Why? - v. 25

Because now all of creation is God’s holy mountain

All of this language is picking up from imagery of Eden brought back

But whereas Eden was a small garden

Which Adam and eve were called to spread across the Earth to fill it with paradise (and obviously failed)

When Revelation picks up, the new Jerusalem is massive- like 1,400 miles wide and long

God has filled the new creation with this paradise

The Concluding Guarantee - 66:22-24

Ch 66 weaves hope and judgment

Hope - judgment - hope - judgment - hope

Endtimes like labor

God returning with vengance

God will bring all nations

Just like Revelation - putting judgment and glorification beside each other

Isaiah finishes weaving the three threads together in this final conclusion

This is the final conclusion

Here we see God’s people coming from all nations (previous few verses)

God’s permanent people dwell with God in worship

And the rebellious are punished

A guarantee that this is how things will turn out - v. 22

A guarantee that this is how things will turn out

Same destiny, Different fates

A promise to His people

A threat to those that are not

The new Heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me

This is the permanent world

That I make shall remain before me

And as permanent as that world will be, so will us, the church community, will be permanent

A promise to His people

A threat to those that are not

This will be a time of celebratory worship - v. 23

They will be a people of new moons and Sabbaths

They will be characterized by worship

This implies an ongoing, not a occasional worship

This is feasting worship, not fasting worship

All of God’s people will come to worship

The destiny of false worshippers - v. 24

This those slain by the Lord - v. 16

God has been bringing judgment, but the restores his people

But at some time it will be final. It will be just as permanent as glorification

This is the hope of those living in this life

Here is the gospel call - Even if you are in the middle of God’s judgment, it is not final until death. He welcomes any and all that repent

Nature of judgment

Passive

Active

This reveals the real nature of sin and its inevitable outcome

So why is this on display?

Why are the saved going out and looking upon it?

This is related to the question of why in the world is Isaiah ending the book with this verse?