Act on what you know

Isaiah 65:17-25

This is one of those passages in the Bible that a wise person says, it’s all good, but I’m not sure we have been given the full picture of what God is sharing with Isaiah.  In Isaiah 42:8-9, “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.  Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”  If you will go back to 42:1, the new thing is God’s Servant, and as you read these verses God is introducing or announcing the coming of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.  In Isaiah 43:19, once more God is announcing a new exodus from Israel’s captives, but not through water, no through wilderness and this deliverance is a reversal of nature, with rivers in the desert. (Thoughts taken from HCSB page1196)  In Isaiah 48:6, “”You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it?  From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.”  According to Childs, the new things included God’s use of Cyrus to deliver His people.  In Isaiah 65:17, we have God telling Israel of a new thing and it is big, a new heaven and earth and the past will not be remembered.  When it comes to Israel, it would be kind to say they had a bad reputation when it came to being under the authority of God, but God is telling them He is putting that out of His mind and giving them a new heaven and earth.  This is where it gets outside of what I understand at this time.  But that does not change what God has spoken.

Now shall we go to what we understand; you will find it in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  I experienced being made a new creation at the age of 27, but I was a total mess when I came into a relationship with the Creator.  Baptist in mind-set from birth, I believed what my parents and the preachers said about Jesus, about heaven and hell, and to some degree was religious, but had a strong belief that the world had much to offer me and I wanted all I could get.  The longer I chased what the world offered, and it has much to give, the more I worked to fill a hole in my spirit that needed a fix, for I had no lasting peace or joy in my life.  It was many years after my friendship with Jesus that He showed me the reason the world would never have given me real hope, peace, or joy; it is found in 1 John 2:16-17,  “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

And this is what all who become by faith a new creation in Christ have to look forward to:  

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had 

passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 

down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard 

a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He 

will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their 

God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither 

shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed 

away.”  (Revelation 21:1-4 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice