Reign: New Heavens and New Earth
God Creates
Isaiah 66:16-25
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Nov. 13th, 2022
In the year 587 BC King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and drove the elites of the city into exile. For most peoples an event like this would have marked the end of their history. They would have been assimilated and forgotten their own history. Their language would have become the language of Babylon. Their customs become the customs of Babylon. Instead the Jews remained faithful to the God of their ancestors, kept their customs, and in 538 BC were restored to the land of their ancestors and given permission to rebuild their Temple.
The experience of exile changed the way the Jews saw their God. They realized the God of Israel was a deity among deities, one of the many local gods the tribes of humanity might take on as their own. But rather, the one universal God who exposes all other so called gods to be false and liars. The prophets had insisted that God is sovereign, that God is jealous, that the people of the covenant were called to remain faithful to the one true God and not take on foreign gods. But as the books of Kings recount, the leaders of Israel and Judah were given to worship foreign idols, and to promote their worship among the people of Israel. In the experience of exile the Jews discovered that God did not abandon them when they were removed from the land. Instead, God fought for them, and restored them to the land of his promise.
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her hat her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Isaiah wrote. “A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” With these words the people were restored to the land, and in time rebuilt the Temple and restored the sacrifices.
But the restoration of Israel did not happen the way many had expected. Jerusalem was still rendering tribute to foreign powers on which she was dependent. Many in the land still did not keep the Law. And the visible glory of the Lord had not returned to the Temple. It was a restoration, yes, but a restoration that left much to be desired. Those who listened to the prophets had expected so much more.
God speaks this morning to remind his people that he has not settled. The promises of God exceed the settlement of Jerusalem with the Persians. The promises of God exceed the liberty and blessings many experience here in America. The promises of God exceed any temporal political arrangement. The promises of God exceed those moments of our life when we have known the greatest bliss. The promises of God concern a peace, a joy, an eternity beyond our imagining. What God promises for us can only be described as new. A new heaven. A new earth.
“For I am about to create,” God says, “new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” The promises will be fulfilled, God says, when “no more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.” In the new earth God makes, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.”
We still await this promise. After the restoration of Israel, we await this promise. After the resurrection of Jesus, we await this promise. Through every tribulation, season of doubt, grief, and suffering, we await this promise. The total recreation of the world. The restoration of the heavens and the earth. Not into something unlike it is today, but perfecting the world we now know so that there will be no more death, no more pain, no more grief.
God can do this because of the glorious mystery the Jews discovered in their Babylonian Captivity. God is not bound to fate. He is not like the gods of the Greeks who overthrew the titans and established civilization. He is not like the gods of the ancient near east who formed the earth through combat and violence. But he stands above all creation, having spoken the heavens and the earth into being from nothing. There is no power on this earth that remotely competes with the power of God. There is no force on this earth that is as strong as God. God cannot be frustrated. God will not be dethroned.
But God will fulfill the promise we have heard this morning. After the wars and rumors of wars. After the false messiahs and the false promises. After the wannabe caesars parade their lies and boasts. After the charlatans tell us what our itching ears want to hear. After all this goes down, God will remain. We will be raised. God will recreate. And the former things will pass away. Our tears will be dried. And we will know the joy for which we were created. “I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.”