“What a bunch of superlatives!”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Friday, February 17, 2023
Isaiah 65:17-25 (Forward, p. 19) CEV p. 760
Today’s passage is a prime illustration of the kind of quandary that often faces Bible students and commentators, namely when arresting, evocative images are to be taken literally, or not. Today’s words from Isaiah are full of such images, incredible ones to be sure. It begins with God’s promise, “I am creating new heavens and a new earth; everything of the past will be forgotten” (verse 17), and its images certainly bear witness to that:
a) Jerusalem will be a place of peace, full of happy people and with no crying or sorrow anymore. Really, is this the same city, the city of faith and fury, that we know all too well?
b) No children will die in infancy and people will live to a ripe old age, yes, even to a hundred years of age or older.
c) People will enjoy the fruits of their labour, whether it be their homes or their vineyards. No more government expropriation and no more losses due to the scourge of war.
d) Wolves and lambs will graze together, lions and oxen will both eat straw, and once venomous snakes will harm no one.
God has spoken and so this will inevitably come to pass. But then, is this merely hyperbole, more superlatives, or is it a literal reality? Nowhere are we given an answer to this, at least within this text, but repeatedly in the Scriptures there comes the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. Jerusalem, at peace, after such a ‘history’ of disaster and disharmony? No illness or early deaths? No tooth and fang within the animal kingdom? We can barely even imagine such a world. In fact, it seems ‘too good to be true’. Anyway, what we can say for sure is that God’s plan and intent is for a world that is radically transformed, radically better and incredibly good, nothing, in fact, like we have ever known or experienced. And so, without really knowing the details of how He might work this out—changing the digestive systems and teeth of carnivores for instance—we can trust Him to work everything out as only He can!
Forward notes: “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth: the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind” (verse 17).
“It’s hard to have hope after a lot of suffering. During Isaiah’s writing, the people of Israel have been exiled and are suffering in Babylon. Many years later, his writings are used to comfort a people who have lost hope. They are no longer exiled or living under someone else’s rule, but they are a broken people. They feel defeated.
“These words from Isaiah remind them that all will be well in the end. God will create a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. That time in Babylon? Gone. That pain? Gone. Those memories that drag us down and make us bitter? Gone.
“In the new world, we will be one people, one body, and one new creation. What a beloved community that will be.”
MOVING FORWARD: “What new thing is God doing in you? Are you open to the possibility?”
