GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 28 ~ ~ Isaiah 65:17-19 ~ ~ “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.
I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;
And there will no longer be heard in her
The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.”
From “We Shall See God”—Charles H. Spurgeon and Randy Alcorn
“Rejoicing in the New Creation”
SPURGEON:
“As we see in so many Old Testament prophecies, God delights in transforming the old into the new. We can eagerly anticipate a new creation, a new Kingdom, a New Jerusalem, a New Earth.
This passage, like the rest of Isaiah’s closing chapters, will have it’s most complete fulfillment in the latter days when Christ shall come; when the whole company of His elect ones shall have been gathered out from the world; when the whole creation shall have been renewed; when new heavens and a new earth shall be the product of the Savior’s power; when, forever and forever, perfected saints of God shall behold His face and rejoice in Him.
I hope and believe that the following verses actually describe the condition of the redeemed during the reign of Christ upon the earth:
“They will build houses and inhabit them;
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They will not build and another inhabit,
They will not plant and another eat;
For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,
And My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
Or give birth to children for disaster;
For they are the descendants of those blessed by the Lord,
And their descendants with them.
It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will listen. The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm on all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.”
Isaiah 65:21-25
But the word which is spoken of above is begun already among us. There is to be a literal new creation, but that new creation has commenced already, and I think, therefore, that even now we ought to manifest a part of the joy. The Lord Himself will rejoice, and we who are in sympathy with Him are exhorted and even commanded to be glad. Let us not be slack in this heavenly duty.
Do you know what this work of creation is, which is here three times promised in the words, “I create, I create, I create”? It is evidently a second creation, which is altogether to eclipse the first and put it out of mind. Shall I tell the story?
The first creation was so fair that, when the Lord looked upon it, with man as its climax and crown, He said, “It is very good” (Genesis 1:31). But it failed in man, who should have been its glory. Man sinned, and in his sin, he was so connected with the whole of the earth that he dragged it down with him. The creation was made subject to vanity, and it groans in pain even until now.
But the infinitely blessed God would not be defeated, and in infinite condescension He determined that He would make a new creation which should rise upon the ruins of the first. He resolved that under a second Adam something more than Paradise should be restored to the universe. He purposed that He would undo, through Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman, all the mischief that had been wrought by the serpent. He has begun to undo this mischief and to work this new creation, and has so begun that He will never withdraw His hand until the work is done.
He has commenced it thus—by putting new hearts into as any as He has called by His Spirit, regenerating them and making them to become new creatures in Christ Jesus. These the apostle Paul tells us, are a kind of firstfruits of this new creation. Our newborn spirits are the first ripe ears of corn out of a wonderful harvest that will come by and by. The saints’ spirits are, first of all, newly created, but their bodily parts remain in the old creation. Hence we suffer pain, for though the spirit is life because of righteousness, “the body is dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10)
By and by our bodies shall be newly created, when, from beds of dust and silent clay they shall rise into immortal beauty. The Resurrection will be to the body what regeneration is to the soul. When body and soul are thus created anew, the whole earth around them, in which they dwell, shall be, at the same time, renewed also. And so God shall make the spirits, the minds, and the bodies of men all new.
Inasmuch as this ought to be the subject of joy, and the text invites us to it, I come to press upon you the sweet duty of present delight. Oh, when happiness is made a rule, when joy is made a command, I cannot but hope that God’s people, to whom I am now speaking, will answer the call!! Has gladness become the rule? Then we will gladly enough obey, and our hearts shall dance for joy.
Tomorrow Randy will tell us about how this affects Israel.
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Hebrews 13:5
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say:
The Lord is my helper: I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Amplified version:
I will never (under any circumstances) dessert you (nor give you up nor leave
you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless), nor will I
forsake or let you down or relax my hold on you (assuredly not)!!!
Deuteronomy 33:27
The eternal God is your refuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
He will thrust out the enemy from before you,
And will say, ‘Destroy!’
Psalm 9:20
Put them in fear, O Lord,
That the
nations may know themselves to be but men.
*Psalm 91:4 He shall cover thee with His feathers and under His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.