Easter
This passage of Isaiah is associated with Easter because of verse 17, and the images that follow. Pay close attention now: I’m creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. MSG
In Jesus’ day, this passage was believed to describe what the Messiah would do. I shall create Jerusalem as a joy, and her people as a delight. JSB In our Messianic zeal, let’s not get carried away. This passage describes the work of God, not Jesus. At some point, human history will cease, and God will create a whole new universe. Humans will be created with bodies like that of Jesus. We will no longer have social, racial, intellectual, economic, or political divisions.
The Other will be an extension of Me. The thoughts and motives of the Other will be the same as Mine. The Other will not fear Me, nor Me the Other.
As it is now when I meet a stranger, I must decide if he is a friend/foe, my equal/better, pleasant/nasty, artist/truck driver. Even as we become acquainted, there are new things to learn. Anyone married for 50 years can tell you they still don’t understand the other person, even as they finish each other’s sentences.
Millions of people experience the gripping fear of being alone; of always being misunderstood; of being an alien in a strange world. Suicides are a common result.
I have recently read about the 1683 attempt of the Ottoman Empire to capture the city of Vienna as the gateway to conquering all of Europe. Western Christians see this simply as a Christian victory over Islam, and worse: the victory of Good over Evil.
The reality was very different. The makeup of the opposing armies was a mixed bag. To keep it simple, Moslems fought with the Christians and Christians fought with the Moslems. The king of France, as well as several small Christian nations, supported the Ottomans and several Moslem nations supported the Christians. It was not a war between the Christian God and the Moslem Allah. It was mostly a political battle dressed up in religious clothing.
Wars are great for evil. The Great Lier works hard to get us to attack each other. He especially loves it when we fight over God.
None of that will happen in the New Jerusalem. We will be new people, and the Great Lier will be gone. No, we cannot blame all our troubles on Satan. You and I are perfectly capable of assuming the worst about others.
In our new forms in the New Jerusalem, we will know and understand each other, so we will have nothing to fight about. Never again shall be heard there the sounds of weeping and wailing. JSB
But look at this. He who dies at a hundred years shall be reckoned a youth, and he who fails to reach a hundred shall be reckoned accursed. JSB According to Isaiah, we will die in the New Jerusalem.
Can that be right?
The simple answer is, Yes. Isaiah said it, it must be true.
But Easter is about defeating death. The Messiah died a normal death. He entered the realm of Hell where he did battle with the fallen Angel of Death. Having defeated Death, the Messiah returned to the earth to report on his success.
In John 14:18-20, we read, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ESV
Matthew 19:28-30. “Believe me,” said Jesus, “when I tell you that in the next world, when the Son of Man shall sit down on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones and become judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. Every man who has left houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or children or land for my sake will receive it all back many times over, and will inherit eternal life.” Phillips
Eternal life is not a developed concept in the Old Testament. New Life, yes. Jesus brings a different tone to the Life-After discussion. Pharisees of Jesus’ day already believed in eternal life, but they had only a vague notion of how that would happen. Only Jesus, as God’s only special and perfect Son, could pull it off. While Pharisees could speak of a new life without sin, they could not imagine how it could happen.
We now know that God must destroy all the sources of evil, much like the Jewish practice of searching out and destroying all the leavening agents in the house at Passover. Without darkness, there will be only light; without hatred, there will only be love; without sin, there will only be perfection.
Read my earlier comments on this theme here.
Be righteous and do good.
Mike Lawrence
Mike Lawrence Books 