Isaiah 40–66 (Part 2)

Richard Belcher offers an overview of the later chapters of Isaiah. He emphasizes themes of comfort, redemption, and the prophetic vision of God’s kingdom. Belcher explores how these chapters serve as a source of prophetic comfort and hope for God’s people.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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41:8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend, you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, Israel is the servant of God, chosen by God to carry out his will.”

⁸ But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; ⁹ you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; (Isaiah 41:8-9, ESV)

The first servant song comes in chapter 42. So when we read, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I’ve put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations,” it could be referring to Israel, Israel as God’s servant.

¹ Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1, ESV)

It’s possible that this first servant song would be referring to Israel. However, as you read through chapter 42, as you get to verse 18, you have a description of Israel: “Hear you deaf, and look you blind, that you may see.

¹⁸ Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! ¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the Lord ? (Isaiah 42:18-19, ESV)

It’s evident that Israel, as God’s servant, is blind and deaf, and has failed. The servant talked about at the beginning of chapter 42, verses one through four will not fail.

¹ Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. ² He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; ³ a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. ⁴ He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. (Isaiah 42:1-4, ESV)

This servant will succeed. But it’s clear that Israel, as God’s servant, is blind and deaf, and has failed. Israel is God’s servant. Chapter 43:1 needs to be redeemed. And when you come to the end of this section, that is also emphasized in chapter 48, Israel needs redemption. 48 you have never heard, you have never known from of old. Your ear has not been opened.

This problem of Israel being deaf, Israel being blind, Israel not seeing, the problem delineated in chapter six that is given to Isaiah, Israel is blind and deaf. That is prominent in chapters 40 through 48. And so the servant in chapter 42, that first servant’s song. If you identify these servant songs as focusing on the work of the servant, that servant is going to be distinguished from Israel, who is also the servant, but Israel as the servant has failed.

Now this failure of Israel as the servant, and this need for Israel as the servant to be redeemed, and the problem of deafness, blindness, and sin in Israel as a servant leads to a particular emphasis in the next section of Isaiah, chapters 49-55. In 49-55, as we will see, the servant songs begin to stress something about the work of the servant, and that seems to be in light of the character of Israel as the failed servant, the blind servant, the deaf servant, the servant who is sinful.

So, you have at the beginning of chapter 49 the second servant song. Chapter 42 was the first one. Chapter 49 is the second one. And again, verse three identifies the servant with Israel.

³ And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” (Isaiah 49:3, ESV)

So again, you have this conflation at times. Israel is the servant. And you might think at this point that Israel, corporate Israel, is being talked about as the servant. But when you get to verse 5, 49:5, the Lord says, “He who formed me from the womb to be a servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him.”

⁵ And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— (Isaiah 49:5, ESV)

You see, the servant in these verses has a ministry to perform on behalf of Israel, on behalf of Jacob. And so, Israel as a nation cannot be the servant, even here in verse 3, because this servant is going to bring Israel and Jacob back to the Lord.

So it’s because of the failure of Israel that a new servant is needed, a servant who will have a mission to Israel to bring Israel back, to bring Jacob back, a servant who will also, in verse six, have a ministry to the nations. I will make you as a light for the nations. In fact, verse six brings both of these together. Is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob?

That’s the ministry to the nation of Israel, God’s people, the tribes of Jacob, to bring back the preserved of Israel. And then it goes on to say, “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”

⁶ he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6, ESV)

Your ministry will also impact the nations, not just Jacob, Israel, God’s people, but the nations, a light to the Gentiles. The following verses in chapter 49 go on to stress the worldwide success of the servant’s ministry to the nation.

And part of that worldwide success is also bringing back God’s people from their situation of exile, restoration. But there’s an undercurrent in these verses, and the sinfulness of Israel, the unbelief of Israel, leads to an emphasis in the rest of the servant songs, the other two servant songs, on a particular aspect of the work of the servant. And that aspect becomes full blown in Isaiah 52 and 53. So you can see where we’re going with this in chapter 50, in the context of Israel’s unbelief. Let’s see, is it 50?

It’s yeah, 50, verses four through nine. Oh, yeah, verse five. I don’t know why I couldn’t find it. Now this servant, you have a servant now that’s distinguished from Israel because Israel has failed as a servant. Chapter 50, verse five.

⁵ The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. (Isaiah 50:5, ESV)

See, this servant is submissive to the will of the Lord and has an open ear. Israel has a deaf ear. And then you have described in these verses in very individualistic language, very personal language, the suffering of this servant. Verse six.

⁶ I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6, ESV)

So, you have emerging in this servant song an aspect of suffering. And what becomes clear when you get to the final servant song, which is Isaiah 50:13 through chapter 53, is the reason for the suffering. The final servant song, Isaiah 50:13 to 53:12, is a culmination of the work of the servant, and it’s the most detailed description of the work of the servant.

There’s an allusion in verse 13 to the first servant’s song, “Behold my servant.” That’s the way the first servant song begins in chapter 42:1. Behold my servant. That’s the way the last servant song begins, “Behold my servant.” There’s an allusion to that first servant song. This is the culmination of the work of this service on behalf of Israel. 50:13-15 stresses exaltation. Although there is suffering mentioned, 53:1-10 focuses on suffering. And then 50:3-11 through 12 exaltation on the other side of suffering.

So you sort of have exaltation surrounding framing the aspect of the suffering of the servant. And you’re familiar with Isaiah 53 as to why the servant suffers. You know, why is he a man of sorrows? Why is he despised? Well, he bore our grease, carried our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. You know, it’s the issue of substitution. The servant takes the place. This servant takes the place of the sinners among God’s people.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5, ESV)

You have substitution. You have submission, the work of this servant being willing to submit himself to the will of the Lord. And you have innocence, the innocence of this servant who suffers on behalf of the sinners of God’s people. You have an interesting statement in Isaiah 53:10. It was the will of the Lord to crush him; He put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for sin.

¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10, ESV)

That’s the same word used of the guilt offering in the book of Leviticus. And the guilt offering is the offering that stresses full payment has been made, full payment. Usually in the guilt offering, you have to be caught stealing, you have to repay the person you stole from, and give them 20% on top of that. And then you bring your offering to the Lord. You see? Full payment, full restitution. And the use of this term here emphasizes that the servant has made full payment, full payment for sin, full restitution.

¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:11, ESV)

He shall be satisfied, it says in verse eleven, out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. His work is successful and accomplishes what it was meant to accomplish in making full payment and full restitution for the sinners that he suffers in place of. So, very important passage culminating, this is not the only servant song, culminating the work of the servant.

As you begin to read through 49 through 55, you could sort of get the impression that the servant is Israel. Israel is identified as a servant. But as you read through these chapters, there is a separation between Israel as God’s servant and this other servant.

And it’s the work of this other servant that is highlighted in the servant songs and comes to full fruition in chapters 52 through 53. And it’s because of the sinfulness and the deafness and the blindness of Israel that this servant must suffer and take the place of Israel. Now who is the servant? Critical commentaries will identify this servant with the prophet, maybe Deutero, Isaiah, or some prophet who maybe suffers on behalf of God’s people. Well, there are problems with that. The servant seems to be innocent.

And you wonder how a prophet could actually suffer in a substitutionary way. Early Jewish commentators did connect these passages to a Messiah. Later Jewish commentaries see the servant as a personification of the nation of Israel. The problem is, Israel is not innocent, nor does Israel suffer unjustly. Israel, as presented in the Book of Isaiah, is blind and deaf and full of sin. As we’ve seen, there’s an interesting article in this book, the Lord’s anointed. The author of the article is Hugenberger Huger, the Lord’s anointed.

He argues that the servant is presented not as a royal figure, not as a priestly figure, but as a prophetic figure, and he identifies the servant as sort of a second Moses figure. you’ve got the second exodus theme, and you’ve got several things that you could connect to Moses. Moses sort of did suffer in at least some limited way on behalf of Israel as God’s people. And you could argue that and still have a foundation to make in connecting it to New Testament stuff. So that’s another option.

Obviously, we would believe that ultimately the servant is Jesus Christ. There’s certainly enough connections made in the New Testament for those who believe in the scriptures that Christ is the suffering servant who dies on behalf of and in place of his sinful people. Before making that jump, it is interesting to sort of ask, what can we learn from this text itself? Obviously, Christ is the servant. We affirm that we don’t really have to argue that in this context because there are so many New Testament passages of scripture that make that connection.

But if you just look at this passage in its Old Testament context, it’s very interesting. In Isaiah 52:13, the servant is described: my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. High and lifted up.

¹³ Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. (Isaiah 52:13, ESV)

Have you run across those two concepts before in the book of Isaiah, chapter six? Yes, verse one used of the holy one of Israel. It’s interesting that these two terms are used of Yahweh and of the servant. It’s not unusual or it’s not surprising that if you’re living before the time of Christ, you might not make this connection, because it’s almost like brain lock that Yahweh could suffer. It’s just almost incomprehensible from their perspective. He is the holy God of Israel, the high and lifted one. And to think of Yahweh is suffering. It’s just brain lock charlie horse between the ears or whatever you want to say.

But when you’ve got someone standing in front of you who is claiming to be who he is and performing miracles and identifying himself with the Lord, with Yahweh, you see, then you read this text, and you begin to make connections that you might not make before the fullness of revelation is standing in front of you. And so we read this text, and we are not surprised that not only is Jesus Christ the servant, but he identifies himself with Yahweh. He’s equal to God and he suffers.

So once Christ comes, we’re able to put some things together that would have been difficult maybe to put together before the coming of Christ. Motir, I’ve mentioned him some. M o t y e r. He identifies the arm of the Lord in Isaiah 53:1 with Yahweh himself, from an earlier passage in Isaiah 51:9. So he uses that also to sort of emphasize that the servant is Yahweh. Isaiah 51:9-10, Isaiah 53:1, and Isaiah 51:9-10. Who is the arm of the Lord, but Yahweh himself following the work of the servant.

¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Isaiah 53:1, ESV)

In Isaiah 53, you have chapters 54 and 55, which is the response to the work of the servant. The results from the work of the servant. And there are great reversals described in these chapters. The focus is on comforting God’s people, but more than that, on the restoration of God’s people. And you have Zion being presented as a family who extends or enlarges the tents because there’s such an influx of offspring. You got to build new tents, you got to expand your tents. Reversal, chapter 54. The barren one now sings because of so many children.

The results of the work of the servant. The design is also described as a restored city. Verses eleven through twelve and 50. Yeah, verses eleven through twelve, a restored city from instability to stability. So the result of the work of the servant. Chapter 55 focuses on the universal going out, the universal call of the good news as a result of the work of the servant.

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. You don’t need money. Come and buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk. Why spend your money on what is not bread? The servant has provided this great feast. Those who are hungry can now be fed.

¹ “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. (Isaiah 55:1-2, ESV)

Those who are thirsty can now have that thirst quenched. And this call leads to several interesting and important statements. In chapter 55, God will pardon the wicked because of the work of the servant. His ways are not our ways. God will accomplish his work through his word. Chapter 55:10-11. His word will not return to him void. you’re familiar with that passage. And this section ends in verses 12-13 with the total transformation of creation.

See all of this as a result of the work of the servant. So in chapters 49 through 55, you really have an emphasis on the work of the servant on behalf of sinful Israel. And the way the work of the servant is described is related to the fact that Israel is sinful and has failed in her work as a servant. You need another servant. And this is the kind of servant that is presented. And then 54 and 55 is the result of the work of the servant. Questions or comments?

That brings us then to chapters 56 to 66, and chapters 56 to 66 sort of envision God’s people back in the land after exile. The emphasis in these chapters is not on the Servant, capital S, but the emphasis in these chapters is on servants, small s, plural. And you see a progression going all the way back to Isaiah 53:10. We mentioned this passage before: He shall see His offspring, His seed; so He shall see His offspring, He shall see His seed.

Isaiah 54 talks about the rejoicing of that barren woman who now has children. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.

¹⁷ no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord .” (Isaiah 54:17, ESV)

And it’s the servants that now become prominent in chapters 56 through 66. The results of the work of the servant is that many servants are raised up, and it’s these servants that come to the fore, God’s people, in chapters 56 through 66.

And we are going to see described in these chapters, two communities, two groups, if you will. Two communities. There is going to be described, sort of, you want to call it the ideal universal community. And there is going to be described sinful, rebellious community. Now the section begins with a description of, you want to call it that, the ideal universal community. Chapter 55 has summoned everybody to a free banquet. Chapter 56 describes the gathering together of all people. Outcasts, gentiles, all come and are a part of this community.

And you have those verses in chapter 56, verses seven and eight:

⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” ⁸ The Lord God , who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” (Isaiah 56:7-8, ESV)

And so, you have even in verse six, foreigners who joined themselves to the Lord. Verse four, eunuchs. You see, those who are outcasts, gentiles, eunuchs, foreigners, all are now a part of God’s people. The universal ideal community. Some identify this community as the faithful remnant that is a result of the work of the servant.

There’s an emphasis on keeping justice, doing righteousness, not defiling the Sabbath. This is the community that is faithful to God and is willing to be obedient to the law of God and to carry out the law of God, faith in God, the law of God, justice, righteousness, those kinds of things are what this community is all about. However, there’s another community beginning in chapter 56:9, going all the way to chapter 59:21. This is, from God’s standpoint, a community that fails, a blind community, a community that rejects the ways of God.

In fact, the way Israel is described earlier in the book of Isaiah matches with the way this community is also described. This is the sinful community of God’s people. And so you have both of these communities in chapters 56 through 66, the sinful community. I think I have in your notes there some of the description of that sinful community: irresponsible leaders. Verse eleven of chapter 56, shepherds who have no understanding, idolaters. In chapter 57, Isaiah 57:21 mentions the wicked. Chapter 58 talks about fasts, which this community engages in, but they are self-serving.

It reminds you of chapter one of Isaiah, ceremonies that are corrupt, corrupt religious ceremonies that God hates. You see, you have this community being described in ways that are parallel with deaf and blind and rebellious Israel earlier in the book. Both of these communities exist in chapters 56 through 66. But as you make your way to the end of the book of Isaiah, the faithful community comes to have prominence, and the unfaithful community is still there. But at the end, that unfaithful community is not a part of God’s purposes.

So the righteous faithful community emerges and is separated from the wicked, and it’s the righteous community that will experience salvation and redemption. So you have, if you want to put it up here this way, if we look at all of 56 through 66, you in essence have the two communities laid out in 56 through 59. Now, those two communities are going to go beyond those chapters, but that’s what the focus is, 56 through 59. And then you have in 60 to 62, the glorification of Zion.

Chapter 60 and 62 emphasize the glorification of Zion, and in chapter 61, it comes back to talk about another individual who will bring about. Part of the framing of this is that the glorification of Zion in chapters 60 and 62 is related to the one described in chapter 61. But you have, and we have to stop here pretty soon. You have in chapter 60 just a few comments on this. Stop and pick this up and finish up Isaiah next week. The future glory of Zion is described in chapter 60.

And you get in verse three,

³ And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:3, ESV)

You see, that’s the mission of Israel. That’s what Israel was supposed to do, live in obedience in the land that God has given to her, and the nations would come. And here you have that reflected again here in this chapter. And Zion in chapter 60 takes on the features of a heavenly city.

You see, you’re really in Isaiah here, moving beyond just a geographical place, and you’re moving toward a description of something that is beyond mere geography, a heavenly city, even an eschatological portrayal. Of course, Isaiah is going to end up with that eschatological new heavens, new earth, which we’ll talk about next week. That has that, that’s a problem passage, difficult passage in some ways, but we’ll talk about that next week. But in Isaiah 60:19-20, the sun shall be no more your light by day, nor brightness shall the moon give you light.

The Lord shall be your everlasting light. And so, you get this sense here of there’s more going on here than just the geographical city of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. ²⁰ Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended. (Isaiah 60:19-20, ESV)

And you have sandwiched in between 60 and 62, which we’ll not talk about today, but we’ll pick this up next week. You have this seemingly individual described in chapter 61. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach, to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.

¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; (Isaiah 61:1, ESV)

Well, you know where that is used in the New Testament? Luke 4. Jesus reads that. But how does this relate Isaiah 61 to the other things we’ve seen in Isaiah, the servant songs, and some of the other things that we saw earlier in the book in chapters seven through twelve? What’s the connection between this passage and some of those other passages? Well, we’ll take a little bit of time and talk about that, and then we’ll be in a position to basically focus our comments on Isaiah 60:17 through chapter 66. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. So that’s where we’ll go.

¹⁷ “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. (Isaiah 65:17, ESV)

And we’ll be finished with Isaiah. We want to finish up Isaiah. So we’re about Isaiah 61. So wherever that is in your notes, find that. And let me give just a little review. We’ve been going through Isaiah 40 through 66. We talked about the unity of Isaiah. We talked about 40 through 48, which deals with the fall of Babylon and God bringing his people back from exile. God is able to do that. He’s able to raise up Cyrus.

He’s not like the idols. He declares the end from the beginning, and so Babylon will fall and God will bring his people back.

¹⁰ declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ (Isaiah 46:10, ESV)

In chapters 49 through 55, we have the emergence of the servant, the servant songs. Because Israel has failed as God’s servant, another servant must be raised up by God. And because of the sinful rebellion of Israel, this servant will experience suffering. And that culminates in Isaiah 53, where the servant suffers vicariously on behalf of us. Then we began chapters 56 through 66 before we had to stop last time.

And in 56 through 66, it’s the concept of the servants, small s, plural servants. That’s the key point in 56 through 66. And what we saw in these chapters, 56 through 59, we have sort of the two communities presented to us, one community being what we’ve some call the ideal universal community, the remnant, which is the remnant plus. It’s the remnant plus the effect of the work of the servant on the world. The nations are included and the outcasts are included in this. That’s why they call it the ideal community. But there’s another community.

There’s a sinful, rebellious community, a community that reflects a lot of what Isaiah has said earlier in his book related to God’s people in the 700s. So there are these two communities existing together. When we come to chapters 60 to 62, we have a focus on the glorification of Zion, which is dealt with in 60 and 62. The glorification of the city of Zion, the glorification of God’s people, where Zion takes on heavenly eschatological type characteristics in 60 and in 62.

In fact, at the end of chapter 60, you have statements that are picked up and remind you of the end, the new heavens and the new earth, verses 19 through 22. So both 60 and 62 focus on the city of Zion, and then the middle chapter focuses on this anointed one. And you can, you’re familiar with chapter 61. We’ve looked at it in another setting.

¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; (Isaiah 61:1, ESV)

This is the passage that Jesus reads in Luke 4, the work of the anointed one to bring God’s blessing, God’s favor, God’s justice, God’s deliverance to his people. Now, who this individual is, is debated. Some identify the one speaking in chapter 61 as the prophet, the prophet who is responsible for what they call third Isaiah. So some would identify this one with the prophet and maybe identify this as the call of third Isaiah.

Others take a more collective understanding of this individual, maybe relating it to the remnant or Israel. Remember, some think that the servant in chapters 49 through 55 is the nation of Israel. But if you compare other passages of scripture in Isaiah, there are connections between the servant songs, especially 42 and 49, Isaiah 11, if you remember that passage, and then Isaiah 61. So if you compare those three passages, especially 42:49 of the servant songs, Isaiah 11, and in Isaiah 61, you throw in 62 there as well.

Perhaps there is overlap related to the one we talked about in chapters seven through twelve, the king, the royal son, the one we’ve talked about in 49 through 55, the servant who suffers, and then Isaiah 61. There are connections. The spirit, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. All three of those sections talk about this one having the Spirit. The emphasis on justice, deliverance is the same in those three passages. The restoration of Israel is also a common theme.

So if you compare these major texts in Isaiah and you see these overlaps, this one, this anointed one in chapter 61, can be identified with the servant of chapters 49 through 55 and with the royal one of chapters seven through twelve. So, I think those connecting concepts are important to see how these texts and how these individuals scribe do relate to each other. It’s hard sometimes in the Old Testament setting to put together the royal aspects of victory, which is chapters seven through twelve, with the suffering aspects of the servant in chapters 49 through 55.

Of course, we see how they come together in Jesus from an Old Testament perspective. You have these threads that you’re not quite sure how they’re going to come together, how do they relate to each other. But then when Jesus comes, you see how they all do focus in him and are fulfilled in him. So, he allows us the coming of Christ. And seeing his work, his first coming, second coming, allows us to then read the Old Testament and understand how these things do all converge eventually.

But if you’re living in the Old Testament, you may not always see those connections because the fullness of the revelation has not yet come. So these things remain out there as sort of threads, and sometimes it’s difficult to bring them together. But when the fullness of revelation comes, then for those who have faith in the eyes to see, the Old Testament begins to make a whole lot more sense. So these things do converge in Christ.

Okay, then we come to the end of the book of Isaiah, which would be chapters 63 to 66. And you can divide this section into two parts, basically 63:16-65, and then 65:17 to chapter 66. And what’s the last verse there? 24. Now, what you have in this last section of Isaiah, you still have the two communities. The wicked community is still there. In fact, the wicked community is there to the very end. If you look at the very last verse of the book of Isaiah 66:24,

²⁴ “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” (Isaiah 66:24, ESV)

Very similar to the book of Revelation, you have the new heavens, new earth, but you also have in the book of Revelation those who are not in the new heavens and the new earth. So you have both communities together all the way to the end. But now you have the emergence of the righteous remnant or the ideal universal community that comes to the forefront.

The wicked community finds itself in a place where you don’t want to be. The righteous remnant, the ideal universal community, are brought into the new heavens and the new earth. So there’s divine judgment on the wicked. They are judged before the final redemption of God’s people. They’re still there. But the focus shifts then to what God has in store for his people at the end. Now the questions related and the problems related to the end of the book of Isaiah deal with how the new heavens and new earth are described.

So let’s look at this passage that begins in 65:17, and why don’t we just read it to get it in front of us? BJ, could I ask you to read 65:17 to 25? Yeah, that will sort of get in front of us and we can talk on it.

¹⁷ “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. ¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. ¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. ²⁰ No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. ²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²² They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. ²³ They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord , and their descendants with them. ²⁴ Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. ²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord . (Isaiah 65:17-25, ESV)

Thank you. Just a couple of points about the problem of this passage.

You do have some themes that converge here in this description of the new heavens and the new earth. You have allusions to the passage again in Isaiah 11:25. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The dust shall be the serpent’s food. Picture also in Isaiah, chapter eleven.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord . (Isaiah 65:25, ESV)

So you have this again in this description of what’s called here, the new heavens and the new earth. You also have perhaps an allusion not only to Isaiah 11, but Isaiah 11 alludes maybe more than allusion here to Genesis 3:15, with the dust shall be the serpent’s food. And in Isaiah 11, I think you have a child playing over the hole of a snake, which gives you the picture of a child having dominion over the serpent. So you have those concepts of victory coming together. And then in chapter 66, you also have the restoration of Jerusalem, with the nations coming to Jerusalem to worship.

That fits the Old Testament ideal we talked about in Isaiah 2. Where the nations come to Jerusalem, they come to Israel to find out about the law of the Lord. And as we’ve already mentioned, there are those who remain outside of God’s salvation. Isaiah 66:24 parallels Revelation 21:24-27 and Revelation 20:15. The problem with this passage is how the new heavens and the new earth, and it’s identified in verse 17,

¹⁷ “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. (Isaiah 65:17, ESV)

The problem is how these new heavens and new earth are described no more. This is verse 20.

²⁰ No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. ²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. (Isaiah 65:20-21, ESV)

How can this be a description of the new heavens and new earth? Is there death in the new heavens and the new earth which seems to be alluded to in verse 20? Are there sinners in the new heavens and the new earth? The sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

The young man shall die a hundred years old. The sinner 100 years old shall be accursed. Those are some of the questions. How can this be a description of new heavens and new earth when it seems to refer to death and sinners? So how is this question approached?

Let me just briefly mention what some of the various views do with this section: the premillennialists. And there might be differences of opinion among the various stripes of premillennialists, but the premillennialists usually see a telescope. Telescoping or telescoping. Maybe telescoping is the right way to say that of the millennium with the new heavens and new earth, sort of like what we might do with prophetic perspective. It’s called the new heavens and new earth, and that’s ultimately what’s described in 65 and 66.

But this section of verses 20 through 24 would really be a description of the millennium with people living long lives. Yeah, there’s still death there, but righteousness prevails, which would be one way to describe the millennium, perhaps even verse 25, might even describe the millennium with peace reigning even in the natural world, because Christ is reigning on the earth. So, from a premill perspective, there’s this telescoping where you’ve got the new heavens and new earth introduced, and then the description really is of the millennium.

But then, ultimately, Isaiah does come to describe the new heavens and the new earth. I think if you’re pre mill, that’s the best way to handle it. But if you’re pressing a literal hermeneutic, that might get you into some trouble because it says new heavens, new earth, it doesn’t say millennium. And some on the premill side, especially on the dispensational end of things, press the literal hermeneutic. If it says Israel, it means Israel. So they’re in a little bit more of a bind, perhaps, than.

Than the historic premills and the others who are willing to not be governed by that quote. Strictly literal interpretation. The post millennialists, and this may not be in your notes, but the post millennialists take verses 20 through 25 as being a description of what happens on this earth before Jesus comes that golden age. Remember, post millennialists believe the gospel goes forth, transforms society, transforms people’s lives. First of all, that transforms their families, their societies. And post millennialists talk about this in terms of the new creation. We are new creatures in Christ.

When we are new creatures in Christ, it changes everything. And this is a description of the impact of righteousness and that new creation that comes through the preaching of the gospel. So they want to say, hey, there’s no problem with this passage. It’s just a description of what happens when the gospel becomes worldwide. There is a little bit of a problem with verse 25. And, you know, that sometimes is handled by making it metaphorical.

It’s not really talking about a wolf and a lamb lying down together, but this is a description, some will argue, of nations existing together peacefully. So there are some who take that particular approach. So that would be the post millennial understanding.

The amillennial view of this passage argues that Isaiah is describing the new heavens and new earth in light of what the current community is struggling with. And the other factor Isaiah is describing the new heavens and the new earth in light of the covenant blessings. The blessings of the Mosaic covenant.

What would it be like if the blessings of the mosaic covenant were universal? Now, as I describe this, you might be thinking that that seems to be kind of a stretch or a reach. Well, there are other passages in the Old Testament that we will get to, because they are in the prophets, where this exact same thing is going on. And it’s even clearer to see in those passages that the end times are being described in light of a universalization of the blessings of the mosaic covenant, the end of Zechariah.

We will see that in a way that’s quite striking. And I do think that that is also what is going on here. Early death, a problem with that community partaking, building a house and living in it, planting a vineyard and eating the fruit. That was always a problem within the nation of Israel. They weren’t secure because of the armies that would come through and the events that take place in that land. And part of the blessing of the Mosaic covenant. In fact, verses 20, 21, and 22 can be rooted and found right in the Mosaic covenant.

Part of the blessings of the mosaic covenant is you will build houses and live in them. You will plant vineyards and enjoy the fruit of that. No one else will come through and take that away from you, which has been a problem throughout the history of the Old Testament. You will enjoy security, you will not labor in vain. Fruitfulness, all that is rooted in the mosaic covenant.

And so one way to approach this passage and is to see Isaiah describing the new heavens and new earth in light of the problems that the community is facing, and describing the new heavens and new earth in light of the blessings of the mosaic covenant, what it would be like for those blessings to be poured out worldwide. And there’s a recognition here that there’s a little more than that going on because we’re at the end. And so you have the wolf and the lamb lying down together, literally.

That’s not going to take place until you have the removal of the problem of sin that’s in creation. But that is the way this is described in several conservative commentators. Oswald, in his Isaiah in the NICOT series, says concrete examples are drawn from this life, used to illustrate why there’s no mourning, mourning. M O U R N I N G in the kingdom of God. Motir is a commentary in Isaiah takes the same approach. It will be a life totally provided for, totally happy, totally secure, totally at peace.

So this is one way to understand what is going on here. And then obviously, the book of Revelation does refer to this passage in its description of the new heavens and the new earth. Revelation 21:1-4 is dependent on portions of Isaiah 60:17-19, especially. So those are the, this is kind of a problematic passage, no matter what millennial view that you take. And those are the various ways that this is explained.

And I would, I opt for the latter because I think it’s even clearer that this is what’s going on in other prophetic passages. And we’ll talk about that when we get to Isaiah. Even the psalm we sang this morning, Psalm 91, is, what would it be like if the blessings of the mosaic covenant were fully poured out on God’s people? And so you do have that throughout the Old Testament. That’s the covenant that they are living under. And the great future is described many times in light of the blessings of that covenant.

So, any comments or questions? Yes, sir. So, given that interpretation, you would press the language much? You would say it’s more metaphorical? Well, I don’t necessarily like the term metaphorical. I don’t like the term spiritual all the time. In reference to the Old Testament promises, there is a spiritual aspect within the new covenant. But I would say, as Isaiah describes the future, he’s describing it in terms of the blessings of the Mosaic covenant.

So when he says, and there’s some sense where when he says, the young man shall die 100 years old, well, what’s the point there? Is the point there that there’s going to be death, or is it the point there that the blessing of life is going to be experienced? And I would say the point is that the blessing of life is going to be experienced. So that’s not totally metaphorical because there’s a reality that’s being expressed in that verse. And so it’s recognizing how this is connected to the Mosaic covenant.

And obviously, when you come to the New Testament, there’s going to be development and further expansion. Even Isaiah himself in chapter 24 says there’s no death when you get to the end. So metaphor, I don’t like necessarily saying that this is a metaphor. It’s just the emphasis on life. And the emphasis on life within the Mosaic Covenant is long life. So I think you had a question. You said one of the problems is the language of the wolf and the lamb lying together and that being representative of nations existing.

Some say that these animals represent nations, so that’s a problem because we see nations fighting now. Is that the issue? Yeah. Okay. And this is describing a day when there will be peace among the nations. Others take this as a reference to what was there at the beginning of creation in nature in creation, that there was peace at the beginning and then sin brought the. So those are two different ways of understanding Isaiah 11, and then this passage as well. Yes, sir. All right.

Is it appropriate at all to see any prefall view here, not just his context, but maybe harkening back as well? Yeah, I think Isaiah 11. My view of Isaiah 11 is describing the messianic age. What happens when this king comes? Of course, that’s from the Old Testament perspective, that sees everything together as a return to prefall creation. That’s the way I understand it. That gets some people into trouble because of the way they understand Genesis. And so because of the way they understand Genesis 1.

And they don’t want to see a description of pre-fall creation, then some. And that’s not the only reason. Interpret these animals as nations. And it’s talking really about peace among nations. It’s not going back to pre-fall Genesis. It’s talking about a peace that will arise among the nations. Anything else? All right, well, so much for Isaiah. Let you wrestle with that passage. We need to move on.

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