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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“See, I will create new heavens and
a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to
mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create
Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and
take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in
it no more.”
“Never again will there be in it an
infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails
to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and
dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will
they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the
days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long
enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear
children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they
and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are
still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the
lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will
neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 65:17-25
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
At the start of this devotional series, The Lord Speaks, we
found a promise of judgment as the Lord addressed the unfaithfulness of His
people at the start of Isaiah 65.
Today, as we close the chapter in part 11 of the series, we
find the winds of change are blowing in the Lord’s words as He offers good news
to His people, good news that would not just be for the present day but
eternity. Look again at the closing verses of the next to the last chapter of
Isaiah:
“See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will
not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in
what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people
a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound
of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.”
“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or
an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will
be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered
accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards
and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or
plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my
people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not
labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will
be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before
they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf
and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and
dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My
holy mountain,” says the Lord. Isaiah 65:17-25
What do we glean from this contrast in the Lord’s view
toward His people?
It’s simple. For although we do serve a God of judgment, we
also serve a God of amazing grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love, a God who was
not willing to see His people perish but rather desired that they live with Him
forever.
There was only one problem. God’s people were all sinners
and before they could be with Him forever, they needed cleansed from their
sins, washed spotless and blameless before that union could happen. If the
people suffered the punishment for the sins they committed, none could survive.
And so God provided a substitute, one person who would pay the price for all
the sins of the world, bearing those sins to His death. That person was God’s
only Son, Jesus, who was crucified along with all man’s transgressions on
Calvary’s cross, and then resurrected in power after three days and then ascend
to sit at God’s right hand with appointed authority over all creation. After
this, anyone who would place their belief and trust and hope in Jesus as Savior
would be saved from their sins, justified and washed clean through Jesus’ shed
blood. And it would be these people, purified and washed clean from sin, who
God would choose to live with forever.
That’s the who and as we see in today’s scripture passage,
we find out where they will live.
For God, on the day that Jesus returns to judge all
mankind, will hit the reset button on all creation. The heaven and earth as we
know it, corrupted and evil as it is, will cease to be and God will create a
new heaven and earth, going back to the way things were before Adam and Eve
facilitated the great falling into sin in Eden’s garden.
What will it be like for the Christians who will inhabit
the new heaven and earth?
Think paradise because that’s the way it will be compared
to our experiences in this world. There will be no more pain, no more
suffering, no more affliction, no more weeping or crying, no more hardship or
difficulty, no more death, and no more sin. None of the former things
Christians had done will be remembered because they will be sinless. They will
be glad and rejoice in the new creation they will inhabit as God delights in
them as He does His Son who will abide with them as well. In sum, those who
placed their faith in Jesus as Savior will reap the bountiful blessings of
their choice to take up their crosses and surrender their lives to follow Him. His
returning will be the best day ever.
Not that there won’t be judgment as well on the day of
Jesus’ return because there will be. Those who rejected Jesus in their life and
God’s offer of salvation through Him are all going to perish that day, cast
into the same lake of fire as Satan will be. For them, it will be the worst day
ever.
In Isaiah 65, we see the full extent of God’s power, a
power to destroy and a power to create, a power to end things and a power to
make all things new.
In today’s devotion, He speaks to us and simply says:
“Place your trust in My Son Jesus, follow and live in His
ways, and rest easy knowing that the best is yet to come when I make a new
earth and heaven before inviting you into it to live with me forever.”
Have you secured your future in Jesus and the everlasting
life God has offered us through Him?
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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