Between Text & Sermon

TREMPER LONGMAN III

Isaiah 65:17-25

Westmont College Santa Barbara

CONFLICT. SADNESS. FRUSTRATION. DEATH. NO one escapes the difficulties of life. One does not have to turn on the news to hear stories of tragedy and struggle. Talk to friends, relatives. Reflect on your own life. Life is not easy, and for many it is tragic.

What is true today was true for the time of Isa 65. Many believe that the prophet of this oracle lived during the relatively hopeful postexilic period. Israel had beenfreedfromBabylonian captivity, but nevertheless was still living under the watchful eye of the Persian government. The glory days of an independent kingdom were long since gone. The context of the passage suggests that people of the day thought that God was deliberately absent (64:12). The divine response to this terrifying prospect is that God is is not only present but also is prepared to be so in ways heretofore hardly imaginable, the result of which would mean punishment for the wicked (65:6-7). On the other hand, there were still some "sweet grapes" left in the cluster of Israel (65:8). God gave these faithful people a vision of the future that stimulates the imagination with hope, a picture of the "new heaven" and the "new earth" (65:17-25). And what a vision it is. In this new creation, there will be no weeping, but only joy. Premature death will be a thing of the past. Babies will not die at birth or children die when they are young. Indeed, those who die "at a hundred years will be considered a youth" (65:20). As a result, people will enjoy the fruit of their labor. They, rather than others, will live in the houses they build and eat the produce of the vineyards that they plant (v. 21). Their labor will be rewarding, notfrustrating(v. 23). Rather than worrying about bringing children into a troubled world, they can rest assured that their children will enjoy life as well (v. 23). The world will be free of conflict. Even the extremely vulnerable (sheep) will coexist peacefully with natural predators (wolves; v. 25). Not even the lion will crave blood, but will live happily by eating straw (v. 25). Most fundamentally, in this new creation, relationship with God will be intimate, intense, and immediate (v. 24). The only creature that will experience distress is the serpent, the symbol of opposition to God's design for the world (Gen 3:13-15), whose food "shall be dust" (65:25). This "new creation" reminds the reader of thefirstcreation, at least before it was soiled by human rebellion with its resulting alienation. Genesis l:l-2:4a describes a cosmos and its creatures that were made "good," even "very good." Genesis 2:4b-25 narrates the creation of human beings, male and female, and describes perfect harmony between them, as well as with the rest of creation (Eden). Most importantly, it describes the divine-human relationship as one of intimatefriendship.Such a wonderful future world is not the result of human effort. It is God's creation as emphasized by the use of the same word "create" as we see in

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Gen 1 (bara), a verb used almost exclusively with God as its subject. God's new creative work, in other words, recreates Eden, or even better. Is such a vision of the future healthy? After all, there is a danger in presenting a picture of a blissful future to troubled people, especially if the blessings are a divine gift rather than the result of human effort. The result might be human passivity as people wait for God to act, a kind of "pie in the sky by and by" mentality. But such a passive reaction to the vision is not the only, and certainly not the desired, response. The vision is not given to pacify suffering people, but rather to engender hope, a kind of hope that inspires action, not one that suppresses it. In the midst of what seems like a hopeless situation, the promise of a better future can grant to troubled people the energy not just to survive, but to live with joy in the midst of suffering. The amazing visions of the second half of Daniel serve the same purpose. The message throughout the visions of Daniel is that "[i]n spite of present circumstances, God is in control" (T. Longman, Daniel, Zondervan, 1999,19). Accordingly, God's people can thrive even in the midst of their oppression. Paul, too, proclaims a message of hope when he speaks of a world "subjected to futility" but one nonetheless that has hope that it will "be setfreefromits bondage to decay and will obtain thefreedomof the glory of the children of God" (Rom 8:18-21). How, though, will God effect this transition from suffering to joy? To find an answer to this question, we turn back to an earlier portion of Isaiah. The final verse of our passage (v. 25) presents a remarkable vision of harmony that echoes 11:6-9: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of knowledge of the Lord as waters cover the sea. The vision is part of a messianic oracle, anticipating a future leader on whom the spirit of the Lord will rest (11:2). It is this person who will usher in the future glorious age. The NT understands this one to be none other than Jesus Christ, whose work on the cross is the foundation of our hope in the midst of a fallen, sinful world. The work that will be brought to fullfruitionin the future has already begun. Paul writes that "if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17; see also Gal 6:15). The new creation is not just a future event; it is also a present reality.

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