Everything is New

Isaiah 65:17-25 

Have you ever had an experience where you thought you knew what you were getting into because you had done something similar before, yet when you got there, it was a whole lot different than you had ever expected?

I was a picky eater as a kid but I found out that I was missing out on a lot of good stuff by being so picky. But the fact is, we are only used to the things that we are used to, and we tend to see things in terms of what we know. As we talked about the desert last week, it became clear that many of us are way-too-familiar with the desert. It got me thinking about the Israelites who left Egypt – could they really have been so short-sighted that they really forgot how bad the slavery in Egypt, or did they have expectations that their trip out of Egypt would be instantaneous? Did they think that immediately after they walked through the dry Red Sea, that they would be all set? Instead they found a place of testing and purification. 

If we fast forward from the Exodus to the Exile, we can find another time of testing and purification. Isaiah wrote to a people in exile. We can be tempted to think of exile in purely physical terms, but exile in the ancient near east wasn’t simply physical; it was through a spiritual lens. The thought was “if my people defeated yours, it was because my god was superior to yours.” So the Jews who had been conquered now face the possibility that it was because their God was less powerful than Babylon’s god. Talk about being in a spiritual desert! 

If you’ve read the Bible, you’ll know that Israel (by Israel I mean both Israel and Judah) were exiled as punishment for disobeying God. It’s sometimes mindboggling how someone will know the consequences for disobedience, disobey, and then rail at the injustice when they receive the consequences due them. It’s like the criminal who was injured in the midst of robbing someone who then has the audacity to sue the homeowner. Yet, again and again, when someone is living out the consequences of sin, I still hear complaining against God. We have such a skewed version of justice; we demand justice, as long as the offense was against us, but when we are the offender, we cry for mercy.

There are times when it seems like God is far from us. I will be the first to admit this. There are times when we wonder why God would leave us on our own. Why doesn’t God show up in miraculous ways right now? In these times, it’s important to remember that when God was delivering Israel from Egypt, bringing plagues (the sky turning dark, the Red Sea turning into blood, frogs, locusts, hail, boils, and all firstborn sons dying), leading Israel through the Red Sea as if on dry ground, physically being there as a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night to lead the people. Yet it is precisely in this moment when Israel begins to question where God is, why God “led them into the desert to die.” It is only weeks after God has miraculously led them out of Egypt when they come to Mt. Sinai and build a golden calf to worship.

But the other reminder is that God never leaves his people. In fact, we have an advantage over the people of Israel, in that we have God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, living in us. 

This isn’t to say that things should all of a sudden be easy – in fact, the Bible assures us that if we are following Jesus with everything, that it will cost us. When the disciples were flogged by the Jewish leaders and ordered not to speak in Jesus’ Name, they rejoiced, because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. (Acts 5:41). 

Romans 5 tells us that suffering produces perseverance, which produces character, which produces a hope which will not disappoint us. (Romans 5:3-5 We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.)

And listen to this word from 1 Peter 4:12-19: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.  However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.  For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

So we see from the scriptures that God uses suffering to shape us into the people he created us to be and that suffering for the gospel is commendable before God, but this teaching has been widely criticized in today’s culture. Popular preachers are on TV every day telling us that God’s plan for your life is to be healthy and wealthy and if you aren’t, you must have given Satan control over some area of your life. The problem with this approach is that it’s not biblical! It is a damaging heresy. The truth is, the Christian life is wrought with suffering. To suggest anything else is to deny the Scriptures.

What do you say to someone who is suffering? There are times when “it’s going to get better” is simply a lie. All of us have seen someone suffer clear until their death. If this world was all there was, death would simply be the exclamation point on a “life stinks and then you die” philosophy.

But that philosophy completely ignores what we know: this life is not all there is. The prophet Isaiah told the exiles God’s promise, that God will create new heavens and a new earth. I’ve heard various Enlightenment heresies that suggest that heaven is right here, right now, and if this life is heaven, I quit. Because if this is heaven, if this is the best God can give us, it’s not good enough.

But Isaiah describes the new heaven and new earth as so amazing and fantastic that the former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind. We are so used to that which we are familiar with that we cannot even fathom that something could be better. Think of the most beautiful scenes of nature that you can imagine. The Grand Canyon? A drainage ditch. The Caribbean Sea? A muddy kiddy pool. Even the strongest emotions you feel are nothing compared to the redeemed, glorified emotions we will experience in heaven. 

There are reasons why earth is not perfect. First of all, the cause: in one word, the cause is sin. The entire order of things was destroyed when Adam and Eve sinned. And God can even use this fallen earth to point us toward himself. As Joni Eareckson Tada put it, “Suffering keeps swelling our feet so that earth’s shoes won’t fit.”

Everything good about earth simply points us toward heaven. Everything. Every relationship, every bit of beauty, everything good, noble, true, and praiseworthy. It doesn’t point to itself. Beauty does not exist simply for the sake of beauty. It all points to God. And when we arrive in Heaven and see God face to face, we will forget all of the former things. 

So often we focus on what is not in Heaven, and Isaiah talks about this: no more weeping or crying. Why? Because there will be no reason for crying. Never again will parents mourn over the loss of a child. No more will we have to cover the grief of losing a grandparent with the cliché “she lived such a full life” because there will be no more death. 

We usually focus on what is not in Heaven because we don’t have any frame of reference to even understand how fantastic it will be. So we focus on the pain of this life, the desert we walk through, and we take comfort in knowing that things like death, sorrow, illness, suffering, and tears will not exist there, but Isaiah says that the new creation will be a delight. 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.

There will be true justice in Heaven – no more oppression. No more debt. This is what he is talking about when he talks about building houses and living in them, planting vineyards and eating their fruit.

God also promises to redeem our work. Have any of you ever worked a pointless job? One where your work never amounted to anything? OK, today your job is to dig a ditch. Tomorrow your job will be to fill in the ditch. Or you worked all those years and finally retired and it tore an empty place in your heart when you left. Or you retired only to find that your retirement had been embezzled or lost in the stock market. Or you got downsized (which is employers’ way of not feeling so badly when they fire you) and you lost a part of yourself when you lost the job. In Heaven, we will enjoy the works of our hands. We will not work in vain. We will reap the benefits of our work.

But better than all of this is that we will never again feel far from God. I love how Isaiah prophesies this: Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. If you’ve ever felt far from God, you might have prayed a prayer and just asked God, “Will you please just answer me?” And then you’ve waited. And waited. And there are times it just doesn’t seem like he is listening. But no more. Because before we even call, God will answer. 

This is the God we serve. And God will redeem our sojourn in the desert with the glory of Heaven. In the meantime, we pray for God’s will to be done, here on earth – through us, even, so that God will be glorified and so that others may enjoy Heaven as well.