Unit 1: The Prophets Proclaim God’s Power
Key Verse:
Isaiah 65:25 NLT
25
The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
But the snakes will eat dust.
In those days, no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Prelude:
John 16:25-27 NLT
25 “I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. 26 Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, 27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.
The prophetic unction can be difficult to discern. What God has spoken, He will surely bring to pass, but… how exactly will it be made manifest? When? In today’s lesson, the prophet, Isaiah, foretold of a time when Jerusalem would be at peace. Perfect peace. In fact, much of what Isaiah wrote in today’s lesson has yet to come to pass, but rest assured that eventually, it will. Every jot and every tittle that God has given us in His Word will be fulfilled. Praise the Lord!
The Lesson
Isaiah 65:17 NLT
17
“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,
and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.
Revelation 21:1 NLT
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.
Interestingly, Isaiah begins with a promise that we, the Church, are still awaiting. The appearance of the new heavens and the new Earth promised in Isaiah is yet to come. In fact, we expect that this will happen as we transition from time into Eternity. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy is a clarion call to all who name the name of Christ to persevere in anticipation of the promise of eternal peace in the Presence of the Lord. It was this hope that the captives in Babylon held to. It is that same hope that we hold to today. Eternity in Christ.
Isaiah 65:18-19 NLT
18
Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation!
And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.
Her people will be a source of joy.
19
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and delight in my people.
And the sound of weeping and crying
will be heard in it no more.
Revelation 21:2 NLT
2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
Again, an allusion to the New Jerusalem that will appear at the end of the book, or rather, at the beginning of Eternity. The New Jerusalem will be our eternal home. When Isaiah spoke these words, he was speaking to people who had not yet been born, who would be returning home … from captivity. How appropriate, then, that we who have been saved will live in eternal safety. God’s promises are ‘Yea!’ and ‘Amen!’, both for us and for all who have transitioned before us in faith.
Isaiah 65:20-21 NLT
20
“No longer will babies die when only a few days old.
No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life.
No longer will people be considered old at one hundred!
Only the cursed will die that young!
21
In those days people will live in the houses they build
and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.
Revelation 20:4-6 NLT
4 Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them, the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Isaiah is still prophesying from the end of John’s Revelation of Christ and of the end times. However, it appears that he is speaking of the time immediately after the end of the great tribulation when Christ will return to earth (old earth), and the Saints of God will govern the Earth with Him (Christ). This appears to be before the final great white throne judgment and before the descent of the new heavens and the new Earth from Heaven. Those who are alive during this time will know peace for a thousand years. The implications are that those who are alive on Earth during this time will not know death. Additionally, sickness will apparently be no more, at least not until the very end of the Millineum, when Satan is released from prison for a short time to deceive the nations one last time.
Isaiah 65:22-23 NLT
22
Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses
and confiscate their vineyards.
For my people will live as long as trees,
and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.
23
They will not work in vain,
and their children will not be doomed to misfortune.
For they are people blessed by the Lord,
and their children, too, will be blessed.
Matthew 19:28-29 NLT
28 Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new[i] and the Son of Man[j] sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.
No more will the inhabitants of this New Jerusalem live under the threat of violence, neither from within nor without. In this Day of the Lord, this final day, God’s people will no longer suffer the ravages of sin. They will be rewarded with eternal life and everlasting blessings.
Isaiah 65:24 NLT
24
I will answer them before they even call to me.
While they are still talking about their needs,
I will go ahead and answer their prayers!
1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT
12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[a] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Verse twenty-four reveals something about what theologians call ‘prophetic foreshortening.’ God is revealing some two thousand years of future events to Isaiah in a few mere moments. I liken it to looking into a long tunnel of time and trying to discern lies ahead at the very end. Subsequently, we can see that the sequence of events may seem out of order when compared to John’s writing in Revelation. However, the sequence is not the matter at hand. Rather, it is the thought that the events at the end of the tunnel seem to lose the element of time, such that everything seems to happen all at once. We will see this prophetic phenomenon occur in a later lesson in this unit. Without some comprehension of the element of time, it is difficult to properly differentiate the events properly. However, we have been able to use the Book of Revelation to set the appropriate markers for the timing of all the events thus far.
Verse twenty-four does not follow the same pattern. This verse very clearly shows us the age in which we currently abide: the Church age. Since the day of Pentecost, the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of every believer affords us the privilege of relationship and fellowship with our Lord. In this verse the grace that God wants all of us to share in is evident. God loves us and is instant in His desire to for us to experience His Presence in prayer and worship. Before we call, He assures us that He is listening by the divine unction of the Holy Spirit. Selah
Isaiah 65:25 NLT
25
The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
But the snakes will eat dust.
In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.
I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Revelation 21:3-7 NLT
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
Finally, we see the inevitable completion of God’s plan to transition all of our existence from time to Eternity. Once, and for all God’s order will be fully restored. Creation, all of Creation will have been redeemed. Peace will abide from Everlasting to Everlasting. Satan will be merely an afterthought. When it’s all said and done, every knee in Heaven and Earth will bow in worship to our Everlasting King: Jesus Christ, our Lord!
Selah,
wb
Philippians 2:9-11 NLT
9
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11
and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
