Day 270

Isaiah 65:17-66:24, Ephesians 5:8-33, Psalm 113:1-9

A new heaven and a new earth is a vision that we often take from the end of Revelation and yet here Isaiah also prophesies about the same thing. In context, this passage comes right at the end of Isaiah, in the third section when Israel were back out of exile. The first section predicts the exile, a “change now or…” kind of message. The second part offers hope while they are in exile. This third part is something new, the people are back home and probably quite jubilant, but the prophet is pointing them to the future, to something more that is to come.

The people of Israel often focused on the here and now, the land they were in again was their promised land and that was all that really mattered, especially now that they were back in it. Isaiah is trying to get them away from that, pointing to what is to come through Christ. This was thousands of years before Christ, yet still he had to come to show the people that there was a way to the new heaven and a new earth, we may still be waiting for this prophecy but at least we know the way now.

The Ephesians passage continues with the light, we know from yesterday that we are children of the light, and it is that light which is the key to the promise of the new heaven and new earth. The psalm adds to the promise, for in the new heaven we will sing the praises of the Lord for ever.

This is a promise and a half.