Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 65:17

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 65:17. I create new heavens and a new earth — This has been variously understood. Some Jews and some Christians understand it literally. God shall change the state of the atmosphere, and render the earth more fruitful. Some refer it to what they call the Millennium; others, to a glorious state of religion; others, to the re-creation of the earth after it shall have been destroyed by fire. I think it refers to the full conversion of the Jews ultimately; and primarily to the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

A new creation (65:17-25)

Israel’s condition in the time of the prophet is then contrasted with conditions in the new Jerusalem, the kingdom of the Messiah. That kingdom is not an improved version of the old Israelite kingdom, but is something entirely new. It is a new creation, where the quality of life will be different from that of the present world. Sorrow will be replaced by rejoicing. Life will not be cut short except where God acts in judgment (17-20).
In the new creation people will have complete satisfaction. They will not experience the sufferings and frustrations that result from sin, but will enjoy life as God intended them to enjoy it (21-23). The absence of sin will mean that, above all, they will live in perfect fellowship with God. The world of nature also will benefit in this new era of genuine peace and harmony (24-25).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit: they shall not plant and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Jehovah."

What is the meaning of this remarkable paragraph? We know that it cannot refer to that New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God (Revelation 21-22), because sinners here are represented as living to be a hundred years old! There shall be no sinners in heaven. Moreover, "It is not eternal life which is envisaged here, but longevity."T. K. Cheyne's Commentary, Vol. II, p. 120. Furthermore, the necessity of agricultural pursuits and for the continuation of the building industry for the purpose of feeding and housing mankind cannot be fitted into the picture of the New Jerusalem at the conclusion of the New Testament.

Many writers go overboard with their declarations that here is the promise of the Millennium. This can be true, only if the Millennium is properly understood as one of the names of the current Dispensation of the grace of God, not a literal thousand years, but embracing all of the time between the two advents of Jesus Christ.

Taking this chapter as a whole, the situation, first to last, must be identified with the current era of "the last times," as indicated by the apostle Peter on Pentecost (Acts 2:16); because it is the era in which the Gentiles are called to accept the gospel (cf. Romans 10:20), and it is the era when God's people are no longer Israelites but are called by "another name" (Isaiah 65:15). Therefore, we accept the designation of Douglas as correct. He designated these last nine verses as, "The Overflowing Blessings in the Messianic Age."George C. M. Douglas, p. 409.

The great difficulty of accepting this understanding of the passage lies in the first verse (Isaiah 65:17) where the "new heavens and the new earth" are promised; because the apostle Peter clearly identified this promise with the final judgment of mankind, the destruction of the earth with fire, in which "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:7-10).

Both sacred writers are obviously correct. The new heavens and the new earth mentioned by Isaiah here are indeed associated with the Messianic age, but coming at the end of it, its termination, rather than being identified with the period of probation, which constitutes the extended middle portion of the Messianic period, stretching from the first advent to the second advent. It will be remembered that Peter referred to the current dispensation as "the last days" (Acts 2:16-17); and it is a characteristic of all the prophets that events during the Messianic age are telescoped in the prophetic visions so that events, actually separated by millenniums of time, are often mentioned as if they occurred simultaneously. That is exactly what we believe to be evident here.

Another helpful factor in understanding what is written here is seen in the limitation of such promises as, "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain" (Isaiah 65:25), to conditions "within all God's holy mountain," that is, within the holy Church of Messiah, It is within that sacred fellowship that the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together, as stated in Isaiah's earlier reference to the Messianic Age (Isaiah 11:6-9). Of course, what is meant is that the changes in men's lives, due to their obedience of the gospel, will be "As great as if,"Albert Barnes' Commentary, Vol. II, p. 423. the nature of fierce animals should be so changed.

This reference to the lion and the wolf, along with its counterpart, has a number of utilities: (1) again we have an instance of "here a little and there a little," so often seen in Isaiah; (2) it identifies this passage as pertaining to the age of Messiah, as is the case in Isaiah 11:6-9; (3) and it serves to illustrate the unity of the prophecy and its authorship by Isaiah. See our notes on Isaiah 11:6-9, above.

The wonderful blessings pertaining to God's people which are cited in these verses, along with Isaiah 65:10 (above) refer to spiritual privileges, despite their being expressed here in the terms of material prosperity. Quite obviously in the passage, the natural laws of birth and death, and other conditions of our earth-life still prevail during the age of Messiah, in which we most assuredly live.

Of course, death itself shall finally be conquered; but when this finally occurs, Christ will render back to the Father the kingdom of heaven; and such shall mark the termination and not the beginning of the Messianic Age (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).

"The new heavens and the new earth," like many other prophecies has an immediate and a remote fulfillment, the first being the creation of "an utterly new environment" in the first advent of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles alike. The remote and final fulfillment is yet to occur when God will shake the earth the second time, signifying its "removal" (Hebrews 12:27), when the present earth and the works within it are "burned up" (2 Peter 3:7-10), when the "elements shall melt with fervent heat," and when has arrived that final "day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." It is freely admitted that these sensational promises could all be interpreted figuratively; but this writer, along with many others, clings to the conviction that cosmic disturbances of the most tremendous and far-reaching nature are most surely associated with the final Judgment Day in the Word of God.

The word "new" is significant in these chapters. There is to be a"new" heaven and earth, a "new" nature in the people of God, and a "new" name. Is not all of this what Paul spoke of? when he wrote: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away. Behold, they are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

On Isaiah 65:20. here, Rawlinson noted that, "The remarkable thing in this paragraph is that death and sin are represented as continuing."Pulpit Commentary, Vol. II, p. 373. Nevertheless, "Death was spoken of as being `swallowed up in victory' in one of Isaiah's earlier descriptions of Messiah's kingdom."Ibid. (See Isaiah 25:8 and my comment there). This harmonizes with what we have written above, namely, that both are correct. Sin and death prevail throughout the period of probation (the present dispensation) until the end of it, at which time the judgment and the new heaven and the new earth will appear. Death will be swallowed up in victory when the dead of all generations arise in the judgment to confront the Son of God upon the throne of his glory (Matthew 25). All of these are associated with the Messianic Age.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

For behold - The idea in this verse is, that there should be a state of glory as great as if a new heaven and a new earth were to be made.

I create new heavens - Calamity and punishment in the Bible are often represented by the heavens growing dark, and being rolled up like as a scroll, or passing away (see the notes at Isaiah 13:10; Isaiah 34:4). On the contrary, prosperity, happiness, and the divine favor, are represented by the clearing up of a cloudy sky; by the restoration of the serene and pure light of the sun; or, as here, by the creation of new heavens (compare the notes at Isaiah 51:16). The figure of great transformations in material things is one that is often employed in the Scriptures, and especially in Isaiah, to denote great spiritual changes (see Isaiah 11:0; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 35:1-2, Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 60:13, Isaiah 60:17). In the New Testament, the phrase used here is employed to denote the future state of the righteous; but whether on earth, after it shall have been purified by fire, or in heaven, has been a subject of great difference of opinion (see 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1).

The passage before us is highly poetical, and we are not required to understand it literally. There is, so far as the language is concerned, no more reason for understanding this literally than there is for so understanding the numerous declarations which affirm that the brute creation will undergo a change in their very nature, on the introduction of the gospel Isaiah 11:0; and all that the language necessarily implies is, that there would be changes in the condition of the people of God as great as if the heavens, overcast with clouds and subject to storms, should be recreated, so as to become always mild and serene; or as if the earth, so barren in many places, should become universally fertile and beautiful. The immediate reference here is, doubtless, to the land of Palestine, and to the important changes which would be produced there on the return of the exiles; but it cannot be doubted that, under this imagery, there was couched a reference to far more important changes and blessings in future times under the Messiah - changes as great as if a barren and sterile world should become universally beautiful and fertile.

For the former shall not be remembered - That is, that which shall be created shall be so superior in beauty as entirely to eclipse the former. The sense is, that the future condition of the people of God would be as superior to what it was in ancient times as would be a newly created earth and heaven superior in beauty to this - where the heavens are so often obscured by clouds, and where the earth is so extensively desolate or barren.

Nor come into mind - Margin, as Hebrew, ‘Upon the heart.’ That is, it shall not be thought of; it shall be wholly forgotten. On this verse, compare the notes at Isaiah 51:16.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

17.For, lo, I will create new heavens and a new earth. By these metaphors he promises a remarkable change of affairs; as if God had said that he has both the inclination and the power not only to restore his Church, but to restore it in such a manner that it shall appear to gain new life and to dwell in a new world. These are exaggerated modes of expression; but the greatness of such a blessing, which was to be manifested at the coming of Christ, could not be described in any other way. Nor does he mean only the first coming, but the whole reign, which must be extended as far as to the last coming, as we have already said in expounding other passages.

Thus the world is (so to speak) renewed by Christ; and hence also the Apostle (Hebrews 2:5) calls it “a new age,” and undoubtedly alludes to this statement of the Prophet. Yet the Prophet speaks of the restoration of the Church after the return from Babylon. This is undoubtedly true; but that restoration is imperfect, if it be not extended as far as to Christ; and even now we are in the progress and accomplishment of it, and those things will not be fulfilled till the last resurrection, which has been prescribed to be our limit.

The former things shall not be remembered. Some refer these words to heaven and earth; as if he had said that henceforth they shall have no celebrity and no name. But I choose rather to refer them to the former times; for he means that the joy at being restored shall be so great that they shall no longer remember their miseries. Or perhaps it will be thought preferable to view them as relating to benefits which, though they were worthy of being recorded, lost their name when God’s amazing- grace shone forth. In this sense the Prophet said elsewhere, “Remember ye not the former things.” (Isaiah 43:18.) Not that God wished the first deliverance to be set aside or blotted out of the hearts of believers; but because by comparison the one brought a kind of forgetfulness over the other, just as the sun, when he rises, deprives the stars of their brightness.

Let us remember that these things take place in us so far as we are renewed. But we are only in part renewed, and therefore we do not yet see a new heaven and a new earth. We need not wonder, therefore, that we continue to mourn and weep, since we have not entirely laid aside the old man, but many remains are still left. It is with us also that the renovation ought to begin; because we hold the first rank, and it is through our sin that “the creatures groan, and are subject to vanity,” as Paul shews. (Romans 8:20.) But when we shall be perfectly renewed, heaven and earth shall also be fully renewed, and shall regain their former state. And hence it ought to be inferred, as we have frequently remarked, that the Prophet has in his eye the whole reign of Christ, down to its final close, which is also called

“the day of renovation and restoration.” (Acts 3:21.)

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 65

Now God answers the prayer offered by the remnant of the people and He said,

I am sought of them that asked not for me ( Isaiah 65:1 );

Here's the remnant of the Jewish people calling to God. "If You've forsaken us, won't You remember us?" and all this. And God answers them and He says, "I am sought of them that asked not for Me."

I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, which walked in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; a people that provoked me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificed in gardens, and burned incense upon altars of brick; Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, and eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burned all the day ( Isaiah 65:1-5 ).

So God is declaring here now how that He stretched out His hands actually to the Gentiles. And Paul quotes this in Romans the tenth chapter as he shows how that God set the nation Israel aside that He might draw out from among the Gentiles a people for His name. And he quotes here in tenth chapter from this passage here in Isaiah where God speaks about how that He has been found really by them who did not seek Me. He turned to another nation that wasn't called by His name. "For all day long," He said, "I've stretched out my hands to a rebellious people which walked in their own ways and not after Me." Which had committed these abominable practices against the Lord. Who became as an irritant unto God. Smoke in His nostrils.

Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom. Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all ( Isaiah 65:1-8 ).

Speaks now, "I'm going to bring forth the faithful remnant."

And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah the inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it ( Isaiah 65:9 ),

"Mine elect shall inherit it." God is going to gather together His elect, Matthew 24:1-51 , and bring them back that they might inherit it. And to try to interpret the elect there as the church is just poor biblical exposition. It is the denying of God's restoration of the nation Israel and it is anti-Semitic in its teaching and it breeds anti-Semitism. That identity of Israel as the church. Because they then deny that God is going to yet deal with Israel, that Israel is through. And they excuse their hatred against the Jews by the fact that God has cut them off and we are now the Israel and so forth. But that is poor biblical exposition.

Sharon [the valley of Sharon] shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me. But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number. Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that in which I did not delight. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and ye shall howl for the vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name ( Isaiah 65:10-15 ):

What is the other name by which He calls His servants? And in Antioch they called them Christians. The servant of God called by the new name. As God is at the present time still working among the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled, which we are there. The days of God's grace and mercy and hand stretched out to the Gentiles is just about over. If you're going to become a part of the kingdom you'd better become a part of the kingdom in a hurry, because the opportunities will soon be over.

That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes ( Isaiah 65:16 ).

Now in verse Isaiah 65:17 , it's sort of an isolated verse, for God goes out beyond, way out now, and He said,

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind ( Isaiah 65:17 ).

Now this is out beyond the millennium, beyond the millennial age. He comes back in the next verse and deals with things of the millennium. But He goes out way to the end now that is described in Second Peter when God causes this whole universe to dissolve, to melt with a fervent heat. All of the works in it being dissolved, destroyed. And God said, "Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth." Now there are those who teach the eternity of the earth. In other words, the earth is going to go on forever and ever. Using some poetic verses out of Psalms and verses that are in poetic form out of the Psalms. "The earth abides forever" ( Ecclesiastes 1:4 ), and all. Yet the earth and all of its works are going to be destroyed. Second Peter goes into quite a bit of detail in describing the end of the physical universe. The molecular structure as we understand it and know it.

Now in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the Hebrew word for create is bara, which is a word that means to create something out of nothing. Now only God has that capacity. There is another Hebrew word translated create or made, and that is the word asah. And that word in the Hebrew has as a meaning to assemble existing materials. So some man created this pulpit. Now he didn't say, "Pulpit be!" And poof! Out of nothing here was a pulpit. That would be bara. But man can't do that. He took the wood and he cut it and he planed it and he glued it and he put it together and he assembled the pulpit. He created the pulpit out of existing materials. Now man does have that capacity. Only God, though, has capacity of creating out of nothing. When God said, "Behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth" here in Isaiah, He again uses the Hebrew word bara. Out of nothing He's going to bring a whole new heaven and a new earth into existence. Now seeing then that the present earth and universe is to be dissolved, seeing then that all of these things are going to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be? If the whole material realm is going to be destroyed, then what kind of a person should I be?

Well, if I am a total materialist, I'm going to be totally wiped out. So what kind of a person should I be? I should be spiritual. I should put my value in spiritual things. I should lay up my treasures in heaven where moth doth not corrupt. Where thieves cannot break through and steal. I should be spiritual, and a spiritual man and mindful of spiritual things because the physical material universe is going to be destroyed.

So "Behold, I create," bara, out of nothing, "a new heaven and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, or called into mind." When we get into that final age, out at the end of the millennium in the new heaven and the earth, we won't be saying, "Oh, you remember that day we were surfing down in Huntington?" You won't be remembering that stuff anymore. It won't be even coming into mind.

Some people are worried, "I could never really enjoy heaven if my parents aren't there or my children aren't there or something." It won't even be... You'll have no memory of these things. It will never be brought into mind. That is, that horrible period of history when man rebelled against God. All of the sorrow that has been brought because of that rebellion will be wiped out. Never brought into mind again. Now during the millennial age...

But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying ( Isaiah 65:18-19 ).

This is during the Kingdom Age. It's going to be glorious then.

There shall be no more an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old ( Isaiah 65:20 );

Now if a person dies when they're just a hundred, you'll say, "Oh, what a shame, young child died," because there will be a renewing of the earth during the millennial Kingdom Age back to the pre-flood conditions. Where again God will put a shield around the earth and we'll be protected from these cosmic radiations that cause the mutations and the aging process and so forth. And with this canopy that--and you'll be hearing all about this this week--the canopy that used to be around the earth and why men lived to be so long. Why lived so many years and why dinosaurs grew so big and why cockroaches were a foot long. You'll be finding all that out as we study this week of the world that was before the flood. It's interesting to look back and find out what the earth was like before the judgment of God in the flood. You'll be getting that this week.

"A child will die being a hundred years old."

but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed ( Isaiah 65:20 ).

So during the millennial age... now, we will not die. We're in our new bodies. We've moved out of our tents and we'll be in our new bodies during the Kingdom Age. But there will be people that will live through the time of the Great Tribulation who will also live through the judgment of the nations when Jesus returns and they will live into the Kingdom Age. And they are the one that will be bearing children and so forth during the Kingdom Age. But we will be here to reign with Christ as enforcers of righteousness. As a kingdom of priests upon the earth, representing Christ to the people and the people to Christ. And we will be here to rule and to reign upon the earth with Him during this millennial age in our new bodies. Now what will our new bodies be like? I really don't know. Vastly superior to the one I'm presently in.

Paul said, "Some of you will say, 'How are the dead raised and with what body will they come? What kind of a body will it be?'" ( 1 Corinthians 15:35 ) And he said nature teaches you that there is resurrection from the dead. When you plant a seed into the ground it doesn't come forth into new life until it first of all dies. And then the body that comes out of the ground isn't the body that you planted. So I'm not going to be in this body. But God gives it a body that pleases Him. My new body is going to please God. That's all that matters to me. I know if it pleases God, I'm going to be very pleased with it. What will be the capacities? These are things I oftentimes wonder about, the capacities of the new body. How will we be able to... the transporting of the new body around. And there's a lot of interesting aspects about. It will probably be of a different molecular structure than this body, which will make being on the earth very interesting if you're different molecular structure, because you're walking right into the buildings and everything else. Even as Jesus in His resurrected body. But that's all for conjecture and all to find out in the future.

And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of the people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands ( Isaiah 65:21-22 ).

Mine elect, the Jews.

They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear ( Isaiah 65:23-24 ).

Oh, the closeness of God and the rapport with the people.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together ( Isaiah 65:25 ),

Beautiful Kingdom Age.

and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD ( Isaiah 65:25 ).

So the earth again being in harmony with God, and creation in harmony with God, and man in harmony with God. How glorious it must have been for Adam in harmony with the whole universe around him. Everything humming together in a glorious harmony with God. Oh, what a disastrous affect sin has had in putting man out of harmony with God and out of harmony with nature around him. I think of that song, "This is my Father's world. All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres." But man is out of harmony so often with nature and with God. And nature even itself has suffered from the curse and is out of harmony with God. Even the animal kingdom. The ferociousness of the lion, the wolf and these things, out of harmony with God. They are suffering the result of man's sin. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

This verse is an overview of what follows. God announced, in substantiation of everything He had said since Isaiah 56:1, that He would create a restored and renovated universe (cf. Genesis 1:1). Things will be so much better than they are now that people then will not even think about things as they used to be (cf. Romans 6:14; Revelation 21:4). This should motivate God’s people to obey Him in the present. Not only would God perform another Exodus, bringing Israel out of Babylon and into the Promised Land, but He would also create another Creation. Watts, who understood chapters 40-66 of Isaiah to refer only to the Jews’ return to Palestine following the Exile, believed that the renovation in view is not eschatological or worldwide but restricted to Jerusalem and Judah. [Note: Watts, Isaiah 34-66, p. 354.]

Isaiah described the future in general terms as "a new heaven and a new earth." In the New Testament, we have further particularization of what this will involve: the making of all things new for those in Christ presently (Galatians 2:20), the millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:4-6), and the "eternal state" (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). Thus Isaiah’s use of "new heavens and a new earth" is not identical with the Apostle John’s (Revelation 21:1). What Isaiah wrote about this new creation is true of various segments of it at various stages in the future; it is not all a description of what John identified as "new heavens and a new earth," namely: the eternal state.

"The designation new heavens and a new earth is applied to the Millennial kingdom only as a stage preliminary to the eternal glories of heaven (the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21; Revelation 22)-just as Pentecost was to be regarded (Acts 2:17) as ushering in the ’last days,’ although it occurred at least nineteen centuries before the Second Advent." [Note: Archer, p. 653.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

New heavens and a new earth 65:17-25

God not only will be faithful to His promises in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness (Isaiah 63:1 to Isaiah 65:16), but He will demonstrate His ability and desire to provide righteousness for sinful humankind by creating new heavens and a new earth. Most of this section describes God’s renovation of creation during the Millennium.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,.... This prophecy began to have its accomplishment in the first times of the Gospel, when through the preaching of it there was a new face of things appeared in Judea, and in the Gentile world, so that the whole looked like a new world; and this was all the effect of creating power, of the mighty, powerful, and efficacious grace of God attending the word, to the conversion of many souls; a new church state was formed, consisting of persons gathered out of the world, the old national church of the Jews being dissolved, and Gospel churches everywhere set up; new ordinances appointed, to continue till Christ's second coming and the old ones abolished; a new way of worship observed, at least in a more spiritual and evangelic manner; a new covenant exhibited, or the covenant of grace held forth in a new form of administration, the former waxen old and vanished away; and the new and living way to the Father, through Christ, made more manifest: this will have a further accomplishment at the conversion of the Jews, which will be as life from the dead, and things will look like a new world with them; their blindness will be removed, the veil will be taken away from them; they will part with all their legal rites and ceremonies, and the traditions of the elders, and embrace the Messiah, and all his truths and ordinances; old things shall pass away, and all things become new: and it shall have its complete accomplishments in the New Jerusalem state, when not only Christ will appear, and make all things new in a spiritual sense, and that completely; but even in a literal sense there will be new heavens, and a new earth, which John in vision saw; and which Peter says he and other believers expected, according to the promise of God, when these heavens and earth shall be dissolved and pass away; and unless this passage is referred to by him, it will be difficult to find where this promise is; see Revelation 21:1:

and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind; either the old heavens and earth, which shall pass away, and be no more seen; or the former state both of the Jewish, and Gentile world; or the former troubles, as in the preceding verse, taken in the sense of affliction and persecution; all antichristian troubles shall cease in the latter day, after the conversion of the Jews, and especially in the New Jerusalem state; see Isaiah 2:4.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.   18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.   19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.   20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.   21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.   22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.   23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.   24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.   25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

      If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their return out of captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and brought as it were into a new world, yet they were to have their full accomplishment in the gospel church, militant first and at length triumphant. The Jerusalem that is from above is free and is the mother of us all. In the graces and comforts which believers have in and from Christ we are to look for this new heaven and new earth. It is in the gospel that old things have passed away and all things have become new, and by it that those who are in Christ are new creatures,2 Corinthians 5:17. It was a mighty and happy change that was described Isaiah 65:16; Isaiah 65:16, that the former troubles were forgotten; but here it rises much higher: even the former world shall be forgotten and shall no more come into mind. Those that were converted to the Christian faith were so transported with the comforts of it that all the comforts they were before acquainted with became as nothing to them; not only their foregoing griefs, but their foregoing joys, were lost and swallowed up in this. The glorified saints will therefore have forgotten this world, because they will be entirely taken up with the other: For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. See how inexhaustible the divine power is; the same God that created one heaven and earth can create another. See how entire the happiness of the saints is; it shall be all of a piece; with the new heavens God will create them (if they have occasion for it to make them happy) a new earth too. The world is yours if you be Christ's, 1 Corinthians 3:22. When God is reconciled to us, which gives us a new heaven, the creatures too are reconciled to us, which gives us a new earth. The future glory of the saints will be so entirely different from what they ever knew before that it may well be called new heavens and a new earth,2 Peter 3:13. Behold, I make all things new,Revelation 21:5.

      I. There shall be new joys. For, 1. All the church's friends, and all that belong to her, shall rejoice (Isaiah 65:18; Isaiah 65:18): You shall be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. The new things which God creates in and by his gospel are and shall be matter of everlasting joy to all believers. My servants shall rejoice (Isaiah 65:13; Isaiah 65:13), at last they shall, though now they mourn. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. 2. The church shall be the matter of their joy, so pleasant, so prosperous, shall her condition be: I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. The church shall not only rejoice but be rejoiced in. Those that have sorrowed with the church shall rejoice with her. 3. The prosperity of the church shall be a rejoicing to God himself, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (Isaiah 65:19; Isaiah 65:19): I will rejoice in Jerusalem's joy, and will joy in my people; for in all their affliction he was afflicted. God will not only rejoice in the church's well-doing, but will himself rejoice to do her good and rest in his love to her, Zephaniah 3:17. What God rejoices in it becomes us to rejoice in. 4. There shall be no allay of this joy, nor any alteration of this happy condition of the church: The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her. If this relate to any state of the church in this life, it means no more than that the former occasions of grief shall not return, but God's people shall long enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity. But in heaven it shall have a full accomplishment, in respect both of the perfection and the perpetuity of the promised joy; there all tears shall be wiped away.

      II. There shall be new life, Isaiah 65:20; Isaiah 65:20. Untimely deaths by the sword or sickness shall be no more known as they have been, and by this means there shall be no more the voice of crying,Isaiah 65:19; Isaiah 65:19. When there shall be no more death there shall be no more sorrow,Revelation 21:4. As death has reigned by sin, so life shall reign by righteousness, Romans 5:14; Romans 5:21. 1. Believers through Christ shall be satisfied with life, though it be ever so short on earth. If an infant end its days quickly, yet it shall not be reckoned to die untimely; for the shorter its life is the longer will its rest be. Though death reign over those that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, yet they, dying in the arms of Christ, the second Adam, and belonging to his kingdom, are not to be called infants of days, but even the child shall be reckoned to die a hundred years old, for he shall rise again at full age, shall rise to eternal life. Some understand it of children who in their childhood are so eminent for wisdom and grace, and by death nipped in the blossom, that they may be said to die a hundred years old. And, as for old men, it is promised that they shall fill their days with the fruits of righteousness, which they shall still bring forth in old age, to show that the Lord is upright, and then it is a good old age. An old man who is wise, and good, and useful, may truly be said to have filled his days. Old men who have their hearts upon the world have never filled their days, never have enough of this world, but would still continue longer in it. But that man dies old, and satur dierum--full of days, who, with Simeon, having seen God's salvation, desires now to depart in peace. 2. Unbelievers shall be unsatisfied and unhappy in life, though it be ever so long. The sinner, though he live to a hundred years old, shall be accursed. His living so long shall be no token to him of the divine favour and blessing, nor shall it be any shelter to him from the divine wrath and curse. The sentence he lies under will certainly be executed, and his long life is but a long reprieve; nay, it is itself a curse to him, for the longer he lives the more wrath he treasures up against the day of wrath and the more sins he will have to answer for. So that the matter is not great whether our lives on earth be long or short, but whether we live the lives of saints or the lives of sinners.

      III. There shall be a new enjoyment of the comforts of life. Whereas before it was very uncertain and precarious, their enemies inhabited the houses which they built and ate the fruit of the trees which they planted, now it shall be otherwise; they shall build houses and inhabit them, shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them,Isaiah 65:21; Isaiah 65:22. Their intimates that the labour of their hands shall be blessed and be made to prosper; they shall gain what they aimed at, and what they have gained shall be preserved and secured to them; they shall enjoy it comfortably, and nothing shall embitter it to them, and they shall live to enjoy it long. Strangers shall not break in upon them, to expel them, and plant themselves in their room, as sometimes they have done: My elect shall wear out, or long enjoy, the work of their hands; it is honestly got, and it will wear well; it is the work of their hands, which they themselves have laboured for, and it is most comfortable to enjoy that, and not to eat the bread of idleness, or bread of deceit. If we have a heart to enjoy it, that is the gift of God's grace (Ecclesiastes 3:13); and, if we live to enjoy it long, it is the gift of God's providence, for that is here promised: As the days of a tree are the days of my people; as the days of an oak (Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 6:13), whose substance is in it, though it cast its leaves; though it be stripped every winter, it recovers itself again, and lasts many ages; as the days of the tree of life; so the LXX. Christ is to them the tree of life, and in him believers enjoy all those spiritual comforts which are typified by the abundance of temporal blessings here promised; and it shall not be in the power of their enemies to deprive them of these blessings or disturb them in the enjoyment of them.

      IV. There shall be a new generation rising up in their stead to inherit and enjoy these blessings (Isaiah 65:23; Isaiah 65:23): They shall not labour in vain, for they shall not only enjoy the work of their hands themselves, but they shall leave it with satisfaction to those that shall come after them, and not with such a melancholy prospect as Solomon did, Ecclesiastes 2:18; Ecclesiastes 2:19. They shall not beget and bring forth children for trouble; for they are themselves the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and there is a blessing entailed upon them by descent from their ancestors which their offspring with them shall partake of, and shall be, as well as they, the seed of the blessed of the Lord. They shall not bring forth for trouble; for, 1. God will make their children that rise up comforts to them; they shall have the joy of seeing them walk in the truth. 2. He will make the times that come after comfortable to their children. As they shall be good, so it shall be well with them; they shall not be brought forth to days of trouble; nor shall it ever be said, Blessed is the womb that bore not. In the gospel church Christ's name shall be borne up by a succession. A seed shall serve him (Psalms 22:30), the seed of the blessed of the Lord.

      V. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their God (Isaiah 65:24; Isaiah 65:24): Even before they call, I will answer. God will anticipate their prayers with the blessings of his goodness. David did but say, I will confess, and God forgave,Psalms 32:5. The father of the prodigal met him in his return. While they are yet speaking, before they have finished their prayer, I will give them the thing they pray for, or the assurances and earnests of it. These are high expressions of God's readiness to hear prayer; and this appears much more in the grace of the gospel than it did under the law; we owe the comfort of it to the mediation of Christ as our advocate with the Father and are obliged in gratitude to give a ready ear to God's calls.

      VI. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their neighbours (Isaiah 65:25; Isaiah 65:25): The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, as they did in Noah's ark. God's people, though they are as sheep in the midst of wolves, shall be safe and unhurt; for God will not so much break the power and tie the hands of their enemies as formerly, but he will turn their hearts, will alter their dispositions by his grace. When Paul, who had been a persecutor of the disciples (and who, being of the tribe of Benjamin, ravened as a wolf,Genesis 49:27) joined himself to them and became one of them, then the wolf and the lamb fed together. So also when the enmity between Jews and Gentiles was slain, all hostilities ceased, and they fed together as one sheepfold under Christ the great Shepherd, John 10:16. The enemies of the church ceased to do the mischief they had done, and its members ceased to be so quarrelsome with and injurious to one another as they had been, so that there was none either from without or from within to hurt or destroy, none to disturb it, much less to ruin it, in all the holy mountain; as was promised, Isaiah 11:8; Isaiah 11:8. For, 1. Men shall be changed: The lion shall no more be a beast of prey, as perhaps he never would have been if sin had not entered, but shall eat straw like the bullock, shall know his owner, and his master's crib, as the ox does. When those that lived by spoil and rapine, and coveted to enrich themselves, right or wrong, are brought by the grace of God to accommodate themselves to their condition, to live by honest labour, and to be content with such things as they have--when those that stole steal no more, but work with their hands the thing that is good--then this is fulfilled, that the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. 2. Satan shall be chained, the dragon bound; for dust shall be the serpent's meat again. That great enemy, when he has been let loose, has glutted and regaled himself with the precious blood of saints, who by his instigation have been persecuted, and with the precious souls of sinners, who by his instigation have become persecutors and have ruined themselves for ever; but now he shall be confined to dust, according to the sentence, On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat,Genesis 3:14. All the enemies of God's church, that are subtle and venomous as serpents, shall be conquered and subdued, and be made to lick the dust, Christ shall reign as Zion's King till all the enemies of his kingdom be made his footstool, and theirs too. In the holy mountain above, and there only, shall this promise have its full accomplishment, that there shall be none to hurt nor destroy.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

God Rejoicing in the New Creation by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people." Isaiah 65:17-19 .

This passage, like the rest of Isaiah's closing chapters, will have completest fulfillment in the latter days when Christ shall come, when the whole company of his elect ones shall have been gathered out from the world, when the whole creation shall have been renewed, when new heavens and a new earth shall be the product of the Savior's power, when, for ever and for ever, perfected saints of God shall behold his face, and joy and rejoice in him. I hope and believe that the following verses will actually describe the condition of the redeemed during the reign of Christ upon the earth: "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old. They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." But the work which is spoken of in the text is begun already among us. There is to be a literal new creation, but that new creation has commenced already; and I think, therefore, that even now we ought to manifest a part of the joy. If we are called upon to be glad and rejoice in the completion of the work, let us rejoice even in the commencement of it. The Lord himself will joy and rejoice, and we who are in sympathy with him are exhorted and even commanded to be glad; let us not be slack in this heavenly duty. Do you know what this work of creation is, which is here thrice promised in the words, "I create.. I create.. I create"? It is evidently a second creation, which is altogether to eclipse the first, and put it out of mind. Shall I tell the story? The first creation was so fair that, when the Lord looked upon it, with man as its climax and crown, he said, "It is very good;" but it failed in man who should have been its glory. Man sinned; and in his sin he was so connected with the whole of the earth, that he dragged it down with him. The slime of the serpent passed over everything. The taint of sin marred the whole of God's work in this lower world. The creation was made subject to vanity, and it groaneth in pain together until now. But the Infinitely Blessed would not be defeated, and in infinite condescension he determined that he would make a new creation which should rise upon the ruins of the first. He resolved that under a second Adam something more than Paradise should be restored to the universe. He purposed that he would undo, through Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman, all the mischief that had been wrought by the serpent. He has commenced to undo this mischief, and to work this now creation, and so commenced that he will never withdraw his hand till the work is done. He has commenced it thus by putting new hearts into as many as he has called by his Spirit, regenerating them, and making them to become new creatures in Christ Jesus. These the apostle tells us are a kind of firstfruits of this now creation. We are the commencement of the future ingathering. Our new-born spirits are the first ripe ears of corn out of a wonderful harvest that will come by-and-by. The saints' spirits are, first of all, new-created; but their bodily parts remain in the old creation. Hence we suffer pain, for though the Spirit is life because of righteousness, "the body is dead because of sin." By-and-by their bodies shall be new-created, when, from beds of dust and silent clay, they shall upleap into immortal beauty. The resurrection will be to the body what regeneration is to the soul. When body and soul are thus created anew, the whole earth around them, in which they shall dwell, shall be, at the same time, renewed also; and so God shall make the spirits, the minds, the bodies, and the bodies of men, all now. These bodies, quickened by his Spirit who dwelleth in us, and united to souls purified and refined, shall tread upon an earth delivered from the curse, and shall be canopied beneath new heavens. Have they not new desires? Should not all above them be new? They shall tread a new earth for they have new ways. Inasmuch as this ought to be the subject of joy, and the text invites us to it, I come to press upon you the sweet duty of present delight. Oh, when happiness is made a precept, when joy is made a command, I cannot but hope that God's people, to whom I am now speaking, will answer to the call! Has joy become a duty? Then we will be joyous. Has gladness become a precept? Then we will gladly enough obey, and our heart shall dance for joy. I will read the text again, and then we will consider what sort of joy it is which is to arise out of the work of divine grace in the new creation. "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. I. First, then, concerning the joy to which we are called, we would say, IT IS A JOY IN CREATION: "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." I must confess that I think it a most right and excellent thing that you and I should rejoice in the natural creation of God. I do not think that any man is altogether beyond hope who can take delight in the nightly heavens as he watches the stars, and feel joy as he treads the meadows all bedecked with kingcups and daisies. He is not lost to better things who, on the waves, rejoices in the creeping things innumerable drawn up from the vasty deep, or who, in the woods, is charmed with the sweet carols of the feathered minstrels. The man who is altogether bad seldom delights in nature, but gets away into the artificial and the sensual. He cares little enough for the fields except he can hunt over them, little enough for lands unless he can raise rent from them, little enough for living things except for slaughter or for sale. He welcomes night only for the indulgence of his sins, but the stars are not one half so bright to him as the lights that men have kindled: for him indeed the constellations shine in vain. One of the purest and most innocent of joys, apart from spiritual things, in which a man can indulge, is a joy in the works of God. I confess I have no sympathy with the good man, who, when he went down the Rhine, dived into the cabin that he might not see the river and the mountains lest he should be absorbed in them, and forget his Savior. I like to see my Savior on the hills, and by the shores of the sea. I hear my Father's voice in the thunder, and listen to the whispers of his love in the cadence of the sunlit waves. These are my Father's works, and therefore I admire them, and I seem all the nearer to him when I am among them. If I were a great artist, I should think it a very small compliment if my son came into my house, and said he would not notice the pictures I had painted, because he only wanted to think of me. He therein would condemn my paintings, for if they were good for anything, he would be rejoiced to see my hand in them. Oh, but surely, everything that comes from the hand of such a Master-artist as God has something in it of himself! The Lord doth rejoice in his works, and shall not his people do so? He said of what he had made, "It is very good;" and he cannot be very good himself who thinks that which God makes is not very good. In this he contradicts his God. It is a beautiful world we live in

Every prospect pleases, And only man is vile."

There are lovely spots on this fair globe which ought to make even a blasphemer devout. I have said, among the mountains, "he who sees no God here is mad." There are things that God has made which overwhelm with a sense of his Omnipotence: how can men see them, and doubt the existence of the Deity? Whether you consider the anatomy of the body, or the conformation of the mighty heavens, you wonder that the scorner does not bow his head at least in silence and own the infinite supremacy of God. Well, now, if there be and I am sure there is something pure and elevating in joy in God as the Creator of ordinary things as the Maker of all this first creation much more is there something bright, and pure, and spiritually exhilarating, in rejoicing in God's higher works, in God's spiritual works, in God's new creation. Methinks, if a man feels within him a new heart, and rejoices in his new birth; if he sees in others new and holier lives, and rejoices in them; if he listens to the preaching of the gospel, and discovers in it now and better principles, such as the old worn-out world could never have discovered why, that man is a gracious man. The eye that can see the new nature is an eye that grace has given, and newly opened to new light. The heart that can rejoice in the new creation is a heart that is itself renewed, or else it would not comprehend spiritual things, and could not rejoice in them. I invite you, therefore, dear friends you that see, and know, and somewhat appreciate the new creation in its beginnings to joy, and to rejoice in it to-night. It is a delightful thing that God should make a tree, and bid it come forth in the springtide with all its budding verdure. It is a far better thing that God should take a poor thorny heart like yours and mine, and transform it till it becomes like the fir-tree or the pine-tree to his praise. It is a charming sight when bulbs, that have slept under ground through the winter, hold up their golden cups to be filled with the glory of the returning sun. But how much better that hearts that have lain dead in trespasses and sins should be moved by the secret touch of the Spirit of God to welcome the Sun of righteousness, and to rejoice in him! How glorious to see a slum become a sanctuary, a den of thieves a house of God! This is even more wonderful than for darkness to become light, and chaos yield to order. God's new creation, even in its beginnings here, and now, is a something to delight one's soul in. I pray you, delight yourselves therein. Behold, in the creation of a new heart, the manifest finger of God! What power to turn the human will to subdue fierce passions to change the very core and center of the heart! This is power in the moral and spiritual world as great as anything which can be seen even in the convulsions of earthquakes. Herein is wisdom too! We speak of the wisdom of God as soon in anatomy, in botany; or in astronomy; yet this wisdom is still more to be seen in regeneration in the making of the sinner who wandered from God, to become a saint who follows after holiness, in the bringing of the opposer of Christ to become his friend and advocate. To rule the will, and yet leave it free; to guide the heart, and yet to let it choose; to reverse the law of being, and yet to violate no law of man's nature herein is the wisdom of the Highest himself. The attributes of God are to be seen in the visible creation; but they are to be seen in a brighter and superior light in the new creation. There is no one of the attributes of God which has not its illustration under the economy of grace; and blessed shall your whole being be if you can to the full rejoice in that which God creates. There is one reason why you are called upon to rejoice in it, namely, that you are a part of it. When the angels saw God making this world, they sang together, and shouted for joy; but they were not a part of this lower world. They had nothing to do with man's estate, save as a matter of sympathy. But as for this new creation of our gracious God, you and I, beloved, who have believed in Jesus, are part of it. That same grace, which has quickened others into new life, has quickened us. The same Spirit, who has given new principles and new desires to others, has given them to us also. The Father hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are the central beings of the new creation, and so let us joy and rejoice in it with all our soul, and mind, and strength. I know, when I lay sore sick and tormented in body, it seemed always to be such a joy to me that I myself, my inner self, my spirit, had been new-created, and that my nobler part could rise above the suffering, and soar into the pure heavens of the spiritual realm; and I said of this poor body, "Thou hast not yet been new-created. Still doth the venom of the old serpent taint thee; but thou shalt yet be delivered. Thou shalt rise again if thou diest, and art buried, or thou shalt be changed if the Lord should suddenly come. Thou, poor body, thou that draggest me down to the dust in pain and sorrow, even thou shalt rise, and be made anew in 'the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body'; for the now creation has begun in me, even the earnest of the Spirit." O beloved, cannot you rejoice in this? I would incite you to do so. Rejoice in what God is doing in this new creation! Let your whole spirit be glad! Overflow with gladness! Let loose the torrents of praise! Leap down, ye cataracts of joy! Well, that is our first point. It is a joy in creation. II. And, secondly, IT IS A JOY WHICH WILL ECLIPSE ALL THAT HAS GONE BEFORE. Now, my text is, "And the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." God's great new-creating work ought to fill us with such joy as to make us forget the old creation, as though we said to ourselves: What are the sun and the moon? We shall not have need of these variable lights in the perfection of the new creation, for in heaven, "They need no candle, neither light of the sun." What is the sea, though it be the very mirror of beauty? In that new creation there will be no more sea, and storms, and tempests will be all unknown. What are these luxuries of sight and hearing? We shall not want them when our eyes shall behold the King in his beauty in the land that is very far off, the joy of the spiritual is such that, while it admits the joy of the natural, yet, nevertheless, it swallows it up as Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the magicians. In those last days we shall be in tune with Dr. Watts when he sang

"Lo! what a glorious sight appears To our believing eyes! The earth and seas are pass'd away, And the old rolling skies.

"From the third heaven, where God resides, That holy, happy place, The new Jerusalem comes down, Adorn'd with shining grace.

"The God of glory down to men Removes his bless'd abode, Men the dear objects of his grace, And he their loving God.

"His own soft hand shall wipe the tears From every weeping eye, And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears, And death itself shall die."

As an instance of the expulsive power of a new delight, we all know how the memory of the old dispensation is gone from us. Brethren, did any one of you ever weep because you did not sit at the Passover? Did you ever regret the Paschal lamb? Oh, never, because you have fed on Christ! Was there ever man that knows his Lord that ever did lament that he had not the sign of the old Abrahamic covenant in his flesh? Nay, he gladly dispenses with the rites of the old covenant, since he has the fullness of their meaning in his Lord. The believer is circumcised in Christ, buried in Christ, risen in Christ, and in Christ exalted to the heavenly places. Did you ever regret the absence of the burnt-offering, or the red heifer, or any one of the sacrifices and rites of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the feast of tabernacles, or the dedication? No, because, though those were like the old heavens and earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we now live under new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of divine teaching is concerned. The substance is come, and the shadow has gone; and we do not remember it. Now, I want you to feel just the same with regard to all your former life as you now feel towards that old dispensation. The world is dead to you, and you to the world. Carnal customs and attractions are for you abolished, even as the ancient sacrifices are abolished. What were your sins? They are blotted out: the depths have covered them: you shall see them again no more for ever. Seek not after them as though you had a lingering esteem for them. Let them not come to mind, except to excite you to repentance. What were your pleasures when you lived in sin? Forget them. They were very vapid, deceptive, destructive evils. You have a higher pleasure now which enchants your soul. What have been the sorrows of your past life, especially your sorrows while coming to Christ? You need not remember them; but, like the woman who remembereth no more her travail for the joy that a man is born into the world, so your birth into the new creation causes you to forget all the sufferings of your spirit in coming there. "Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!" I would to God that the joy of the new creation would so fill us right up to the brim that we should not imaging any other joy. This puts out all other joy as the sun hides all the stars. Let all go; let all go: rolled up as the heavens and the earth are to be, like vestures all outworn, let all of my past life be laid aside. Now put I on my new dress of sparkling joy and delight in the new things, for has not Christ made all things new to me? A new song is in my mouth, even praise to him for evermore; a new law is in my heart; and a new service engages all my powers. There is great scope for enlargement here, but I will not linger, lest I chase away your joy by speaking about it unto weariness. III. In the third place, IT IS A PRESENT AND A LASTING JOY; "But be ye glad and rejoice FOR EVER in that which I create." Be now glad, and now rejoice: it is a present joy. Take a delightful interest in that which God is now creating in the spiritual realm: though the work be only in the doing, yet be glad concerning it. Be glad in anything that the Lord has created in you. Has he created in you so much of the new life as to have produced conviction, repentance, faith in Christ, hope in the promise, longing for holiness? Be glad in this even if you have other circumstances pressing upon you, and causing you to be heavy of heart. Though you might be mourning because you are so sickly, yet be glad that you are born again. If somewhat distressed because you are so poor, yet be glad that you are a child of God, and have a place in the new family of love. Let the old things go, and grasp the new, the heavenly. The old creation bear with it a little longer, for the time of your redemption from its bondage draweth nigh. Find your joy where God would have you find it, namely, in that part of your nature which is new, in the now principles, the now promises, the now covenant, and the blood of the new covenant, which are yours all of them. Look no longer for the living among the dead, but let your heart dwell in the living world with your living Lord, and be glad. The kingdom of God is within you, rejoice in it. And I want you, also, to find your joy in the new creation of God, as you see it in others. The angels rejoice over one sinner that repents; surely you and I ought to do so! Try and do good, and bring others to Christ, and when a soul shows signs of turning to its God, let that be your joy. "be glad and rejoice in that which I create." I have had many rich draughts from this cup. I do not know anything that has made me so happy, hundreds and thousands of times in my life, as to see God at work in men's hearts; and, without exaggeration, to hear of this one and of that brought to Christ through the hearing or the reading of my sermons has been a heaven to me Oh, you may drink as much as you like of this cup of sympathy with God in his now creation-work! There is no intoxication about it to find a joy in the work of God in the hearts of others is healthy, unselfish delight. I know some snarling people who, if they hear of one being converted, say that "they hope it is genuine," which, being interpreted, means that they do not believe it is, and they almost hope it is not. "Oh, but," they say, if there is a great work done anywhere, "I never did like excitement! When I hear of many conversions, I expect many backsliding." Cold, dead fish that they are, excitement would not hurt them. A little boiling might do them good, perhaps. Ay, but if they meet with one who is an eminent Christian, and whose public character will bear the closest inspection, they say: "Ah, well! we do not know what he is at home;" and so they have always some sly word to say against God's work, just like the serpent in Eden coming, and hissing, "Yea, hath God said?" I would far rather be one of those that can see the beauty of God's handiwork in my fellow-Christians, than one who can spy out their defect. I think it is very beautiful where John Bunyan represents Christiana and Mercy as admiring each other. They had both enjoyed a wash in that wonderful beauty-giving bath, and Mercy said to Christiana, "How beautiful you are! I never saw anyone look so lovely as you are." But Christiania said that she was not beautiful at all; she could not see anything about herself to admire, while in Mercy she saw everything to esteem and love. Oh, to have an eye for the work of God in other people, and to rejoice in it! Such an eye sees not itself, and yet it is itself one of God's loveliest works. "Be ye glad and rejoice," says God, "in that which I create." Can we decline the sacred invitation? Nay, rather let us thankfully enter into the joy of our Lord. Be thankful for what God has done for yourself; be thankful for what God is doing in other people; and recollect that, if you once begin this joy, you need never renounce it, for the text says, "Be ye glad and rejoice for ever." Every day, and all the day, this light of joy is shining, for the Creator stays not his hand. As long as ever you live, there will be something in the new creation that shall be to you a wolf-spring of fresh joy and delight. Heaven will only enlarge this self-same joy. Be glad for ever, because God will ever be creating something fresh in which you may be glad. IV. Again, in the fourth place, it may be said of the joy which we ought to feel, that IT IS A JOY WHICH GOD INTENDED FOR US: "For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." He has made the new city, the new people, the new world to be a source of joy. Take Jerusalem as the emblem of the church of God. God always intended that his chosen, called, and converted people should be a rejoicing. He created you on purpose that you should yourselves be happy, and bring happiness to others. Do you not know that his name is the happy God, and nothing gives him greater happiness than to give happiness to his creatures? Do you think you were chosen to be a groaner all your days? Were you called to misery, dear brother? Does Jesus Christ say, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will make you doleful"? Does he say, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find agony in your hearts"? No; but he talks about rest, and peace, and joy, and blessedness. One wrote to me, some years ago, and said that he came into this congregation, and he felt at once that he must be in the wrong place, because he found so large an assembly. God's people, he said, are a small remnant; there are few that shall be saved. He had settled that matter in his own expanded soul. But he was still more sure that he was in the wrong place when he looked at me, for I looked happy; and in his judgment, if I had known anything about the experience of a tried child of God, my face would have been much longer, more wrinkled, and more sadly serious. I confess that my face does betray at times the fact that I am happy; and I cannot help it. But when this good man looked round on the great congregation you were not all here then but when he looked round on the vast congregation, and saw them all looking so happy, he felt that he must get out of the building as soon as he could, for such smiling people could not be the afflicted people of God. He walked, he said, some distance along our streets, feeling heavy at heart because of the joy he had witnessed; but at last he reached a little place in a court. The very aspect of the chapel gave him hope it was so small, and so hidden away. He entered, and, to his satisfaction, he found in the congregation less than a score: here were the faithful few. At any rate, he could say of this, "Is it not a little one?" The minister was as doleful as could be desired, and the subject was full of lamentation. He tells me that he sat down there in peace, for he found himself at home. I am glad he was suited. Different people have different ways, you know; and some love to be comfortably wretched. But I find myself miserable only when I keep away from my Lord and his work of new-creation. I have always found hitherto that when I can get under the shadow of his wings, my soul is at rest, and I look upon that restfulness and happiness as the work and fruit of the Spirit "the fruit of the Spirit is joy and peace." My impression is that I am not right when I give way to depression and melancholy. I certainly should not go to a place of worship seeking for doubt and despondency. Neither should I conclude that I must be on the way to heaven, because I felt in my own heart some of the miseries of hell. When I am despondent, I say to myself, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" I probably know as much about depression of spirit as any man that lives; but I consider myself foolish and blameworthy, a fool for knowing so much darkness, and I do not want to feel any more of it. I would like to drive myself out of it once for all if I could; for we ought to be glad, and rejoice for ever in that which God creates. He has created his people a rejoicing: yea, his people to be a joy. Ours is a heritage of joy and peace. My dear brethren and sisters, if anybody in the world ought to be happy, we are the people. How large our obligations! How boundless our privileges! How brilliant our hopes!

"Bright the prospect soon that greets us Of that long'd-for nuptial day, When our heavenly Bridegroom meets us On his kingly, conquering way; In the glory, Bride and Bridegroom reign for aye."

What should make us miserable? Shall the children of the bridechamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? Sin? that is forgiven. Affliction? that is working our good. Inward corruptions? they are doomed to die. Satanic temptations? we wear an armor which they cannot penetrate. We have every reason for delight, and we have moreover this command for it, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he will give thee the desires of thy heart." God bring us into that blessed condition, and keep us there! God intended not only that we should have joy, but that we should spread it among others. He intends that wherever we go we should be light-bearers, and set other lamps shining. Why are some so afraid of joy? They seem, wherever they go, to be busy in turning out the lambs. The first thing to be done is, "Take that child out." Dear little child, with its pleasant prattle, so happy at your feet! why send it away? If there is a very happy hymn in the book, do not sing it: it would be presumptuous. Sing

"Lord, what a wretched land is this."

Crooked metre, key dismal, tune dolorous. I fear that certain Christians go through this world making it miserable as they march through it. Oh, that they could see that Christ has come to destroy the works of the devil, and would have us rejoice in the new creation of our God! Alas, there are heady, hard-hearted persons abroad who, by their wilfulness and pride, would crush every flower in the garden beneath their wicked hoofs! Wherever they go, everything is despised, ridiculed, and kicked by them! This is the spirit of the evil one. Oh, do not so! Christian people, you dare not be so; you shall not be so: God will not let you be so: you must be gentle, compassionate, generous, kind, gracious. Wherever you go, try to make others happy; for God creates Jerusalem a rejoicing, and his people a joy: a joy to others who have no joy, a source of happiness to the saddest of our race. Help the widow, comfort the fatherless, succor the poor, cheer the desponding, tell the glad news to the weary heart. In the Father's hands, in Christ's hands, in the Spirit's hands, seek to break the prisoner's fetters, and to bring him out into the light of liberty: you, too, are anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives. May the God of infinite mercy help you and help me so to do! Now, dear friends, just for a minute upon this creation. I want to show how the work of God does create a joy-making people. As soon as ever we are converted, what is one of the first things that comes of it? Why, joy. The morning I found Christ it snowed very hard. The snow-flakes fluttered around me, like white doves, as I went home; and I felt just as light as those, for my soul was washed whiter than snow. It was not a gloomy winter's day to me: but all nature wore her bridal dress in sympathy with my delight. Was it not so with you on the day of your now birth? Were you not as happy as ever you could be when you first found the Savior? So far, you see, the Lord creates joy; and it is better still further on. When the creation of God goes on, and a man is helped to conquer sin, when the work of grace in his soul grows and increases, he cries, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory," and he gets increased joy in his soul over every conquered sin. When you and I see sin subdued, do we not feel happy? Whenever the news comes to me that a man has been reclaimed from drunkenness, or a woman is saved from the streets, or when I hear of a hard-hearted sinner repenting, I rejoice in the Lord. Conversion-days are our high holidays. Revivals are our jubilees. Thus the Lord gives us opportunities for joy and rejoicing as his new-creation work proceeds stage by stage. Better days are in store, it may be, and I trust that in years to come we shall more and more behold God working, and shall rejoice therein. But, by-and-by, there ill be a still greater joy. We shall enter into heaven, and there will be joy among the angels, and joy in our heart over God's new-creation work, which will proceed at a glorious rate. Then the nations will be converted to God. I know not when, nor exactly how, but the day shall come when Christ shall reign from pole to pole. And what a joy that will be! We shall indeed be glad in that which God creates, as the islands of the sea shall ring out his praise! Then Christ the Lord will come, and what joy and rejoicing there will be in that day when he has fully fashioned the new earth and the now heavens! His ancient people, the seed of Abraham, shall be gathered in with exultation. We will clap our hands when the longwandering nation shall turn unto the true God, and own the rejected Messiah, of the house of David! the Gentiles will not be jealous. They will rejoice as the Jew comes in; and then will the Jews rejoice over the Gentiles, as they see them worshipping Abraham's God. Everything that is to come in the eternal future flashes light into the eyes of believers, and calls upon them to rejoice in anticipation. Nothing prophesied should be dreaded by us. There is nothing foretold by seer, or beheld in vision, that can alarm the Christian. He can stand serenely on the brink of the great eternity, and say, "Come on! Let every event foretold become a fact! Pour out your vials, ye angels! Fall, thou star called Wormwood! Come, Gog and Magog, to the last great battle of Armageddon!" Nothing is to be dreaded: nothing is to be feared by those who are one with Jesus. To us remains nothing but joy and rejoicing, for God hath made his people a rejoicing; yea, his people a Joy. V. I finish up with the last point, IT IS A JOY IN WHICH WE SHARE WITH GOD. Gently, my tongue! Timidly and cautiously speak thou here! Here is thy warrant for supposing a fellowship with God and man in this joy "Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people." The wonderful comes out here. God himself, the Ever-blessed, finds joy in his new creation. Herein is ground for marvelling. I have often said to you that, when the Lord made the material world, there was not much in it to touch his spiritual nature, and so he simply spoke and said, in plain prose, "It is good." That was all: he said it was good. But when the Lord has made new heavens and earth, when he has finished, when the bride of Christ shall be brought to him you know the word, "He will rest in his love, he will joy over her with singing." Did you ever get into your hearts the idea of the Lord God singing? God singing over his church, over his Jerusalem, over his new creation! God singing! I can understand the angels singing for joy over God's work, but here is God singing over his own work. I will tell you something more wonderful than that: it is that you should be a part of that work, and that God should sing over you. And yet it is not so very wonderful, for is he not the Father, and doth not the Father sing over his prodigal son that wandered and is come back? is he not the Savior, and will not the Savior, who bought us with his blood, sing over us who are the purchase of his agonies? He is the Spirit, and shall not the Spirit, who has striven with us, and wrought all our works in us, sing when his work is done, and we are sanctified? Father, when thy eternal purposes are all fulfilled, thou wilt joy over thy people! Son of God, Redeemer, when all thy agonies shall have received their recompense in the salvation of thy redeemed, thou wilt rejoice over thy chosen! Holy Ghost, when all thy condescending, indwelling within us shall have accomplished its design, thou wilt rejoice in thy people! Come now, beloved, rejoice in sympathy with the divine heart! When the father found his son, he made the whole household merry, and shall not we be? When the woman had found her piece of money, she called together her friends and neighbors and she said, "Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost." Shall not we rejoice with the Spirit over the lost silver pieces? When the shepherd brought home his sheep, he said, "Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." Come, then, rejoice with the Father, rejoice with the Son, rejoice with the Spirit; and if the Lord God, as the Trinity in Unity, invites us to be glad and rejoice in that which he creates, let us not hold back, but let us sing his matchless love, and new-creating power, and infinite wisdom. I am sure you will sing, you must sing even now, if you know yourselves to be a part thereof. And now I close with this observation. Nobody will ever rejoice in this new-creating work of God while he is rejoicing in his own works, and trusting in himself, and boasting his own merits. It is a sign of grace when a man is sick of self, and is in harmony with God. When he leaves off rejoicing in what he can do, and comes to rejoice in what God has done, and is doing, then a change has been wrought upon him. Some of you are trying to save yourselves, and make yourselves right before God: as well might the dead try to find life for themselves. It cannot be done. You must be made new by a power you have not within yourself by a divine power. You must be born again, and this is the work of God; not your work. We shall know when this heavenly work is begun in you when you cease from rejoicing in anything that you are or can be of yourselves, and then shall you with us rejoice in that which God creates in you. Ring the bells of heaven! Tune your voices, sons of earth! He who makes all things new is on the throne, working out his holy pleasure. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen.