Isaiah 65:17-25 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Saints Triumphant Sunday, November 17, 2019 “Welcome Home to an Everlasting Family”
“Nothing lasts forever.” That’s a phrase that people use both to comfort each other and to warn each other. When things are going well, we worry and anticipate that things will change. Nothing lasts forever, so the good times will have to come to an end. The fun trip, the delicious meal, the entertaining conversation or show, all will have an end point. People also use that phrase to comfort each other when things are not going so well. When someone is feeling down, when there are financial struggles, family or relationship difficulties, and all sorts of other challenges, we say, “Things will get better. Nothing lasts forever.” But how comforting is that, really? Sure, it is very likely that a particular issue will pass, but who knows what other challenge might appear? There’s really not a whole lot of comfort in a blind hope that whatever difficulty we face will eventually come to an end. Our service this morning and our sermon text from Isaiah 65 remind us that we have something that can comfort us. We have something that does last forever. When we are at home in the Christian Church, we are part of an everlasting family, an eternal family. And while you will not find those exact words in our verses from Isaiah 65, you will find that concept and that comfort. We are part of an everlasting family because God has rescued his people. To get the full sense of these verses, you have to understand that they follow on several chapters and verses of terrible news for the people of Israel, God’s chosen nation from long ago. God warned them about destruction. He warned them that their cities would be ruined and that hardly anything or anyone at all would be left. Even when the faithful believers in Israel prayed that God would bring the whole nation back to him, even when they asked for restoration, God’s answer was “no.” It was too late. For too long the people had run away from him and gone against his decrees and laws. For too long they had done evil. Specifically, God predicted through the prophet that their enemies the Babylonians would carry the people off into captivity and would destroy their homeland. And so the word of God through the prophet in the verses before us this morning shine like a ray of hope. They ring out above the noise of the threats God was making and the punishment that he intended to bring. For the little remnant of his faithful people who would remain, God had a wonderful promise. He would make a change. He would do something new. He would change the distress and damage and destruction that he threatened and would bring the people into peace and security and prosperity. He would bring out of their destruction something beneficial and wonderful. He would rescue his people, and he would be with them. He would rejoice over his people and answer them. We have seen God fulfil his promise to rescue his people. He sent his beloved Son Jesus into our world to pay the price for our rebellion and wickedness. Jesus died on the cross as he faced the punishment that our wickedness had earned. He suffered the consequences of the whole world’s sinfulness. He brought to all who believe in him the sort of peace that God promised through Isaiah, the peace that has undone all of the damage and the difficulty that sinners faced before. You may have noticed that the words of Isaiah’s prophecy seem to mix together some ideas that we often keep separate. It speaks about people living to be one hundred years old before dying, people living in their own houses where they can harvest their own crops and fruits while at the same time talking about a place with no weeping or crying, a place of nothing but joy. That latter description sounds like we are talking about eternity in heaven, but the promises about old age and crops and vineyards don’t seem to fit in the same way. Yes, Isaiah is describing heaven, but he is also describing other things. He is speaking with what Bible scholars call prophetic perspective, which means that he can see things that happen at different periods of history without necessarily distinguishing between them.