Isaiah 65
There are many things in life that make a productive and fruitful use of something old in the creation of something that seems entirely new. Think of the sourdough starter that lasts for years and the delicious crusty bread that is baked with the addition of new ingredients. Add some time for the dough to rise, and the heat of an oven, and the final product is wonderful. More significantly, a family line continues with the birth of an entirely new child, but of course the child did not sprout out of the air. Every child has a mother and a father. There is a heritage that cannot be entirely abandoned, even when the next generation may wish to start again with no reference to anything or anyone who has come before.
The New Testament community is clearly something very new. Yet God was pleased to use a remnant from His Old Covenant community like a starter for the new loaf. Then He added in the flour of the elect from Gentile lands and kneaded the old and the new into one community of His choosing. In doing this He added in a “nation” that was not previously called by His name. Of course this was not actually just one nation, but we need to remember that in the Jewish context, one was either a Jew or a Gentile, as if there are only two nations in the world. In this sense God was bringing in many people from that other nation.
His experience with the Jews was heartbreaking. The details of their rebellion fill the pages of the Old Testament prophets and the pages of Biblical history. Here in Isaiah 65 they are presented as participants in pagan rituals, yet we know that He is talking about
The Lord is explicit here that this will not be such a completely new start so as to exclude all who were once in the Old Covenant community. He will not destroy all of the descendants of Jacob. He will have a chosen group of servants who will have a very important role in what is to come. Think of how wonderfully this prophesy was fulfilled. First and foremost, the Lord was a descendant of Jacob, from the tribe of
Before we imagine the wrong thing and potentially minimize the transition between the covenants, we would do well to note that Isaiah is very clear that most of the Israelites will not be included in the group called “my servants.” God says that His servants will eat, drink, rejoice, and sing for joy, but there are many others who will be hungry, thirsty, wailing, and ashamed. So many of the Old Covenant people will face the judgment of God, while the remnant that remains will be combined with so many new faces in the celebration of the victory of our Messiah. This combined new group will be given a new name, and the former troubles of the old age will be forgotten.
There is something perfect here that takes us past the borders of our current experience. This is New Covenant fulfillment, not just New Covenant inauguration. This will be the new heavens and the new earth. Christ has given us the beginning of this new era in His death and resurrection, and Christ will grant to us the fulfillment of the good plans of God based upon the merit that is His alone. God will create a joyous New Jerusalem, and there will be no weeping in that city. The Lord who saved us with His blood is the God who will be with us to answer us before we even call. In His presence are unnatural but entirely wholesome joys. There with Jesus the wolf and the lamb can graze together, and the lion and the ox will safely feed with one another.
This can only be the holy mountain of the Lord, a place beyond the sting of death and the grave. To go there, we needed a man who had victory over the curse we deserved. He defeated the curse by taking it in His own body. This great man of the Old Covenant people became the cornerstone of the New Covenant people. Now Jew and Gentile are one body in Christ, and we are together the people of one Lord. This New Covenant, when it fully shines, will make us forget our old rebellions in the glory of the face of our sinless Redeemer.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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