Readings for today: Isaiah 64-66
I meet people all the time who are asking the question, “Is this all there is?” Is this world all there is? Is this life all there is? Are the 70, 80, 90 years of life all I get? And to what end? I spend my life working hard to provide for myself and my family. I achieve some measure of success. I do my best to stay active and healthy. I enjoy some wonderful experiences along the way. My wedding. The birth of my children and grandchildren. Certain milestones or achievements that hopefully leave the world a better place. But then what? Is all I have to look forward to in retirement a slow, steady decline? Or perhaps a tragic diagnosis that robs me of what little strength I have left? Will my mind start to fail along with my body? Will I be missed after I’m gone? These are real, honest questions asked by many thoughtful people I’ve had the privilege of walking beside as a pastor over the years.
Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t leave us guessing. He doesn’t leave us groping about in the dark for answers. He tells us exactly what’s going to happen. He lets us in on the end of the story. Listen to how Isaiah puts it, “I’m creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating: I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight. I’ll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal— anything less will seem like a cheat. They’ll build houses and move in. They’ll plant fields and eat what they grow. No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. They won’t work and have nothing come of it, they won’t have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard. Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes—they’ll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God.” (Isaiah 65:17-25 MSG)
It’s a beautiful picture of the life to come. A life not lived in some vaporous, ephemeral, spiritual existence but one that is physical and tangible and as real as it gets. God is going to renew the heavens and the earth. The heavenly dimension where He lives and reigns will eventually absorb this world and all that is in it. Life as we know it will be transformed. All that is wrong about this world will be set right. Every injustice will be addressed. Every hurt will be healed. Every tear will be wiped away. Every grief will be comforted. Every pain erased. Death will be no more. Sin will be no more. Evil will be no more. God Himself will rule and reign over a renewed creation and a renewed people as He originally intended. This is the end of all things. This is the telos of all things. This is where all of history is headed.
So here’s our challenge. Living with God’s end in mind. Living today for the world tomorrow. Trusting God for the future even as we labor in the present. Believing that every thought, every word, every action carries eternal weight because of what God has done and what God will do. Simply put, heaven is the answer to our deepest questions. Heaven is the satisfaction for our deepest longings. Heaven gives meaning and purpose to every moment of our lives. We are called to live as citizens of heaven in a world full of death. Our lives to be light in a world full of darkness.
Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 21, 2 Chronicles 33