Day Fifty-Three - Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth

Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 66:24

This is our fifth and final day of reading the Book of Isaiah.  We finish with what is referred to as Third Isaiah.  The historical background of these writings is the conquering of Babylon by King Cyrus, who decided that the peoples who had been exiled by the Babylonians could return to their own lands.  Many of the Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the Temple and the walls about the city (we read about this in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah).  As you may recall, the return of the exiles put them in conflict with the Jews who had been allowed to stay.  The writings in Third Isaiah do not follow a unified theme but touch on a number of issues including the sin of the people, the hope that God would not continue to the angry with them, and what constitutes true religion such as justice and the care of the poor.

Of all the enduring images in Isaiah (e.g., the birth of a child named Emmanuel and the passages of suffering servant - both of which Christians would later relate to Jesus) there is the image of God creating something new.  It will be like starting all over, not with a repeat of everything that has occurred, but with a new intention given to the very heart of creation itself.  "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. . . The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD. (65:17-25).

And may all God's people say: Amen!