The New Heaven - Isaiah 62-66

 Isaiah 65:17-25 (ESV)

New Heavens and a New Earth

“For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever

in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

and her people to be a gladness.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

No more shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

They shall not labor in vain

or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,

and their descendants with them.

Before they call I will answer;

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain,”

says the LORD.

The above is where all this is headed.  God is going to establish a place that restores what He created in the Garden of Eden.  The one thing that is not listed in the above passage is sin.  If God were to remove sin from this world, right now, the above is what it all would look like. But sin has destroyed this earth.  Jesus needed to redeem us from sin and eventually will return to destroy all remnants of sin’s destruction.  He will create a new heaven and earth that looks like the above.   That is where we live for eternity.   Imagine!!  

Those Who Oppress the Poor Will Meet Judgement - Job 23-24

Job 24:4-12 (ESV)

They thrust the poor off the road;

the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert

the poor go out to their toil, seeking game;

the wasteland yields food for their children.

They gather their fodder in the field,

and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.

They lie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the rain of the mountains

and cling to the rock for lack of shelter.

(There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the poor.)

They go about naked, without clothing;

hungry, they carry the sheaves;

among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil;

they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

From out of the city the dying groan,

and the soul of the wounded cries for help;

yet God charges no one with wrong.

The above is an argument by Job as he is in a verbal battle with the very friends who came to comfort him. Instead they are accusing him of sin and saying that his affliction is  primarily due to his sin. One of the sins they have accused him of (only generally of course) is neglecting the poor.  Here is what his friend Eliphaz has accused him of:

Job 22:6-7 (ESV)

For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing

and stripped the naked of their clothing.

You have given no water to the weary to drink,

and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

Job is saying that he has not done this and if he did, God has not, YET, disciplined others for this, why would God single out Job? 

Job has been declared righteous by God.  He knows this but Job’s friends do not.  Job’s argument is that if he could just stand before God, God would vindicate him.  He knows God will, eventually, judge those who injury the poor (as described in the above verses) and God will tell others, this is not a sin of Jobs. 

The oppression of the poor will be judged.  No, Job did not do these things.  The accusations against him are false.  But the oppression of those vulnerable in his midst is real.  These counselors (friends) are seeing this and making a false assumption this is Job’s sin.  

Job admits in the last first of the above strain that God has not yet judge those who injure the poor.   But he will.  This we know.  

Vengeance and Retaliation - Psalms 33-35

Psalms 35:23-26 (ESV)

Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication,

for my cause, my God and my Lord!

Vindicate me, O LORD, my God,

according to your righteousness,

and let them not rejoice over me!

Let them not say in their hearts,

“Aha, our heart’s desire!”

Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether

who rejoice at my calamity!

Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor

who magnify themselves against me!

There may be one thing that brings all men down and that is when you are falsely accused of a wrong you did not do.  In the above song we see David write about this fact.  He wants God to rescue him.  But he does not seek vengeance or retaliation himself.  He leaves it up to God.  

In John MacArthur’s New Testament Commentary, he writes about vengeance: It is important to note that retaliation belongs to God alone. The Bible explicitly forbids Christians to take their own vengeance. 

Notice what Jesus said about vengeance and retaliation: 

Matthew 5:43-48 (ESV)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Here is a week’s worth of prayers you can pray over your desire for vengeance:

(MONDAY) 

Proverbs 20:22 (ESV)

Do not say, “I will repay evil”;

wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

(TUESDAY) 

Romans 12:14 (ESV)

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Romans 12:17 (ESV)

17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

(WEDNESDAY) 

Romans 12:18 (ESV)

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

(THURSDAY)

Romans 12:19 (ESV)

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

(FRIDAY)

Romans 12:20 (ESV)

20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Romans 12:21 (ESV)

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

(SATURDAY) 

1 Thessalonians 5:15 (ESV)

15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

(SUNDAY) 

1 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

The Power of God in History - 1 Samuel 6-10

1 Samuel 6:6-7 (ESV)

Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them.

To set the scene for the above passage we have to go back to the previous chapters.   Israel had decided to attack the Philistines, their arch enemy.   To embolden their troops they sent the Ark of the Covenant into the battle, lead by Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.  Not only was Israel defeated and the two boys died, but the Ark was taken by the Philistines.  It was placed into a temple for their god, Dagon, in the city of Ashdod.  The morning after it was placed there the Philistines found this statue of Dagon, on the ground, prostrate before the Ark.  They set Dagon back up and the next morning the false god was on the ground again and his hands and head were cut off.  

The Philistines didn’t know what to do.  On top of all this the longer they had the Ark the worse it got.  God moved among them and He afflicted their people with tumors.  

This is when the leadership called for their own priest and their own diviners to find out what they should do.   Here is one of the marvelous things out of this text.  The priest and diviners point to a significant historical moment to give their leaders counsel.  They point to how God destroyed Egypt many, many years prior.  This is not some Jewish religious leader pointing them to the power of Yahweh, this is the foreign religious leaders.  They point to a historical, known event of God’s intervention in the affairs of mankind, for His people.  

Today’s scholars fail to recognize these historical events in Scripture.   But these false teachers knew something should be done.  They give counsel and it rescues the Philistines from this peril.  But the counsel is not based upon their beliefs. It is based upon the power of the living God.

Psalms 67:3-4 (ESV)

Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

for you judge the peoples with equity

and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

Finish Well - Genesis 44-47

Genesis 47:29-31 (ESV)

And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.” And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.

Jacob (Israel) was concerned about honoring God right up to his death and burial.  Running the path of belief is not one where you slow down or stop at the end. When I ran track in high school the track coach would say, “Run right through the tape at the finish line as though you had to break down a wall.  Don’t slow as you reach the line, run through it with the same energy you started the race.”

Abraham did this:

Hebrews 11:8-10 (ESV)

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Paul did this:

2 Timothy 4:7-8 (ESV)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

When we come to the end we need to make sure, by faith, we finish the race. 

Jesus did that:

Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I should do this!!! 

Church Discipline - 1 Corinthians 5-6

1 Corinthians 5:11 (ESV)

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Paul is pretty clear about most of his doctrine. He doesn't hide what he believes and wants us to teach others. In most of his books he lays out his doctrine so that everyone can grasp it, with a few exceptions in each book. Peter told us that Paul has some "hard things" to understand. I would agree but I think he has "harder things" he writes to "practice" (Read Romans 12 if you don't believe me!). But in this chapter he gives us some hard, hard truth to grasp and to practice. In 5:11 Paul writes: 

But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so- called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler —not even to eat with such a one. 

Paul had just told the church at Corinth that he was NOT telling them they couldn't associate with the unsaved world who did these things, but to stay away from someone who calls himself or herself a brother and does these things. The context of chapter five is that there was a young man in the church, who claimed to be a believer, who was sleeping with his step-mother. Apparently all the church knew about it (5:1-10). Paul tells them they shouldn't avoid contact with the unsaved world ... that would necessitate them "coming out of the world" (the implication being that would be impossible). Paul does, however, want them to use their "social" contact as a form of discipline for the "saved brother/sister" who is practicing open sin. 

This type of "discipline" is neither practiced, preached or accepted by the church today. Imagine a pastor standing in his pulpit today and "telling" the members not to "associate" with the saved brother/sister who everyone knows is living in open sin! Even with the authority of God's Word most would not do it or fail to believe it or even revolt against it. The truth Paul writes is very, very easy to understand. I can affiliate with unsaved men/women who practice sinful deeds. I am NOT to affiliate with believers who do the exact same thing. Truth is truth ... but it doesn't mean it is easy to do!