Heaven and earth have passed away…Isaiah 65 & 66

Heaven and earth have passed away…Isaiah 65 & 66

Open your bibles to Isaish 65.

A couple things about tonight:

1.        Covering a lot of ground, so my commentary will be brief and to the point.  I won’t address every single element in the text as I did with Matt 5 and Rev 21, I simply want to examine this passage in light of the new heavens and new earth.

2.       Feel free to ask questions in the middle of this.  Raise hands.  I may or may not address the questions.  If you feel lost or confused, I don’t want you to get left behind, so please ask.  If I feel like we can address that through email or after group, I may defer your question for the time being.

3.      Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas.  Preterist church in Georgetown Texas.  New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas.  Pastor David Boone.preterism covenant eschatology.

As you do so, I’d like to draw your attention to 3 things that will help us in our understanding of this passage.

1.        Prophetic nature and time of fulfillment

2.       Apocalyptic, metaphoric, symbolic nature

3.       Recall the doctrine of the 2 Israels (indicated by red and blue)

Isaish 65

¹ “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; 
   I was found by those who did not seek me. 
To a nation that did not call on my name, 
   I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ 

The “I” here is God.  God is speaking past tense, though this is a vision of things to come (not to come for us, but for Isaiah).  We are reading this as history.  Isaiah spoke it as prophecy.  Paul quotes this in Romans 10 and seems to say that it applies to his ministry to the gentiles as God has revealed himself to them due to Israel’s collective rejection.

² All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, 
   pursuing their own imaginations— ³ a people who continually provoke me to my very face, 
offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; ⁴ who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of impure meat; ⁵ who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’ Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.

Notice here that God is speaking about how he held out his hands to Israel but they were unwilling and obstinate.  We see this in the words of Jesus Matt 23…

Look at the accusations God brings against them: they are doing evil things breaking covenant with God and all the while propping themselves up as being righteous.  In other words, they are being hypocrites, the very thing that Jesus accuses the rulers of OC Israel of throughout the gospels.  God says these people are smoke in his nostrils.  In other words, he’s not digging it.

 ⁶ “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps— ⁷ both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the LORD. 
“Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”

After calling them hypocrites and pronouncing woe upon woe to them he says this in Matt 23

Now this wasn’t true of the entire house of Israel, for there were some who believed and followed Jesus.  Here again we have the distinction between the 2 Israels: Israel according to the flesh and true Israel according to the spirit.  Israel according to the flesh who rejected Jesus would be the ones who were paid back in full and have full payment measured into their laps.

However, in the midst of this group who had collectively become God’s enemies, there is a believing remnant whom he designates as his servants.

 ⁸ This is what the LORD says: “As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is still a blessing in it,’ so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all. ⁹ I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live. ¹⁰ Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me.

So in vv 8-10, the text speaks of the remnant, true Israel according to the spirit.  You have this cluster of grapes that represents the entire house of OC Israel, both the righteous and the wicked.  This is an appropriate designation for Israel, since Israel is called God’s vineyard.  See Isaiah 5.  See also Deut 32 (the first passage we looked at designating Israel as heavens and earth).  God says just like when someone is about to destroy an entire cluster of grapes and someone sees a few good grapes on it they say, save the good grapes, don’t destroy the whole cluster, so also he will do with Israel.  The few good grapes will be spared.  This refers to the believing remnant, true Israel, spiritual Israel.

He now turns his words back to the unrighteous unbelieving OC Israel, aka his enemies:

 ¹¹ “But as for you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, ¹² I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will fall in the slaughter; 

In other words, you who reject the words of my son Jesus, your destiny will be slaughter by the sword.  I will exact upon you covenantal wrath prescribed in Deut 28.  You break covenant and forsake me, I will bring a nation against you to destroy you, namely the Romans and this is manifest in 70 AD.

for I called but you did not answer,  I spoke but you did not listen. 

More specifically, I sent not just any old prophet to you but I spoke through my son, but you did not listen.

You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.”

You chose rather than listening to him, to put him to death, siding with the Romans.

 ¹³ Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: He is saying this to the unbelieving OC Israelites:

   “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; this is reminiscent of Jesus’ words in the SOM.  Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.  While there is a spiritual reality to this for sure, I think there may also be a physical reality.  When Rome seiged Jerusalem, there was such a severe famine that they cooked and ate their children.
my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. ¹⁴ My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit. 

So true Israel, believers will rejoice while the unbelieving are put to shame and destroyed; there will be mourning and crying and pain, wailing, weeping and gnashing of teeth.  They are the ones on whom will come covenantal wrath for being covenant breakers.

¹⁵ You (unbelieving Israel according to the flesh) will leave your name for my chosen ones to use in their curses; the Sovereign LORD will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name. So true Israel will inherit the name Israel, but not only that, they will be given another name: Christians.  His true servants have the privilege of being called Christians, meaning little Christs or follower of Christ.  Peter shows that this is indeed the name given to God’s new covenant people.  1 Peter 4:16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

¹⁶ Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the one true God; whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the one true God. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.  ¹⁷ “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 

Here, in the midst of the destruction of unbelieving OC Israel by the sword and their wailing, the rejoicing of true Israel in triumph, we have the creation of a new heavens and a new earth.  So the context and timeframe of the creation of the new heavens  and earth is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans.

¹⁷ “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 

CH SPURGEON preached a sermon on this verse back in (1865)
"Did you ever regret the absence of the burnt-offering, or the red heifer, of any one of the sacrifices and rites of the Jews? Did you ever pine for the feast of tabernacle, or the dedication? No, because, though these were like the old heavens and earth to the Jewish believers, they have passed away, and we now live under a new heavens and a new earth, so far as the dispensation of divine teaching is concerned. The substance is come, and the shadow has gone: and we do not remember it." (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xxxvii, p. 354).

Spurgeon identifies the new heavens and earth as a new people under a new covenant and the things that are remembered no more as being the things of the old covenant world of types and shadows.  Scripture confirms the same.

Jer 3:14-17  ¹⁴ “Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. ¹⁵ Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the LORD, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. ¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

This is clearly a prophecy about the new covenant.  New shepherds, new rulers, aka new heavens.  The people will be righteous, not following stubbornness of evil hearts, the nations, or Gentiles will be gathered into Jerusalem – new Jerusalem, made up not only of ethnic Jews but also gentiles.  New covenant.  Look what he says in verse 16 No longer will people be about the ark of the covenant.  Under the OC, this was a huge deal.  To say that the ark of the covenant won’t enter people’s minds; the ark of the covenant contained the tablets of the OC.  That was everything to them; it represented God’s presence and went before them in battle.  To say that it won’t enter their minds or be remembered is clearly a reference to a new covenant.  When was the last time you said, “Hey, about that ark of the covenant”?  How often does that come to your mind?  It doesn’t.  Because the new heavens and earth is a reality now in which the former things don’t come to mind, nor are they remembered.  This doesn’t mean that you forget all about them and can’t remember them, just as god remembering our sins no more doesn’t mean that he has selective alzheimers; it means it isn’t the focus.

¹⁷ “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 

In other words, I will create a new people under a new covenant and OC Israel along with her socio political religious system is no longer the focus.

¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. New Jerusalem characterized by joy in whom God delights. ¹⁹ I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. This is essentially the same thing that Rev 21:1-4 says. 

Now what he is about to say in the next portion of the text indicates the removal of the socio political religious system of old, namely the OC.  In other words, the new earth is accompanied by a new heavens, a new religious order.  The old religious order, the OC was characterized by curses for disobedience to the Law of Moses.  The new religious order ,the NC is void of such curses.

Let’s read just a little from these covenant curses.

Deut 28:15-35   ¹⁵ However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: ¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. ¹⁷ Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. ¹⁸ The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. ¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.^[a] 21The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. ²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. ²⁴ The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

 ²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. ²⁶ Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷ The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. ²⁹ At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.

 ³⁰ You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. ³³ A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. ³⁴ The sights you see will drive you mad. ³⁵ The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

That is a description of life in the Old Order, the old heavens.  Now back in Isaiah, let’s read a description of the new order under the new covenant.

 ²⁰ “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach^[a] a hundred will be considered accursed. ²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. 

Compare this with Deut 28:30 You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.

For the old heavens and earth, disobedience to the Law resulted in building and planting in vain because God would give them to others.  For the new heavens and earth, the new people under the new covenant, ²¹ They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ²² No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. 

Again, the context is clearly covenantal, not cosmological.  The new heavens and new earth have everything to do with a change in covenant worlds not a change in planets.

For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. ²³ They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; 
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. ²⁴ Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. ²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together, 
and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.

These are removals of the covenant curses.  Everything from the terms of the covenant that would curse OC Israel has been removed.

Something fascinating to note is the connection between these curses of the OC and the curses in the garden.  I don’t want to go too far down this road, but I will briefly mention

·         The man’s curse: toil in vain as he works the ground

·         The woman’s curse: bringing forth children in pain

·         The serpent’s curse: eating dust (note the serpent’s curse isn’t removed but remains the same).

In verse 25 we read: ²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox

Now remember, this is prophetic language steeped in metaphor and imagery.  Just as the heavens and earth does not represent the literal solar system and planet, but people and rulers and political religious order, the wolf and lamb are not literal.  The reconciliation between wolf and lamb is representative of the reconciliation between Jew and Gentile and their joining together to become one people of God together.  There is no longer hostility between these 2 groups that used to be completely distinct.  There is peace and unity as they dwell together on Mt Zion.  It’s like a longhorn and an Aggie sitting together in peace at the Red River rival game.

Now ignore the chapter division.  Isaiah’s prophecy about the new heavens and earth continues uninterrupted; he didn’t put the 66 there.

¹ This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me?  Where will my resting place be? ² Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD.

Remember the distinction between the 2 Israels: his enemies and his servants.  He has been speaking of his servants, true Israel.  Of them, he says:

   “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word. 

So he looks with favor upon true Israel…

³ But (contrast, now he speaks of Israel according to the flesh) whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a person, and whoever offers a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense is like one who worships an idol. 

Here, once again, we see the covenantal context.  God is saying that once the new heavens and earth is established, the new people under the new covenant, for anyone to continue making animal sacrifices or grain offerings or burning incense is like a murderer and idolater.  This is about a change in covenant.  During the days of OC, God looked with favor upon sacrifices of bulls and grain offerings and incense burned to him.  But in the days of the New Covenant, not so much.  Just as Paul said that circumcision doesn’t matter or New moons, Sabbaths, special days months, seasons and years, in the new covenant, such sacrifices mean nothing, in fact God despises them because they are all fulfilled in Christ and to choose to do them is not to obey God, but to choose their own ways, since God has established a new covenant and that Covenant is bound up in Christ, not the Law of Moses.

They have chosen their own ways, and they delight in their abominations; ⁴ so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.”

This is pretty much the same thing God said in Is 65:12  He called them through Christ, but they did not listen, but did evil in his sight, chose what displeased him, crucifying His son and siding with Rome.  For that, he chooses harsh treatment for them.  Namely, he brings Rome against them to destroy them.

So he was just speaking about Israel according to the flesh.  Now, he makes True Israel his audience:

 ⁵ Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: “Your own people who hate you, and exclude you because of my name, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy!’ Yet they will be put to shame. 

This is a word of comfort to believing Israel whose kinsman according to the flesh hated them and kicked them out of the synagogue because of the name of Jesus.  They were mocking believers and putting them to shame, but God says it is the unbelieving Jews who will actually be put to shame.  How?  When they revolt against Rome and start a war, thinking God will protect us, we are God’s chosen people.  As the prophets say, he will give us victory over our enemies.  Let’s all gather into the city and take refuge in the Temple.  God will protect us.  Yet, they didn’t realize that it was they who had become God’s enemies and the prophecies were actually about God protecting his True people who were believers.  So the believers have victory as they flee the city per Jesus’ instructions while the unbelievers are put to shame in their destruction by the hands of the Romans.

⁶ Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple! It is the sound of the LORD 
   repaying his enemies all they deserve.It doesn’t get any clearer than that.  The unbelieving Jews who made themselves God’s enemies are being repaid as they deserve as their city and temple are destroyed.

 ⁷ “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. 
⁸ Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. ⁹ Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. ¹⁰ “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. ¹¹ For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.”

Once again, poetic words to describe the birth of a new people of God who find favor and abundance in the new covenant.

 ¹² For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. ¹³ As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” ¹⁴ When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; When you see this.  When you see the destruction and judgment of OC Israel and the establishment of NC Israel.  When you see that your heart will rejoice.

the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. 

Once again, the contrast between the 2 Israels.  One is his servants the other his enemies or foes.  Hand made known to servants, fury shown to foes.  How is that fury manifest?  Fire and sword – namely the fire and sword of the Romans.

¹⁵ See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶ For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment on all people, and many will be those slain by the LORD.

Here we see the LORD coming in judgment on his people.  Jesus on the scene was nearly stoned a few times.  Remember why?  Blasphemy.  He claimed to be God.  So when Jesus said that He would come in the glory of His father, he was essentially saying that He would fulfill the coming of God to judge his enemies.  So here in Is 66:15, we have a prophecy about the second coming of Christ which is manifest in the fire and sword of Rome in the destruction of the city and the temple.

 ¹⁷ “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,” declares the LORD.

 ¹⁸ “And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.

Here we have, I believe the gathering of God’s elect.

 ¹⁹ “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations. ²⁰ And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels.

Here we have the Gentiles being brought into the commonwealth of Israel.  That word nations refers to the gentiles.  Once again, the context is covenantal not cosmological.  Gentiles are brought into God’s covenant community in the New Covenant, it’s not a new planet reality, but a new covenant reality.

 ²¹ And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.

Now this is clearly a reference to new covenant realities.  Under the Old covenant, only those who descended from Levi were levites and only they could serve as priests.  However, God speaks of selecting some from the Gentiles to BE priests and Levites.  How do you select someone to become a Levite?  You can’t unless you break the Law of Moses.  Yet this is the very thing God says he will do.  He will make some of the Gentiles to be Levites and priests.  Because in the NC, there is a new order, a new priesthood.  In other words all believers are priests.  The priests represent the people before God, they do the ministry of representing the people before God and bringing people to God.  That is exactly what we Gentiles do in the new covenant.  This is a new covenant reality, not a new planet reality.

 ²² “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure. Once again, new people under a new covenant.  Not one that will pass away, but one that will endure.

²³ From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. Here the context defines the all mankind.  It doesn’t mean that every human being period will bow down before God any more than salvation is a reality for all human beings but only those in Christ.  So the all mankind here is to be understood in light of the context.  He just finished saying that many will come from the nations.  In other words, Gentiles are included in this new people under a new covenant.  So the all mankind means men from all nations, not just ethnic Israelites.  Men from all nations will come and bow down before God as King.

²⁴ “And they (the all mankind who bow before God) will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

Once again, remember the context.  The context here has been clearly the judgment of unbelieving OC Israel and establishment of a new people under a new covenant beginning with believing Jews and extending to believing Gentiles.  This is a first century context.  More specifically, the context is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by Rome.  The context begins long before we started reading.

Is 63:18 For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.  Jerusalem being trampled on by the Gentiles for 3.5 years.

Is 64:11-12 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.  After all this, LORD, will you hold yourself back?  Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?  Once again, destruction of the temple and all that the Jews treasured burned with fire in their punishment.

Is 65:6-7 ⁶ “See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps— ⁷ both your sins and the sins of your ancestors,” says the LORD. “Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”

Is 65:12 I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will fall in the slaughter

Is 66:4 so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring on them what they dread

Is 66:6 Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple!  It is the sound of the LORD repaying his enemies all they deserve.

Is 66:15-16 ¹⁵ See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶ For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment on all people, and many will be those slain by the LORD.

So the context is the judgment of unbelieving OC Israel and their temple by the fire and sword of Rome in 70 AD.  So when we come to the last verse here in Isaiah, a prophetic book filled with poetic and apocalyptic language, we rest in the context and understand the verse accordingly:

²⁴ “And they (the all mankind who bow before God) will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

Compare this with Jesus’ words in Mark 9:42-48.  This refers to the dead bodies in Gehenna – the Valley of Ben Hinnom, one of the valleys that surrounds Jerusalem, where there was a perpetual burning.  Jeremiah prophesied about the days when the city of Jerusalem would be made like Topheth (Gehenna).  I believe this coincides perfectly with Isaiah 66:24.  The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans did make the city of Jerusalem like Gehenna.  In v24, the dead bodies of those who rebelled against God are the bodies of those slain by the Romans in the Jewish war.  The language indicates that this is a permanent judgment and OC Israel is permanently under the wrath of God, put to death, never to rise again.

In conclusion, when you consider Isaiah’s prophecy about the new heavens and earth you see that it clearly has a first century context, not one in our future.  You also see that the context is covenantal, not cosmological.  Isaiah is not discussing a new planet and solar system, but the establishment of a new people of God under a new covenant.  This new people starts with a believing remnant of ethnic Israelites (the few good grapes on the cluster – the rest come from the vine of Sodom and their grapes are from Gomorrah) and then extends to believing Gentiles.  God rejoices over this new people who will never fall under the curses of the old order.  Christ became a curse for them when he hung upon the tree.  God does not see them in their sin, but sees Christ and his righteousness.  Their sins have been removed from them and God remembers them no more.  God delights in this new people under a new covenant, this new heavens and new earth.