Hope

Isaiah 65:17-25

Imagine this:

Your nation is constantly under attack by imposing forces. Trouble, chaos, and pain are everyday experiences. The sound of weeping in your neighborhood or family is a normal experience. Every morning you leave your house to walk into chaos. The world you know is full of pain and turmoil. A silent cry of anguish fills your soul, and you try your best to keep a smile. You have friends and family members who had babies, but they never made it to the age of one. Your grandparents and the elderly people that you know are shut in, silent, and miserable. People who live to see one hundred are featured on news channels as miracles. You know people who've dreamed of building their own houses, only to find that they were taken away by a government that demanded more taxes than you could afford. You have friends who dreamed of growing their own food, only to find that once they did, some government institution somewhere found out about it and confiscated their seeds and crops and tools. Imagine working, only to see that you can barely make it because most of your income goes to some outside entity. You've heard stories of people's children being kidnapped and forced into sex slavery.

Now, take a step back, and think outside of your family, your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country, and your continent. Think about your world.

Does this sound more like an imagination or a reality?

It's in this context that the writer of Isaiah says, "But . . . Let me tell you about the God I know."

      "Pay close attention now: I'm creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. [18] Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating: I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight. [19] I'll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish; [20] 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. [21] They'll build houses and move in. They'll plant fields and eat what they grow. [22] 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. [23] 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. 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. 

   Into the context of where we are, the author is saying there is a God who wants to bless and restore - to bring peace, joy, and happiness. The author is invoking hope in the middle of chaos.

The author is writing about a god who is unlike other gods. While other gods demand war and sacrifice, this god is offering peace and blessing. This god doesn't take on the role of an invading force, but takes on the role of a peacemaker right in the midst of suffering, chaos, and pain.

We have something to look forward to, just like the audience who heard these words did. Our houses may be taken, crops swept away, and paychecks drained, but there is something to look forward to.