Isaiah Sixty Five

by Dr. Henry M. Morris

(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)

Isaiah 65:1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.

Isaiah 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;

Isaiah 65:3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;

Isaiah 65:4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

Isaiah 65:5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

Isaiah 65:6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,

Isaiah 65:7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

Isaiah 65:8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all.

new wine. Note that “new wine” is not intoxicating wine, for it is the juice still in “the cluster” of grapes.

Isaiah 65:9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

Isaiah 65:10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

Isaiah 65:11 But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.

Isaiah 65:12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.

Isaiah 65:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:

Isaiah 65:14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit.

Isaiah 65:15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:

Isaiah 65:16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

I create new heavens. See Revelation 21:1 and 2 Peter 3:13. The full description of the new (i.e., “renewed”) heavens and earth is given in the Bible's last two chapters, but is first promised here. This final cosmos will continue forever, free of all sin and death.

Isaiah 65:18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

I create Jerusalem. This is the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2), the holy city, specially created and prepared by Christ (John 14:3) to last eternally.

Isaiah 65:19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

Isaiah 65:20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

an hundred years old. The prophecy intermingles here a description of the eternal state with that which foreshadows it—namely, the great millennial kingdom of Christ (Revelation 20:6). During the coming thousand-year reign of Christ on this present earth, antediluvian conditions will be largely restored, and some people will live perhaps the full thousand years. However, as this verse reveals, there will still be sin and death present, so it cannot be the new earth. On the new earth, there will be no sin and death (Revelation 21:4). These truths are not contradictory but complementary, the one being a type of the other. The millennial and antediluvian ages are similar, whereas the new earth represents restoration of paradise, before sin entered the world.

Isaiah 65:21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

Isaiah 65:22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Isaiah 65:23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.

Isaiah 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

the lion shall eat straw. There will be herbivores in the millennial period, as well as in the new earth, if animals are present there (a question which is left unanswered in Scripture). All carnivorous animals will revert to their Edenic state, when they were herbivores (Genesis 1:30).

not hurt nor destroy. This future state of the animal kingdom is evidently presented as the ideal state. This fact can only mean that there was no struggle for existence and survival of the fittest in the animal world as originally created. The evolutionary scenario, postulating a billion years of animal suffering and death before man evolved, is thus utterly false and even blasphemous, charging God with deliberately creating such a monstrous system as His means of producing men and women. Note also Isaiah 11:6-9.