Persistence

The prophet Isaiah paints a picture of the new world God is creating from the old as stunning today as it was so many years ago. 

No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered 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 offspring blessed by the LORD-- and their descendants as well. (65:20-23)

He sums it up:  I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. (v.18)

As stunning as God’s vision of new heavens and a new earth may be, I cannot believe God doing so would be as easy as the snap of the divine fingers.  After all, the old way is the way it is because it was working for someone.

Isaiah concludes with a beautiful vision. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox (v. 25).  Surely he knew that the wolf was not going to greet the new order with quite the same enthusiasm as the lamb, nor the lion from quite the same perspective as the ox.  The wolves and lions, I suspect, might be expected to voice a dissenting opinion on the joy God promises.  Perhaps they might even be expected to resist, in the nature of wolves and lions, with teeth bared.

Jesus, for one, knew that the coming of the new did not mean the old would go away quietly.  Nation would rise against nation, the coming of the new would be betrayed by those closest at hand, family and friends, and God’s allies in the new vision would be hated and persecuted.  For us, Jesus said, “by your endurance, you will gain your souls.”  I prefer to think of it as persistence.

God’s new dream for the creation will, in the end, prevail, but we would be naive to think the old was going away without a fight.  For God said, according to Isaiah, “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.”  (65:17)

Peace,
+Stacy