Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-25

Kristin J. Wendland

Isaiah 40–66, a supremely hopeful section, contains prophecies at the end of the exile, both in Babylon and in Jerusalem. Within this section there are many “remixes” of Israel’s tradition for a new experience: a way prepared in the wilderness that both recalls the exodus and points forward to a return from exile (Isaiah 40:3); God’s steadfast, sure love for David as a sign of a new everlasting covenant (55:3); calling to look back to Abraham and Sarah as a symbol of comfort and rebirth in the present time (51:2).

Remixing Genesis 1

Here at the end of the book of Isaiah, God is doing what God does: creating and rejoicing. God, of course, does many other things throughout the book of Isaiah, not to mention the Hebrew Bible, but creating is one of those things that is paradigmatic of God. And when God creates, God rejoices. When God creates new heavens and a new earth (verse 17) or creates Jerusalem as a joy (verse 18), the verb “to create” is the same that appears in Genesis 1 (Hebrew: bara’). Repeated three times in the first three verses of this Sunday’s pericope, it is thematic as it points forward to something new while noting its coherence with God’s creation in Genesis 1.

Two words for rejoicing/joy (Hebrew: gyl) and delight/glad (shush) are also each repeated three times in verses 17–19. Neither of these words occurs in the creation accounts in Genesis 1–3, but they are thematically connected. One can’t help but remember that God called creation good there too, and that the trees in the primordial garden were described as pleasant to the sight and good for food. In God’s creation, there is joy.

Remixing Genesis 2–3

Verses 19b–25 provide examples of what the new heavens and the new earth will be like. The examples offered cohere with the experiences of a people who have suffered the generational trauma that comes with conquest and exile. Famine and violence will no longer bring the near certainty of an early death (verse 20). The people will remain in the homes they build (verses 21–22). They can bear children with hope for a better future rather than the certainty of calamity (verse 23).

At the same time, the imagery continues to echo the Genesis creation accounts, less through shared vocabulary than through shared image and idea. The focus in Isaiah 19b–25 is on Genesis 2–3, with a particular emphasis on a reversal of the curses in Genesis 3:14–19.

For example, when verse 20 describes a future in which long life will be the norm, one may call to mind that the first humans were banished from the primordial garden in Genesis 3:22, “lest they take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” While Isaiah 65:20 is far from a promise of immortality, it does describe a full measure of life.

Verse 23 remixes imagery from Genesis 3:14–19, the passage in which the Lord God curses the animals, the woman, the man, and the earth in light of the humans eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Unlike what is described in Genesis 3:17–19, where the ground is cursed, with the result that man who tries to grow food will toil away for very little gain, the residents of the new heaven and new earth will not labor in vain (verse 23). In the new heaven and new earth, women shall not bear children for calamity, a reference to language in Genesis 3:16 about painful childbirth and life in the broken world described in that passage.

Verse 25, the final verse in the assigned pericope, describes a vision of predator and prey eating together. This recalls a similar vision in Isaiah 11:6–8 of predator and prey coexisting peaceably. Even children and serpents shall put down their animosity for one another and live safely together. This image of the so-called peaceable kingdom alludes to Eden, where all creatures coexisted well, despite the practical implications of such a situation.

Isaiah 65 diverges from Isaiah 11 with its statement that the serpent will eat dust. Unlike other creatures, the serpent will continue to reap the consequences of the curse, seemingly to guard against continued temptation or harm. Humans will not need to worry about even that in the new heaven and the new earth.

Remembering the former things

So much of this passage is about remembering former things—ironic for a reading that begins with the statement that the former things will not be remembered. This tension exists throughout Isaiah 40–66, with the people sometimes being instructed to remember the former things and sometimes to not remember them. In this passage, where one is not to remember, the former things center on past judgment and suffering. Yet, one must remember some things to make sense of the passage: creation, the exodus, return from exile.

Frederick J. Gaiser acknowledges that the phrase “former things” is a bit slippery and refers to different things in different contexts. In each case, whether remembering or forgetting the former things, the emphasis is on the “incomparable superiority of the future” and a new beginning for “the broken history of salvation.”¹

A similar tension exists in our ever-changing world. Tradition and history—the former things—witness both to our God and to our ancestors in the faith. There is much there to learn and to honor. Yet honoring tradition and history can all too easily lead to idolatry and an inability to turn toward the future things—that is, the ongoing and future work of God’s salvation. A sermon on this text might focus on this tension alongside the certainty of God’s faithfulness, creating a “remix” of God’s creative and salvific work for the present context.