"Oh! the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight."
Human language is hardly adequate to the task of setting forth the glories of the better land; for, as Paul says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." While here, as he says, "we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face." As a person looking through a darkened glass at the broad sun may get a correct outline of its disc, and yet its resplendent glory is hid, so we, by giving heed to those things which God has "revealed by his Spirit," may get an outline of that glorious kingdom, and yet not comprehend the glory which can be better felt than told.
Peter says, According to God's promise, "we look for new heavens and a new earth." This promise is recorded in Isa. 65. Peter, as we have before shown, reasons from this promise that the present heavens and earth are to be melted, and the works therein (dross) to be burned up. David is probably speaking of the same (Ps. 102:26) when he says: "Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed."
Peter, according to his testimony recorded in Acts 3:21, looks forward to the time when Christ shall come to accomplish this work, and calls it "The times of restitution." John, while receiving his testimony on the isle of Patmos, heard a voice from Him which sat upon the throne, which said, "Behold, I make all things new (not all new things). David doubtless had his mind on the same point when he penned the testimony of Ps. 104:30, where he speaks of the Lord's "renewing the face of the earth."
But we will pass these points to notice Isaiah's testimony. He says, "For behold I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isa. 65:17. Here is the very promise to which Peter calls our attention. "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Verse 19. This agrees with John's view of the matter, recorded in Rev. 21:4. "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." As expressed by the poet,
"His own soft hand shall wipe the tears
From every weeping eye."
When this is accomplished, will the people still be left with sadness in their hearts? No. "What God doeth, he doeth it forever." The Lord wipes away tears by removing forever from among his people every cause of grief. When Christ tells us that God shall wipe away all tears, he assigns the reason, "And there shall be no more death, neither shall there be any more pain." Yes,
"Pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears,
And death itself shall die."
Verse 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." "No more thence," from the time the new earth-state is brought in, "an infant of days (a short-lived child), or an old man who hath not filled his days" (premature old age). The latter clause of the verse speaks of death, and cannot therefore apply in the "new earth," for John says, "There shall be no more death." It must apply to what transpires just as that state is being ushered in. The sinner, although107he be an hundred years old, is accursed.
One who lived one hundred years, in those ages when men attained to eight and nine hundred years, was, comparatively speaking, only a child. Such an one, dying in sin, raised from the dead at the end of the thousand years, shares equally the fate of the hundred year old sinner of later ages; they both die the second death. The righteous only remain and enter upon the new-earth state, in which there is no death, but eternal youth, so that indeed in that state there can "be no more thence an infant of days, or an old man that hath not filled his days."
"And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat." Verses 21, 22. Some object and say, Can it be that the saints will build and plant in the new earth? It says so. Where will you apply the testimony, if you attempt to refer it to the present, state? Where is the man of whom it can be said that he shall not build, and another inhabit? Men here spend their whole lives fitting up an inheritance to their taste, and just as they pronounce it fitted to their mind, they find themselves old men, die, and leave it to others.
"For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Verse 22. As the days of what tree? I reply, The tree of life; and if that be the tree referred to, then they will live forever; for God drove Adam out of the garden, lest he should put forth his hand and eat of the tree of life and live forever. See Gen. 3. In another testimony, the Lord says: "With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation." Ps. 91:16. How long a life would it require to satisfy a man? If a man's body was racked with disease, and his life made bitter by disappointment and sorrow, he might perhaps come to a point where he could say, I have lived long enough, I want to die; but if he was surrounded with everything that tended to his comfort and happiness, in a state where there was no death, no sorrow, no pain, no tears, would he be satisfied with anything short of eternal life? I think not.
Verses 23, 24, show God's willingness to answer and do for his people, and that in that time the labor of their hands shall prosper and not be brought forth for trouble. Verse 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." This can only apply in a state where the ferocious dispositions of the wolf and lion have been changed. But can the above apply in the kingdom of God? Are the saints to eat there? Yes. Christ ate after his resurrection. If Christ ate, why may not the saints? They are to be like him. See 1 John 3:1, 2.
Angels appeared to Lot, and ate of the food he prepared. Gen. 19:3. David says of the Israelites, "Man did eat angel's food." Ps. 78:25. The resurrected saints are to be as the angels. Luke 20:36. But Christ has declared that they will eat in the kingdom. "And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Luke 22:29, 30. Again, "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily, I say unto you that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." Luke 12:37.
But, you say, I did not think there were to be beasts in the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God is to be a restitution to the primeval state, there will be beasts there. In Eden, the Lord gave man "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth." Gen. 1:26. And Micah testifies concerning Christ, "And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion." If the first dominion comes to Christ, then he will have dominion over beasts as well as the earth and man. That the dominion which is to be given to Christ, is the dominion of the earth, is confirmed by David's testimony (Ps. 72:8), "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." David's testimony also shows that there will be beasts in the renewed state. In Ps. 104:29, 30, after speaking of beasts, &c., he says, "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth." We wish now to look at a testimony in Isaiah 11. By reading from verses 1-5, you will see that this testimony concerning the "rod out of the stem of Jesse," cannot refer to any earthly monarch; for they have no way of judging, but "after the sight of the eyes," nor to reprove, but "after the hearing of the ears." We also learn that this personage is the one who is to slay the wicked with his breath, and also, that what follows from verses 6-9, is after he has thus slain the wicked. This, then, refers to Christ's kingdom. Let us read a description of it: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's (margin, adder's) den." Here, again, we have a description of a state when the evil dispositions of the beasts are taken away, when their manner of living even is changed; "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." This is after Christ comes and subdues all his foes.
"Then bears and wolves, no longer wild,
Obey the leading of a child;
The lions with the oxen eat,
And dust shall be the serpent's meat."
Those who deny the application of the above text, and Isaiah 65, to a future state, claim that it is fulfilled here. Their claim is that this text has a hidden meaning; that these beasts, the wolf, lion, kid, and lamb, are used to represent men with different dispositions, whose hearts are softened and subdued by the ameliorating influence of the gospel. The text, they say, is fulfilled when a man with a wolfish or lion-like disposition is converted and brought into the fold of Christ, and with the lambs (Christians) feeds on the heavenly manna. We object to this application for two reasons: First, when a man with a wolfish or a lion-like disposition is converted, he is no longer a wolf or lion, but a lamb; and so in the sequel, those who make the above application of the text, will simply have two lambs feeding together, instead of a lion and a lamb. So to carry out their application it will be necessary to claim that men with unchanged hearts and lives are brought into the church and feed on heavenly manna.
It is positively stated in Isaiah 65:17-25, that such a state of things will exist in the new earth, and allowing these testimonies a literal application, a glorious scene is portrayed to our mind when the curse is removed, and the "fear of man" (Gen. 9:2) is so far taken away that the beasts are again in perfect subjection to him, as in the beginning (Gen. 1:26), even to that extent that the little child shall lead the fierce lion,—the king of the forest.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
(Continued.)