Isaiah 65:20 | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 27, 1911

3485 — Isa. 65:20

Will you please explain Isa. 65:20? C. M. D.

The text reads in our common version: "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 a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed."

1. Read the context. The Lord rebukes the wickedness of a rebellious people. Verses 2-7. He promises a seed that shall serve Him. Verses 8-10. He draws a contrast between the two classes in verses 11 to 16. Then we are told how great the change will be which ushers in that new era: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 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."

2. Then comes verse 20. In that new earth there shall be no more what we have seen here, infants dying in a few days, men prematurely old. In this world very frequently the infant does not grow to maturity, and among adults few fill out the days of threescore and ten years. But all that will have passed when God visits upon the wicked the judgment written.

3. That time is more fully referred to in Rev. 20:5-9. At the end of the 1,000 years the wicked — all who have wrought unrepented wickedness — will be raised from the dead. To the universe and to themselves will be given demonstration to show that there is no sorrow for sin in their hearts, no loyalty to Christ. They are deceived by the devil, and join his warfare against God and His children and the holy city, instead of yielding glad obedience.

4. During that comparatively "little season" preparation will be made for the most colossal warfare the earth has ever known, Satan with all the warriors and soldiers of the wicked great of earth against the probably comparatively few visible hosts of God. This we know, that His children of earth bear no other armor than that of righteousness.

5. They occupy a part of that mighty plain made by the power of God, cleansed by His divine touch, in the center of which the New Jerusalem will descend. Zech. 14:4. The outcome of that battle will be decided by the forthshining of the illimitable, overpowering splendor of the presence of God, which will set on fire everything contaminated with sin, burning to the very foundations of the deepest sheol. Isa. 30:33. Then will the whole earth become a lake of fire in the burning glory of His presence, which will only devour sin. Compare Ex. 24:17 with 20:18-20. Then God's children, sinless, will dwell in the midst of the devouring fire of His glory unharmed, while the wicked shall perish. Isa. 33:12-16. Compare with Dan. 3:19-27.

6. The time of this "little season" is not given in the Revelation, but Isa. 65:20 seems to indicate that it will be 100 years. Young and old among the wicked will live during that time, and at its end die. Deceived by the devil to claim immortality, they perish. Deluded into believing in self-salvation, they find it self-destruction. Rejecting every appeal of His goodness and love in the past, they enroll in the army of God's great adversary, and perish in the glory that God longed to make their life, but they would not.