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Isaiah 65:20 – 25: Contrast of Covenants, Old and New. Part Three
Posted on June 30, 2025 by asterisktom
“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.” –Isa. 65:20

Verse 20, already covered in the previous article, is repeated here to establish context. There is in the following four verses a sevenfold repetition of blessing that “they” will enjoy, referring to those in the New Covenant. There is a final “they” after these, referring to the inability of the beasts to “hurt or destroy” anyone on God’s “Holy Mountain”. What a contrast this passage is to the last chapter of Isaiah!


“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; [1]
For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,
And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. –Isa. 65:22

Several passages in the Old and New Testament refer to humans, corporately or individually, as trees: Judges 9:8; Psalm 1:3, 92:12; Jer. 17:8; Dan. 4:10ff; Matt. 3:10; Rom. 11:24 , etc. Those verses in Scripture that refer to saints bring out two main characteristics found in trees: stability and fruitfulness. [2]

In this passage we can add a third characteristic: longevity. We should bear in mind that some trees have survived for centuries [3]. Once again, we have a description that clearly points to spiritual and eternal, not physical or temporal, blessings.


They shall not labor in vain,
Nor bring forth children for trouble;
For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord,
And their offspring with them.” – Isa. 65:23


It would indeed be difficult to see this as being fulfilled any period before New Testament times, and then strictly in a spiritual sense. See note 1 below.

“It shall come to pass

That before they call, I will answer;
And while they are still speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox,
And dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,”
Says the Lord.” [4] – Isa. 65:24-25

The difficulty with these verses is directly proportionate with the unwillingness of the reader – or the preacher – or commentator! – to part with apriori futurist presuppositions. One example out of many is found in the Moody Bible Commentary of Isaiah, Excerpt Version, ed. Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, who argue from a millennial framework that these “My people”, vss. 19, 22, refer strictly to ethnic Jews and that “they will be redeemed and enter the kingdom without glorified or resurrected bodies” and thus “will be able to reproduce … even die”!

Their contrived proof for the mass conversion of the Jews is Zech. 12:10 and Rom. 11:25-27 [5] and their entering in the kingdom without glorification or resurrection is Matt. 25:34.

But this is pure eisegesis, reading into the text what one wishes was there. One of the clearest proofs against a future unglorified people of God is found in Rom. 8:28-30:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

Notice the golden train of blessings here for the saints of God. It is an unbroken chain of certainty for those who love God. Those who are called are those – and only those! – who are justified (redeemed) and glorified.

And it is not possible to enter into the kingdom without “resurrected bodies”. Paul, writing to both Jews and Gentiles, proves the point:

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” – 1 Cor. 15:50-51

Notes

1. The prophet revisits the theme of Isa. 62:8 – 9:

“The Lord has sworn by His right hand
And by the arm of His strength:
“Surely I will no longer give your grain
As food for your enemies;
And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine,
For which you have labored.
But those who have gathered it shall eat it,
And praise the Lord;
Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts.”

Writing on this earlier passage,John Gill rightly observes that this simply cannot refer to the return from Babylonian captivity, seeing that:

“after that their enemies did eat their corn [“grain”], and drink their wine; the Romans came and took away their city and nation, as they feared, and all their good things”.

Although then following this, unfortunately, with a futurist framework interpretation Gill then wisely admits a possibility that we see as a better solution:

“[A]ll this may be understood in a spiritual sense of the “corn” and “wine” of the Gospel, and the ministration of it; which was first provided for them, and they were invited to partake of it; and in preparing which the apostles and first ministers of the word, being Jews, “laboured”; but they rejecting it, it was carried to the Gentiles, who had been their “enemies”, and were “aliens” from the commonwealth of Israel, which they gladly received and fed upon; but now it is promised, that the Gospel, being again brought unto them, should no more be taken from them, but ever continue with them; even all the means of grace, and ordinances of the Gospel, for the comfort and refreshment of their souls.” – John Gill, Commenting on Isa. 62:8 – 9

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2. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary has this:

“Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands (Hebrew, yªbaluw, from baalah, to be old) – consume, wear out: they shall long live to enjoy the last of it (Isa 62:9).”

Thomas Coke, Methodist contemporary of Charles Wesley, carried the application further:

“because the days of the people of God,—of each of the faithful, should be as the days of a tree; that is to say, should endure as long as the trees planted by them. Their age should equal the duration of a tree, whether of a vine, or of any other. This is more fully illustrated in the next article; and mine elect, &c. shall out-wear, or out-last, the work of their hands: they shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth children to no purpose.”

3. Barnes, commenting on this verse, lists several trees which had attained ages well into the thousands.

4. Gill ties Isa. 65:25 verse in with the similar Isa. 11:6 passage:

“and a little child shall lead them;”

become through the grace of God so tractable, that they shall be led, guided, and governed by the ministers of the Gospel, Christ’s babes and sucklings, to whom he reveals the great things of his Gospel, and out of whose mouths he ordains praise. Bohlius a interprets this little child of Christ himself, by whom they should be led and directed, see Isa 9:6 and the following passages are referred to the times of the Messiah by the Jewish writers b; and Maimonides c in particular observes, that they are not to be understood literally, as if the custom and order of things in the world would cease, or that things would be renewed as at the creation, but in a parabolical and enigmatical sense; and interprets them of the Israelites dwelling safely among the wicked of the nations of the world, comparable to the wild beasts of the field.

“and the lions shall eat straw like the bullock, or “ox”; to which creature the ministers of
the Gospel are compared for their laboriousness, as wicked persecutors are to lions; and sometimes the latter have been so changed by the grace of God, as to become preachers of it, as Saul was, and very probably many will hereafter.” – John Gill


5. For a detailed critique of this futurist imagining of a mass conversion of national Israel see my article, “All Israel will be Saved: Romans 11:26”

Jerusalem, Earthly & Heavenly: Studies in Daniel 9 and Isaiah 40–66
Posted on July 14, 2021 by asterisktom
I have often been intrigued with the theme of the heavenly Jerusalem/ spiritual Zion found in Isaiah, and also with the connection with Daniel 9. The more I followed this through the wider the study went, to the point where (I think around Isaiah 60) I couldn’t manage it. The topic had gotten too wide, spilled over into several other books! But that is really a good thing. It taught me that this is truly an important truth for Christians – Jews and gentiles.

One of the best ways to approach Daniel 9 (all of Daniel, for that matter) is to show how it points to Christ as fulfillment. Once that is done it should be easier to show earthly Judaism and earthly Jerusalem as being type and promise for something infinitely better. Or some ONE infinitely better. By showing that the promises in Daniel 9 also are “Yes, and in Him Amen” (2nd Cor. 2:20) we make clearer the Christology of this wonderful book. As well, we can then better make the case that Judaism – as a nation and religion – no longer has it’s God-given purpose without seeming to be an anti-Semite. A careful study of these things has shown me, rather, that I was being antichristian by denying some prophetic passages in the Old Testament their distinct Messianic fulfilment.

Daniel and … fill in the blank

“Daniel and Revelation”, right? I believe that we have been so constantly taught through the years to associate the book of Daniel with Revelation that we have a hard time seeing other connections. Yet they are there. I hope (in a later post) to show the connection that Daniel has to Leviticus and Deuteronomy, helping us to understand the divine mathematics of God’s dealing with Israel. It was clearly a case of “I told you so”, but Israel went the way of all flesh anyway. Also, speaking of math, I hope to make the case as to where the original (previous) 490 years began (with the help of James Ussher and others). Unless I am mistaken – always a possibility : ) – it had to do with a certain “asked for” king who couldn’t wait for Samuel’s (or God’s) timing and made the offering that was the cause of his own desolation, though not the nation. Samuel said after this event that the Lord would not establish his kingdom, 1st Samuel 13:13- 14. Later he calls Saul’s rebellion against God to account and adds “The Lord has torn the kingdom from you today…”, 1st Samuel 15:28. From this time on Saul was a desolate man; all that was left for him was the actual dying.

The main thing I want to reemphasize now is that we Christians need to get out of the rut of all the usual associations. We need to be on the lookout, in our daily study, of different and fresh associations, tying down familiar verses with unfamiliar. As God points out sections and passages that truly go together (as opposed to those which merely seem to) our Bible gets a better and better binding – how’s that for a metaphor? – New Testament with Old, and ancient promise with Christ-fulfillment. The entire blessed Word of God for our present world.

Isaiah 65:9 – 20: Contrast of Covenants, Old and New. Part Two
Posted on June 2, 2025 by asterisktom
I had already posted an earlier version of this article but this morning, while I was working on the next one, I noticed that much more needed to be added here.

These last two chapters of Isaiah form bookends with the first two chapters of this book 1. Themes introduced in the beginning are revisited in the closing chapters. Here are a few of these repeated themes:

Rebellion, 1:2-5, 20-23 with 65:2-3, 66:4, 24,
Rejected offerings, 1:11ff compared with 65:2-7, 66:3-4,
Sin and destruction of earthly Jerusalem, 1:21-31 with 66:6 (another helpful mnemonic!),
And the rising of the heavenly Jerusalem, 1:25-27 with 65:19, 66:10-13,
Impending doom and shame of idolaters in their gardens 1:29-30 with 65:3-7, 66:17,
The Mountain of the Lord, 2:2-3with 65:25, 66:20.

“I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
And from Judah an heir of My mountains;
My elect shall inherit it,
And My servants shall dwell there.” – Isa. 65:9

The “mountains” of verse 9, as well as the “holy mountain” of verse 11 and 25, are in opposition to the idolaters’ mountains of verse 7.

But who are these “descendants of Jacob”? Many modern renditions smooth out the essential detail of the passage, obscuring the necessary ambiguity. Other translations are better at bringing out the meaning here than the poor renderings of the NASB (“offspring”), or the NIV and NKJV (“descendants”). To their credit, the original KJV retained this ambiguity (“seed”), accommodating the intended double reference2:

“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.” – Isa. 65:9 (KJV)

The Updated Brenton English Septuagint (UBES), likewise, renders the verse even closer to the mark:


“And I will lead forth the seed (LXX: σπέρμα – sperma, singular! 3) that came of Jacob and of Judah, and they shall inherit my holy mountain: and mine elect and my servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there.”

That the “Seed” here is primarily singular is revealed in Gal. 3:16. First of all, Christ, is the One coming out of Judah:



“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.” – Gal. 3:16

John Gill understands Christ to be both the singular “Seed” and the “Inheritor” spoken of here. He is also the first “elect” (For emphasis I capitalized the word):

“and mine Elect shall inherit it; – Christ is God’s first and chief elect, and his people are chosen in him through grace to glory; and these are the seed and heirs that do inherit grace, and shall inherit glory; for this is to be understood not literally of the land of Judea…”


“Sharon shall be a fold of flocks,
And the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
For My people who have sought Me.” – Isa. 65:10

Hebrew: “the Sharon” (השרון – “ha Sharon”), the pleasant fertile coastal region stretching from Joppa to Carmel.

“And the VALLEY OF ACHOR – This was a valley near to Jericho, and was distinguished as the place where Achan was put to death by stoning JOS 7:24; JOS 15:7; HOS 2:15. The word Achor (עכור ‛âkôr), means properly “causing affliction,” – Albert Barnes

That last verse deserves special notice:


“I will give her her vineyards from there,And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;She shall sing there,As in the days of her youth,As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.” – Hosea 2:15

And Jerusalem will eventually become a Valley of Achor, spiritual Babylon stoned by Roman onagers. This passage seems to have much figurative prophecy that is worthy of further study, the stoning of Achan a precursor to the stoning of Jerusalem, also, the earthly Mount Zion finally “made low”, Isa. 40:4 and “removed and cast into the sea”, Matt. 21:21.


But at this same place, starting with Calvary, the “door of hope” was opened up, streams of mercy and grace flowing up from the temple, beginning at Pentecost (Barnes, Benson, Clarke).

Their physical mountain was destroyed because they had rejected God’s Mountain:

“But you who forsake the LORD,

who forget My holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,

I will destine you for the sword,
and you will all kneel down to be slaughtered,
because I called and you did not answer,
I spoke and you did not listen;
you did evil in My sight
and chose that in which I did not delight.” – Isa. 65:11-12

Generally speaking, the spiritual defection of Israel was not a recent occurrence. For several centuries worship of foreign deities was practiced, at first secretly, but later quite openly. Two examples are Rachel’s hiding of her father’s household gods under the camel saddle,Gen. 31:34, and the brazen defiance of the women in Jeremiah’s time, 4.

Verse 11 in particular seems to refer to either worship of foreign deities or to planets 5.

Verse 12 has a twin verse in 66:14 which, according to J. Alec Motyer, indicates a chiasm 6. More on this in the note below7.

The picture of their wretchedness is now heightened by a fourfold contrast with the saints of the New Covenant:

“Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says:
“My servants will eat,
but you will go hungry;
My servants will drink,
but you will go thirsty;
My servants will rejoice,
but you will be put to shame.

My servants will shout for joy with a glad heart,
but you will cry out with a heavy heart
and wail with a broken spirit. 8, 9

You will leave behind your name
as a curse for My chosen ones,
and the Lord GOD will slay you;
but to His servants He will give another name.

Whoever invokes a blessing in the land
will do so by the God of truth,
and whoever takes an oath in the land
will swear by the God of truth.
For the former troubles will be forgotten
and hidden from My sight.“ – Isa. 65:13-16

For comments on these verses see notes 8 and 9 below.

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And joy in My people;
The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.

“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.” – Isa. 65:17-20

As long as Christian writers hold onto their cherished futurist notions they will dash themselves on the difficult rocks in their expositions of these last verses. of “his merciful, but righteous, substitution of the Gentiles in the place of a rebellious and idolatrous people.”

By contrast,John Brown of Haddington, seems to have hit upon the right approach. He wrote on Isa. 65:17, 20 (underlining mine):


“Ver. 17. New heavens and a new earth cannot here mean the new and eternal state; for it appears from ver. 20 that after the new creation here predicted, death will still be in the world ; whereas in the new and eternal state ‘there will be no more death,’ Re. 21.4. ‘ The new heavens and new earth’ here fore- told represent a new state of governments and people, produced by an outpouring of converting and renewing grace upon the hearts of Israel and the Gentile churches and kingdoms.

“Ver. 20. Though it were presumptuous to affirm that God may not, or will not, hereafter restore mankind to antediluvian longevity; yet, as the ‘new heavens and new earth’ seem decidedly emblematic, and not literal, is there not reason for concluding that ‘infant’ and ‘old man’ are likewise emblematic? Thus the whole Christian church are called ‘little children’ by Christ himself, by Paul, and John, Jn. 13.33; Ga. 4.19; 1 Jn 2.1-5, 21.

“According to this authorized language, the verse will be interpreted thus: ‘ There shall no more be in my visible church any who abides ‘an infant of days,’ any who continue ‘children in understanding,’ 1 Co. 14.20, nor ‘an old man,’ a father in Christ, 1 Co 14.15 ;1 Jn. 2.1 3 , who shall not have knowledge and experience in grace; but even ‘the child,’ the youngest believer, shall die in the Christian ripeness of old age. And such shall be the purity and vigour of godly discipline, that ‘the sinner who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ,’ whatever may be his rank and attainments, shall be cut off and cast away as an accursed thing from the fellowship of the renovated church, 1 Co. 5.4,5; 7.9, 11; 1Co.16.22.”

Notes

1. The book of Isaiah seems to be a Bible in miniature: Sin against the Creator/Owner (Gen. 3 and Isa. 1), Redemption (Isa. 52:13-53, Gospels), and Judgment/Reward (Isa. 65-66, Revelation). The fact that both books are divided into 66 parts is, at the very least, a helpful mnemonic.

2. This can be seen in Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, where we find both singular and plural applications, 3:16-19 and 3:29, respectively.

3. The Septuagint, LXX, is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, traditionally credited to the work of 70 (LXX) translators . Paul, as he often does in his epistles, uses this translation in Gal. 3:16. The earlier references to the seed-promise given to Abraham, upon which Paul builds his case, are in Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7.


4. “But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.” – Jer. 44:17

5. Two commentaries onIsa 65: 11-12:

“Therefore will I number you to the sword – There is undoubtedly an allusion here to the idol Meni mentioned in Isa 65:11, and a play upon the name, in accordance with a custom quite common in the sacred Scriptures. The word מניתי mâniytiy, ‘I will number,’ is derived from מנה mânâh, the same word from which מני menı̂y, is derived. The idea is, since they worshipped a god whose name denoted number – perhaps one who was supposed to number or appoint the fates of people – God would number them.” – Albert Barnes

“because, when I called, ye did not answer; when I spoke, ye did not hear; when Christ called unto them personally, to come and hear him, they turned a deaf ear to this charmer, charming so wisely, and would not attend upon his ministry”. – John Gill

Several times in his exposition of these latter chapters of Isaiah, John Gill surpasses many of his fellow commentators in drawing out important New Testament connections. The purpose of all Old Testament study ought to be those New Covenant “things concerning Himself”. Otherwise, all we have is mere studies in Judaism.

6. A chiasm, from theGreek χιάζω, chiázō, “to shape like the letter Χ“, is a literary device to focus attention to the perceived central theme of a larger passage. (“Perceived” is used here because sometimes the a priori assumptions of a commentator might contrive a chiasm where none actually exists!)

7. Kim Riddlebarger cites Motyer’s breakdown of the chiasm from pages 522-523 of his book, “The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary. [IVP], J. Alec Motyer.

A1. 65:1
B1. 65:2-7
C1. 65:8-19
D1. 65:11-12
E. 65:13-25 – the main theme, per Riddlebarger
D2. 66:1-4
C2. 66:5-14
B2. 66:15-17
A2. 66:18-21


The purpose of chiasms being to give most prominence to the central section, Riddlebarger asserts the main theme of the entire prophecy to be “the joy of the Lord’s servants in the new creation”. This is plausible. But he then comes to the unwarranted conclusion that the “climax of the passage is the eternal state (the new heavens and earth), not a half-way redeemed earth in which people experience life-extension, only to die later on”! He seems to forget that his “eternal state” is also a time when death is still present, Isa. 65:20. See the underlined comments above from John Brown of Haddington.

8. This description of New Covenant blessedness brings to mind the Beatitudes, Matt. 5:1-12; Luke 6:20-26.

9. Certain commentators, like Claus Westermann in his exegesis of these “Trito-Isaiah” (sic) chapters, see a discrepancy between the judgments threatened in vs. 12 (slaughtered by the sword) and vss. 13-15 (miseries heightened by contrast with the New Covenant faithful).

However, there is a significant difference between these two judgment passages, marked by the “Therefore” in vs. 15. This is a consequence of their response to their “doing evil” and “choosing what displeases” God after God had “called” and “spoken”. I believe the guilt from of this group is greater than the first. The first judgment, slain with the sword, seems to fit the first destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, the second by the Romans. And I believe that the coming and speaking refer to the Incarnation and personal testimony of their Messiah. Christ Himself had warned:

“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” – John 15:22

The two destructions of Jerusalem differ on this very point. The early disaster led to the loss of lives and a seventy-year exile. The last destruction led to not only more deaths and slavery (not exile), but also the final demonstration of the utter termination of their Covenant with God. Not mere destruction, but desolation. The difference was the opposition of this latter group to the personal message and presence of their Messiah. This is what constitutes the apostasy and the Jewish last days – obstinate sinning against the greater Light of the World, Christ.

𝔚𝔥𝔦𝔱𝔢𝔅𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔡
@HwsEleutheroi
·
15h
Quick note:  No, I do not like a LOT of things Trump is doing. He is laying a foundation for some truly totalitarian type stuff from the gov't (no matter who is in charge).  HOWEVER, let me put this as plainly as I can: Kamala Harris was an utter airhead, a word-salad producing heir to the senile old man, another mannequin propped up to be used by the shadow globalists who ran things during the Biden regime.  No matter which way we turn, we see judgment before our eyes.

ISLAM IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH DECENCY OR SAFETY FOR WOMEN

Unfortunately, anyone girl above 9, is legitimate sexual target according to the preacher. Unless we acknowledge this truth, it will be difficult to understand the exploitation.

Mentally deranged culture! They are basically homicidal maniacs!

Many young girls come back from Kaaba pregnant. Many go there to be prostituted. Many go there not to do the Kaaba duties but to make money through sex. Many get married in Mutta marriages for a week and come back after making tons of money.A hard truth that nobody talks about.

Muslim men who are so weak they can’t control their base biological urges, who are so weak they have no self control act like animals and it’s accepted and everything’s the woman’s fault for tempting them. Dogs have more self control.

Islamic countries aren't known to be the best defenders of women.

R@pists target Muslim women, too, hijab or no hijab bc they know Muslim women live in shame. They know that Muslim women will blame themselves & that some families don’t even care if their daughters are sexually assaulted. Girls to them are just means 2 the highest bidding man.

That's all.that happened don't worry 11 years old girls are groomed and **** by your lot in UK,  Muslims you are the scum of the earth.. it's not even a religion, it's by a pedo.   Mohammed so he could **** children...
SHE NEEDS TO REEVALUATE THE god SHE IS FOLLOWING HER FAMILY SAYS THAT IS NORMAL??? CONSIDER YOUR WAYS GOD LOVES YOU LADY TURN TO THE ONE TRUE LIVING GOD BY ACCEPTING HIS GIFT OF GRACE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS JESUS CHRIST RECEIVE HIM AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOUR AND HE WILL MANIFEST TO YOU