Thursday: Life on the New Earth
Read Isaiah 35:4-10, Isa. 65:21-25. How different will life then be from what we experience now?
Several times in the book of Isaiah we read of something new: “new things” (Isa. 42:9, Isa. 48:6), “a new song” (Isa. 42:10), “a new thing” (Isa. 43:19), “a new name” (Isa. 62:2).
Image © Review and Herald Publishing Assn. Goodsalt.com
What is new in chapter 65 is a new order of things. There is peace and harmony among all God’s creatures. The covenant curses on the land for disobedience and rebellion (see Lev. 26:14-17, Deut. 28:30) will be canceled forever, because sin is no more. Instead, there will be abundance of blessings, houses to live in, and food to enjoy.
What will life be like in such a beautiful place? Some people wonder if we will be able to recognize our friends and family, after our bodies receive immortality and are fully restored into God’s image. After Christ’s resurrection, His disciples were able to recognize Him. Mary recognized His voice (John 20:11-16). Thomas recognized Jesus’ physical appearance (John 20:27-28). The two disciples of Emmaus recognized His mannerisms at the dinner table (Luke 24:30-31, Luke 24:35). So, if our bodies are to be similar to Jesus’ resurrected body, we certainly will be able to recognize each other, and we can look forward to an eternity of restored relationships. We safely can assume that we will continue our relationships with those we know and love and who are there with us.
“There the redeemed shall know, even as also they are known. The loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul shall there find truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together ‘the whole family in heaven and earth’ (Ephesians 3:15) – these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed.” – Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 677.
| “Therefore we do not lose heart. … For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18, NKJV). How can we in a world that’s so temporal, so fleeting, learn to reach out and grasp the unseen and eternal? |
(23)
I have reached the age where bits of me have either stopped working or are showing the patina of aging. I still have my hair but it shows the bleaching of the hot Australian sun; my skin in a couple of sizes too big from me; my teeth - well I have a dental appointment tomorrow. I wear hearing aids and glasses; only one eye works well. I guess that most of our readers my age have similar signs, or worse, of wear and tear.
The promise of a new body sounds pretty good to me. I don't want you to get the idea that I am morbid about the aging process we are all subject too. I have had a great life and this Sabbath, Carmel and I celebrate 50 years of marriage. A relationship that lasts that long only lasts because we renew the relationship. It is the process of renewal and the ability to surprise one another that keeps the love spark going.
I think that is going to be the really great thing about the new earth. The relationships will not grow old and stale but will be renewed.
That sounds like my kind of heaven.
Congratulations! 50 years wedding anniversary. This lesson answered questions for me that I have often wondered about. I am so looking forward to the day I meet Jesus face to face.
Thank you Emma
Isaiah 35:8-9.
There is the highway of holiness that the unclean shall not pass.
Will there be the unclean in heaven?
"even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
Will there be fools in heaven?
" no lion shall be there. "
Will there be lions in heaven?
Isaiah 65:20:25.
"for the child shall die one hundred years old.
Will there be death in heaven?
"...nor bring forth children in trouble, for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the lord, and their offspring with them.
Will there be childbearing in heaven?
Is Isaiah 35 and 65 only talking about the new earth?
No it is not only about heaven. It has multiple applications. The other thing worth noting it that it is poetry in the original language.
Isaiah was telling about God's plans for His people on earth if they were true to Him. We need to remember that through out the ages He has been progressively revealing His master plan of salvation, a little at a time to suit the needs and spiritual maturity of His people.
Now He has shown us in this age that like the flood things will not get progressively better like He would have liked per Isiah but by destruction of the world and recreation of something much better than what He held out through Isaiah, that is why Revelation picks up some of imagery of Isaiah.
My Mother used to say "we can endure anything so long as it is temporary" and in terms of eternity this life is temporary, so we have to find a balance between being heavenly minded and doing good while on earth, I am reminded of a chorus we use to sing, this little light of mine I'm going to let it shine ... you in your small corner and I in mine!
Amen. The experience of various challenges helps us to depend upon Him and His providence, love, protection, and patience. The earthly worries give us a chance of finding a solution at each point if onlý we stop complaining and seek God and we will find a smile and love mid tears.
"How different will life then be from what we experience now?"
Self-renouncing love will be manifest and experienced in its fullest reality - everyone only looking out for everyone else. Consequently, no-one needing to look out for themselves. Only safety, security and harmony. The principles and character of God's Kingdom will reign uninterrupted throughout all God's creation once again. And just like in Genesis 1 and 2 when this happened before, it will be "very good".
Self-focus, self-indulgence, self-gratification will be but a distant memory - along with the Kingdom of Darkness and all its woes.
Something to think about regarding Heaven. We will not be automatons. We will still each be unique individuals created in the image of God. Yes we will be unified in our commitment to our Creator/Redeamer and to one another but each of us with our unique talents that He has given us to worship Him and share our experience with new and unknown worlds. I like Maurice, think that there will be room for difference of opinion, discussion and discovery but without creating dispute.
Can someone help me understand the question under Thursday’s study?
Revelation 22:1-5...what will be their purpose on the new earth?
The Tree of Life is for the healing of the nation... the Bible says we’ll be changed in the twinkling of an eye. This corruptible shall put on incorruptible... so what exactly isn’t completed when God changes us? The Author alluded to barriers but I cannot make the connection that this is the case, seeing we shall be changed etc.
Blessings!
Nikki,
I think I can help answer you.
Love is the one thing that God does not create or implant in us at creation.
Love is a consequence of a sequence of events that take place in the lives of His created beings.
Love is a response to miraculous transformations in the lives of His created beings.
Love is an expression of over whelming gratitude towards our savior for His gracious love that He first exemplified in us His created beings.
Love in His created beings is a reflection of His love that grows through time in His presents.
The reason I wrote this is because; when we get to heaven, we will not be all that happy when we find out that our loved ones did not make it. God will educate us on the many ways that He tried to save them, but we will still need some divine intervention from the Great Physician.
Revelation 21:4 King James Version (KJV)
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
I do not think that time can cure all things. I think He will have to do something unprecedented like erasing our minds...
Eric, if God were to manipulate our memories in any way, then wouldn't Satan's accusations in part be true? TRUTH, Jesus said, is what sets us free, not mind manipulation by a loving creator who became a creature to save a world He so loved. If God "fixed" anything by mind manipulation, then free choice would not exist. Love does not do such things.
I can't begin to explain what I am faintly understanding, but there will be no manipulation by "memory loss", though Truth will become more clear and meaningful to all who love the Lord. What we don't understand or even know about now will be revealed, and this Truth will wipe away all tears. Today, our minds are often clouded and controlled by sentimental ideas, feelings and limited understanding. God will free us without needing to control or manipulate us. There is so much we have yet to understand, but today we can Trust that His Word will come to pass.
Eric, I don't think God will erase our minds or even our memories, because they are what makes us individuals.
This whole great controversy has centered on the character of God, and the 1000 years are set aside to help the righteous to understand why God did what He did - even in not bringing their loved ones to heaven. He will show them that those they loved on earth would not be happy in heaven. They will see why God does not save people without their willing consent. While the righteous will remember their earthly lives, the memories will be without the pain that first accompanied them. That's why the Bible tells us that God "will wipe away all tears." There *will* be tears during the millennium, but God will wipe them away by providing a deeper understanding.
Have there been traumatic events in your life? If so, remember how even the memories at first were traumatic and the strong feelings eventually faded, even though you still remembered? I know I can remember things that once pained me, but the pain is no longer there, even though the memory is. Here on this planet we don't gain the same understanding as God will provide after the resurrection, so some memories still remain painful. But a thousand years of healing will do away with the pain because we will understand completely why the ones we once loved cannot be with us in heaven.
There's more to this retained memory versus erased memory: I believe the redeemed will testify to the inhabitants of other worlds what the Lord has done for them. This would not be possible without an accurate memory of the trials of this life. While our sins are blotted from the record used in the judgment, I believe we will remember them - not so much with shame, as we do now, but with gratitude that Christ saved us from them.
Our experiences in this life - both good and bad - make us who we are, and God will never manipulate us now or through eternity. If He were that kind of God, He could have just destroyed Adam and Eve and manipulated the minds of the onlooking created creatures to not remember this. Then He could have tried again by creating another pair. He could have repeated this forever. But God is not like that. He wants real, unforced love from real, free people. And for this freedom of thought, expression and love, He risked His own being. Christ risked much more than an earthly life when He became incarnate. It will take eternity to plumb the depths and the ramifications of His sacrifice.
Inge, thanks for clearing that up for me. A very simple explanation.
I do not know why I could not see the answer for myself? Everything you said I already knew, but for some reason my mind would not put them together.
I really feel dumb, but thanks for clarity.
Thank you God for your clear words of prophecy
Inge, why is 1000 years set aside, by God I assume, for explaining why the saved were saved, and the others lost, when you have already given the *reasons* for both - if those are the real reasons?
"...sin shall not rise up a second time" Nahum 1:9. Imagine, if you can, that you are in heaven those 1,000 years and you can't find someone you loved very much on the old Earth. A Mom, or Dad, or close friend. Then you learn that they didn't make it. You'd want to know "why." So you go to the record department and look them up. Will they be written books? Or 4th-dimensional video/audio? I don't know but I believe we will see it all in a person's life - their thoughts, their choices. God is Himself, like an open book. We need to be certain that He is just, and true, in all things. We must be satisfied as to why someone is saved or lost. Imagine someone carrying a nagging thought in the back of their mind about God's judgment. 10,000 years, a million years later - that nagging thought becomes open rebellion. God must ensure we all understand everything about Him. To nod our heads after searching the records that God is just and true and say, "Just and true, are thy ways, O Lord." Sin cannot rise up again. Free will shall still exist. God forbid that we would choose again to sin against God.
Even with the descriptions found in scripture, I'm convinced that we cannot begin to know the differences between this life and the life to come. At least I cannot comprehend the reality of that which I have not seen or my ears heard. While I can visualize things I understand, how does one visualize what they have never seen, much less understand?
The differences we can understand to some degree is that sin will not exist in any way, shape, or form. There will be no sinner found in all of creation. From there we can only imagine.
How can we in a world that’s so temporal, so fleeting, learn to reach out and grasp the unseen and eternal?
Are we called of Christ to “grasp” what we have yet to see, or to trust Him because of what has been revealed about Himself and His Father? Faith is not so much about understanding what we have never been shown, but it is about believing the One who promises eternal joy, peace and prosperity. Faith is about Who, not what, yet will often include what, because we believe the Who. Does that makes sense?
Hi Robert
"Faith is about Who, not what, yet will often include what, because we believe the Who."
This is well said.
And I believe Paul would agree with you too. The best 'definition'/explanation text in the Bible that I have found for faith is Rom 4:21: "being fully convinced that God had (has) the power to do what He had (has) promised". Abraham (the context of v 21) was fully convinced about the what because He fully trusted the Who.
There are things about heaven that our finite minds this side of glorification do not totally grasp. One thing is certain, heaven, and later the new earth will be beyond our greatest hope and dream. Why is it that as we age and get older and we feel the maladies of old age, with it's aches and pains that we become more earnest in our desire for the kingdom to come? In our youth we don't want the Lord to come yet because we want to have some "fun" first?
I think my greater wish than just wanting Jesus to come so I can get out of here and get a new body, is to try and show children that heaven will be a great place to live, and far superior than any "fun" they might want to enjoy down here.
Just a closer walk with God, Anointed, anoint our minds.
1 Cor 2:9 Eyes have not seen.
‘There *will* be tears during the millennium, but God will wipe them away by providing a deeper understanding.’
I don’t believe nor fully understood why there will be tears in heaven for 1000 years. Tears are shed in response to an emotional state. Pain produces an emotional state. Humans are not only physical, psychological, spiritual but also emotional/social being. Whenever something happens to us that hurts and we experience pain we tends to cry. So by removing pain, tears go away.
Pain is subjective. No one can doubt us about the level of pain we are experiencing. But how and when will pain be removed? Isa 13:8; 26:17; Pain as a woman in travail. What happens when a woman is about to give birth. She starts experiencing light pain but same develops in its intensity. With that she experiences more and more pain. But when the baby is born and she beholds the baby at a twinkling of an eye she forgets the pain and all her attention now focuses on the baby. Her joy unseen now becomes a reality.
So it shall be with our pain. Our pain will be gone when we see Jesus. When the dead rises they will come up as a perfect human without any deformities. Remember pain came after sin. Sin nor anything that came after sin will not be found in heaven. All have to go, leave in the grave.
From all I learn, I can imagine the following:
living singly (Matthew 22:30), 1st day gardening,
2nd day visit neighbors, 3rd day visit relatives
and friends, 4th day visit Bible characters,
5th day visit other worlds, 6th day play my harp,
7th day (Sabbath) group worship God (Isaiah 66:23
Fred, I'll be honest, I have no real idea how to it will be. I've tried over the years (I'm now 64) and when I was younger I had it all figured out but now I'm at the point in my life that I just want to make it! I like your list though. It'll be interesting to meet you in heaven and when we get to the New Earth, I'll check and see if your list stayed the same. God bless, Brother.