As mentioned in last weeks study, this final section of Isaiah paints a picture of where God is taking the world. Last week we looked at the trajectory God was taking His people on and towards, and this week we get a picture of what the new creation he’s taking them towards will look like.
What do people you know / work with / study with, say happens after you die? How does this affect how they live now?
Read Isaiah 65:17-25.
How is this new creation described?
What allusions can you see to Genesis 1-3 in this passage? How is it the same & how is it different?
What elements of this new creation particularly appeal to you. Why?
While it’s clear that that the Jews believed we all answered to God after we die, and that there was something beyond this life, the Old Testament doesn’t have a hugely developed picture in this area. The idea of resurrection is flagged in the book of Daniel (12:2), but we’re left hanging in the Old Testament as to exactly what it’s all going to look like.
In John 14:1-6, Jesus tells his disciples that he’s going to prepare the way for them into this new creation. How is it that Jesus description here of what happens after death has any more weight than anyone else’s opinion / view?
The New Testament begins to build a fuller picture of what this new creation will look like. How does Revelation 21:1-4 picture the new creation – our relationship with God, what creation will look like?
The idea that in Jesus our future is both secure (John 14) and one free of pain (Revelation 21) are truths that can & should shape how we live now.
How do the truths of what our future will look like shape:
– How we see our work?
– How we treat creation now?
– How we see relationships and society around us?
– How we view our own Godliness?
Pray for each other that we’d live wisely now, and persevere until the end.
