Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 66:22
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
22. Comp. Jer 31:35 f., Jer 33:25 f.
the new heavens and the new earth ] ch. Isa 65:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For as the new heavens and the new earth – (See the notes at Isa 65:17).
Shall remain before me – They shall not pass away and be succeeded by others. The idea is, that the state of things here described would be permanent and abiding.
So shall your seed and your name remain – (See the notes at Isa 65:15).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 66:22
For as the new heavens and the new earth
The perpetuity of the true Israel
The bulk of the heathen world and also of Israel perish, but Israels name and seed, i.. Israel as a nation with the same ancestors and an independent name, remains for ever (cf. Jer 31:35 f.; 33:20-26), as the new heaven and the new earth. And just because Israels calling in regard to the heathen world is now fulfilled and all things are made new, the old fencing off of Israel from the heathen now comes to an end; and what qualifies for priestly and Levitical service in Gods temple is no longer mere natural descent, but inner nobility The prophet thus represents to himself the Church of the future on a new earth and under a new heaven; but he is unable to represent the eternal in the form of eternity; he represents it to himself merely as an unending continuation of temporal history (Isa 66:23). (F. Delitzch, D. D.)
A figure of the spiritual
The thought of Isa 56:7 is here (verse 23) expressed by a figure, which, understood literally, involves a physical impossibility; but the prophet cannot altogether emancipate himself from the forms of the Jewish economy, and clothes a spiritual truth in a garb which in strictness is too narrow for it (cf. Zec 14:16-19). (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The stability of the Christian Church
(with Isa 60:20-21):–The Christian Church is not the conqueror of the Jewish polity, but the heir and successor. The new covenant has been developed out of the old. There was no break when Christ came, but a fulfilment and a completion. And so the promises were handed down in the Christian line, among which these from the latter part of Isaiah, relating to the stability of the ancient Church, are not the least remarkable. They declare that God is an everlasting light to His people, that their permanence is like the permanence of the creation of God. (T. D. Woolsey.)
The Christian Church not a human institution
The permanence of the Christian Church in the world, if it be a fact, is unlike all facts of history. Everything human decays and passes away. All institutions, forms of government, civilizations, have their day and decline. No one doubts that the old religions of India and its castes are doomed to perish. We cannot, therefore, be assured from history that Christianity may not perish also. Still when you look at its origin, its power of growth, its vitality, when everything around was dead; its changes of form joined to unchangeableness of principle; its power to correct evils within its pale; its predominance among the influences that act on mankind; its universal character, and its consciousness–so to speak–that the world is its own, you cannot feel it to be otherwise than quite probable that it is to be mans guide to the end of time. (T. D. Woolsey.)
The history of the Church augurs its permanence
Though history is not prophecy, though it cannot with authority predict the universal and final sway of Christs Gospel and of Christian institutions, it reveals, at the least, a working power, a tenacity of life, a hopefulness, a benevolent energy which are not inconsistent with stability and with continuance until the end of time. (T. D. Woolsey.)
The stability of the Christian Church
I. WE SHALL LOOK AT SEVERAL CAUSES TO WHICH IT IS NOT DUE: but to which, on a superficial view, it might be ascribed.
1. It is not owing to strength borrowed from governments, the Church grew without help from the government; it grew also in spite of long efforts of the government to destroy it.
2. For is the stability of the Church due to the stability of its forms of discipline and order. These have passed through a great variety of changes, from the times of the nascent Church, when there was little of established order, down through the ages of hierarchy, to our times, when the Church thrives in a great variety of forms, and with varied theories of government.
3. Nor yet is the stability of the Church owing to the stability of theological systems. It grew, it almost reigned, before any received dogmatic statements of its sacred truth were current. It has outlived theories and expositions innumerable, and indeed nothing connected with Christianity has been more changing than the scientific arrangements of its truths.
4. Nor can the stability of the Church be explained by saying that it got the control of opinion and kept thought in leading strings, so that when science was emancipated, new conditions full of danger to the Church began. It arose in spite of a reigning heathen opinion and philosophy, which it overthrew and put another in the place. It has in its healthiest state favoured all knowledge in the confidence of being itself together with every other true thing from God.
5. Nor can the stability of the Church be attributed to the condescending patronage of large-minded men, who saw in its justice and humanity a help for the world to be found nowhere else, but yet did not believe in it themselves.
II. TO WHAT, THEN, IS THE STABILITY OF THE CHURCH DUE? To this question it is no sufficient answer that the Holy Spirit is ever in and with the Church. For the Spirits office is to act on men according to the laws of character by Divine realities. It is due–
1. To this: that the Gospel, on which the Church is built, works out some of the great problems which lie on the heart of man, in a way to give lasting peace and satisfaction to the soul. I refer to practical rather than to intellectual problems, although even the restless questionings of the mind either meet with an answer from the Divine oracles, or are carried up into a higher realm of truth. The power inherent in Christianity itself, as a way of reconciling God and man, and of raising man above sin by great truths and great hopes, is a real and permanent power. It is suited to all natures and capacities, to all races and times.
2. To those permanent features of the Gospel, which bind men together in a brotherhood pervaded by the spirit of love and fellowship.
3. To its self-reforming capacity. The human and the Divine have ever mingled and will ever mingle in the historical progress of Christianity, as they mingle in the development of a Christian life. There are unavoidable sources of corruption in the revolutions of society, in the growth of wealth, in the love of self-gratification, in the increase of worldly comforts. There are other sources in the ignorance of untrained Christians, in the ambition of the clergy and their love of dominion, in the rewards offered within the Church to the aspiring, in formalism, in a dead orthodoxy. At the lowest ebb of Christian life and knowledge there remain within the reach of the Church the sources of a better spiritual state, so that it can reform itself as it has done more than once.
(1) As long as the Bible is acknowledged as an authority, there is an appeal to it from all other authorities, from popes, and councils, and philosophers, and the current opinion of the time.
(2) There are at the times of greatest declension men who arc somehow led, as we believe, by the Divine Spirit concurring with the Word, into a deeper experience; they rise above their times, they reach convictions which are irrepressible, they must proclaim to the world at any cost what they found out as the resting-places of their souls; they become the starting-points of a reform which sweeps over all Christian nations.
4. The stability of the Church is ensured by the stability of Christ. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever. Doubt is of to day, but He is of all time. He is a permanent possession for the soul. He does not wear out in a lifetime. He is the permanent possession of the Church in all its ages and changes He does not wear out while there are men to long for redemption. (T. D. Woolsey.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
This whole verse is only a promise of the perpetuity of the gospel church, and the not failing of the additions to it of such as shall be saved till the world shall have an end.
The new heavens and the new earth; the new state of the church to be raised up under the Messias. As I intend that shall abide, so there shall be a daily succession of true believers for the upholding of it; for if believers could fail from the earth, the church, made up of them only, as the true members of it, must fail also.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. (Isa 65:17;2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make,…. Not “have made”; for this is not to be understood of the heavens and the earth made new in the beginning, and which continue so without any change or alteration; though sometimes the perpetuity of the church, which is here predicted, is set forth by the duration of those,
Ps 89:36 but either of the new state of things under the Gospel dispensation, which still continues, promised Isa 65:15, or rather, since that would be an illustration of it by the same thing in different words, it may be interpreted literally of the new heavens and the new earth, which will be made when the present ones shall wax old and perish, and be no more, as in the New Jerusalem state, 2Pe 3:10:
shall remain before me, saith the Lord; these shall continue, not only throughout the Millennium, or thousand years’ reign, but for ever:
so shall your seed and your name remain; not the natural seed of believers; all have not such seed, and they that have, they are not all converted persons; but the spiritual “seed” of the church, born in her, and brought up by her; which shall continue in successive generations to the end of time, notwithstanding the persecutions of men, and the craft of false teachers, and the reproaches and banters of a vain world, Ps 22:30, and their “name” also; the name of Christ they name and confess, and that is called upon them, and from whence they are called Christians; this shall endure as long as the sun,
Ps 72:17 or the new name of sons and daughters of the Almighty; or their fame and glory, the memory of them; they shall be had in everlasting remembrance, Ps 112:6.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I am about to make, continue before me, saith Jehovah, so will your family and your name continue.” The great mass of the world of nations and of Israel also perish; but the seed and name of Israel, i.e., Israel as a people with the same ancestors and an independent name, continues for ever, like the new heaven and the new earth; and because the calling of Israel towards the world of nations is now fulfilled and everything has become new, the former fencing off of Israel from other nations comes to an end, and the qualification for priesthood and Levitical office in the temple of God is no longer merely natural descent, but inward nobility. The new heaven and the new earth, God’s approaching creation ( quae facturus sum ), continue eternally before Him ( l e phanai as in Isa 49:16), for the old ones pass away because they do not please God; but these are pleasing to Him, and are eternally like His love, whose work and image they are. The prophet here thinks of the church of the future as being upon a new earth and under a new heaven. But he cannot conceive of the eternal in the form of eternity; all that he can do is to conceive of it as the endless continuance of the history of time.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Vs. 22-24: ALL THINGS NEW
1. The resurrection of saints and restitution of a corrupted creation are closely associated with the restoration of the Theocratic rule under the Messiah of God, (vs. 22; Dan 12:2; Isa 25:8; 1Co 15:54-57; Isa 65:17; Heb 12:26-29; 2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1); those exalted to share a position of blessedness and glory in the New Order will be forever secure therein, (Isa 56:5; Isa 61:8-9; Isa 65:23; comp. Joh 10:27-29; 1Pe 1:3-5).
2. In the coming New Age “all flesh” will come, joyfully, to worship before the Lord! (Isa 19:21-23; Isa 27:13; Isa 49:7; contr. Isa 1:13-14).
3. By way of contrast, with the blessedness of the faithful, the Gospel prophet sounds a final note of warning; the way of the transgressor is hard, (vs. 24; comp. Mar 9:43-48; Dan 12:2; Pro 13:15).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. For as the new heavens. Here he promises that the restoration of the Church shall be of such a nature that it shall last for ever. Many might be afraid that it would be ruined a second time; and therefore he declares that henceforth, after having been restored by God, its condition shall be permanent. Accordingly, he mentions here two benefits of surpassing excellence, restoration and eternity. When he speaks of “new heavens” and a “new earth,” he looks to the reign of Christ, by whom all things have been renewed, as the Apostle teaches in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Now the design of this newness is, that the condition of the Church may always continue to be prosperous and happy. What is old tends to decay; what is restored and renewed must be of longer continuance. (Heb 8:13.)
So shall your seed and your name remain. God had promised that “the sun and moon,” so long as they remained in heaven, should be witnesses of the eternal succession, that the posterity of David might not be cut off. But because some interruption arose from the treachery and ingratitude of the people, the restoration effected by Christ actually confirmed that prediction. Justly, therefore, does Isaiah say, “Your sons shall succeed to you, and your grandsons shall succeed to your sons;” and as God will establish the world, that it may never perish, so the succession of the Church shall be perpetual, that it may be prolonged through all ages.
In a word, he explains what he had formerly said about renewing the world, that none may think that this relates to trees, or beasts, or the order of the stars; for it must be referred to the inward renewal of man. The ancients were mistaken when they thought that these things related absolutely to the last judgment; and they had not sufficiently weighed the context of the Prophet or the authority of the Apostle. Yet I do not deny that they extend as far as to that judgment, because we must not hope for a perfect restoration before Christ, who is the life of the world, shall appear; but we must begin higher, even with that deliverance by which Christ regenerates his people, that they may be new creatures. (2Co 7:1.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) As the new heavens and the new earth . . .The transformation of Isa. 65:17 is pre-supposed, but that future kingdom of God shall perpetuate the historical continuity of that which has preceded it. Israel (the prophets range of vision seems limited to the outward Israel, while St. Paul extends it to the spiritual) shall still exist. The ideal represented by that name will have an indestructible vitality.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
The Final Triumph ( Isa 66:22-24 ).
Isa 66:22
‘For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will remain before me, so will your seed and your name remain.’
Once again we are reminded that God has made all things new. And they are permanent and everlasting as He is everlasting (they ‘will remain before Him’). But equally everlasting are the seed of these whom Yahweh has gathered. The Abrahamic promise now belongs to them as well. And their name will remain (contrast Isa 65:15). This is the new name by which He has called His servants (Isa 65:15). There will be no danger of these proving false to Yahweh or turning back, for Yahweh guarantees their perseverance.
This is the second mention of the new heavens and the new earth (see Isa 65:17). And yet the whole concentration is on the new Jerusalem. In this we have further confirmation that the new Jerusalem in its final form is the representation of the new heavens and the new earth, of the final place of fulfilment (compare Rev 21:1 to Rev 22:5).
Isa 66:23
‘ “And it will come about that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says Yahweh.’
Now the whole world worships Yahweh. This is the final triumph. Month by month, and sabbath by sabbath, they observe His day, the sign that they are wholly His, and come to enjoy His feasts. It is a time of feasting and not of fasting, for those who rejected Him have been done away. All are in the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city. No earthly city could contain this number. Isaiah is describing a Jerusalem beyond his imagination, and beyond ours, which is why it has to be put in such terms. And yet there was a precursor of it in the earlier gathering of peoples from all nations to the feasts in Jerusalem (Act 2:5).
Isa 66:24
‘And they will go forth and look on the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be an abhorring to all flesh.’
This is not a picture of going there in order to obtain morbid pleasure. It is a solemn declaration that God has triumphed. His true people will enter Jerusalem to worship, and as they go out again they will pass the valley of judgment where the fires of judgment still burn. Many visitors to Jerusalem would remember the glory of the Temple and the vivid contrast of the Valley of Hinnom as they left Jerusalem after their worship.
The point being made here is that all who were against Yahweh are gone. There is no suggestion that they live. They are carcasses. What survives for ever are the means of judgment, the maggot and the fire which will never die. Nothing cast there will survive. The thought is that His own will worship Yahweh and be aware of His judgment on the wicked, and that his readers must be aware of it too. It is a vivid warning to his readers that they must choose whether they will be one or the other, the final evangelistic appeal. And it is on this warning that he signs off. It is his last appeal to the hearts of men. In the Garden the tempter questioned, ‘Did God say?’ Here is the reply. ‘God did say’.
The picture is in terms of a rubbish dump where the fires continually burn to consume the waste, and the maggots continually do their work, and where the bodies of outcasts are tossed to demonstrate for them supreme everlasting contempt (compare Dan 12:2). Certainly later the valley of Hinnom (Ge-hinnom) outside the walls of Jerusalem became such a rubbish dump, and its eerie fires at night seen over the walls of Jerusalem would present an aweinspiring sight. This would later result in the idea of Gehenna, the place of eternal punishment.
And thus in these final words Isaiah proclaims the triumph of Yahweh, the unrestricted worship of His people, and His final dealings with all who have rejected Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 66:22. For as the new heavens, &c. This conclusion connects not only with the preceding period, but with the argument of the two former sections, as well as with the whole book, with respect to its principal scope. For, what scope and end, not only of this book, but of the whole prophetic word, can be fixed upon more properly, than to set forth the history and events of the true church, and its adversaries, both in this mortal life, and in futurity? We may therefore affix a very ample signification to the particle ki, for, or because. The above promise of a church to be called from the Gentiles, and to be supported and taught by ministers, appointed by God for that end, from the Gentiles themselves, Isa 66:21 with the addition of the remnant of the Jews, is here enlarged by the promise of the stability and duration of this eminent blessing. The discourse is directed to the same church of believers in Christ, which the prophet had addressed in all the consolatory periods of this section. As the new heavens and the new earth which God had promised to create, ch. Isa 65:17 were to remain before Jehovah, so should this spiritual church, which was to inherit these new heavens and new earth, remain or continue a glorious church. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
Ver. 22. For as the new heavens. ] So shall there be a true Church and a ministry for the good of my people to the world’s end. It shall not be taken away, as is the Jewish polity and hierarchy.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
new heavens, &c. See note on Isa 65:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the new: Isa 65:17, Heb 12:27, Heb 12:28, 2Pe 3:13, Rev 21:1
so shall: Mat 28:20, Joh 10:27-29, 1Pe 1:4, 1Pe 1:5
Reciprocal: Job 14:12 – till the heavens Psa 102:26 – They shall Psa 102:28 – The children Psa 104:30 – renewest Isa 45:8 – I the Lord Isa 51:16 – plant Eze 37:25 – even they Eze 43:19 – the priests Zec 14:11 – shall be safely inhabited Mat 19:28 – in the regeneration Rev 15:4 – for all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 66:22-23. For as the new heavens, &c. The new state of the church to be raised up under the Messiah; shall remain before me Unalterable. As the gospel dispensation is to be continued till the end of time, and not to be succeeded by any other; as it shall therefore remain, because it is before me, under my eye, my care, and special protection; so shall your seed and your name remain A seed of ministers, a seed of Christians. As one generation of both passeth away, another generation shall come, and thus the name of Christ, with that of Christians, shall continue on earth while the earth remains, and his throne as the days of heaven! The gates of hell, though they fight against the church, shall not prevail against it, nor wear out the saints of the Most High: for there shall be a daily succession of true believers for the upholding of it; for, if believers could fail from the earth, the church, made up of them only, as the true members of it, must fail also. And from one new-moon to another, &c. In the gospel church there shall be as constant and settled a course of worship, (though of another nature,) as ever was in the Jewish Church. This is described in expressions suited to the Old Testament dispensation, to show that, though the ceremonial law should be abolished, and the temple service at an end, yet God should be still as regularly, statedly, and acceptedly worshipped as ever. Heretofore the Jews were only obliged to appear three times in a year at the place of Gods public worship, but, saith the prophet, in the gospel church people shall worship from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another They shall be perpetually employed in serving and glorifying him, although in different ways. Their state shall be one continued festival. And whereas, under the former dispensation, the Jews only were bound to attend Gods worship at the great feasts, and of them only the males; now, under the new dispensation, all flesh, Gentiles as well as Jews, women as well as men, shall come and worship before God That is, shall worship in his presence, though not in his temple at Jerusalem, but in religious assemblies dispersed all over the world, which shall be to them as the tabernacle of meeting was to the Jews: God will in them record his name; and, though but two or three come together, he will be in the midst of them, will meet and bless them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
66:22 For as the new {i} heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.
(i) By this he signifies the kingdom of Christ in which his Church will be renewed, and where before there were appointed seasons to sacrifice in this there will be one continual Sabbath, so that all times and seasons will be meet.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Just as surely as God would create new heavens and a new earth (cf. Isa 65:17), so He would preserve the Israelites (cf. Isa 1:2; Gen 12:1-3).