Something New
Isaiah 65:17-25
November 23, 2025 anno Domini
There is nothing new under the sun. That is God’s wisdom from the wisest man to ever live. Solomon delivers that wisdom and more in the book of Ecclesiastes: It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Solomon’s wisdom – that there is nothing new under the sun is a warning for our faith. We won’t find anything to hold on to in this world – it’s like trying to grab the wind. Like you but I love new things. When I’m ready to make a new purchase, especially something a little more expensive, I get excited. I research the options, check prices, compare this brand with that brand. I am not an impulsive buyer. I want to make sure that when I get something new it’s going to be all that I want and need it to be. I enjoy chasing new things.
What happens when I finally acquire my new pursuit? The excitement is all gone. The pursuit is over. Whatever it was that I was so excited about and thought so necessary, is now just another object in my life that needs to be used, maintained, and repaired. I need to hear and follow Solomon’s wisdom, which is the wisdom of God – it’s chasing after the wind. You’ll never catch anything new, rewarding, lasting under the sun. The moment you lay your hands on something it’s old. It will fleet away like the wind.
Solomon warns us against this old fallen fleeting world. Isaiah beckons our faith with something new, something the Lord is making for us. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.
Today is the last Sunday of the Church year, and the focus of the appointed Scripture readings is the last day — the day when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. The Gospel reading encourages you to look forward to that day – like the bridesmaids waiting for the groom and bride to show up. The Epistle reading urges you to be watchful, to keep the light on, to be sober and alert, live your life with the day of the Lord in mind. The reason for this watchfulness and anticipation is that God has something new in store for you – He is going to make new heavens and a new earth.
A point of doctrine about this new creation. In the first creation God made everything out of nothing. He spoke and the dry ground appeared. He said, “Let there be creeping things” and the Asian beetles settled on your front window in the sunshine. In the new creation God is not making something out of nothing. Instead, He is remaking what is old into something new. Your old, dead body will be raised and made new. This old tired earth will be made new – without famines and hurricanes and 30-degree below windchill.
The new heavens and the new earth are the result of God’s redemption in Christ. God sent His Son into the world to save the world. That salvation begins with the head of creation – humanity, you. But just as one man’s sin affected the whole world, the redeeming work of the one man Jesus Christ redeems the whole world. On the last day, you and all creation will be made new.
One of the facets of this newness is that we won’t remember former things, old things. You will have no memory of this sin-ridden, troubled world. Can you imagine not remembering your worst sin? our pestering sin? Your saddest moment? Your seasons of despair or anxiety or fear? You won’t be angry when you think about how others have hurt you because you won’t remember the hurt, the trouble, and the sorrow that happened every day under the sun during your life.
Some of this newness is almost impossible to describe. The Lord says, “Behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness.” The very nature of God’s redeemed people will be joy and gladness. It’s not going to be Minnesota in the new creation – where people ask, “How’s it goin?” and you give that Minnesota nice answer, “Fine” even when it might be the worst day in your life. If anyone asks you in the new creation, “How are you doing?” You’ll respond, “I am joy in the flesh. I’m filled with gladness.” That is who you will be because that is who Christ has redeemed you to be. You will have no sin and therefore no sorrow.
This newness will be so new to us that the Lord can only describe it for us in negative terms – what it is not. No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping or the cry of distress. You won’t shed a tear in the new creation. You’ll never be stressed. You will have no worries and no disappointments.
Next the Lord hints at the duration of this newness. There you will never say, “It’s too good to last.” No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. Although this isn’t an explicit promise of eternal life the Lord is telling us that this new heaven and new earth are going to endure. It won’t be like our gadgets, cars, and gizmos, that are constantly being replaced with new and better. Our days will not be numbered. Infants won’t die. A hundred-year-old man will be considered young. There will be no cemeteries, no funeral homes, no health insurance, no doctors. There will be no deadlines. You will have no worry about getting your work done on time – the new heavens and new earth is life without end.
Solomon saw how vain and fleeting this world is. Here you lay hold of something you prize and the next day it’s gone. Solomon lamented that when he died everything he had acquired would be given to someone else who didn’t work for it. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool?
Not so in the new creation. There you will enjoy the results of your work, not because you did better than your neighbor, but because sin and death will not rule there. You will build a house and dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard and enjoy its fruits. Your work will not be folly but success.
The new heavens and the new earth are marked by peace. Since Christ redeemed the whole of creation, the whole of creation also receives this peace. Before sin came into the world there was no death, no violence anywhere. That meant that lions and wolves were not meat eaters. They couldn’t be according to God’s Word. Man’s sin brought death, and the first death that happened was God killing some animal, probably a lamb, to cover Adam and Eve’s sinful flesh. In the new creation the wolf and lamb will graze together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. That old serpent however – the devil, he will be sucking dust in hell, but not in God’s land – they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.
Isaiah prophesies the new heavens and the new earth to encourage you to look forward to the Lord’s return. When our Lord Jesus Christ became a man and came to earth, He created something new – you. He died for your sin, that your old sinful self might be put to death in baptism, and a new man arise. In your baptism you were born again, born from above, born anew to live in a new earth. As Paul writes to the Thessalonians “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him.”
Solomon does not want you to be fools – like those foolish virgins in the Gospel. Who knows what they spent their money on? Perhaps matching shoes and Coach purses to go with their gowns. What we do know is that they didn’t spend their money on oil. They neglected their faith and pursued other things and they missed out on the wedding feast. The wise virgins, lived by faith, with one thing in mind – the arrival of the Groom and His bride. They did not want to miss out on the wedding feast because there would be no other feast like this one. It’s going to be a great feast, in the new heavens and the new earth, a unending feast of joy, of life, and of peace. Look forward to it – in the name of Jesus. Amen.