The Resurrection of our Lord: Old Testament, Isaiah 65:17-25          

Isaiah 65:17-25

Isaiah is a master of casting our eyes and hearts forward. And he does that for us in our reading this week. Something else struck me, too. What comes through the prophet here is the joy of God. Don’t you approach Easter Sunday with that holy anticipation of release? What I mean by that is that the mist of Lent is past and the morning of resurrection, sunshine or no, is filled with light. And God’s heart expressed in this text reflects that. Just listen:

“But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.”

-Isaiah 65:18-19

You see the forward look in Scripture is many times also an upward one. And that is true in this text where Isaiah is describing God’s work of renewing Jerusalem. And Jerusalem is His people. Where does that renewal make a concrete beginning? At the empty tomb of God the Son, that’s where. And the joy expressed by God even centuries before that blessed event is most certainly centered in it.

It makes the heart of God glad. So it should be with ours as well.

Blessed Day of Resurrection!