In our daily meditations, we continue to think about the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ on Earth. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Isaiah wrote about the time when there would be significant changes on the Earth:
17See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 18But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. 19I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. 20Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. 21They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. 23They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. 24Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord (Isaiah 65:17-25).
The Lord says that there will be a new earth and new heavens. How are we to understand these words? At first glance, it could seem like we will all be moved to a new earth, but that is not the meaning. In his book Heaven, Randy Alcorn says that the expression "Heaven and Earth" is a biblical designation for the entire universe. He writes:
When Revelation 21:1 speaks of “a new heaven and a new earth,” it indicates a transformation of the entire universe. The Greek word kainos, translated as "new," suggests that the Earth God creates won't merely be new as opposed to old but new in quality and superior in character. According to Walter Bauer’s lexicon, kainos means new in the sense that what is old has become obsolete and should be replaced by what is new. In such a case, the new is, as a rule, superior in kind to the old. It means, therefore, "not the emergence of a cosmos totally other than the present one, but the creation of a universe which, though it has been gloriously renewed, stands in continuity with the present one." Paul uses the same word, kainos, when he speaks of a believer becoming "a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). The New Earth will be the same as the old Earth, just as a new Christian is still the same person he was before. Different? Yes, But also the same.[1]
The way the Earth has been for centuries will be changed and hardly remembered (v. 17). It will be a time of complete renewal and restoration. Perhaps the new heavens refer to the destruction of the enemy's habitation in the invisible realm where he has waged his campaign against humanity. Up to that point, Satan is called the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). Luke, in the Book of Acts, says that Jesus "must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21, emphasis mine). The Earth will be restored to its pristine beauty and fertility. During the Millennium, those alive will long enjoy the fruit of their work and what they plant they will harvest. What they build will be theirs in which to live.
At the rapture and resurrection of the saints and the wrath of God is poured out, the angels will weed out of Christ's kingdom all evil: "The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil" (Matthew 13:41). This time will be a period of restoration before the final judgment. It will be a blessed time with people living, in most cases, many hundreds of years as they did in the book of Genesis. Adam lived for 930 years (Genesis 5:5), Seth lived for 912 years (Genesis 5:8), and Methuselah lived for 969 years (Genesis 5:27). The saints, those born again by the Spirit of God, will never die, for they are imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:52). I don't know about you, but I look forward to that! Keith Thomas
Taken from the series Insights into Eternity. Click on study five or this link: The Millennium.
YouTube video teachings at: https://www.youtube.com/@keiththomas7/videos
[1] Randy C. Alcorn, Heaven, published by Tyndale Publishers, Inc. Copyright 2004, Page 149.