Context No. 3922 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 66:17-24: in context

17“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says the LORD. 18“For I know their works and their thoughts. The time comes that I will gather all nations and languages, and they will come, and will see my glory. 19“I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to far-away islands, who have not heard my fame, nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the LORD’s house. 21Of them I will also select priests and Levites,” says the LORD. 22“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says the LORD, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. 23It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says the LORD. 24“They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

At the close of Isaiah, God unveils a sweeping vision of the future: the time is coming when I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. And from among his people he will send survivors to the far-off nations that have never heard his fame, and they shall declare my glory among the nations.

Here, at the end of Isaiah, is the missionary heart of God laid bare. He does not intend his glory to stay hidden among one people; he purposes to gather all nations to see it, and he sends witnesses out to the ends of the earth to proclaim it to those who have never heard. This is God's own plan for the world, and it is still unfolding. And it reaches its climax in a promise of permanence: as the new heavens and the new earth I will make shall endure, so shall your offspring and your name endure. The vision that began in gathering the nations ends in a new creation where God's people worship him forever.

Do I share God's heart to see his glory declared among all nations, and do I set my hope on the new creation where his people will worship him forever?

Sources

Isaiah 66:18: "The time comes that I will gather all nations and languages, and they will come, and will see my glory."
Isaiah 66:19: "I will send those who escape of them to the nations... who have not heard my fame, nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations."
Isaiah 66:22: "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me... so your offspring and your name shall remain."