August 23 - Isaiah 65:13-16

August 23 – Isaiah 65:13-16

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit. You will leave your name to my chosen ones as a curse; the Sovereign LORD will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name. Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth; he who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.

Do you spend much time imagining living in the New Jerusalem?  While many might read this passage and think of the punishment of the wicked – those who forsake the Lord, read this from the other side.  Think about what comes to those who are God’s servants!

When I was growing up, I’m sure that I was like many of you when I thought about going to heaven.  All I could think was that it was going to be extremely boring.  Who wanted to stand around in a white robe all the time, singing!  I mean, yes, we should be thrilled to stand in the throne room of God and I would come up with reasons why He would make it so that we’d like that, but it seemed like an awful lot of work on His part to create zombie worshipers out of all of us just because we were finally dead.

Now, on the other side, I get weary of listening to people talk about their favorite golf course or finding their fishing buddies around a hole filled with walleye or the best shopping ever known, on and on … as if God was going to create a personal pleasure palace for each of us where we could be kings and queens of our space.

I really don’t believe that either of those extremes is true.  There are plenty of hints, such as in this passage.  We will eat, we will drink, we will rejoice, we will sing from the joy in our hearts.  When we look at Revelation 21 and 22, we find the majesty of the architecture, the beauty of the gems, the glory of nature and the pageantry of the kings of nations entering the city.

If we peek into the throne room with John in Revelation 4, we see astounding colors and images, filled with sights, sounds and great glory.

God looks forward to sharing His Kingdom with us.  He invites us to join Him there.  It’s an invitation to accept.