Covenant in Isaiah, Part 3

This post and those to follow are extracts from a draft chapter in the book The Words of the Covenant: A Biblical Theology, Vol. 1 (forthcoming, d.v.). Read the series.

The Intertwining of the Covenants: A Little Summary of the Coming Kingdom

In these kinds of passages Isaiah presents a picture of the future kingdom of the Branch that is glorious in many respects. It is fair and just and safe and beautiful. After the initial battles, there will be a realization of the dream of world peace, brought about by the great mass of people turning to the true God—a New covenant era.

Additionally, the beautification of the earth, the desolate places made verdant, and the increase in natural productivity will be matched by the pacification of the animal world. This might readily be seen as a New covenant effect on the Noahic covenant. Peace, both outward and inward, will not be the elusive thing for which men have unsuccessfully sought throughout history. It will be present as a felt reality. It will be a natural part of human experience. And humanity will not be left to itself, but will know itself to be under the benevolent and judicial eye of the everlasting One. For God Himself, through “Immanuel,” will dwell on the earth in Jerusalem,¹ and all eyes will be on the great nation of Israel. This is where the first two parts of the Abrahamic covenant, together with the Priestly and Davidic covenants come in.

What happens in the Prophets is that the covenants of God intertwine.² Even parts of the Mosaic covenant are refocused in the New covenant. The New covenant is the key, because through it the other divine covenants can be realized. The great obstruction of human sin is dealt with.³

This is the outlook of the prophetic witness we have studied so far. It will be repeated and expanded as we move forward. The future kingdom will be wonderful in many ways. The believing will find “perfect peace” (Isa. 26:3) and “learn righteousness” (26:9). In fact God will work it all within them (26:12. Cf. 35:17).

Many of these great themes are present in Isaiah 32. There is the pouring out of the Spirit in 32:15, which is followed by the revitalization of the wilderness and super abundance of the field. But a noteworthy thing is that these normally uninhabited places will be places of justice and righteousness (32:16). The ethical and the physical are beautifully intertwined in the passage.

Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. (Isaiah 32:15-17)

In his Religio Medici, the 17^th Century polymath Sir Thomas Browne supposed that while there is only one world open to the senses, there are two open to the reason; the visible and the invisible.⁴ It is my belief that the end of the Creation Project is where the two worlds unite in our sensory experience as well as in our understandings. That is what is portrayed by the Prophet here. “Peace,” that elusive dream often rather rudely confronting us on preachy bumper-stickers and placards, will indeed be “felt” in the former nether regions of the earth when the righteous King reigns (Isa. 32:1).

But it will not be completely perfect.⁵ Already we have read that the Messiah, if I may at this point call Him by that title, will still have to keep sin in its place. When the last book of the Bible tells us that this “Lord of lords and King of kings” will rule the nations “with a rod of iron” (Rev. 19:15-16), it is because it is picking up on the language of Psalm 2. Isaiah has also described how “He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth” (Isa 11:4). Micah, in the midst of predicting a scene of the kingdom (Mic. 4:1-8), has to report the continuance of idolatry (Mic. 4:5a. cf. Zech.13:2-6).

The “Little Apocalypse”

What has been called “the little apocalypse” in Isaiah 24-27 begins with a description of God’s wrath upon earth (24:1-23),⁶ before introducing an era when God “will swallow up death forever, and… wipe away tears from all faces” (Isa. 25:8). Yahweh says that He will expand “all the borders of the land” (Isa. 26:15), which obviously recalls the Abrahamic oath of Genesis 15:18-21. Judgment gives way to blessing. There is even a mention of resurrection (Isa. 26:19 cf. Job 19:25-26), places this section at the time of the Lord’s establishment of His kingdom. Pain is substituted for joy because God “will establish shalom,” having done all their works within the redeemed (Isa. 26:12; 27:9). This will be an era of true justice, not just politics under the name of justice (Isa. 26:9); an era of a resurgent and resplendent Israel (Isa. 27:6).

In sum, Isaiah’s Little Apocalypse shows that a global kingdom follows global tribulation.⁷