God’s Contingency Plan for the World

Isaiah 65:17-25

Would you be interested in traveling to the moon? Or how about Mars? Well, whether you’re interested or not, in the not-too-distant future, that may be a possibility. Have you heard of NASA’s Artemis program? It’s this project where they’re attempting to put humans on the moon again by 2027 if all goes as planned. Now, why are they doing this? Well, they’re trying to find ice water deposits on the moon so that they can extract oxygen and hydrogen and they can make breathable air and rocket fuel. Now, why do they want to do that? Well, they want to build a fueling station on the moon so that travelers can go back and forth from the moon to Mars so that Mars can eventually be colonized. Even private companies with government contracts are chipping into all this work. So why all the fuss? Why all the billions of dollars put towards these efforts? Well, one reason given is that we humans are naturally curious. We like to explore. It’s what we’ve always done. Is it any different than discovering the new world back at the end of the 15th century? Is it any different than sending special submarines to explore the deepest parts of the ocean? Another reason given is to improve the economy, or so they say. You see, these endeavors will produce jobs here on Earth, but also in outer space. And so very soon, you’ll be able to visit the moon and go shopping on the Moon Mall or visit the Moon Resort, for instance. Now, as crazy as this all sounds, there is a more compelling reason for all these endeavors. And that is people have great fear and worry. People are afraid of catastrophic events on Earth. People are afraid of nuclear war. People are afraid that the Earth’s resources will run out. People are afraid that we are unable to live sustainably. And so some people have come up with a contingency plan to ensure their survival. They’re looking for a new home. Now, are there other planets that we can live on? Well, it is theorized that about 10% of the stars in our galaxy are similar to our very own sun and that each one of those stars could have planets that are similar in size and atmosphere to our Earth. So, maybe, but that’s a big maybe. So why am I telling you all this? Is it because I, Vicker, am a nerd? Well, yes, but that’s besides the point. The reason why I’m telling you all these things is because this fear that people have is strong and it’s real. So what is our response to this fear as Christians? It doesn’t take a Christian to know that this world is messed up. Even secular people recognize that the world is messed up. They’ve been realizing that for a long time. Not only do we mismanage the Earth, but we are really good at violence and warfare. And this all started when Adam and Eve ate that fruit that God told them not to eat. And since then, the world has been plunged into sin and imperfection. We have natural disasters and we have scarcity of resources. But it’s not just the Earth. All of creation was affected by sin. In outer space, there’s asteroid collisions and supernovas. But this is not the way things were supposed to be. We heard about some of the consequences of the fall into sin in our Torah reading this morning. What were some of them? Well, one is that women would now give birth in pain and difficulty. Work would be difficult and stressful. Men and women would not treat each other the way that they should. But worst of all was the consequence of death. You and I were supposed to live together. We were supposed to live forever. But now we die. Now we become dust. It’s like when you buy a new car, right? And then each day afterward is one day closer to the inevitable junkyard. And so it is with our body. From the moment that we are conceived, we are on a one-way trip to the grave. And so we know that the earth is messed up. We know that we’re gonna die. Are we afraid? What is our contingency plan? The secular people have their plan, or so they think. What’s our plan? Are we afraid of death? It’s normal to be afraid of death. In fact, it’s what we deserve. But thank God that He does not treat us as our sins deserve. You see, God punished Jesus on our behalf. God made Jesus the worst of sinners for our sake. And because of Jesus, we are fully reconciled to God. But not only are we reconciled, but God also promises us renewal. And that’s what Isaiah chapter 65 is all about. It’s about a promise of renewal. Isaiah wrote these words to the people of Judah to the people of Judah before they got exiled into Babylon. And so when the remnant finally returns to Judah, years later, they would have these words of Isaiah to give them comfort and peace. Because God says, “I am going to create “a new heavens and earth, “a place where death and destruction will no longer exist.” When the Bible talks about a new heavens and earth, that’s an old Hebrew way of communicating everything in creation. The earth refers to the land upon which we stand. The heavens refers to the sky and everything beyond the sky. So that would include stars, planets, the ether, anything and everything in outer space. And so when it says the heavens and the earth together, that’s an old Hebrew way of saying the universe. So what God is saying is, “I’m going to create a new universe for you to live in, “a place of perfection, “where the former things will not be remembered.” You see, Isaiah the prophet was a poet, and he was very aware of his audience. And so he writes things in such a way that they would understand. He uses pictures that were familiar to them. And so he says, “In this new universe, “infants will live out their days.” Why does he say that? Well, in his time, it’s much more likely that infant mortality was much higher than it is now. And so he says, “In this new universe, “they will live out their days, that won’t happen.” Now, it’s not that people will be having children in the new universe, but more so the point is to communicate that the things that used to give people distress in the old world, in the old universe, will not happen again. Now, what if we had been Isaiah’s original audience? The promises of the new universe would probably sound a little bit different. Maybe he would have said things like, no longer will there be pollution, no longer will there be drug addiction, no longer will there be depression, no longer will people’s mental health be affected by social media. Instead, all people will come together to end poverty and to end world hunger, and they will create the perfect cure to every cancer, something like that. The point is to give comfort and peace to the people, to us. And so we have this promise of renewal. We have this promise of the new and perfect universe. But are we happy about it? Do we look forward to it? Are we excited? Or do we kind of forget about it? Brothers and sisters, this is a trap that we all fall into. Even though we know that this world and everything in it will be destroyed, we often get attached to it, don’t we? Listen, it’s fine to buy new houses, it’s fine to buy new cars, it’s fine to invest in companies. And God be praised that he allows us to do those things. But let’s keep the right perspective about those things. Everything that we have and everything that we will acquire in the future, all of it’s gonna perish. All of it’s gonna be burned up when God creates the new world. Brothers and sisters, this is not our permanent home. We are just passing through. And so it is foolish to get attached to the things of this world. On Christmas, when you receive or when you give those gifts, they’re nice and you should be thankful for them, but remember that every single one of those gifts will perish. But our destiny is much different, isn’t it? You see because God had the perfect contingency plan. And he carried it out. And his contingency plan was to have his son live, suffer, and die on our behalf so that we could be with him forever. My friends, Jesus is coming back and he’s gonna take us to be in that new home, that new universe. So pack your bags. And when I say pack your bags, what I mean is be ready. And the way that you stay ready is by keeping the Bible open and by anticipating the imminent return of our Lord. We are going home, brothers and sisters. Amen? – Amen.