The Scroll of Isaiah closes with a stunning picture of a new heavens and a new earth, ruled by the one true King and filled with joy and peace. This picture of new creation is not unique to Isaiah; similar pictures are painted by other biblical prophets, and picked up by the authors of the New Testament as well. This picture of the end of suffering and sin is beautiful and provocative, evoking in the reader a sense of hope and longing for a reality that the present world cannot satisfy. But Christians are not called to a passive hope. What does Isaiah’s vision of the future mean for us now, in the present? What can the Church do, as God’s servant on earth, to offer a glimpse of this future to a world without hope?
