Isaiah 65:17

My Notes

What Does Isaiah 65:17 Mean?

Isaiah 65:17 is God announcing the most comprehensive renovation project in history: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Not repair. Not refurbishment. Create — bara, the same verb used for the original creation in Genesis 1:1. God is starting over. And the old version won't even be missed.

The scope is total: new heavens and new earth. Not just a new political arrangement or a reformed society. The entire created order — sky and ground, space and matter, the physical framework of existence — remade. This is the verse behind Revelation 21:1 ("I saw a new heaven and a new earth") and Peter's expectation of "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13). Isaiah plants the seed. The New Testament harvests it.

"The former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" — the Hebrew lo yizzakeru velo ya'alu al lev means they won't rise up in memory or ascend to the heart. The old creation won't haunt the new one. The pain, the decay, the groaning that Romans 8:22 describes — all of it so thoroughly superseded that it doesn't even generate nostalgia. The new isn't a better version of the old. It's so qualitatively different that the old becomes irrelevant. Not erased from history. Eclipsed by something so good that looking back becomes unnecessary.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What 'former things' are you carrying that you long to have eclipsed by something so good they don't even come to mind?
• 2.How does knowing God uses the same verb (bara — create) for the new creation as for the original change your expectations about what's coming?
• 3.Does the promise that the old won't even be remembered help you hold your current pain differently — and if so, how?
• 4.What does living between the promise and the fulfillment look like for you practically — how do you carry the old while believing in the new?

Devotional

New heavens. New earth. The former things not even remembered. That's the scope of what God is building. Not an improved version of what you already know. Something so radically new that the thing it replaces won't even cross your mind.

Think about what that means for the things that haunt you now. The memories that replay at 3 AM. The losses that still ache. The regrets that surface without warning. The grief that feels permanent because the thing it mourns is permanent. Isaiah says there's a creation coming where none of that rises to the heart. Not because you've been programmed to forget. Because what's in front of you is so overwhelmingly good that the old things lose their grip naturally. The way sunrise makes a flashlight irrelevant. Not by opposing it. By outshining it.

You live between the promise and the fulfillment. The new creation hasn't arrived yet. The old heavens and old earth are still groaning. The pain is still real and the memories still surface. But the promise is planted — and it changes how you carry the present. You're not carrying it forever. The former things have an expiration date. Not because God will wipe your memory, but because He'll fill your reality with something so complete that the former simply can't compete. Everything you're enduring now is temporary. Everything He's creating is permanent. And the permanent will make the temporary not just bearable but forgettable. Not yet. But behold — He is creating.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture