inescapable.  The apparent contradiction, however, is solved by the closing

sentence of Isaiah 65:25:

'They shall not hurt nor destroy In All My Holy Mountain, saith the

even as we have noted the restricting words 'in her' in Isaiah 65:19.  The

holy mountain of the Lord is not the whole wide earth.  Jerusalem will be

newly created and a centre of light and truth surrounded by the rest of the

earth, occupied by those nations that survive the decimation of the time of

the end.  Isaiah himself has told us what will take place:

'And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the

Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and

shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the

mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will

teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion

shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem' (Isa.

Zechariah tells us that every one that is 'left' of all the nations

that came against Jerusalem, shall be obliged to go year by year to worship

the king the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.  And while

there is envisaged the possibility of default and punishment upon some of the

nations at that time, Israel will have become a Kingdom of Priests, and the

words associated with Aaron's mitre will now be upon the very bells of the

horses (Zech. 14:16-21).  There will be no sorrow, no pain, no death 'in all

My holy mountain', but there will be in the outlying lands of the nations,

until the Son of God puts down all rule and all authority.  We know that

right through the period covered by the new heavens and new earth there will

still be 'death' somewhere, for the very last enemy to be destroyed before

'the end' is 'death' (1 Cor. 15:24-28).  Isaiah, who wrote the words just

quoted from chapter 65:25, had previously written them in chapter 11, and had

added to them another term that helps to explain the difference between the

Jerusalem where there will be no death, and the rest of the earth that will

be slowly and increasingly brought into this blessed condition.

'For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the

waters cover the sea' (Isa. 11:9).

'For' is a logical connective.  It links the restriction to the 'holy

mountain' with the subsequent extension to the outside world.  What 'waters'

cover what 'sea'?  Ezekiel 47 will supply the answer.  From the threshold of

the Lord's house, the prophet saw a mighty river flowing, upon the banks of

which were very many trees.  It was explained to the prophet that:

'These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the

desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea,

the waters shall be healed' (Ezek. 47:8).

Verse 10 by speaking of Engedi reveals to us that 'the sea' that is

'healed' is The Dead Sea.  What a picture of healing Israel and Jerusalem are

destined to be when the new heaven and the new earth, together with the new

Jerusalem, shall at length fulfil their blessed purpose, and commence the

healing of the nations, which at long last will become that perfect kingdom