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 come 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.  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 heaven 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 Isaiah 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 connection.  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 bank 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 En -gedi, reveals to us that 'the sea' that is

'healed' is 'the Dead Sea'.  What a picture of the healing centre Israel and

Jerusalem are destined to be when the new heavens 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 which the Son of God can deliver up to the Father, that God

may be all in all.  We must therefore revise the diagram given on page 75

The Former

The New

Heaven and Earth.

Heaven and Earth.

The First or

The Second Man

1 Cor.

former Adam.

and the last Adam.

Paradise lost

Paradise restored

Gen. 3.

Rev. 22.

End

Genesis 1:3

Rev. 21, 22