The Word of God encourages His people. One thing I’ve noticed recently is the assurance in prophetic literature that infants will live safely within God’s glorious future. Isaiah 11:6-9 promises that Jesus will usher in a Kingdom where, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Little children will one day “lead” animals of prey. Nursing infants will play over the dens of cobras. Weaned children will put their hands over snake holes. No more hurt or destruction. No fear or worry. There’s reversal of the evil caused from the Great Serpent and nothing but harmony will remain in God’s renewed world.
Isaiah says the same thing in chapter 65 when he describes a “new heavens and a new earth” (vs. 17). Isaiah says there will no longer be an infant whose life lasts only a few days. He pairs this with an elderly person living a full lifespan: both ends of life are protected from “premature” or early death. He says in verse 20, “No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” Infant death will be a literal thing of the past, one of the former things not remembered (vs. 17). But someone will say, “Wait, it mentions death in chapter 65? I thought that would be gone forever.” Dane Ortlund writes, “The references to death in verse 20 should be understood accordingly not as the literal presence of death but as a poetic expression of the wondrous longevity and durability of God’s people in the new earth.” We know this because John uses these verses in Revelation 21 to speak of death’s death. Moreover, verse 23 says, “They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.” God’s people will enjoy the fruit of their labor, and their children will share in their blessing rather than face disaster. Fully. Finally. Forever.
We need to hold fast to the promises of God in the meantime. A promise that will sustain us as waiting parents is Isaiah 25:7-8, “And he [God] will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” There’s coming a day when death will be swallowed up whole, the shroud of sadness will be removed, shame will be a forgotten reality, and all our tears will be wiped away, even those caused by the death of our children. Waiting parent, our hope is in the resurrection. Isaiah 26:19 promises, “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.”
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