The Coffee Hour— “The New Heavens and New Earth” LW Searching Scripture, November 2025: Isaiah 65-66
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November brings us to the end of another church year, which focuses our attention on the last things, on death and resurrection, on heaven and hell. We confess in the creeds, “I believe in … the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting”; “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” It is remarkable that these creedal truths were already as good as accomplished thousands of years ago, with prophecies inspired by the Holy Spirit and written down by men such as Job (19:25 –27), Daniel (12:2–3) and Isaiah (26:19 ). Some Christians take Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel and other prophetic books of the Bible to be “guidebooks to the end times.” However, careful study of both the Old and New Testaments shows that their focus is on comforting the church on earth with knowledge of the victory of Jesus Christ over sin, death and the devil and His promise to take us to Himself for eternity. As we open the Old Testament and see our present and future revealed there, we will need to keep in mind the “prophetic perspective” that could be observed in Jeremiah 31:31 –34 and Joel 2:28 –32, in which some predictions have been fulfilled in the messianic age but others must wait until the end of time.
Rev. Carl Roth, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin, TX, joins Sarah to talk about the “Searching Scripture” feature in the November 2025 issue of the Lutheran Witness titled “The New Heavens and New Earth” on Isaiah 65-66. This year, “Searching Scripture” is themed “Opening the Old Testament” and will walk through ways that the Old Testament witnesses to Jesus Christ and His grace, mercy and peace, delivered through the holy Christian church. Follow along every month and search Scripture with us!
Find online exclusives of the Lutheran Witness at witness.lcms.org and subscribe to the Lutheran Witness at cph.org/witness.
Isaiah 65-66
Judgment and Salvation
65 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that was not called by[a] my name.
2 I spread out my hands all the day
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;
3 a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and making offerings on bricks;
4 who sit in tombs,
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat pig’s flesh,
and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
5 who say, “Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me:
“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their lap
7 both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together,
says the Lord;
because they made offerings on the mountains
and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
payment for their former deeds.”[b]
8 Thus says the Lord:
“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
and from Judah possessors of my mountains;
my chosen shall possess it,
and my servants shall dwell there.
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
for my people who have sought me.
11 But you who forsake the Lord,
who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
12 I will destine you to the sword,
and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
because, when I called, you did not answer;
when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my eyes
and chose what I did not delight in.”
13 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, my servants shall eat,
but you shall be hungr
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