Isaiah 65:23, commentary and pictures

The promise belongs to prophecy about the new earth and the Jerusalem that God creates, not to life in the present mortal world under the curse. In that renewed Jerusalem there is security and blessing in which labor is not wasted or in vain and children are not brought forth for trouble or born to suffer calamity. The reason given is identity: they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring are with them and share in that blessing.

After the New Jerusalem settles upon a great plain, the saints will dwell outside the city in most beautiful houses of silver supported by four pillars set with pearls and containing a golden shelf. By those houses are fields into which they will go out to work with the earth in real cultivation of the ground. That tillage will not be toilsome labor as on this earth now, but will be done with a glorious light about their heads and with continual praises to God.

The verse describes the government of the kingdom of Christ, which is like no earthly government but is a representation of the characters of those who compose the kingdom. It is a court where holy love presides and whose offices and appointments are graced by the exercise of charity. Its servants are charged to bring pity and lovingkindness, His own attributes, into all their office work. They are to find their happiness and satisfaction in reflecting the love and tender compassion of the divine nature upon all with whom they associate. That coming life is work on the Lord's farm in the earth made new, for which practical, all-round education of children and youth in various trades and especially in agricultural labor prepares them, while also equalizing labor and giving greater physical and mental strength.

As part of the message of Isaiah 60-65, the verse is directed to leaders in the cause and those connected with institutions to study, heed and accept. It carries reproof for disregard of reproofs, for accepting only chosen words without thorough consecration to God, and for neglected duty to warn the people what is truth, for which judgment will come. Together with the surrounding chapters it speaks in a most decided manner and is to be understood. When its words are taken and all complaining and every evil working are stopped, the Lord manifests His power and appears for the conviction and conversion of souls, so that unwarned souls hear the reasons of faith. It calls those who receive it to put away the evil of their works, to draw near, to repent and be converted because their ways are not accepted of God, with this reformation going through the congregation.