The renewed city
He is mindful of his covenant forever,
Of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations. Psalm 105:8
Read Isaiah 54:11—17
This is the same Lord, the one who has spoken to Israel and to Judah of the dismantling of their towns and their cities, stone from stone, their banishment into exile, their loss of all security, and the ending of their way. Later he would speak in the word of Jesus, declaring the end of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, the end of that way.[1] But this was all so that the new would come. It is as stark a promise as a death and resurrection, as a new creation, that we have implicit in the prophet’s picture here. It is a new city! Glittering, the architecture like the work of a jeweller, the inhabitants all lucky, secure, growing in the only knowledge that will last, the knowledge of the Lord himself. All things ephemeral and worthless have gone.
Lord, I thank you for the promise of your Day, the Day of the Lord. Let me live now for what cannot be taken from me. For what is of you. For what has the character and nature and hope and permanence of the kingdom that is to come. So let me treasure little things and little people, the things Jesus noticed and called out,[2] and let me tell the stories that will be told forever.
[1] Mark 13:1—2
[2] Mark 14:8—9