In Isaiah’s wonderful vision of the renewal of all things, the Prophet speaks of a man who dies at a 100 years old will be said to have died very young. However, we know that in the resurrection and in the life of the Age to Come, death will be no more. Nobody will die of old age–nobody will die, and nobody will grow old; for in the resurrection the body is made incorruptible. The word St. Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15 that is translated as “corruptible” is a Greek word that means “able to decay”, our bodies in this present condition are weak, we get sick, we grow old, we often might hear the statement that we start dying the moment we are born. Death is so prevalent right now that it infects even our ordinary condition of bodily existence–I get sick, as I age my body weakens, tires out, I’m in my 40’s now and my back often hurts for seemingly no reason at all on some days. I can’t run like I could as a child, when I get down pet my dog it hurts a little bit more to get back up than it did just 10 years ago.
So when Isaiah says a man of 100 who dies, the point isn’t that people will still age and die in the Age to Come; the point isn’t to say that people will merely have an elongated lifespan. Isaiah is speaking to the flourishing of not just human life, but of the cooperation and peace that will exist between all creatures (the lion will eat straw like an ox, the child will play near a viper’s den without fear), elsewhere Isaiah when speaking of this grand future glory speaks of a leopard laying down with a lamb. This is a world without competition, a world without violence–even the ordinary violence of nature, of the predator tracking down its prey, won’t exist in this good world that is going to come.
But we get the fullness of this revelation later, in the resurrection what was sown mortal is raised immortal; what was sown corruptible is raised incorruptible; what was sown in weakness is raised gloriously. When, in the Last, God makes all things new He wipes away every tear, there is no death, no disease, no harm.
We should not imagine that in the Age to Come there will be a restoration of animal sacrifices. A return to animal sacrifice is a deeply disturbing thought as it renders Christ’s work incomplete or inefficient. The point of the whole sacrificial system was as a shadow which points toward Christ–we are not going to go backward toward the shadow when we already have the substance. In the same way that the Tabernacle/Temple were the shadow that pointed toward Christ and His Church: God never intended to dwell in a house built by human hands, rather the point is the fullness of God present in His creation–the whole universe is to proclaim the glory of God, and human beings were created in God’s Image to bear and reflect God’s goodness. So when we behold St. John’s vision of the heavenly city descending upon the earth–in the union of Heaven and Earth–we read there is no Temple, because God is with us, “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its Temple”, “He will be their God and they will be His people”.
We will not regress to slaughter bulls and doves, but the Prophet Zechariah speaks of healing and restoration, and it is presented and pictured in ways which the ancient people to whom he spoke could comprehend. This has begun already, for
“Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.” - Zechariah 14:16
The point is that those who were formerly enemies are restored. This has begun, already, in Christ–where Jew and Gentile are reconciled as one new people (Ephesians 2:11-22). Recall another prophecy from Isaiah (Isaiah 19:19-25) where Egypt and Assyria (the two most notorious enemy nations of Israel in the time of Isaiah) are reconciled, Egypt and Assyria will be peoples who worship the God of Israel. Now consider: The Gospel went forth from Jerusalem, and spread out, among those who took to the Gospel were the Egyptians and the Assyrians, the Name of God is known, and honored, among those nations who in ancient times opposed God’s People, but who through the Gospel have become God’s People. For all who are in Christ are God’s People.
When, at the consummation of this present age and God makes all things new, the fullness of all that has been spoken about shall find its fill. God will be all in all.
There will be no killing, no harm shall come to God’s good creation. Even lions and leopards shall dwell in peace with lambs and goat-kids. This world, as we know it now, full of death and violence shall be a distant memory; God shall make all things new.
