The Prophet's Perspective

A helpful thing I learned about how to read Isaiah and other prophets (and maybe this would have been helpful to share this sooner!) is how they view the future. God grants them a point of view not like a view from above where they can see a linear chronology, rather it is a head-on view where the future appears piled-up one thing against the next. A good example is Isaiah 65:17-25 from today's reading where it starts out talking about new heavens and a new earth. So you figure the section is about about heaven. It goes on to describe how there is no more crying, which makes sense. But then it talks about people dying at 100--100 is good and old, but they're still dying...weren't we talking about heaven? It helps to understand that this section is a mix of details about the New Testament church and the church triumphant in eternity.