Isaiah 65-66: The Former Will Not Be Remembered

“Behold, I will create
   new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
   nor will they come to mind. - Is. 65:17 NIV

Everything we know now will someday be lost; lost to our remembrance and even to our imagination.  God is going to do something so stunning, so different that nothing that has gone on before will be of any consequence.  All the wars that have been fought, all of the nations that have risen and fallen, all of the kings presidents and heroes that have ever been born will be forgotten.  Just like our sins have been covered over in a sea of forgetfulness, all that we have ever known or loved will be erased from our consciousness. 

All we will see and all we will want to see is God in his glory, in the new city that he will bring about.  Just as in the beginning he created the heavens and the earth, from something that was without form or void, so he will create a new heaven and a new earth from this present earth which is a poor model of what is the come; of the earth as God intentioned it to be at the very beginning.  Someday, that kingdom, with all of the promise that was there in the garden, will become a reality.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.