A new dispensation
The promise of Isaiah 65 is that God is doing a new thing: a new heaven and a new earth. In this new dispensation things are going to change big time. “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” No longer must one consume another to survive in this new world. The old ways—dog eat dog, human eat human, male against female, race against race, nation lifting up sword against nation—no longer apply.
If there were no God, human beings would have invented religion to keep from eating each other. We might be the highest-order mammals, but that still makes us animals. Like survivors of a plane crash, we are all just a tragic incident away from facing cannibalism as a real option. If there were no God, we would have to invent one so that we have the self-control to turn the other cheek, be exploited rather than retaliate, and willingly die rather than kill.
The truth is, God is our best hope for human maturity. Every person has some form of conventional morality – only God can serve as a divine enforcer who keeps us from exploiting another when we see an opportunity, killing another when we feel threatened, or eating another when we are starving. We’re just a circumstance away from becoming cunning, murderous cannibals.
