Not ignore - just put in their proper context. Most OT prophecies are about OT empires leading up to Rome and Jesus. Only a very few hint at what God's eternal kingdom / heaven will be like.
That is just not true. There are well over a hundred chapters of prophecy in the OT about that eternal (invisible) kingdom. There are in fact a couple dozen chapters in the OT about the New Jerusalem in Revelation which is an illustration of Gods people in a transforming world. The OT prophecy on it lays it out as the persecuted and oppressed New Jerusalem during the age of the four gentile empires and promises a free and more just world that the New Jerusalem, God's people thrive in and their influnce dominates.Have another look at this prophecy first:
Isaiah 29:18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20 For the terrible one (kings, emperors, warlords, conquerors) is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: 21That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nothing.
It directly prophecies when the poor masses get the Bible that will start the process of the end of kings and emperors, warlords and dictators ruling the earth as they had for 7000 years. That began to happen right when the Roman Emporium ended in 1453 with the invention of the printing press. The Bible illegally made it into the hands of the general public in northern Europe which was a historical first followed by a second historical first. The powers that existed could not conquer all the geographical areas where people now possessed and read their own Bibles. The thinking that developed there migrated to north America. That was the start of the free world. Here is a chapter from my upcoming book about these prophecies.
Isaiah 54
Let’s see what the apostle Paul said about the first verse in Isaiah 54.
Galatians 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a female slave, the other by a free woman. 23 But he who was of the female slave was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which engenders to bondage, which is Hagar. 25 For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to [illustrates]
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written, Rejoice, you barren that bore not; break forth and cry, you that travail not: for the desolate has many more children than she which has an husband. 28 Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Verse 27 of Galatians 4 is the first verse in Isaiah 54, which Paul is quoting.
Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, said the LORD.
The way he is interpreting it is that the Mosaic law and the physical city of Jerusalem were the married wife that bore many children. The people of faith, though few and, for most of the history of ancient Israel, persecuted and murdered by the faithless—these are the children of the desolate woman. However, with the coming of the Messiah, the desolate woman would bear more children than the earthly city would. They are referred to as the children of the heavenly Jerusalem. The rest of the prophecy in Isaiah 54 will say more of this.
54:2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes; 3 For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your descendants shall inherit the Nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
This is truly amazing prophecy exhorting the faithful with the promise that lay ahead. It says the people of faith, soon to be of all nations, will grow and expand, eventually inheriting the nations. The fruit of this will be prosperous civilizations which is what the
“the desolate cities will be inhabited
” from verse 3 means.
54:4 Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. 5 For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, said your God. 7 For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, said the LORD your Redeemer. 9 For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you. 10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, said the LORD that has mercy on you.
In these verses, believers are being depicted as the wife of God. The shame and the reproach of her youth and her being forsaken is a reference to the tribulations the believers in ancient Israel faced. It seemed as if they were forsaken by God and left to the whims of the wicked, who were often a majority of its citizens and its leaders, and then later at the hands of the Gentiles. It mattered not how they lived their lives before the Lord. They reaped whatever the despots who ran the world sowed. This certainly did not change in New Testament times and for many a century beyond that. Yet in the context of a despotic, idolatrous world—a world full of sorrows, tears, slavery, short life spans, and destitution—they were exhorted with promises in the form of prophecy about what lay ahead. Verse 5 says why this will happen—because the God of ancient Israel, who to the rest of the world was a small tribal god among thousands of other tribal gods, a god of such little note that he is not even included in the Greek or Roman pantheons, will one day be called the God of the whole earth. That means the whole world will someday call him the one real God. They will no longer remember the idols of the ancient world. Half the world calls him that already, voluntarily. No one is forcing that on them. It is not that half the world’s population is heaven-bound, saved, or even claims Christianity—not at all. It is just that they know that there is only one God, and he is the God of the Bible.
54:11 O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. 12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones.
It is important to pay special attention to verses 11-12. They are indirectly quoted in John’s revelation about the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:18-21. You will see many more direct quotes about Revelation’s New Jerusalem as we go on in the next chapters. Let’s go back a little bit before we go on and notice some other things that tie this into Revelation’s New Jerusalem. In Galatians 4:26, Paul calls this the heavenly Jerusalem. John says the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God in Revelation 21:2,10. Isaiah 54:5 calls this heavenly Jerusalem God’s wife. It is the same in Revelation 21:2,10. The New Jerusalem is called the bride prepared for her husband and the Bride of Christ. These are all illustrations of faithful believers. Paul also verifies this in Galatians 4:26 by illustrating this heavenly Jerusalem as the mother of us all. What he means by this is that the OT prophets, patriarchs, and all the saints are illustratively the mother of all those being saved in NT times. God is the father of all of them.
54:13 And all your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children. 14 In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you.
In these verses, we can see the complete transition from the beginning of the chapter of God’s saints living in a despotic world to the free world. They spent millennia living by faith under intense persecution and murder with a promise that someday the world would see an age of freedom and justice. Their world of sorrows, destitutions, and afflictions, because of its sin and the control of the wicked, would pass away.
Let’s look at these verses a little closer. Verse 13 is about all the children of this heavenly Jerusalem being taught by the Lord. That was nearly impossible to do when the people themselves did not have access to the Word of God. This did not begin to occur in the world until the Roman Empire fell in AD 1453. That was when what had been its capital since AD 333, Constantinople, was conquered and the last Roman emperor was killed. The end of that empire is the line of demarcation in the Bible’s prophecy between the despotic ancient world and the promised age. From that point begins a period during which the invisible kingdom of God’s influence begins to fill the earth to the degree that these promises and prophecies can take place. The Bible contains no prophecies about this era’s end.
“In righteousness shall you be established …” (54:14). Examining verse 14 a little more closely, we see that for any of this to happen, there had to be some kind of cultural and political change so that nations could be founded “in righteousness,” meaning there had to be nations that were founded in various degrees of some biblical principle—for instance, the United States with its constitution. You can see the effects of this in the rest of the verse: “… you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you” (54:14).
This is not just prophecy anymore. This is the free world’s reality on the ground, as long as that reality is compared to the ancient world’s horrors. For true believers, this was never realized in any consistent way outside of today’s free world. Those in league with the Almighty were the major force in creating and maintaining it. We who speak as US citizens know nothing of the oppression, fear, and terror that was the constant state of believers in the ancient world. Obviously, large parts of today’s world have yet to go through this process, but that does not diminish the regions that have already done so.
54:15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake. 16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, said the LORD.
These verses clearly affirm this is not a prophecy about some kind of supernatural utopia that so many believe the Bible teaches will come on the earth. The passage states that there will be opposition to the free world that is created in league with the Almighty, similar to the opposition to ancient Israel. It means that nations, people, and political parties will rise up against this free world and the biblical principles it’s founded upon to conquer it. Yet the promise to be embraced by faith, as I exhorted in the introduction, is that they will fall for our sake. This is exactly what has been happening for over five hundred years now. The nations that are the most influenced by the gospel and God’s Word have been dominant according to every measure, economically, militarily, and morally. Every evil empire, every dictatorship, and every political movement that has sought to conquer the free world has been judged and condemned by the righteous and failed. Yes, they have won battles. They have conquered some nations, killed hundreds of millions, and turned nations away from Bible-based Christianity. But even with all that, the free world, pressed on by God’s eternal people in heaven and earth, still grows. This has been occurring alongside, and as a result of, millions of people coming to Christ.
54:17: … This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, said the LORD.
The last half of verse 17 is also a key to understanding the Bible’s prophecy. It says that this is the heritage of the saints. What this means is that this is how the saints are to inherit the earth—that this ever-growing and expanding free world, how it came about, how it is maintained and grown, and the fruit of it as it is expressed in the last half of Isaiah 54, is the saint’s inheritance.
Psalm 37:9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. 1 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yes, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
These are a few more verses, some very well known, about the saints inheriting the earth. While these verses can be applied to all people of every generation, they are primarily speaking prophetically of the days when the kingdom of God bears the fruit of a free and, by comparison to the ancient world, much more just world. The modern Westerner who doubts that the world is a more just place than it was at any time in its past should read up on the Dalit of India. They are a good example of the state of most of humanity for its entire existence. Just as the slave classes of the Roman Empire were the first to come to Christ en masse, today the Dalit of India are coming to Christ en masse. Outside of the promise of eternal life, these promises in Isaiah 54 and the other chapters we will read are their hope for the future of their children’s children and their nation. So while this freedom to chart their own destinies and reap the fruits of their labors may not be a realistic hope for today’s generations of Dalit here on earth, it is certainly a hope that the Dalit who are now in heaven can rejoice in. They will live in heaven to see it coming to pass on earth for the generations of Dalit that are yet to be born. This is what has happened to many people groups to whom the gospel was first preached. The next passage is speaking of the Messiah:
Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit on him: he shall bring forth justice to the Gentiles. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoldering wick shall he not quench: he shall bring forth justice to truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he has set justice in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.