Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. He saw a future where black and white people lived as one. John Lennon sang about a future where all the people shared their belongings with one another and lived in unity. And Kermit the Frog strummed his banjo and said, “One day we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me.”

These are all popular cultural examples of how men, women, and muppets longed for a new world. A world filled with peace, harmony, and resurrection life. A world filled with no more sadness, pain, or greed. That the earth would be filled with joy and sincere love for one another.

Lucky for us, this isn’t just a nice idea. It’s the promise of the Living God of the Bible.

This overarching promise in the Bible of a new world starts all the way back in the first book. Right there, early on in Genesis, God made a promise to Abraham about a future world where every family would be blessed. It reads, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Imagine all the people, living in the personal and intimate blessing of Jesus Christ all over the world. This is the promise to Abraham.

Later on, in the New Testament, Paul explained that the promise to Abraham was going to be fulfilled through Christ (Galatians 3:16). The promise to Abraham was absolutely foundational to the Jewish mind. They were anchored in a hope that God was one day going to restore the world to being fully blessed.

And the blessing they had in mind was big and beautiful…

They weren’t merely thinking that the whole world would have some nice little belief that God was real. Yes, that was part of it, but the blessing they were believing for was “world peace” big. Throughout the Old Testament, this giant promise gets elaborated upon again and again.

For example, in Isaiah 2, God gave a wonderful description of the new blessed world. It reads like this:

“In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their spears into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Isaiah 2:2-4

Plowshares and pruning hooks were farming tools. Isaiah was prophesying a time when nations would turn their weapons, swords, and spears into farming tools. And then he makes it clear that there would be no more war between nations and that weapons would no longer need to be used. This was after Isaiah said that the Lord Himself would help decide and judge between the nations. This was a glorious promise to the Jewish people that God would personally establish a new world with no more war; that God would bring genuine and real world peace under His rule.

These are the promises that shaped the Jewish mind. Again in Isaiah, another new world promise reads:

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Isaiah 11:6-9

This passage in Isaiah adds even more depth to the beauty of the promised new world. Here we find prophecies of animals living in peace and not harming infants and children. We see that God stopping all creatures from harming one another and that the whole world gets filled with a knowledge of who God is and what He’s like.

Can you imagine that day? A day where every person around the world will know, understand, and be in intimate relationship with the living God. And because of a knowledge of Him, the whole world will stop harming one another. What a glorious day we have to look forward to. These are the promises we’ve inherited from the Jewish people through the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Another passage in Isaiah shows us that God’s glory already fills the whole earth. Isaiah himself had an incredible encounter where he saw the Lord with his own eyes. In this vision he saw angelic creatures flying around the Lord who was seated on a throne. The creatures said to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

The declaration of the creatures shows us that God’s glory is already everywhere. But unfortunately much of the world has been blinded by the “god of this world” who keeps the minds of unbelievers from seeing the “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Yet, for those whose hearts are pure, they will “see God” (Matthew 5:8).

And we are filled with expectation that God will continue to open the eyes of the world, to see His glory, and draw all people to Himself (John 12:32). The promises of the Jewish people are there to strengthen us with hope. Christ is building a new world through all who believe. All around the world people continue to wake up every day.

Another new world promise was when Isaiah prophesied, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). Here is a promise that the whole world will learn to pray to God. Every nation, every people group. Everyone is invited to this new world that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is creating. The Father wants all of His lost children to come home (Luke 15:23-24).