NOTES for Heb 1:10-14
"And: In the beginning, Lord, You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment, and like a cloak You will roll them up..."
In today's text the apostle refers to the text of the prophet Isaiah: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will grow old" (Isa 51:6). But this is, of course, far from the only place in the book of the prophet Isaiah where the end of days is mentioned. It is part of every prophetic ministry to remind people about the end of the days of "earth and heaven," about the end of the existence of the physical universe. "And all the host of heaven will decay; the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll; and all their host will fall, as a leaf falls from the vine, and as a withered leaf from the fig tree" (Isa 34:4).
Sergei Averintsev wrote this: "The last light brightens the firmament, / White walls like peaceful death, / all times curl up like a scroll, / minutes linger and the cup is full." Peaceful death is something very important for us today, because pictures of the end can frighten us and therefore inevitably cast us into depression. And Averintsev's words are not some late interpretation whose comfort we may distrust because it is too modern, too young, and untested by time. No: the prophet himself says immediately after this, "say to those who are fearful of heart: do not fear; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you" (Isa 35:4). We need only enter God's peace, now, while still on earth, and then say with the apostle in joy: "You are the same, and Your years will not end."
Our own fate after death is not what matters to us; we love the Lord so much that we dissolve our selfhood in Him. The main thing is that "You are the same, and Your years will not end"; the main thing is that You, beloved God, will not die the death of decay. And in You are all who have entered Your peace, and all whom we love so much.