Ntsession 2

The contrast is what Israel is and what they are destined for. 

2.1-5 is almost word for word Mic 4.1-3!! Who borrowed from whom? Or a common source? Likely the latter as this passage of “remarkable beauty and force” was the possession of priestly and prophet communities.

 But this shows that the redaction is intentional and planned to make a huge impact on the reader and hearer.

v.1 the scholarly concensus is that the book is a composition of materials because of this superscript that may have previously headed other material.  But what does the superscript cover: 2-12, 2.1-4.6/10.11, or 2.2-4.  Most appropriate 2-4?

1. The huge change from ch 1
1. How will this occur?

                                                              i.      Mere forgiveness?

1. is 2
1. v.2, size, the highest of all and lifted over all = God would be THE god.
2. v.3, who, the nations will flow to it

                                                              i.      calvin: the evidence of true faith is seeking to draw in as many others as possible. 

                                                            ii.      The nations come to God, a theological truth that they must leave their self-sufficiency and come an dlearn. ,

1. v.4, what then the law will go out from Zion

                                                              i.      in

1. v.4, God provides justice and peace not only for Judah but for all the nations, a pervasive, lasting, complete and unheard of peace. #. V.5, what is required however is that Judah respond to God now. 

                                                              i.      Principle that we need to live out of wht we know now and not get overwhelmed by the grandness of the vision. 

1. so zion is made great (it is right now in danger of being overrun and destroyed), the people come to it and God’s law goes forth from it.                                                               i.      What is implied in all this?

1.      an unbelievable work needs to be done in Zion to be made the highest of all

2.      an unbelievable work needs to occur in Zion that people would want to come to it!

3.      a purification would need to occur so that it would go forth properly

Last week, we started Isaiah with chapter one and we were lead immediately into God’s indictment of judgment of Judah.  Two symptoms were called out specially.  Judah was guilty of vain empty, self-serving pseudo-worship.  Holding very tightly to the external forms of God’s prescriptions for his worship but without hearts submitting to its purpose.  Judah was also a place devoid of justice for the oppressed, care for the widow and fatherless.  God’s great mercy shown to them in the core of their history had seemingly meant nothing to them for they had no such mercy to show to the weak in their community.  Isaiah shocks us with how it starts but then we remember that we need judgment.  We would hate to live in a world where there was never any just judging of all that has occurred; and 1 peter says that that righteous evaluation begins with us, his people before it will ultimately set everything right. 

That ultimately setting everything right is what we come to in the first part of ch 2.  (we will pick up ch 2’s discussion of idolatry next week).  And one again the crafting of this prophetic document is done in such a way to wake us up.  As we say some of the dissonants of grace last week with the promise that though we are red like scarlet we will be made white like wool, we experience what seems incongruous to us again. 

Read ch 2 and ch 65

1. judgement hope
1. in ch 1-5: j, h, j, h, j: ch 1, 2.1-5, 2.6- #. in ch 65.17-25 H, 66.1-6 J, 66.7-14H, 66.15-17 J, 66.18-24 H

Questions:

1. How does the juxtaposition of being called on our sin and the hope of glory work together to help us?
2. These passages speak about setting all things right.  What are you most looking forward to being set right in the world?  In yourself?

_____

East West Sunday School

Isaiah: God healing us and His World through the balm of judgment,

the violence of grace, His Kingly Servant, and the sanity of mission.

September 16, 2007

2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

3 and 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 the law,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore.

5 O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in the light of the Lord.

Is 65

17 “For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

18 But be glad and rejoice forever

in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

and her people to be a gladness.

19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

20 No more shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

23 They shall not labor in vain

or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

and their descendants with them.

24 Before they call I will answer;

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain,”

says the Lord.

Questions:

1. How does the juxtaposition of being called on our sin and the hope of glory work together to help us?
2. These passages speak about setting all things right.  What are you most looking forward to being set right in the world?  In yourself?
3. What role does “Hope” play for you in your daily life?