Isaiah 2

Introduction:

Chapters 2-5 connected

The millennial kingdom - Future condition

Micah 4:1–4 NKJV

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go forth, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, And rebuke strong nations afar off; 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. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, And no one shall make them afraid; For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

The LORD’s house

The subject of discussion is Judah and Jerusalem not the church

The latter days

Near or far

Last days began with the coming of Jesus Christ

Fullness of the fulfillment during the reign of Jesus Christ

Hosea 3:5 NKJV

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.

False worship will be gone

Mountains was the home to some of the gods

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Ideal Jerusalem

the mountain where he lives, typifies therefore a supernatural triumph of the Lord over all gods.

The true worship of God will take preeminence

The Gentiles will come to worship

Many Gentiles will ‘voluntarily’ come to Jerusalem to worship the true God, the God of Jacob

They will come to learn His ways and to live in obedience

Gentiles will come to Jerusalem to worship the true God

They will acknowledge the truth of God’s word

The Messiah will rule with all authority

He will judge the nations

He will rebuke their rebellion

He will establish a permanent peace

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Ideal Jerusalem

To judge means to ‘make authoritative pronouncements’, and to settle disputes means to ‘arbitrate’. The means of war (beat their swords), the practice of war (take up sword) and the mentality of war (train for/‘learn’ war) all alike disappear. The choice of agricultural implements (ploughshares and pruning hooks) is symbolic of the return to Eden (cf. 11:6–9): people right with God again; the curse removed; the end of the serpent’s dominion; an ideal environment.

Judah’s trust

First exhortation: The Jewish people are called to walk in the light, however

Be Comforted 2. What Isaiah Promised (Isa. 2:1–4:6)

These promises must not be “spiritualized” and applied to the church, for they describe a literal kingdom of righteousness and peace. The Jewish temple will be rebuilt, and the Word of God will go forth from Jerusalem to govern the nations of the world.

In the light of the future glory of God’s temple, Isaiah appealed to the people to “walk in the light of the Lord” (v. 5). Christians today have a similar motivation as we await the return of Christ for His church (1 John 2:28–3:3).

The world has acknowledged the God of Jacob the therefore the people of Jacob should be bearing a testimony of walking in His light

Deuteronomy 4:5–8 NKJV

“Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?

Deuteronomy

Psalm 43:3 NKJV

Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.

God abandons His people because:

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Actual Jerusalem

He makes five contrasts between the ideal and the actual: (i) the world is drawn to Zion (2); God’s people choose to conform to the world (6); (ii) the world seeks spiritual benefit (3); Zion heaps up material wealth (7a); (iii) the consequence of coming to Zion is world peace (4); Zion is full of armaments (7b); (iv) the world seeks to know the true God and commits itself beforehand to obey him (3); God’s people are busy inventing their own gods (8); (v) the world is received before the Lord’s tribunal (4); God’s people are abandoned and denied forgiveness (6, 9).

They were filled with the ways of pagans

The ways of the east = the Assyrians

The divination of the Philistines

1 Samuel 6:2 NKJV

And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it to its place.”

2 Kings 1:2 NKJV

Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.”

Leviticus 19:26 NKJV

‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.

Deuteronomy 18:10 NKJV

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,

Leviticus

Deuteronomy 18:10

Deuteronomy 18:14 NKJV

For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.

2 Kings 21:6 NKJV

Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

Micah 5:12 NKJV

I will cut off sorceries from your hand, And you shall have no soothsayers.

Micah

They joined hands with foreign ways

They were full of wealth and military weapons

Silver and gold

Treasures no end

Horses and chariots

They were full of idols

They worship the work of their own hands

They worship what their fingers have designed

They pay homage to these idols

Bow down to them

Humble themselves

So hard to bring to repentance

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Actual Jerusalem

In do not forgive them this idiom is used negatively. Isaiah is not commanding the Lord not to forgive but saying that forgiveness is unthinkable: ‘and for sure you will not forgive them’.

God will judge

Look for a place to hide

In a cave or dust

Amos 5:18–20 NKJV

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, And a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, Leaned his hand on the wall, And a serpent bit him! Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

Amos

Revelation 6:

Revelation 6:15–16 NKJV

And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

Hide from the terror of the LORD

Hebrews 10:31 NKJV

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hide from the glory of His majesty

The LORD will be exalted

The proud will be humbled

The haughty will bow down

Only the LORD will be exalted

The LORD’s Day

An all encompassing judgement

General statement on pride and it’s judgement

Proud

Lofty

Everything lifted up

All humbled

Upon things in nature that man has exalted above God

Cedars of Lebanon

Oaks of Bashan

High mountains

Hills

Upon places of protection

High tower

Fortified walls

Man-made protection

Upon ships

Ships of Tarshish (largest ships)

Beautiful sloops (crafts)

Ezekiel 28:2–5 NKJV

“Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Because your heart is lifted up, And you say, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, In the midst of the seas,’ Yet you are a man, and not a god, Though you set your heart as the heart of a god (Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you! With your wisdom and your understanding You have gained riches for yourself, And gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; By your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, And your heart is lifted up because of your riches),”

Ezekiel

Upon mankind

The proud will bow down

The haughty brought low

The LORD alone with be exalted

But idols will be destroyed

Romans 12:3 NKJV

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

An inescapable judgement

Try to hide in holes in rocks and caves of the dust

Hide from the terror of the LORD

Hide from the glory of His majesty

Hide when He shakes the earth

They will cast away their idols

They will cast them away to flee to clefts and crags of the rocks

Same reason as verse 19

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Actual Jerusalem

People’s proudest achievement is to dispense with the living God and to become god-makers.

The second exhortation: Judah told to stop trusting in man

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Actual Jerusalem

The positive call for commitment to the Lord (5) is balanced by its negative counterpart to cease relying on man and what he can do. Such reliance has been the connecting thread of verses 6–21: reliance on the validity of human insights (6b), human resources (7), human ability to manipulate the divine (8) and human achievement (15–16). It is not man, however, that has to be faced but God and not man’s future but the day of the Lord. Against this neither man nor his gods have any substance. Therefore they should stop trusting in man. Who has but a breath in his nostrils is ‘in whose nostrils is breath’. Breath is not a metaphor for transience but points to human life as derived (cf. Gn. 2:7; Is. 42:5; 57:15). Of what account is he? is not questioning intrinsic human worth but asking what value man has as an object of trust. He has neither an independent right to live nor a sure stake in life. But the gift of breath implies a giver and points to the wisdom of trusting, rather, the one who is the source of life.