Sermon Tone Analysis

With the beginning of the church calendar, I started thinking this week about the start of our secular calendar, New Years Day and all that.

And with every New Year comes of course the inevitable New Year’s Resolutions.

Now, my wife can tell you, I’m a sucker for grand, sweeping gestures, so I have a special place in my heart for New Years Resolutions.

And I’m certainly not alone in that.

There is something compelling about pausing, taking a step back, and considering the big picture of our lives.

Sometimes though, the message that God gives his prophets to share is a message of what will come to pass in the immediate or distant future, and this right here is that sort of message.

Isaiah is announcing what God is going to do, what he’s planning to do.

Isn’t it interesting, though, that we can so easily forget what’s important?

We all know what happens after we make these resolutions.

We have a momentary feeling of accomplishment, and then an inevitable lapse.

Anyone who has ever joined a local gym knows that feeling.

I had a week a few months back where I found myself ordering from the Arby’s dollar menu just about every day at lunchtime.

So what is he planning to do?

This is what Isaiah is dealing with in this text this morning.

He’s speaking to a people who have forgotten the big picture.

In the chapter before this, Isaiah is speaking the word of God to the people, condemning them for not knowing the Lord.

He says that they are utterly estranged from God.

But the fascinating part of it all is that they were still coming to the temple, still sacrificing to God according to the law that he had given them, still burning incense, still following the appointed feasts, still adhering to the sabbath, still lifting up prayers.

God himself says that he sees them doing all these religious things.

So how is it that these people who were so apparently religious, how is it that they could be estranged and distant from God?

But this isn’t a mystery to us.

We know exactly how this happens, because we do the same exact thing.

We know what it’s like to go through the motions, whether it’s at work, with our family, or in our faith.

I think one major reason we find ourselves going through the motions is that we are satisfied with where we are in life, and so we desire to maintain the status quo.

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;

Over Thanksgiving break, my family and I were up in a small town in North Carolina, and we were walking through the town and we came across a little sign that said, “Wash your hands, and say your prayers, because germs and Jesus are everywhere.”

I read the sign and winced because the parallels were just so relevant.

We wash our hands to keep germs away, so, should we also pray to keep Jesus away?

But sometimes that is exactly what we’re doing when we’re going through the motions in faith.

If we say our prayers, go to church, give ten percent, if we attend Bible study, then maybe Jesus won’t ask anything big of me, because I’m pretty satisfied with how things are, and I’d rather Jesus not blow up the plans I’ve made for myself.

And right there, you know that you’ve lost sight of the big picture: as soon as you start thinking things like, “I’d rather Jesus not blow up the plans that I’ve made for myself.”

Jesus is now a cast member of my show.

I’ve lost sight of the big picture, and as a result, I’ve grown complacent, I’m in a rut, I’m moving away from God.

This is the state of the people of God in Isaiah’s time.

And so what the prophet does, is he reminds them of the big picture that they’ve forgotten.

And as we begin the season of Advent, we are invited to pause, take a step back, and remember the big picture.

Let’s look at verse 1.

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,

Mountains

In the ancient world, mountains and high places were seen as sacred and full of mystery and power.

They were seen as the connecting places of the heavens and the earth.

Because of this, they were perfect places for altars and temples.

These were the places where the gods would come and be present and even live among the people.

Israel’s neighbors all had temples at the tallest points in their lands, but Isaiah proclaims that there will come a time when the house of Yahweh, that is the temple of the God of Israel, the place where he lives and is present with his people, that mountain will be known as superior to all other mountains, all other gods.

And it will be lifted up for the nations all around to see, and those nations will flow towards it, like a raging mountain river, flowing, surprisingly up this mountain, rushing to the place where God’s presence meets with his people.

So the big picture begins with God being glorified.

Verse 3:

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 forth the law,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

The second reason we go through the motions is the opposite.

Now this is really interesting.

So we have this image of the house of Yahweh being lifted up for all the nations to see, and these people, who are outside of the people of God, are flowing to it like a raging river.

And we see that the reason that they are flowing to it is not because the people of God are calling out to them, but rather these outsiders, are encouraging and calling out to one another to come to the house of God and see this amazing thing they have witnessed.

The outsiders, who have seen and been transformed by the presence of God, are calling to one another to bear witness to the greatness of the God of Israel.

The glory of God is on the lips of these outsiders.

And they aren’t coming for a show of miraculous power.

They aren’t coming to have all their problems solved.

They aren’t coming out of fear of punishment.

They are flowing to the house of God because they are hungry for him to teach them his ways.

They are hungry to walk in his paths.

And the only place where we learn his ways and his paths, is the house of God, the place where God’s presence is with the people.

So they come, they learn, and they are transformed and redeemed.

What’s the big picture?

God is glorified, and the Outsider is redeemed.

And what is the result of their coming?

Verse 4.

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.

So God is glorified, the outsider is redeemed, and here we see the Kingdom of God comes.

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;

What accounts for the violence of war, the abuse of the weak, the hatred of the other?

Conflict arises because each of us tends to decide for ourselves what we need, and we decide for ourselves what are the legitimate ways of meeting our needs.

We wonder and marvel at how human beings can justify some of the terrible acts of history, but the truth is that each and every time these terrible acts of violence and hatred are justified, because the persons involved have decided for themself what is right and what is wrong.

And when we do this, when we go about doing whatever seems right in our own eyes, as the author of the book of Judges would say, the weak are trampled, the vulnerable are exploited, and violence results.

In those days, temples were usually built on mountain tops or hilltops, because it was believed that the high places of the earth were sacred places where heaven and earth were thought to meet.

So they were perfect places to build these houses for their gods.

But the wonderful future that we are given here by Isaiah is of a time when the nations give up their right to decide for themselves what is right, and instead each of them look to God to see what he deems right.

They seek to accomplish not their own desires, but his.

They aim to do not their own work, but his.