The Tale of Two Zions

Introduction

The most dreadful malady a person can know is hopelessness — the assurance that things won’t get better. Hopelessness is especially profound during the holiday season like we’re in now. It’s a time in which we may think of what hasn’t changed over the last year that we wish had changed. We’re still not married, or we’re still paycheck to paycheck, or there’s still no little one. It’s also a time in which we are confronted with circumstances that have changed that we didn’t want to change. We think about the person that’s not at the Thanksgiving table this year. We think about the home that we’re not invited to this Christmas. And, as dreadful as hopelessness is, we find ourselves sinking in its quicksand.

Yet, as real and true as the threat of hopelessness is, the Christian has been given the resources and perspective needed to rise above it. It’s not that we don’t hurt. My goodness we hurt. Rather, it’s to realize that though we hurt we can avoid despair because of who we are and because of what’s yet to come. If hopelessness is the assurance that things won’t get better, then it is the opposite of the gospel life that says the best is yet to come. This morning, we’re going to see how our hope has been secured through Jesus’ advent that we might be cured of the flesh’s hopelessness.

God’s Word

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A Tale of Two Zions

v. 2a “It shall come to pass in the latter days” Isaiah two begins with hope. And, it’s really an interruption in the midst of a prophesied judgement that is coming against them. During the half century reign of King Uzziah, Israel had known the greatest season of prosperity since Solomon, but it was coming to a close. They had fallen in love with the gods of other nations and had sold their birthright as the covenant children of God for mere beans. They continued to offer their sacrifices in the Temple in Zion, and they had become convinced that if they just did all the sacrifices and all the rituals that God would look the other way as they sold out to the false gods around them. They could have God and the world, a secure future and a prosperous present, the Kingdom of God and a kingdom of men. And, through Isaiah, God was saying that He’d had enough. The Zion that was before him was unrecognizable as his people, and so he said that we would refine them, purify them through the fire of Assyria, like iron ore being purified in a furnace. But, in the midst of these words of judgement, words he’ll return to in verse 6, there is a word of hope! Though it may appear that God’s promises to Zion are in the air, He’s not finished yet. “It SHALL come to pass in the latter days”. These are words of hope that Zion would not be wiped from the earth, but rather that Zion would be nothing like she is and entirely as God has willed her. So, our text is a tale of two Zions, the one that was and the one that will be.

Now, the question becomes: what does this have to do with advent? What does this have to do with Jesus coming to be born in Bethlehem to a virgin? And, I think it’s a two-pronged answer. On one hand, Jesus’ birth is the fulfillment of the hope found in this text. Jesus’ birth proved that our hope in God’s promises and God’s word is well-founded. On the other hand, Jesus’ birth is the assurance of the hope that is found here. Because, as we read, it’s apparent that many of these wonderful realities have begun, but they’re incomplete. We’re in the ‘latter days’, but we’re not in the Last Day. So, it HAS ‘come to pass’ and it still ‘SHALL come to pass.’ And, the fact that God sent his own Son to be born of a virgin, live in righteousness, die in forsakenness, and then raise in glory is the proof that it really ‘SHALL come to pass.’ Jesus came as hope’s fulfillment and hope’s assurance. Let’s look together at three specific hopes that Jesus fulfills and assures in his coming (headline).

Jesus is the hope for a greater “Kingdom”.

v. 2 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD shall be established as the highest of mountains, and shall be lifted above the hills” The first hope that I want you to see is that Jesus is the hope for a greater “Kingdom”. When Jesus began his ministry, he began by emphasizing the message of John the Baptist, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand ().” What exactly did he mean by that? helps us to understand. In the vision that Isaiah receives, he sees ‘the mountain of the house of the LORD’ as being higher than any other mountains and lifted above all of the hills. In antiquity, mountains were often viewed as having a close relationship with the gods. You would climb the mountains to the high places that you might get nearer to the gods, and the higher the mountain, the greater the god. You can think of Mt. Olympus where Zeus lived or Mt. Zaphon where Baal lived, and then there was Mt. Zion where the LORD God of Israel lived. And, if you were to look geographically, Zion did not appear as high in stature as many of the other nearby mountains of the gods. And, the strike against Uzziah had been that he had been unwilling to remove the high places of the other gods and so the people of Israel were ascending these mountains to pay homage and seek favor from pagan gods, which was a betrayal of the one, true God. And so, Isaiah sees a day coming in the future in which Mt. Zion will reach up into the heavens in a way so that every other mountain is dwarfed in comparison, and the Mountain of the LORD will be anointed as being greater than all other mountains. It is a declaration of the supremacy of God that pictures all other gods and all other kings and all other peoples coming to bow before him.

We have seen our hope’s fulfillment in the baby born to the virgin in Bethlehem that it HAS ‘come to pass’ that God’s Kingdom has come, and we have seen our hope’s assurance in Immanuel raised from the dead, that though the Kingdom has not yet fully come, Jesus has a second advent on the horizon.

And, this is what it meant that the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God at hand. Jesus had to inaugurate the plan of God to bring all of the earth beneath the reign of this great King. Many other kings had achieved great heights during their reigns and great conquests of other nations and were beloved by their people, but everyone of them faded into the history books. Everyone of them found their way into the grave. Everyone of them had fears and trepidations and threats. But, Jesus came to inaugurate a greater Kingdom that would know no borders and no true threats and would never fade away into the annals of history. Just as lowly Mt. Zion will one day be exalted above Everest, the lowly Christ was born into a trough of hay and the raised triumphantly from the grave as the fulfillment of the promise that a greater David, a greater King was coming that would endure forever. A King that would neutralize the world’s greatest threats. And, it is in his conquering of the grave that we find the assurance that One Day, He will return, and before this great King, at the base of this great mountain, as the one before whom all peoples and all kings and all gods will declare as the Name that is greater than any other Name, and the Kingdom that was inaugurated will be Kingdom fully consummated.

Will You Bow Before this King?

APPLICATION: Will you bow before this King today? Will you bank your life on the fulfillment of the King that raised from the dead? Will you work your job and raise your kids and love your wife and live your life as one who is assured that a Greater Kingdom is coming? Jesus is the fulfillment, and Jesus is the assurance!

Jesus is the hope for all “peoples”.

v. 2c-3a “and all the nations flow to it, and man peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob’.” The second hope that is that Jesus is the hope for all “peoples”. Zion never truly understood her mission. God had revealed himself to them, and He had proven to them that He was the only God in the midst of a world of worshippers. So, Israel was to be a lighthouse, a beacon in this world of worship that the nations might see them and recognize that they were the children of the true and living God and be reached. You see, for whomever verse 2 is true of for the future then verse 3 is true of the mission. For if your God is the supreme and only God, if your God is the one before whom everyone will bow, if your God is the one who is supreme in majesty and gracious in might and sovereign in judgement, then your mission must be to bring the world to him. Your mission must be to make his glory known that no one would steal his worship and to make his kindness known that no one would defy him and experience his wrath. If there is only one God, He must be made known by those who know him. It’s the mandate of monotheism. And, this was the charge to Israel, though they forsook it. It was to be a blessing to all nations as the chosen people of God.

All Nations Streaming Upward

But, the future Zion, the greater Zion would be different. You’ll notice it says that ‘many peoples’ shall come. In this glorious hope for Israel is a hope that includes all nations, all peoples. Isaiah, the prophet of Judah, foresaw people of every race and every language and every heritage streaming to the ‘mountain of the Lord’ that they might obey him and worship him and live in allegiance to him. It’s interesting how he says it too, isn’t it? The Kingdom ‘shall be lifted above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it.” Y’all, rivers don’t flow up mountains. Rivers stream downhill with the help of gravity. But, not this one. Oh man, don’t miss this. Because this is the difference between the religion of man and the supremacy of God. This is the difference between idols and YHWH, the difference between heaven and hell. In , mankind decides to build a tower that would reach into the heavens. By our own works, our own effort, and our own ingenuity, we tried to get to God and prove our value and show how great we were. False gods always make you climb to the high places. They always make you climb the mountain. And, as a result of our arrogance and unwillingness to acknowledge our need for the Almighty at Babel, He broke apart the one people group from another and dispersed us around the world. We were brought to division and conflict with languages that we couldn’t understand. But now, at this mountain, at Mt. Zion, it’s the reversal of Babel. What God had broken apart, He now brings together again. And, mankind does not climb this mountain to the Almighty. We are drawn uphill. We are carried up the mountain. It’s requires as much effort from us as water obeying gravity and going down a mountain.

A Current of God’s Grace

v. 3c “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” APPLICATION: You see, Jesus is the fulfillment. He has climbed the mountain for us. He obeyed in perfect righteousness. He overcame the heights of temptation. He carried our sin with him up to Mt. Calvary. He overcame the gulf between us and the Father. Yes, Jesus has conquered the mountain so that every drunk and every gossip, every liar and every murderer, every deadbeat dad and every sexual deviant, every republican and every democrat, every black and every white, every Mormon and every Muslim, every American and every African, every child and every senior can be swept up in the current of God’s grace and carried up the unscalable mountain to enjoy a Kingdom you can arrive at no other way. Jesus came and accomplished that, and in his accomplishment, He has assured us that a Day is coming when Zion will be fully consummated and all nations will be represented at the Supper of the Lamb and will sing a new song with one voice: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever more.” So, we go that we might stand up where Israel laid down. We go that the word of the LORD might go through us to share the secured, fastened, certain hope of the gospel from Jerusalem. We are his witnesses from Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. Oh church, oh church, do you believe this hope is for the world? Do you this is the hope for every teenager and every unfaithful husband and every depressed mother and every worshipping Hindu? Do you believe it? Let’s take forth his word because Jesus is the fulfillment, and Jesus is the assurance.

Jesus is the hope for unthreatened “peace.”

v. 4 b-c “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” The final hope is that Jesus is the hope for unthreatened “peace”. On the evening that Jesus was born, there was a multitude of angels that appeared to a group of shepherds. And, all together they sang a song of worship, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among among those with whom he is pleased! ()” And, even that statement was both a fulfillment and an assurance. For Jesus had come offering peace to men. He was the ‘way, the truth, and the life’ and through him men could get to God so as to be at peace with him, if at peace with him, then they could have ‘a peace the surpasses all understanding’ themselves. But, there was a bigger picture in play. This is a story that is still being written. For though we may be at peace with God, we can still be at odds with our spouse. Though God is our ally, we can still be persecuted by our government. The we are safe forever, we can still no the pain of real, true tragedy and loss in our lives.

But, a Day is coming soon when our military academies will have no more students of war, and our fighter jets will have no more enemies to pursue. The CIA, FBI, and armed forces will be disbanded for good. There will be peace that is total and comprehensive. Our weapons of war (swords, spears) will be fashioned into instruments of prosperity (plowshares, pruning hooks). Nation will no longer rise up against nation, rather they will be flowing together in the current of God’s grace to bow before the very same throne. You see, Jesus came and inaugurated this Kingdom, and He’s still at work today. He’s transforming us and sanctifying us and working through us, patiently and faithfully, that we might more fully enjoy the bounty of fully consummated Kingdom and so that more people might enjoy it with us through his Good News. He isn’t leaving you here because He wants you to suffer; He’s waiting patiently that eternity might be all the sweeter, all they more wonderful, all the more full.

Will You Live Like It?

v. 5 “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.” APPLICATION: So, Isaiah calls for us to respond. He has illumined our minds to see and know and love what God is bringing to be. The Kingdom is coming! All peoples are coming! Peace is coming! Will we live like it? Will we live like it? Or, will we worry ourselves to death like the rest of the world? Will we live like it, or will try to buy our way into joy like our neighbors? Will we live like it, or will we continue to live as though God isn’t here and God isn’t at work? Will we live like Christ is the fulfillment of our hope and the assurance of our hope forever? Because Christ has come and is coming again, you aren’t hopeless. “Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.”