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December 27, 2015 |
| Isaiah 2 | ||
While Elijah is considered the greatest of the prophets, Isaiah is the prophet who wrote down the most prophecies. Elijah delivered the word of God (which is prophecy) mostly to the people of his time; Isaiah mostly wrote down the prophecies he was given. Therefore his have come down to us to read. These prophecies speak of events from many time periods, including Isaiah's own time, Jesus' time and the end time.
In this lesson we'll look at Isaiah 2 which is a prophecy that speaks about a time that is still in our future. We believe Isaiah is speaking about a time we call the millennium. This is a period of 1000 years that begins with the return of the Messiah. After something like 6000 years of man's disastrous rule of the earth, the Messiah returns to rule over the earth to show that there can be peace, love, harmony, and justice on earth - but only with God as the king.
Isaiah 2 is actually the start of a long prophecy that includes chapters 3 and 4 as well. In this chapter Isaiah describes a time when:
1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
The prophecies of Isaiah often begin with a short note like this about the prophecy. Other prophets use similar notes. The prophet is noting the end of his words and the beginning of God's words that were delivered to him.
Here we are told that the prophecy concerns Judah and Jerusalem. Judah could be a reference to the tribe of Judah or to the land of Judah but, because the city of Jerusalem is mentioned, and because Jerusalem is inside the land of Judah, we expect this prophecy is speaking of the land surrounding Jerusalem.
Of course God doesn't give messages to land, but to people. So we understand the message of this prophecy to be directed to the people in that area.
2 Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills;
Two different things are being said about the mountain of the lord, which is Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, which the Bible also calls mount Zion and is called the temple mount now.
When it says it will become the "chief of the mountains" which means the greatest of the mountains. This doesn't mean that it will become the largest in the world or even the largest in Israel. It certainly does mean it will become the most important mountain in the world.
The phrase "will be raised above the hills", however, is almost certainly speaking about its height. The first question would have to be - which hills is it raised above. Other prophecies make it fairly clear that in the end times there will be a great earthquake, perhaps more than one, that will reshape Israel in major ways. One of these affects the center of Jerusalem, and mount Zion. These currently sit in a valley surrounded by hills. Therefore mount Zion is currently a small hill surrounded by larger hills. This will change. Mount Zion will become a mountain.
The idea of a small hill becoming a mountain fits well with the Messiah's change of role. He first came as the suffering servant who was crucified outside the city but in the Second Coming he comes as a king, ruling from his own house on a mountain.
The following verses explain why Mount Zion will become so important.
and all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will 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 concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths."
Everyone will want to go there and many will, but not because it is a small hill that became a mountain. Instead they will go there because the house of God is there and because He is there, God himself. They will go there to learn more about him so they can be more like him.
This is hard for us to imagine right now, a time when everyone desires to be like God. Of course having God on the throne makes this possible but it's also aided by Satan being locked away where he can't deceive people anymore. Revelation 20:1-3 tells us this, "And I saw another Angel from Heaven who had with him the key of The Abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he seized the Dragon and the Ancient Serpent, which is The Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the Abyss and shut and sealed the top of it so that he would not again seduce all the nations."
The Hebrew word translated as "stream" here is losing something important in the translation.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
flow together, be lightened
A primitive root; to sparkle, i.e. (figuratively) be cheerful; hence (from the sheen of a running stream) to flow, i.e. (figuratively) assemble -- flow (together), be lightened.
So the verse is describing the people flowing up the mountain as sparkling cheerful.
To fully grasp the significance of that we need to understand who these people are. Before Jesus returned, circumstances were created to clearly separate the world into two camps, those who love God and those who hate God. These people are the remnant of the haters.
Because they were unbelievers, they do not know God's way and have not lived according to them. So they need to learn. Even so, it's hard for us to imagine a time when they would be cheerful to learn what they previously hated. Do believers even go to church with that attitude now.
Two things make this possible
Normally we would wonder how long such devotion to God would last. Once before, God sat in a temple in Jerusalem. Even so, the Jews would frequently stop learning and walking in his ways. That will not be so in the time spoken of here.
Also, God ruled only Israel before, and only through his priests. From other prophecies we know his rule during the millennium will cover the entire earth and be more direct. We see a hint of that in the next verse.
For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples.
The whole world will be ruled from Mount Zion in Jerusalem where God will judge disputes between the nations and between various people. The effect of having the law and judgment coming from Jerusalem will be positive for the entire world.
The people need to learn how to live according to his law
As individuals, and
As nations, something that has never happened before
This is the next topic Isaiah addresses
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.
Because disputes can be settled by an all-wise authority, there is no need for war. Therefore there is no need for the weapons of war. All the money that countries pour into wars and maintaining militaries can now be put to better purposes. The verses also talk about settling disputes between people and they talked about everyone wanting to walk in the ways of God.
Therefore we expect that similar changes will happen at the civilian level. No longer will people cheat, steal, and disobey. Therefore the entire legal and justice system can be shutdown. Eliminating the costs of police, judges and lawyers and their buildings and vehicles would also be a great benefit to society.
It's hard to imagine how far these changes might go or just what that society would be like but I think it would be very different. With an all-wise God in control would governments even be needed?
So far Isaiah has been describing this ideal world under God's control. Now he uses the desire of the people in that world to learn God's way as a standard for the Israel of his time. He speaks to them, calling them back from their ways which are not God's ways.
5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 6 For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east, and they are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.
The verse says God has abandoned the house of Jacob and lists three problem areas. The verse from the NASB translation uses words like "filled with outside influences", "soothsayers", and "strike bargains with foreigners". Other translations say it differently. NIV uses words like "filled with superstitions from outside", "divination" and "embracing pagan customs". The NLT uses words like "filled their land with outside practices", "sorcerers", and "made alliances with pagans".
All this can be simplified to this. God wanted his people to keep themselves pure but they have been polluted by the world. He wanted them to consult only him but now they consult soothsayers, and sorcerers, and thus practice divination. He wanted them to be holy, separate from the world, but now they are unequally yoked with the world.
These three areas, however, are just the start of a list. Isaiah continues.
7 Their land has also been filled with silver and gold and there is no end to their treasures; their land has also been filled with horses and there is no end to their chariots.
Israel has desired all the signs of earthly wealth, chased after it, and obtained much of it. There is no end to their desires for earthly treasures. In the process they have lost the true treasures of God. Israel had been instructed not to have horses like the other countries had but instead only donkeys and oxen. But Israel has acquired both horses and chariots, signs of earthly wealth.
In our terms it would be as though God said all we needed for cars were Civics, Elantras, and Corollas but we got cars from Lexus, Ferrari, and Jaguar instead to display our wealth.
8 Their land has also been filled with idols; they worship the work of their hands, that which their fingers have made.
Isaiah says they have filled the land with idols but then clarifies what is meant by an idol. We often think of idols as only carved images. Isaiah shows us the definition - anything we have made with our hands that we worship.
To fully understand that definition we need to understand worship. We did a lesson on that quite a while ago that showed worship can be any action that results from love in the heart for that thing. In the case of worshiping God, some actions that we might otherwise think of as worshipful are in fact wrongful actions. Sacrifice of children is an example.
The key point is that worship is actions driven by love. This would include spending time with that thing you love, making sacrifices (like spending money) to be with it, organizing your life around it, doing whatever it requires whenever it requires it. They were desiring them, revering them, consulting them, and glorifying them.
When does a thing like a hammer become an idol? It happens when we personify it and credit it with the ability to save us or provide us with something we lack. "This hammer brings me wealth"
In our time technological toys - computers, smart phones, game machines - are competing for the role of God in our lives. For some people, God has been pushed aside to make room for these things.
Isaiah again turns, this time from his list of offenses by the people, to the reason people will be cheerful to learn God's ways during the millennium.
9 So the common man has been humbled and the man of importance has been abased, but do not forgive them.
Part of the change that comes with the millennium is that everyone will be humbled. We would expect the people of high position would need to be humbled but even the ordinary people will be as well. Everyone of them was not humble.
The interesting point is that they will not receive forgiveness. The system of salvation that Jesus setup during his first coming will end with his return. There are other lessons that talk about this.
Most of the rest of this chapter is structured as chiasms. A chiasm is a section of text that the author wants to highlight. The prophets didn't have Highlighter pens back them so God would repeat a small text before and after the "highlighted" text. For example:
This chiasm has two levels. There is one chiasm inside of another chiasm. God uses chiasms a lot and sometimes they have more than two levels.
The outer chiasm begins and ends with the phrase "Dumbo was an elephant". The inner chiasm begins and ends with "Dumbo had large ears".
In this chiastic structure the author would be wanting you to really focus on the idea that "Dumbo could fly". That's in the innermost chiasm. That could be the main point or it might be additional information that provides a deeper understanding.
The words in the other chiasms are also important and are related to the main point. The relationship they show can also provide deeper understanding.
10 Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty.
This is an idiom that appears in other places in the Bible. It conveys the idea of shame - of hiding your evil self from God.
This is very similar to the reference in Revelation 6:15-17 "And the Kings of Earth and the Princes and Captains of thousands and the rich and the mighty and every servant and every free person, hid themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and they said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from before the face of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of his anger has come, and who is able to stand?'"
We (mankind) think we are something. We are very impressed by ourselves as individuals and overall. All of that falls apart when we see (comprehend, experience) the "splendor of His majesty". Then we realize what shameful arrogant creatures we have been. Then we want to hide ourselves.
This text is also the beginning text of a two-level chiasm. This is the beginning of Chiasm A, the outer chiasm. We are going to see this phrase repeated later to close the chiasm.
Actually this chiasm marker is going to have a soft part that will change a little but retain the meaning and a hard part that does not change. The soft part is "Enter the rock and hide in the dust". The hard part is "from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty".
11 The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
The pride of mankind and his sense of self-worth will be humbled as the millennium begins - only Jesus will be exalted after that. Nothing else.
This text is also the beginning of Chiasm B which is inside Chiasm A. We are going to see this exact phrase repeated to mark the end of this chiasm. It will come before the closing test for Chiasm A is repeated to close it. For clarity, I've highlighted the text inside Chiasm B in yellow. Remember, this is a key point.
12 For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased.
Isaiah (God really) is referring to more than one day of humbling. Specifically he is referring to the humbling that occurs at the beginning of the millennium. He is also warning the Jews of his time that God is about to humble them. This should cause these people to humble themselves before God and to learn about him and be like him - it does not.
13 And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, 14 against all the lofty mountains, against all the hills that are lifted up, 15 against every high tower, against every fortified wall, 16 against all the ships of Tarshish and against all the beautiful craft.
The only place this chapter uses symbolism is here, in the innermost chiasm. Isaiah uses symbols to describe all the things the Lord will be against on that day:
God isn't against these but against where these are in our hearts.
It is so important for Christians to understand how little they truly are before God. We live in God's world and we can take no credit for anything that we have, we are, or have achieved. The only credit we can take is when we make the decisions that God wants us to make.
17 The pride of man will be humbled and the loftiness of men will be abased; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, 18 but the idols will completely vanish.
Here is the closing text for Chiasm B that we first saw in verse 11.
Something has been added to it though. Verse 18 looks like part of the sentence but it is actually the content of Chiasm A. The entire content. We know it is part of Chiasm A because the closing text of Chiasm B came just before it.
So we know it is important and we know it is related to the text inside Chiasm B.
The message is this: When pride is down at appropriate levels, the idols vanish as if by magic. They become only hammers and computers, from my example above. They become only people, places, walls, boats, from the symbolic description in Chiasm B.
This doesn't mean people and boats start vanishing. They weren't the problem. Idolatry happens in the heart - and it ends there too. A humble heart does not desire idols and so does not create them
19 Men will go into caves of the rocks and into holes of the ground Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble.
Again we see this idiom of people, who think they are something, hiding from the only one who is something.
This is also the closing text for Chiasm A.
This should put us back in the regular text, outside of the chiasms. There is a new piece of text, however, that is going to be repeated later. That is "when He arises to make the earth tremble". We'll see that this new text is actually being added to the closing text for Chiasm A to create a new Chiasm A. Yes, a new chiasm is starting immediately after the last one.
20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship
This chiasm contains a humorous visual but one that is very instructive. It depicts people running around throwing the idols they had valued to animals that live in the dark and cannot see their glitter.
This is obviously meant spiritually. How would a person throw away an army that he believed could protect him? Idols are thrown away inside of us because that is where they are created.
They made the idols to worship. This is a 2nd Commandment reference. They made it in themselves. All idols are made of silver or gold … because that's the value given them.
21 in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble.
Here again we see the closing text for the second Chiasm A. This time we are back in the regular text of the chapter.
There is a small difference in the soft part of the phrase, "in order to". The humorous visual flows into the closing text. In total it depicts people throwing away the idols they valued to animals that do not value them … so the people can go and hide in shame. It's humorous but sad.
22 Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; For why should he be esteemed?
Isaiah has been talking about a form of idolatry where men worship other men, and the things they, or mankind generally, have created. He gives that the name "regarding men", having regard for men and mankind.
To them he says essentially, "quit treating them as something special. They are only men." By saying a man's "breath of life is in his nostrils" Isaiah refers back to the creation account in Genesis 2:7 "Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." The point Isaiah makes is that man does not have life in his nature. He cannot keep himself alive. What life he has was given to him by God and is easily lost. Isaiah asks why you would treat a being like that as something special.
A day is coming when the splendor of God's majesty will be known and everyone with any pride will be humbled. All their idols will vanish and they will be ashamed.
Humility is key to our relationship with God. Humble among people is a start; humble before God is the goal. Humble people will not:
We've seen a glimpse into what the millennial kingdom will be like. With God on the throne of the whole earth and Satan locked away, The earth will be very different. For one thing, men will desire God. It will be their joy to travel to Jerusalem to learn about him and his ways, and not just to learn but to put those ways into practice in their own lives.
With an all-wise judge in place, any disputes can be settled before they turn violent. There will be no more war, no more weapons, no more militaries, no more crime, no more police, and no more judges - a very different place.
Everyone will be humble. No one will think that he is someone special. God will receive the glory for everything we are and have.
Note that God is not just speaking to the men in high positions but he also says "the common man will be humbled". Even the common man is too proud for God and must be humbled. I think we generally don't understand how proud we are of ourselves, others and mankind.
When we marvel at the things man has done, we show that pride and we worship the things our hands have made. We are amazed at cars, planes, space ships, computers, smart phones, the strength of our countries, of our armies, of our economies, of our wisdom and knowledge and much more. We are sometimes proud of our own individual accomplishments.
We need to understand that everything we have done was only possible because of God. Every understanding and discovery man has gained was only possible because God allowed it. We cannot marvel at Einstein for his discoveries. God opens and closes minds according to his will.
The same is true on an individual level. Everything we learned in school was only possible because God gave us the desire to learn, the will to try to learn, and the ability to remember and put it to use. We succeeded because of the way God made each of us individually and all credit is his. We cannot say, for example, I worked hard for that degree. We need to thank God instead as we remember the former classmates who God had not built for it and who dropped out.
Another thing we saw in these verses is that false teachings will be driven out (v. 5). These have come from all from over and settled into God's people. They can get access to men who were not humble before their God and wanted something different.
Idolatry will cease completely. This is strongly tied to both worshiping the things our hands have made and the people associated with them.