Isaiah 2:1-22
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Isaiah 2:1-5]
1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
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; 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.” 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; 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.
5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] Isaiah 2-4 reveal God’s glorious future plan for Israel against the backdrop of Israel’s present sinful condition.
In light of what God has planned for His people, Israel should’ve been asking, “What sort of people ought we to be in holy conduct and godly living in light of so great a salvation?”
[CIT] Isaiah 2 calls the chosen people of God to live as the holy people of God in view of the day when all the nations stream to Israel to learn the way of the Lord.
[PROP] As those who have been grafted into the people of God through faith in Jesus Christ who is the way of the Lord, let us consider what sort of people we ought to be in light of so great a salvation.
[TS] Let’s notice three PARTS to this chapter…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
Part #1: A Certain Hope in the Last Days (Isaiah 2:1-5)
Part #1: A Certain Hope in the Last Days (Isaiah 2:1-5)
1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
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; 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.” 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; 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.
5 Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
[EXP] Revelation 20 tells us about the Millennial Kingdom, the thousand year reign of Jesus on earth after His second coming.
If we are to understand that Millennial Kingdom literally, then during that thousand year reign, Satan will be bound and unable to misled the nations (Rev. 20:1-3) and believers will be resurrected to reign with Christ (Rev. 20:4-6); and during this time, the whole world will recognize Jesus as King and Jerusalem as capital of the world.
As Isaiah prophesies, Jerusalem will be exalted and many peoples from all the nations will stream to it in order to learn the way of the LORD (i.e., the way of Jesus); they will want to learn to walk in His paths.
From Jerusalem, Jesus will send out the Law of God and Word of the Lord to rule and judge and decide.
Great peace will cover the earth, so much so that weapons of war will be converted into tools for agriculture.
Having learned the way of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, nation will not wage war against nation, and they will never again learn the way of war.
In light of this certain hope in the last days, “Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD,” (Isa. 2:5).
At the time of Isaiah’s prophecy, Israel couldn’t see that the fulfillment of this certain hope was coming in Jesus of Nazareth, but they did have enough light to see that it was certainly coming, and knowing that should have moved them to walk in the light, to walk in holiness before the LORD.
[ILLUS] Our three oldest children have gone to spend a couple of days with Nana before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Yesterday I griped at Dalton about something, and Dalton said all this past week he had tried to be good and do right so he wouldn’t miss out on going to Nana’s.
In view of going to Nana’s, Dalton was trying to live right.
In view of the certain hope we have in Jesus Christ, we ought to walk in the light.
[APP] In John 8:12 Jesus said…
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
In 1 John 1:6-7, the Apostle John wrote…
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we are living in eager expectation of the certain hope we have in Christ, we ought to be walking in His Light.
[TS] But most in Isaiah’s day were not…
Part #2: A Great Danger in the Present Day (Isaiah 2:5-11)
Part #2: A Great Danger in the Present Day (Isaiah 2:5-11)
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.
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.
8 Their land has also been filled with idols; They worship the work of their hands, That which their fingers have made.
9 So the common man has been humbled And the man of importance has been abased, But do not forgive them.
10 Enter the rock and hide in the dust 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.
[EXP] The great danger for Israel in Isaiah’s day was sinful pride. Rather than humbly walking the light of the LORD, Israel tried to exalt itself among the the other nations by doing like the other nations.
The filled their land with pagan practices and alliances rather than filling their land with faithfulness to YHWH.
They trusted in silver and gold and warhorses and chariots rather than trusting in YHWH.
They turned to idols and worshipped things they made with their own hands rather than worshipping YHWH.
Because of this, the LORD abandoned them; He put Israel at the mercy of pagan nations so it would be humbled.
Isaiah was so upset about Israel’s sinfulness, he said to God in v. 9, “Do not forgive them!” And then he told Israel to hide from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty (Isa. 2:10).
On the day of judgment, Israel’s pride and arrogance would be humbled, and the Lord alone would be exalted.
Israel would ask itself, “Why did we ever trust in anything… why did we ever trust in anyone… why did we ever trust in ourselves rather than the LORD?”
[ILLUS] Ralph Waldo Emerson was a leading American thinker in the 1800s. He once said, “If you’re going to trust one person, let it be yourself.”
After his education at Harvard in preparation for the ministry, Emerson began his career as an assistant pastor.
Before long, though, he felt that the profession of pastor was antiquated and that one could only be a good minister if one left the ministry, so that’s what Emerson did.
He traveled and toured and lectured, becoming quite well-known. Soon he was invited to give the graduation address at Harvard Divinity School, where he shockingly stated that while Jesus was a great man, He was not God; he said that Christianity had turned Jesus into a “demigod, as the Orientals or Greeks would describe Osiris or Apollo.”
Such is the result of trusting in yourself.
You begin to believe like the pagans and will suffer the same fate they do.
[APP] Counter to Emerson’s “trust yourself” is the Bible’s “trust in the LORD,” as Proverbs 3:5 says…
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
To trust in anything other than the LORD is prideful paganism, and on the day Jesus returns all prideful paganism will be brought down.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Let us not trust in ourselves, brothers and sisters, but let us humbly trust in the LORD.
When Jesus comes let us be found trusting Him and His way and not asking ourselves, “Why did we ever trust in anything… why did we ever trust in anyone… why did we ever trust in ourselves rather than the LORD?”
[TS] We surely don’t want to be found pridefully trusting in ourselves on the day of reckoning…
PART #3: A Certain Reckoning in that Day (vv. 12-22)
PART #3: A Certain Reckoning in that Day (vv. 12-22)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
22 Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; For why should he be esteemed?
[EXP] Despite the certain hope of a glorious future from God and the great danger of human pride, Israel has regarded the way of pagan men as more important than the way of God…
…but this is foolishness because a day of reckoning is coming when all that is exalted in human pride will be brought low by the judgment of God.
In Isaiah’s day, people were proud of their trees and mountains, their high towers and fortified walls, their trading ships and stately vessels, but God will bring all of this to nothing when Christ come and humbles the pride of man.
Nothing in creation will be exalted above the Creator; the Lord alone will be exalted; all idols will totally disappear.
Men will run for their lives, hiding in rock and holes before terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty.
Then they will abandon their idols, when they see His terror and His splendor, when He makes the earth to tremble at His judgment.
Then they will ask themselves, “Why did we ever follow mere humans who are as frail as breath? Why did we not follow the LORD?”
[ILLUS] In 2 Kings 18, Israel was tempted to trust in Egypt rather than God, and God said in 2 Kings 18:21, “If you lean on Egypt, it will like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!” (NLT)
Anything we would lean on other than the Lord Jesus is completely unreliable; it will splinter and pierce us on the day when Jesus comes to make manifest His kingdom on the earth.
[APP] Let us now give up anything that tempts our trust and trust in the LORD alone.
In view of the certain hope of salvation we have in Christ…
In view of the day of reckoning to come…
…let us walk in the light of the LORD.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]