Isaiah 2, "Whose Mountain are You Climbing"
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On January 8, a tourist boat excursion on a popular lake in Brazil turned into a nightmare when a tower of rock 50 feet tall and 12 feet wide broke off from a cliff face and fell on two boats with as many as 24 people on them. Ten people died and many more were injured.
We love climbing mountains. We feel like we’re climbing to heaven and when we get to the top, we feel like we can conquer anything. The ancient people of Isaiah’s day would build temples and altars to their gods on mountain tops, the higher the better. Imagine all the people that climbed mountains all over the world to spill blood to appease a god who may or may not be listening to prayers for mercy or prosperity. There was incredible pride for those that had the temple of their favorite god on the highest mountain around.
Even cultures that lived in the plains built temples that looked like mountains.
What if the mountain you were climbing suddenly uprooted, flipped over on top of you and came crashing down? Imagine the terror, the carnage, the utter darkness. This is how Isaiah pictures the situation for all those who have worshipped idols instead of the LORD God of Jacob.
Isaiah pictures a day when all those who were high and mighty would be brought low and the LORD on His mountain would be elevated. To give this some context, in Isaiah’s day, the LORD God was worshipped on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem.
Mount Zion, 2510 ft.
Compared to other sacred mountains in the world, it’s a speck.
Nanda Devi (the goddess who gives bliss), India, 25,643 ft.
Mount Kailash, Nepal, Lord Shiva’s dwelling for Hindus, also Buddhist, 27,778 ft.
Mount Fuji, Japan, 12,388 ft., Shinto gateway to another world
The Mother Temple of Besakih, Bali, 10,000 ft. (temple at 3,000)
Mount Seir, Edom (Jordan), 5776 ft.
Zion isn’t even the tallest mountain in Israel. That’s Mount Hermon, over 7,000 ft.
One day, all of these mountains that people have climbed for centuries to be closer to their god or to elevate their people above other people will be cast down into the valleys, and everywhere will become a level plain, and the only high place left will be the mountain of the LORD. You don’t want to be under a mountain when it comes down.
This day is called the Day of the Lord. It is the day when heaven and earth are reunited, and God puts the world right again. One thing is assured, when God rules and reigns in the new world, injustice will be gone forever. Which means that all the proud and powerful who have built their mountains on knowledge, money, power, and idolatry of self will be humbled, brought low under the mountain of the house of the Lord. Isaiah says five times in our passage that the LORD God is on the rise, and all the proud and arrogant are on their way down.
Whose mountain are you climbing? Is it the mountains of men, or the mountain of the LORD?
Isaiah’s vision of the end of all things goes like this:
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,
God’s got a house on a mountain, and we learn several things about this mountain home:
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.
1. (verse 2) All the nations are there
2. It is the house of the God of Jacob
3. God will teach everyone His ways that we may walk in His paths
4. The Torah and the word of the LORD will go out from Mount Zion in Jerusalem
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.
5. God will judge disputes between people groups
6. This will lead to worldwide peace
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord.
7. Isaiah is calling Israel (Jacob) to walk in the light of the LORD
Let’s look at each of these quickly.
1. All the nations are there.
Where do we see this image in the church of Greater Portland, and how can we align with this vision? God is bringing the nations here to our area. Are we welcoming them as we worship the Lord, learn from the Lord, walk with the Lord? The image is many peoples enthusiastic to come to God.
Alex Motyer says this passage is rooted in the promise to Abraham, to be God’s blessing of redemption to all nations, “but in its present context Isaiah makes it a challenge to his contemporaries: if the world is ever to say, ‘Come, let us go up (3),’ the Lord’s people must heed the call, ‘Come…let us walk (5)”: the first requirement in evangelism is to have a church that is worth joining!”
2. It is the house of the God of Jacob
God identified with one family in order to make them a blessing to all families of the earth. God chose to be named with human beings, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The people of God bear His name into the world. In Christ, we have been brought into the people of God, we are children of Abraham, through Jesus. How are we bearing His name in our time? Are we a church worth joining? Do we welcome strangers to worship God with us, or are we corrupted and distracted by the things of the world?
3. God will teach everyone His ways that we may walk in His paths
Jesus said in John 6 that He was the fulfillment of this promise. Anyone who finds themselves drawn to Jesus Christ is learning from the Father. We have lots of human teachers, but none are better than God Himself. When He wanted us to learn the greatest lesson about Him, He sent Jesus. In our church, are we being taught by God, or by human teachers? In your own life, do you sit with God’s word long enough to listen and explore how it leads you to Jesus, or do you turn to your favorite Christian author or YouTube preacher? How can we as human teachers facilitate disciples being taught by God?
4. The Torah and the word of the LORD will go out from Mount Zion in Jerusalem
This is the same commission Jesus gave His disciples. While God has a future plan to restore Jerusalem as a place of worship and the center of His kingdom, He is already carrying out this plan through the church. We, here in Westbrook, ME, are carrying out God’s plan in Christ to proclaim the gospel in all the earth.
5. God will judge disputes between people groups
This is our hope. We will never see “peace in our time” in the ways the world seeks it. We need a higher authority and a more just court than the UN or the International Criminal Court. All the justice we are looking for is in God.
6. This will lead to worldwide peace
Isaiah says this is a vision for the “latter days”. Why not now?
7. Isaiah is calling Israel (Jacob) to walk in the light of the LORD
Apparently, Israel, God’s people, the descendants of God’s man of faith, Jacob, are not walking according to God’s ways. Instead of the light on the mountain of the Lord, they are in the dark. What does that look like?
Isaiah says in verse 6,
For you have rejected your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of things from the east
and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
They have been conformed to the world. They’re all reading the latest books, they’re seeking security in money and power.
Their land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.
They’re building their mountains out of worldly wisdom, money, and power. But even worse, they have built their mountain of worship on idolatry,
Their land is filled with idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their own fingers have made.
The danger of idolatry is that if you are finding your hope and happiness in something you have made, that naturally leads to pride and arrogance. When we turn our hearts to created things for satisfaction, ultimately our temple is at the top of the mountain called “self”. You sit enthroned over your life, and others. And on the day God rises to His rightful place, there will not be room for two creators, two kings.
So man is humbled,
and each one is brought low—
do not forgive them!
How many people resonate with Isaiah’s words? Isaiah wants justice. He sees the people of God, who should be welcoming the nations in worship of the one true and living God, instead corrupted and distracted by cultural trends, money, power, and self centeredness. They themselves are not walking in the light of the LORD, so they can’t be a light to anyone else.
What are the ways the people of God are corrupted and distracted today? Are they really any different than Israel in Isaiah’s day? The church in America in the last fifty years has gotten distracted by preachers that sell books, the “soothsayers” of our age. We’ve been corrupted by more money than the rest of the worldwide church combined. And maybe we don’t accumulate horses and chariots, but we have sought influence and worldly success.
Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?
When we see the church ineffective and irrelevant, or worse, as we saw last week in chapter 1, evil and unjust, it is time for a cleansing among the people of God. Is it any wonder that we have been ineffective when there is sexual abuse in the highest levels of evangelical denominations? Is it any wonder that the churches that are growing are those that seek out those that are different from them? Who are we harboring, and who are we seeking? Maybe it’s the wrong people in both cases.
For us as a local church, have we come into the light of the ways of the Lord of the nations? Do we have a church worth joining? Do we have the vision Isaiah has for the kingdom of God in the last days?
This should look like justice for the orphan, the widow, and the oppressed. Where are we practicing that? It should look like a strong desire to proclaim God’s word in ways that don’t attract people to the latest, trendy preacher, but to God Himself. Are we doing that? It should look like inviting a diverse group of people from every language, tribe, and nation to join us in worship. Are we?
Here is the grace of God: God never does things the way we would. In John 12, Greeks (nations) come to Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples about the glory of the cross.
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
His elevation, His lifting up, would be a judgment of the world. And it would draw all people, just like in Isaiah’s vision. We who believe are those people.
Communion