Community Bible Study -- Isaiah

Text of Presentation, Lesson 2, Isa 2:1-22

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What Israel Is . . . and What She Should Be
"Longing and Living for That Day"

After Isaiah's grim condemnation of his people in chapter 1, chapter 2 brings a brief - but optimistic - glimpse of the coming Messianic Age . . . followed by renewed denunciation of the Jews for their sins. Isaiah seems to be saying: "Look what God has planned for you . . . but only if you clean up your act."

In Isaiah's snapshot of the future, Israel is a spiritual light of the world (to borrow a phrase from Jesus). All the nations stream to "the mountain of the LORD" . . . to his house, his temple, in Jerusalem . . . to learn his ways. They go there because it's the source of God's law . . . and God's law has gone out across the world.

Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not a mountain . . . it's not even the highest hill in the area. So why does Isaiah emphasize the word "mountain" here? Perhaps because of the ancient belief that the gods lived on high mountains: like Zeus on Mount Olympus and Baal on Mount Cassius. Temple mount is not a mountain physically, but it's the highest mountain spiritually, because it's where the one true God is to be found . . . the place God instructed Solomon to build a temple for His presence to dwell . . . the place where man studied God's law. The nations come here to learn from God's word . . . God's law.

Isa 2:4 speaks of "judg(ing) between the nations," but the concept in Hebrew involves not just arbitration, but world governmental order. This does not mean a one world government; it means submission of the nations to God's rule. And just as individuals who submit to God no longer need to resort to violence to have their needs met, neither will nations . . . so there will be harmony among the nations.

Isaiah then makes yet another appeal to the Jewish people - aka, the "house of Jacob" - to live up to God's plans for them and "walk in the light of the LORD" (2:5). If one day even Gentiles will seek to walk in God's ways, God's chosen people should be walking in them now! This passage may also have a Messianic prophesy angle . . . foreseeing that the Jews will reject Jesus, and Gentiles Christians will be the ones who spread God's law throughout the world - and Jews will then be evangelized by Christians.

Is Isa 2:2-5 figurative or literal . . . and if literal, when will it take place? There are many different interpretations. Some scholars interpret it figuratively; they believe Isaiah is merely making a theological point about the universal application of God's law, and the many ways it will eventually impact the world. Others interpret it literally: believing these events will really happen at some future time. But the interpretation I prefer is based on the first words of 2:2: "In the last days." Usually "the last days" refers to the Messianic Age, beginning with the birth of Jesus. According to this view, 2:2-5 is prophesy that followers of Jesus will spread the gospel throughout the world . . . but the scene itself is a description of the Messianic Kingdom after Jesus' 2nd coming. Although it is sinful to presume we can build this kind of society here and now, we have a responsibility to work toward these goals continually by spreading the gospel to the entire world, as Jesus instructed in the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20).

Let's digress for a moment and think about how radical this idea was at the time of Isaiah and Jesus. With so many deities worshiped by powerful nations, it was outrageous to presume that worship of the God of one small nation would be accepted throughout the world! It took great courage for God's missionaries to proclaim YHWH as the one true God to more powerful nations! And took a miracle for this to happen! But because of this miracle and the faithfulness of our spiritual predecessors, by the 20th century A.D. most of the world had heard about the One True God and of Jesus the Christ . . . and in 1948 the nation of Israel was restored, 2000 years after it last lost its independence - opening the possibility for this scene to literally happen.

Yet today we seem to have forgotten our mission and the sacrifice of our predecessors. My grandfather learned to read in public school from Bible stories. Most of us remember when every school had a Christmas play, and every town square a manger scene. Spring break was called "Easter Recess." Schools proudly displayed the 10 commandments as a universal moral standard. But today we place non-Christian deities on the same plane as the One True God; the ACLU files a lawsuit with every hint of Christian religious exercise in schools (although Islam and other religions are OK). Our educational establishment declares it "insensitive" and "intolerant" to believe there is a universal moral standard. Most mass distribution movies and TV shows portray Christians in a negative light. We ought to be livid about this . . . but we're not. I recently heard eastern religious philosophies now dominate psychology . . . so we not only stand by as Christian values are purged from our schools - we allow eastern religions it! It's disgraceful!

We've got to have the force of will - as Isaiah did - to fight back . . . with our voices and our votes. We must reaffirm the fundamental truth that God is the God of the whole world . . . the only God . . . the One True God. We must not allow the world to define our faith for us, and we must not be shy about proclaiming this truth . . . whatever it costs - and even if we aren't victorious.

After calling again for the repentance of the Jews in 2:5, Isaiah renews his prophesy of judgment against them if they fail to deal with their sins . . . and with arrogance in particular. The Jews have been seduced by human power and glory, and have abandoned the Creator in whom the only true glory exists. Instead of being filled with the ways of the One True God, the Jews are full of human wisdom (2:6), human wealth and power (2:7), and human-made idols (2:8) . . . and as a result of this arrogance, God has abandoned them (2:6). Yet whatever the Jews may think they have gained . . . it can't stand for a moment against the true splendor of the universe that exists in God alone, and those who trust in such things are doomed to a terrible humiliation (2:9-11).

Isaiah refers to superstitions from the East (2:6) . . . which then as now was thought of as a place of wisdom. The complex eastern religions seemed to have great appeal vs the simple religion of the Jewish God, and many Jews gravitated toward them. They also accepted eastern values like wealth and power, which Isaiah illustrates with "horses" and "chariots": weapons of war which represented the ultimate in wealth and power, and which God forbade for the Jews (cf Deut 17:16, 1 Kings 10:28).

Following human wisdom and human values is idolatry, because it conceives God in human terms. Again and again throughout the book, Isaiah mocks idolatry: how can gods made with human hands possibly protect us. If we trust our creation instead of our Creator we elevate ourselves to the place of God; this can only result in humiliation when the One True God is revealed.

The cryptic injunction "Do not forgive them" at the end of 2:9 may be the prophet's cry to God not to be too gracious to these people who have filled themselves with all the wrong things . . . or it may also be a call to other people not to join in this sin of self-exaltation, nor to condone or excuse those who participate.

2:11, 17 repeat a refrain about arrogance and pride being brought low, making the point that human "height" is insignificant compared to God. He alone is "high and exalted" (6: 1), and any attempt to claim some of that glory for ourselves is doomed to fail.

2:12-18 amplify this theme by contrasting every "high" thing in creation with God: trees (2:13), mountains (2:14), fortifications (2:15), tall-masted ships (2:16). Nothing in creation can compare to the Lord. He is another order of being altogether. So how can mere humans and the gods they have created hope to stand up to him (2:17-18)?

All this is brought to a blistering conclusion in 2:19-22. The prophet declares that when God - who is truly holy - is revealed, everything created by human hands and human minds and pronounced holy will hastily be cast away . . . cast away to the most unclean of animals, "rodents and bats." Arrogant people who compare themselves to tall trees or high mountains will cower under the rocks, seeking to hide from God in the lowest holes (cf Luke 23:30).

Isaiah seems to be saying man's attempt to make himself holy actually makes us unclean, and our attempt to give ourselves significance renders us worthless. Why would the Jews put their trust in something worthless and unclean when they can put their trust in the living God?! Why would they put ultimate trust in humanity when every human being is only one breath away from extinction?

The application of Isa 2:6-22 to the modern setting is self-evident. The central issue is the human instinct to exalt ourselves in a number of ways: wealth, education, political power, military power, beauty, "spirituality," etc. We do this because of fundamental insecurity . . . because when we face reality, we know the frailty of human life: here one moment, gone the next (2:22). We are constantly aware of our "mistakes," "shortcomings," "failures" - whatever we call them - but they all point to an almost universal awareness among humans that we fall short of our potential.

No psychologists offer therapy to lower high self-esteem . . . because a sense of failure and worthlessness seems ingrained in all of us. Christians trace the source of this to the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3; man is alienated from God, the true source of permanence and meaning in our lives, and as a result we're doomed to repeat the tragedies of earlier generations. But rather than humbly come to our Creator to seek His forgiveness (2:9), humans seek to build ourselves up . . . even though every attempt to give ourselves eternal significance is negated by the fundamental fact of our mortality.

Isaiah condemns idolatry. No one worships idols of wood and stone today . . . but idolatry is a state of mind before it's a religious practice . . . a state of mind which exalts man to the place reserved for the Creator alone . . . a state of mind that believes we control our own destiny: we can - by our own efforts - keep bad things from happening to us. We practice idolatry every time we put our trust in inanimate and material things to guarantee our security, rather than trusting the Creator, who alone can hold us securely.

Science and medicine are a form of 21st century idolatry. Indeed we have conquered the powers of nature to a degree unimaginable even fifty years ago, but we still have not made ourselves secure! Computer models were powerless to predict the courses of recent hurricanes - sometimes only hours in advance. Every terminal cancer patient brings us face-to-face with the limitations of modern medicine . . . and every miraculous recovery makes clear there is more to reality than the physical and material. There seems greater inclination today to acknowledge spiritual reality . . . but most people still seek to control things by imagining it on our their terms, rather than submitting to God. Many gravitate to eastern religions - as in Isaiah's day (2:6). United Methodist Women should remember the resuscitated paganism of the "Re-imagining" movement. It's idolatry whenever we imagine the universe with ourselves at the center of it.

Increasingly throughout the 20th century, man has come to deny God's involvement in creation. Evolution is the only theory taught in schools; and although new data brings it more and more into question, we cling to it tenaciously because it denies a creator-God, and hence places humanity at the center of the universe. This makes fulfilling human needs the primary goal. We idolize human leaders; we even use that word: "idolize" . . . because when we realize we cannot achieve our goals of wealth, pleasure, comfort, and power without political order, we elevate a strong leader who promises those benefits to us. But this gives a human the position that belongs to God, and the end is predictable: any human given power and praise wants more; there can never be enough. As Thomas Jefferson said: "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Ronald Reagan observed that the "worst tyrannies" are always created by those who promise good! It's idolatry to place the fulfillment of our personal human needs paramount; it reflects man's arrogance, and is a way to disaster.

What should we do? Isaiah does not state this explicitly, but he leaves little doubt. We should do the opposite. We should confess our needs are not primary but a relationship with our Creator is. We should submit our needs to God, recognizing he is Lord of all. We should acknowledge he has entered into our time and space, in the person of Jesus the Christ, and has thus given that time and space eternal meaning. We should realize that - by taking on our form - God gave humanity ultimate worth.

By trying to take God's place, we become nothing; but by submitting to God and exalting Him alone, we lift ourselves to the place of sons and daughters of God . . . princes and princesses of the universe. This is what Peter means when he says, "Humble yourselves . . . under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up " (1 Peter 5:6).

In this context, the opposite of self-exaltation is not self-denigration . . . it is merely to refuse to put oneself in the place of God. It is to know oneself as a child of God, to know one's place in God's world, and to know one's worth in His sight. Knowing this makes us emotionally secure; we don't need to call attention to ourselves.

In other words, the opposite of arrogance is self-forgetfulness. It is the ability to go about God's tasks, secure in his love and his values, without wondering if others appreciate us. It is the ability to see others being praised and not need to belittle them to make ourselves look good . . . it is "to know there is a God, and to know we are not him!"

Which brings us back to 2:22:

Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he? (Isa 2:22)

We must turn away from idolizing man - ourselves and others - and put our trust only in God.

Next week we'll study chapter 5. It wouldn't hurt to read chapters 3-4 as well; they're not long . . . but, admittedly, they are more of the same. Chapter 5 conclude Isaiah's initial condemnation of sin - that of his people and that of our people - with the metaphor of the vineyard . . . a metaphor that Jesus liked to use as well.