Isaiah Chapter 2

Wicked Behavior Will Be Punished

In September, 2005, we watched on television the absolute destruction of a good portion of a major city. We saw the anguish of individuals who were going without food and water and standing for hours or days in the hot sun waiting to be transported to a shelter. We heard the children cry. We watched the water rescues of people from their roofs. We saw miles and miles of rubble where homes used to be. And we have heard some reporters use the term to describe the devastation as being of “biblical proportions.” Such a comment indicates that at least some individuals are aware of the parts of Scripture that talk about the coming judgment and what it will do to the earth as we know it. If one really knows the Scripture, as devastating and horrible as what we saw on our televisions in Louisiana and Mississippi was, it was still nowhere near what is yet to come. Yet it was good that at least some individuals were thinking about God in all the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The governors of both states requested prayer and prayer meetings were held around the country. Truly, our nation needs to be reminded of 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says: “and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Not only do we need to pray with all our hearts, but we need to turn from any kind of disobedience to God‘s commands. So along with prayer there needs to be a whole-hearted repentance and turning to God.

It is very timely that we are looking at the book of Isaiah right now because it has something to say to us regarding such things. Let’s begin reading chapter 2, which begins a collection of prophecies of judgment that will continue through chapter 12 regarding Judah and Jerusalem.

Isaiah 2:1 NAS:
1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

How does a prophet “see” the Word of the Lord? Similar expressions introduce the prophecies of Micah and Habakkuk. We might better understand the verse as translated in contemporary English: “The divine truth that was revealed to the prophet.” Just how the process worked we can never know. Although chapter 6 will give us a clue.

 

These expressions are telling us that the prophets’ words are based on an actual visual experience, and that therefore what they have to say is divinely inspired and accurate as no other teaching from the pen of a man or a woman could be. [fn]

You’ve heard people say, “The Bible is only a book written by men,” or “God didn’t write the Bible.”

They obviously have never read Isaiah. But I’ve learned over the course of my lifetime that there is no limit to the number of people who have no reluctance whatsoever to speak with authority concerning things they know nothing about. The Bible was written by men and women who were instructed as to what to write by God.

Isaiah 2:2-5 NAS
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.

Here Isaiah sees a vision of a world without war. “In the latter days,” refers to some undefined time in the future, most likely during the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth after He returns (the Millennium). During this time the entire world will look to Jerusalem as its capital.

The hill on which the Temple stood was called “Mount Moriah” (2 Chronicles 3:1). “The highest of mountains…lifted above the hills,” doesn’t have any reference to the elevation of Mount Moriah (also referred to as Mount Zion). Rather it suggests that Jerusalem will be the home of the King of the World and “all the nations will flow into it.”  God will at this time restore the nation of Israel to glory and bless all the nations of the world, that is all people in all nations of the world who have accepted Christ as their Savior. The rest will go to Hell to await final judgment.

The idea is simply that where now disputes are settled by the sword, during the Millennium they will be settled by peaceful arbitration; and where now men and women spend time and energy in studying the art of war, there will come a time when instead they will settle issues peacefully.

We now move into the first of three series of judgment prophecies. The first covers Isaiah 2:6-4:1; the second, 5:1-30; and the third, 9:8-10:34. These passages give us a pretty clear view of world conditions in the eighth century B.C.

Isaiah 2:6-8 NAS:
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.[fn]
8 Their land has also been filled with idols; They worship the work of their hands, That which their fingers have made.

We could sum up these three verses by saying the land of Judah has no room for God. That is the same condition we see in the United States today. If we were smart, we would pay attention to what happened to Judah so that we might avoid the same outcome. Do you think perhaps the people of Judah passed laws which prohibited prayer in schools? Do you think Judah passed laws that prohibited the Ten Commandments from being displayed in government buildings? Do you think Judah accepted and promoted homosexuality and same sex marriage? Do you think Judah flaunted sexuality in every aspect of its culture? Do you think the people of Judah thought that each person had the right to create their own god, one that made them feel comfortable and to whom they had no accountability or dependence? These kinds of things go on all over the place in the United States today, including the Church. We too bow down to the work of our hands, to what our own fingers have made, and we have little room for the true God anymore.

There is little doubt in my mind that if Jesus Himself returned to warn the people of this country of what was about to happen to us if we don’t turn from our evil ways, He would be rejected and ridiculed just as He was the first time He came, and just as Isaiah was when he tried to warn the people in the eighth century B.C.

Judah was so full of their own successes that they forgot that “the Lord alone will be exalted,” a theme that runs throughout Isaiah’s prophesies (e.g., Isaiah 31:1). We in the United States have forgotten that as well for the same reason.

The warning here is against foreign influences in general, which threaten the unique relationship between God and His people. The warning in the U.S. today would apply to the Muslim influence that we’re permitting to take hold in our country. “The east,” in verse 6 suggests exotic ideas and foreign influences, and the Philistines represent all that Saul and David had fought to free Israel from. Today the United States is allowing foreign influences into the country which are promoting false religions. This is a big mistake and the U.S. may suffer the same fate as Israel because of it.

“Striking hands with foreigners” means that there are foreigners everywhere in the land and that the people of God are shaking hands with them or making agreements with them. Isaiah is not saying that there is anything wrong with having a lot of foreigners in the country, that would be racism. God elsewhere in Scripture tells His people to take in the stranger, the foreigner, to treat them well and to remember that they were once foreigners in a strange country.[fn]

But those foreigners who were assimilating into the Israeli culture, were to obey the true God and become His followers. The danger is that in all the tolerance and acceptance of new ideas, new languages, and new religions, the true God will be forgotten. And that is what was happening in Judah. They at first had tolerated and accommodated the worship and the idols of the foreigners by building the “high places” where such idols were worshiped.  Then the Jews had begun worshiping those idols themselves, thereby “striking hands” with the settlers and making alliances with them. Tolerance led to acceptance and then to participation.

The United States of America was founded and thrived on a belief in the one true God of the Bible. The freedom to worship as guaranteed in our constitution implied the freedom to worship the one true God of the Bible as a member of any Christian denomination. This freedom was not intended to encourage Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other foreign gods and religions. It is the acceptance and accommodation of such foreign beliefs that has contributed to our nation as a whole forgetting, and even rejecting, the Lord God Jehovah and Jesus Christ. Tolerance has led to acceptance and to participation as we are seeing many people reject their Judeo-Christian heritage to embrace Islam and other ideologies, including an atheistic reliance on “science” as expressed in the concept of Darwinism and evolution.

Isaiah 2:9-11 NAS:
9 So the common man has been humbled And the man of importance has been abased,[fn] 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

Throughout this section (Isaiah 2:6-4:1) and many others in the Book of Isaiah, there is an interesting interplay between the judgment which God will inflict on the nation by the Assyrian (722 BC, 701 BC) and Babylonian (605-537 BC) captivities and the judgment which will come on Israel and the whole world in the ”last days“ just before the Millennium. Though many of the predictions in Isaiah 2:10-21 happened when Assyria and Babylon attacked Israel and Judah, the passage looks ahead to a cataclysmic judgment on the whole world.[fn]

Isaiah 2:12-16 NAS:
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.

Notice in verses 9, and 11-16 the emphasis on haughtiness and pride. Verses 12-16 particularly describe for us the fate of the proud and arrogant.  Pride is listed as one of the seven deadly sins and throughout the Bible God consistently says He will punish the proud person and bring them to their knees.[fn] Humility is the opposite of pride. God also promises to bless the humble person.[fn]

In these verses mighty trees, high mountains, huge fortified towers, and tall ships all represent proud and arrogant people. “Ships of Tarshish” reminds us of our recent study in Jonah. Tarshish had one of the biggest shipping industries in the known world at that time, with large seaworthy vessels, which could carry great loads and travel long distances.

This passage tells us to take a close look around us at all the great idols we create: money, homes, power, sex, and all kinds of other self-indulgent satisfactions, and to remember that they pass away and cannot compare with the glory and majesty of the Lord.

In our culture the monuments we proudly build to ourselves, such as the best submarines and anti-aircraft carriers, tall buildings, great SUV’s and luxury automobiles, million-dollar homes, etc., will be as nothing when the Lord lifts His hand against them.

Isaiah 2:17-22 NAS:
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?

These verses speak to the basic nature and values of people. They will finally toss away their idols of silver and gold when they see the wrath of God beginning to unfold. Moles and bats live in the darkness of caves and holes in the ground, and this will be a very dark day for the wicked. They will clearly see that they no longer can trust in the wisdom of mankind because mankind’s materialism, arrogance, and secularism will be powerless before the almighty God of the universe. They will no longer be able to trust in people and their achievements and will throw away their idols, but it may be too late. Today is the day to worship the Lord God. Today is the day of salvation:

2 Corinthians 6:2, NKJ:
For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

So the big ideas, or the main themes, in this chapter are:
1.   God wins. God will be victorious. He tells us that upfront in verses 1-4. Worship of the true God will be established in Jerusalem. So God starts this chapter, this vision He gave Isaiah, with the good news. God also assures us that peace will ultimately prevail.
2.   The bad news, at least for some, is that the arrogant, the haughty, all proud people, will be humbled. Though maybe that’s not such bad news after all. The promise is that the Lord God will be exalted one way or another.

Now let’s move on to chapter 3 and we will include the first verse of chapter 4, because it concludes this vision of Isaiah.