God’s coming kingdom on earth
2
📚The word that Isaiahthe son of Amoz saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem:
2 📚And it will come about
in the last days 📖,
that the mountain 📖 of the LORD’s
house will be established
on the top of the mountains,
and will be raised above the hills 📖,
and all nations 📖 will stream to it.
2:2 Verses 2-4 with only minor changes are found in Micah 4:1-3.⚜
3 📚And many people will go and say,
“Come and let us go up to
the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths”.
For out of Zion the law
will go forth,
and the word of the LORD
from Jerusalem.
4 📚And he will judge 📖 among
the nations and rebuke
many people.
And they will beat their swords
into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning
hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword
against nation,
nor will they learn war
any more 📖.
2:1-4 There are several other passages in Isaiah that speak of this same period of time (Isa 9:7; 11:1-16; 12:1-6; 24:21-23; 32:1-5; 40:1-11; 54:1-17; 60:1-22; 62:1-12; 65:8-10, 17-25; 66:7-13, 19-21). All of these, together with this one here in chapter 2, have been interpreted in the following ways –
(1) There has been no fulfillment of them and there never will be.
(2) They have been fulfilled in Israel’s past.
(3) They are being, at least partially, fulfilled now in this Church age, and their fulfillment will be completed in the eternal ages.
(4) They will be fulfilled only in the eternal ages after the end of the world.
(5) They will be fulfilled, at least for the most part, in a literal reign of Christ on earth (the thousand year reign of Rev 20:4-6).
(6) There has been a partial spiritual fulfillment of some of these things in this Church age, but they will have a more literal fulfillment in the millennium and an eternal fulfillment in the ages to come after that (see note on Isa 60:1-22).
Because Isaiah was writing the truth of God by the inspiration of God’s Spirit, the first interpretation is totally impossible – God does not say things will happen which will never happen (Matt 5:17-18). The second interpretation is impossible to maintain unless we ignore the plain meaning of words – they simply have never been fulfilled in the history of the nation Israel. The third view is favored by a large number of scholars. However, it seems to the author of these notes that this view is possible to maintain only if we ignore many of the details of these prophecies – a thing he believes should not be done. The fourth interpretation also has its great difficulties – we can hardly think that some of the things prophesied here will exist when time is swallowed up in eternity.
The last two interpretations seem far more likely to the author of these notes. Some of the things prophesied will scarcely fit anywhere else than in a literal reign of Christ on earth. See the notes on all the passages in Isaiah listed above.
Isaiah “saw” what follows because God revealed it to him as in Isa 1:1; 6:1. Very often in the prophets we read of God showing dreams and visions and speaking words of explanation (compare Jer 1:11-16; 24:1-10; Ezek 1:1; 10:1; Dan 7:1; 8:1; Zech 1:8; 3:1; 5:1). In the verses that follow here we have only the words of prophecy God revealed. The words announce a very important theme in Isaiah - the complete establishment of God’s kingdom. In verses 2-4 we see its establishment, in verses 6-21 the events that lead up to it. Observe that the following prophecy concerns the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, and that there is no hint that these words should not be taken in their literal sense.⚜
5 📚O house of Jacob,
come and let us walk
in the light 📖 of the LORD.
The Day of the LORD
6 📚For you have forsaken your
people the house of Jacob,
because they are filled
with eastern ways.
and they are soothsayers
like the Philistines,
and they are pleased with
the children of foreigners.
2:6 Isaiah returns to a description of the pathetic state of the people of Israel. They were guilty of three evils which caused God to reject them. Instead of trusting the word of the true and living God they believed the superstitions of other nations, especially those from the east. Here this probably means Syria and Babylonia. They also practiced sorcery which God had clearly forbidden in His Word (Deut 18:9-13). And they refused to keep themselves a separate and holy people as God instructed them to be (Ex 19:5-6; Lev 20:7-8; Deut 7:6; 14:2). They preferred the ways of other nations with their false gods and religions, and sinful practices. In all this there is instruction and warning for Christians today. Superstitions, sorcery, and the powerful influences of people who do not know God are everywhere in the world. Believers must not yield to such things but be careful to obey such verses as 2 Cor 6:14-18.⚜
7 📚Their land is also full of
silver and gold,
and there is no end
of their treasures.
Their land is also full of horses,
and there is no end
of their chariots.
8 📚Their land also is full of idols.
They worship the work of
their own hands,
that which their own
fingers have made;
2:8 They willfully refused to obey God’s Word which forbids all idolatry (Ex 20:1-6, 22, 23; Deut 13:6-18; 29:17-18).⚜
9 📚And the common
man bows down,
and the great man abases himself.
Therefore do not forgive them.
10 📚Go into the rocks,
and hide yourself in the dust,
for fear of the LORD,
and for the glory of his majesty.
2:10 Verses 19,21; Rev 6:15-17. No refuge will be sufficient for sinful men when God arises in majesty to judge the world.⚜
11 📚The lofty looks of man
will be humbled,
and the haughtiness of men
will be brought low,
and the LORD alone
will be exalted in that day.
12 📚For the day of the LORD of hosts 📖
will come on everyone
who is proud and lofty,
and on everyone who is lifted up;
and he will be brought low;
13 📚And on all the cedars of Lebanon,
that are high and lifted up,
and on all the oaks of Bashan,
14 📚And on all the high mountains,
and on all the hills that are lifted up,
15 📚And on every high tower,
and on every fortified wall,
16 📚And on all the ships of Tarshish 📖,
and on all beautiful vessels.
17 📚And the loftiness of man
will be brought down,
and the haughtiness of men
will be made low,
and the LORD alone will be
exalted in that day.
2:11-17 Haughtiness and other words indicating pride and arrogance are used eight times in these few verses. Man’s arrogance is hateful to God (Prov 6:16-17; 21:4; Ps 18:27; 101:5; Jam 4:6), and He is determined to eradicate it from the face of the earth. The Day of the LORD will be especially against proud men and all that in which they take pride.⚜
18 📚And the idols he will
utterly abolish.
2:18 Idols are a result of man’s proud defiance of the one true God and His words. When man’s pride is broken and destroyed, idols will disappear.⚜
19 📚And they will go into
the holes of the rocks,
and into the caves of the earth,
for fear of the LORD and
for the glory of his majesty,
when he arises to shake
terribly the earth.
2:19 At the end of this age God will shake the whole earth (Isa 24:19-20; Heb 12:26-29; Rev 6:14; 16:17-20).⚜
20 📚In that day a man will throw
his silver idols and his gold idols,
which each of them
made for himself to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
2:20 At last men will see how useless their idols are. They will learn what believers in the true God have always known – Ps 115:2-8.⚜
21 📚To go into the crevices
of the rocks,
and into the crags of
the ragged rocks,
for fear of the LORD and
for the glory of his majesty,
when he arises to shake
terribly the earth.
2:21 The time is coming when the proud and arrogant will no longer defy God, but will run from His anger and crawl to hiding places.⚜
2:10-21 These verses all refer to a time in the future called in v 12 “the day of the LORD”. This means a time Jehovah has appointed. This time is referred to in many places in the Bible. For example, see Isa 13:6-13; Joel 1:15; 1 Thess 5:2; Rev 6:15-17.⚜
22 📚Cease from man,
whose breath is in his nostrils;
for of what account is he?
2:22 In the light of the above truth, however trustworthy individual men may be, it is foolish to trust in man in general (Ps 118:8; 146:3; Jer 17:5). Isaiah chapter 1; and 2:6-9 show what mankind is like. Isa 2:10-21 shows what will happen to mankind. In the light of this is mankind to be trusted? Absolutely not.⚜