Isaiah chapter 02

CHAPTERS II.-IV.

Jerusalem in the last days—Exalted after long humiliation.

THE prophecy that is commenced in the second chapter of Isaiah extends to the end of chapter iv. It must be con­sidered as a whole, and in the relation of all its parts, before it becomes perfectly intelligible. The usual method of treating it obscures this intelligibility The usual way is to regard the first five verses of chapter ii. as a detached idyll in the midst of commonplaces of a bygone application—a sort of island of glorious brightness in a gloomy sea. In reality, it is the prologue of a complete discourse which hangs together in logical coherence in all its parts. We shall see this.

The general topic is fixed and settled for us by the opening sentence, which is in the nature of a chapter heading prefixed by inspiration : “ The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw con­cerning Judah and Jerusalem.’’ Realising that Isaiah was an inhabitant of Jerusalem, and that Jerusalem was the capital of the kingdom of Judah, there can be no difficulty in having clearly before the mind what it is that Isaiah is going to talk about. He is going to discourse about a word or vision shown to him concerning the future of the Jerusalem in which he dwelt, and the Judah in which he lived his life.

The idea that it was any other Jerusalem or any other Judah never entered into men’s minds until the nullifying traditions of Origenism obtained currency in the fourth century. The idea that it is any other is inconsistent with every inspired application of the prophetic word: for there are inspired interpretations which give us a perfect key which we can use with all the more confidence and readiness because they harmonise with what people understand by common-sense. Let three illustrations out of a multitude suffice:—

It was foretold (Micah v. 2; Matt. ii. 6) that the Lord should be born in the land of Judah. Let the birth of Christ in Bethlehem determine the meaning.

It was foretold (Micah iii. 12) that Jerusalem should be des­troyed and become heaps. Let the Lord’s prophecy of the same (Luke xxi. 24) and the fulfilment thereof as recorded by Josephus and known to all the world, settle the question of what Jerusalem means in prophecy.

It was foretold that the children of Israel should be scattered in all lands in affliction and disgrace : let the presence of the Jewish people in every country to the present day decide what the prophecy meant.

The future that Isaiah saw “ concerning Judah and Jerusalem ” was a very extended one, and one drawn out from his own day forward, and embracing the prolonged era of trouble that was waiting for them, as well as the age of glory in which that era should culminate. But the last is placed first : “It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all-nations shall flow unto it.”

There are two points here : 1, “ The last days,” and 2, The exaltation of a certain “ mountain ” above all mountains. As for the first, the meaning is not to be found in the phrase itself, but in its associations. Everything terminable has its last days. You have the last days of Pompeii: the last days of the Venetian Republic. So there are in Scripture the “ last days ” of the Mosaic order of things, styled “ these last days ” (Heb. i. 1); and yet other “ last days ” that were future to the Mosaic days—days when, says Paul, perilous times should come (2 Tim. iii. 1). It is impossible to fix an invariable meaning to a phrase of this kind. The association determines the meaning. Last days of what ? The context will usually answer. It is evident in the case in question that it is the last days of Judah and Jerusalem as a mortal institution upon the earth—days that merge into an immortal constitution of everlasting day.

The things to happen show this to be the meaning. Mount Zion is to be exalted above all hills, and nations are to rally there for worship and instruction : “ Many people shall go and say. Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob : and he will teach us of his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.” This has never happened yet. The currents have been in the opposite direction altogether. Nations have not wanted to come to Zion. Repulsion, not attraction, has been the law. Zion has been broken up, and the nations have gone their own evil ways. The Jews have been hated of all nations, and they have “ eaten their defiled bread” in dispersion "among the Gentiles.” But at the time of contemplation, Zechariah informs us that “ ten men out of all the nations shall lay hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew and shall say, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you ” (Zech. viii. 23), and by Zephaniah God says, “ I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame ” (Zeph. iii. 19).

Some have put a literal meaning on the statement : “ the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains and exalted above the hills.” They have imagined that the hill on which the temple will stand will have such an elevation above the surrounding country as to be visible hundreds of miles off in all directions. There are several objections to this. That there will be physical changes in the Holy Land when the Kingdom of God is set up, is unquestionable : but that the exaltation of Zion spoken of in this prophecy is exaltation in a figurative sense, is determined both by the evident sense and fitness of things, and by the prevalent usage of Scripture.

First, as to the fitness of things : when nations say “ Let us go up,” they do not mean climbing a hill, but going up as men propose to go up to London, which is a very flat city topographically. That which exalts a hill in this sense is political, legal, social, and religious importance. It would not add to this importance to have it twenty times higher than the Peak of Teneriffe—rather otherwise : for visibility and familiarity rather detract from the influence of a seat of power. Concealment adds to influence and power where the real elements of power exist. The exaltation of Zion will consist of its becoming the seat and source of universal law : “ The law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Next as to the usage of Scripture : it is a common figure to speak of up and down with regard to power and position. In the matter of Zion’s overthrow for example, “ Thou shaft be brought down and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust ” (Is. xxix. 4). “ The Lord hath cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel ” (Lam. ii. 1). In the matter of the removal of obstacles to the work of Christ at his first coming : “ Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low ” (Is. xl. 4). The effectual publicity of the Gospel: “ Get thee up into the high mountains ” (Is. xl. 9), and so forth. The prophecy before us contemplates the time when, not the Vatican hill, nor the hill of the Quirinal, nor the capitol of Washington, but Mount Zion shall be exalted above all hills, overshadowing and eclipsing all human importance, and drawing to itself the universal attention and allegiance of the emancipated nations.

There is a disposition on the part of some to recognise the fulfilment of the prophecy in the emanation of the Gospel from Jerusalem 1,800 years ago. There is a sort of first-sight fitness in this suggestion that runs away with the judgment of those who do not care to look closer. The suggestion disappears altogether when we consider what is involved in the next statement: “ He (the Lord) shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Here is cause and effect which find no illustration in the circumstances connected with the preach­ing of the Gospel: a “ judging ’’ and a “ rebuking," resulting in the world of mankind abandoning war. The nations (needless to say) have not abandoned wars, and there has been no “ judging ” or rebuking of nations connected with the preaching of the Gospel. The object of that preaching was not national but individual: to “ take out of them a people for the name of the Lord ” (Acts xv 14), and the means was not judicial or compulsory, but constraining by the influence of an attractive invitation on the basis of voluntary compliance. To judge among and rebuke nations, is to employ political and military measures of compulsion, and that this is what is contemplated here is evident from parallel Scriptures referring to the matter. The words of Micah are, “ He shall rebuke strong nations afar off ”.(Mic. iv. 3), and of Isaiah (xvii. 13) : “ The nations shall rush like the rushing of mighty waters, but God shall rebuke them and they shall flee afai off.”

Every image employed in Scripture to illustrate the matter has the same import, “ The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine enemies ” (Psa. cx. 2). “ Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel ” (Psa. ii. 9 ; Rev. ii. 27). “ The stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold ” (Dan. ii. 45). “ Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God ” (Rev. xix. 15).

This “ word,” then, that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, exhibits them in the last days of mortal history as the glorified centre of human life upon the earth, to which men gravitate submissively after divine conquests,and radiant from which, they experience the blessedness after which they have striven in vain under every form of self-government—even the blessedness divinely promised from the beginning, and now at this time realised in all the earth.

It is natural, in view of these things, for the prophet to exclaim (verse 5) “ O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

But until the arrival of the last days of glory, Israel was to be forsaken : and here are the reasons (verses 6-9), “ Therefore hast thou forsaken thy people the house of Jacob—because—(and now consider the reasons : they amount in brief to this, because Israel would lean upon men and not upon God : and because they would copy the ways of men instead of conforming to the law of God)—“ Because they be replenished from the east and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures : their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. Their land also is full of idols : they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. And the mean man boweth down and the great man humbleth himself: therefore, forgive them not.”

Here is the picture of a busy, active, energetic population, finding pleasure in the things that please natural men, and greatly interested in strangers who had no interest in God, and conforming great and small to the religion that was fashionable in the surrounding countries. That the population so exhibited should have been a nation that God brought out of Egypt and organised for Himself, made it specially criminal. No wonder the retribution would be terrible (verses 10-21) : “ Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down. And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. . . . And they shall 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 ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day shall a man cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”

In view of this terrible prospect, there is overwhelming force in the command immediately following (verse 22) : “ Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of ? ” Israel were not ceasing from man but leaning on man, building up on man, “ delighting themselves in the children of strangers.” The reminder is that trust in man is vain : he is only a creature of very fragile constitution—holding his life by the breath of his nostrils, which can easily be stopped, and which, stopped or not stopped, will soon stop of itself. But God lives for ever—lives in Himself and by Himself—and has everything at His command. Then, as the prophet exhorts a little further on, “ Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.”