Isaiah 2:1-5 A Big Promise to Make 2nd Dec 2007
This is another vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the last days, the Temple of the LORD in Jerusalem will become the most important place on earth.
People from all over the world will go there to worship. Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Temple of the God of Israel. There he will teach us his ways, so that we may obey him."
For in those days the LORD's teaching and his word will go out from Jerusalem. The LORD will settle international disputes. All the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. All wars will stop, and military training will come to an end. Come, people of Israel, let us walk in the light of the LORD! (Isaiah 2:1-5 NLT)
This is the word of the Lord.
Slide 1 mountains
Isaiah spoke these words at a time when the nation was divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. They were at the time a free nation but as Isaiah prophesied, “Not for much longer” if they didn’t change their attitude towards God.
The Lord’s temple built by King Solomon, stood prominently on the mountain in Jerusalem.
Many people at the time probably believed it was this temple that Isaiah was prophesying would be “the most important place on earth.“
But it wasn’t this structure, Solomon’s Temple, that was to become the most important place.
Isaiah spoke the words of the prophesy read today when the temple built by Solomon was still standing, but later in the book of Isaiah he foretells the temple’s destruction when he says; in Isaiah 44:28
Slide 2
“He [God Almighty] will command that Jerusalem be rebuilt and that the Temple be restored."
In Jesus’ day there was a new temple standing in Jerusalem. Jesus predicted its destruction, which happened in AD 70.
The Temple has never been rebuilt. . . . .
Apostle John was banished to the Island of Patmos probably by Emperor Dom-itian between AD81 and AD90. After the destruction of the Temple. Where he then wrote the book of Revelation.
In his book he writes –
Slide 3
Revelation 11:1 Then I [John] was given a measuring stick, and I was told, "Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers.
He doesn’t actually travel in his vision to measure this new temple, and no new physical temple gets any other mention in the New Testament.
Reference to a new temple in the New Testament are all like this one from Peter - Slide 4
1 Peter 2:5 Now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What's more, you are God's holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah chapter 2 and Revelation chapter 11 do seem to be prophesying about the same time in earth’s history.
A time before Judgment Day, and before the new earth to come where it say in Rev 21.4
Slide 5
He [God] will remove all of their sorrows, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. For the old world and its evils are gone forever.
Slide 5a
That of course is the best promise ever.
Isaiah is speaking of a time before that on the present earth, when all evil hasn’t been destroyed, but Satan is bound.
Slide 6 mountains
Isaiah visualised people from all over the world coming to worship the Lord. Attracted by the light of God, Jesus and God’s spiritual temple, his people.
All of his prophesies about Jesus were correct but prophesies aren’t complete video’s of the future.
Prophecies can only use words and ideas current at the time of writing. Just imagine travelling back in time just 100 years and trying to explain the concepts of a Personal Computer.
The prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time in the future when people will say…
Slide 6a
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Temple of the God of Israel. There he will teach us his ways, so that we may obey him."
But if those who don’t follow the Lord’s teaching are ever to say that, then things will have to change. People will have to, as the passage says,
Slide 6b
“Walk IN the light of the LORD! Not walk to the Lord but in his light.
With Satan bound the people of the nations of this world, won’t be deceived into thinking, wrong is right, and right is wrong. That is God’s promise to us. Satan will be stopped.
It is during this time, after God has intervened, that in the words of Isaiah from today’s reading –
Slide 7
All the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. All wars will stop, and military training will come to an end.
The King James Bible translates this as God speaking to nations and individuals. He [God] shall judge among the nations. [God] shall rebuke many people: Isa 2.4a AV
So while Satan is locked up God will definitely be in charge of the world and people won’t be deceived by the devil but it seems there will still be disagreements. If the people themselves don’t come to an amicable agreement, then God himself will administer justice.
A time of peace is then promised. But there will be a number of people whose motive for obeying God is not love and thankfulness towards him.
When will this happen? I don’t know. We have been in the Last Days for over 2000 years. Jesus says,
"However, no one knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. Mat 24.36
It could be anytime but it will still be a shock when it happens.
I couldn’t get a computer job for 18 months when we moved to Carlisle, and then in the middle of one ordinary week, I was offered a job. Offered a job by a company that had ignored me previously, and I started work the following Monday. At the beginning of the week, I was resigning to the fact that I would never get a computer job in Carlisle.
Jesus says, he doesn’t know when he will return.
So we should always be prepared.
Isaiah was having a vision, a picture of the future.
He was given this vision in a way he could understand.
We wouldn’t suggest powerful nations, “beat their swords into ploughshares” We no longer use swords for war. Today computer technology has its part in war, and that too can be used as an important tool in peace. The same applies to other scientific discoveries.
God wants us all to interpret his message in context with our culture and time.
But for us all, this means being drawn to Christ, learning from God, drawing others to him, teaching them and praying for his peace to come. Knowing his promise to us.
Slide 8
Our commission is, as Peter says
Come to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God's temple. . . . And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. 1 Peter 2:4-5
God and his people, on the mountain of the Lord, draw others to them like a magnet in Isaiah’s vision.
Slide 9
This magnet is on a hill which means drawing, attracting, people to climb the mountain. Climbing a mountain takes effort. These people who climb the mountain have to really be attracted to God’s Temple to put in the effort. They must really want to learn his ways so they can obey him.
Slide 9a magnet & iron filings
Have you ever played with magnets may be at school?
God is like that magnet people find themselves drawn to him. It that magnetic quality he has.
Slide 9b magnet animation
God promises he will eventually live on earth. Why does God want to live with his people on a new earth? Why does he want people to have a relationship with him now?
He loves us and he needs us to tell and show others how much he loves them. For everyone to live life to the full, to really enjoy life, we must learn his ways and obey him.
Some people have a problem believing God loves them. Others have a problem with believing God needs them and their love.
Slide 10 blank
Consider nature. Different species helping one another is called symbiosis. I remember learning about symbiosis at school.
For instance a certain nitrogen-fixing bacterium which (Brady-rhizobium japonicum) has developed a symbiosis with the soybean plant. – picture
Slide 10a soyabean plant comes up
In this relationship the plant provides the bacterium with a "safe" environment and a steady supply of carbon for energy and growth, through the plants photosynthesis. In return, the bacteria provide the plant with nitrogen. The result of this symbiosis is a dramatic increase in plant growth,
Slide 10a Soya bean grows bigger
without the need for adding fertilizer.
In the animal world there is a relationship between certain birds and hippopotami.
The birds prey on parasites that feed on the hippopotamus and which are potentially harmful for the animal. The hippopotamus openly invites the birds to hunt on its body, even going so far as to open its jaws to allow the birds to enter its mouth safely to hunt.
Slide 11 hippopotamus comes down
For the birds', this relationship is not only an easy food source, but a safe food source as few predators would dare attack when the bird is on a hippo.
Similarly accepting God’s love, learning from him and being obedient to him blesses us tenfold. That is God’s promise to us. Meanwhile, he enjoys our loving company.
Slide 12 blank
There is a saying that God has no hands but your hands. Meaning that God can’t literally put a sympathetic hand on someone in distress.
He prefers to use his people in many situations rather than perform a miracle. In that way His people attract others towards him.
Slide 12 a
Come, people of Israel, let us walk IN the light of the LORD! Walk towards the Lord not in depression, distress or any other darkness but in his light. That attractive, magnetic light. Allow it to change you, making you more magnetic.
There is a problem with magnets,
Slide 13 magnets and keepers they are liable to loose their magnetism if they don’t have a keeper joining the two free ends. The atoms at the free ends start to go their own way without a keeper.
People are sometimes referred to as being on the fringe of a church.
They may attend church occasionally, read their Bibles occasionally, pray occasionally, but they are a bit like the molecules at the end of that magnet. Fine if the keeper is put on, but remove it and they are likely to go their own way and forget God’s teaching.
Slide 14 mountains
So how do we, who are hoping to attract more people to join us following Christ, ensure we don’t stop walking in His light because of competing attractions?
Get wool
Here I have got two lengths of wool.
The brown wool represents a person.
The yellow one represents God.
Like this, the strands of wool are entirely separate, there is no link between them.
Nothing to hold them together.
Duncan could you please hold the other ends.
Now hold them together, and twist.
God wants each of us to be entwined in his love. So close we can’t, don’t want to, live apart.
God speaks to us all. If we answer humbly, and respectfully, we get closer to God.
It is as if we are being entwined closer together.
As we continue learning from God, and obeying we get closer and closer.
We get more and more like God. We get more and more dependent on God. His ways become more and more our ways, and we become more and more confident. We stop wanting to live any aspect of life without God.
Eventually this happens:
Take hold of the middle of the wool and let it curl on itself to one strand. Etc and knot.
We become inseparable from God. No longer coping with life on our own, but unshakable, entwined and at peace with God.
That is God’s promise to us.
God wants us, needs us, to get that close to him, for his purpose, in his world to be fulfilled. Notice when we are that close to God, what appears to be an end isn’t an end at all. It is in the middle looping back to God. Giving us the security and freedom to teach and train others in his ways.
God has made us a promise. If we learn from him, obey him, walk in his light, and pass his word on to others, we will have joy, and life in all its fullness.
Amen