This morning we’ll continue our study of the “Day of the Lord” in the Old Testament prophets as we begin a series of messages from the prophet Isaiah. Since Isaiah deals with the Messiah, both His first and second coming, more completely than any of the other prophets, we’ll be looking at a number of important passages from his book that deal with the “Day of the Lord” and the end times. This morning we’ll begin by looking at chapter 2, so you can go ahead and open your Bibles to that chapter. But before we read that passage we need to take a few moments to understand some of the background behind Isaiah’s prophecies.
BACKGROUND
Although Isaiah doesn’t reveal a whole lot about his personal life, the text of his prophecy does provide us with some important background about his ministry, beginning with the first verse:
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isaiah 1:1 (ESV)
• Isaiah = “YHWH saves”
He is identified as the son of Amoz, of whom we know almost nothing. Isaiah also reveals later in the book that he was married to a prophetess and had at least two children
• Audience – the southern kingdom of Judah
The book of Isaiah contains a series of visions which God gave to Isaiah – all of which applied to the southern kingdom of Judah.
• Time frame – from about 740 to about 680 BC
Isaiah reveals that his ministry spanned the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham. Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings who reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah. In chapter 6, he reveals that his call to ministry came in the last year of the reign of King Uzziah, which would have been 740 BC. There is also evidence that Isaiah’s life, and possibly his ministry extended into the reign of Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh to as late at 680 BC. This would have made Isaiah a contemporary of Amos, Hosea and Micah. According to tradition in the Jewish Talmud, Isaiah was sawed in half by Manasseh, which the writer of Hebrews may have referred to in Chapter 11.
During the early years of Isaiah’s life, both the northern and southern kingdoms prospered financially. However, Assyria rose to power during this time and in 722BC they invaded the northern kingdom of Israel, marking the end of that kingdom and sending its people into exile in the surrounding nations.
ISAIAH 2
This chapter is actually rather straightforward so we’ll read it in sections as we progress through the chapter this morning.
[Read vv. 1-4]
The very same words that we read in verses 2-4 are repeated almost verbatim by the prophet Micah at the beginning of Micah 4. Although Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries and may have been aware of each other’s ministries, it is certainly not inconceivable at all that these words were so important that God revealed them to both prophets in order that these words would be communicated more widely.
1. The millennial reign of Jesus (vv. 1-4)
In these verses, Isaiah is describing what is often referred to as the Millennium – the thousand year reign of Jesus here on this earth that is described in Revelation 20. As we saw in our examination of the feasts, Jesus will fulfill the Feast of Booths as He ushers in this thousand year reign. Although the Book of Revelation doesn’t provide us with much detail at all about what will occur during this period, Isaiah gives us some detail about that time:
• Jesus will reign along with His true followers
This is certainly consistent with what we’ve already observed in Joel, Amos and Obadiah. Jesus will return to earth along with His true followers and establish a physical reign here on earth.
• Israel will be the seat of government
It is impossible to be dogmatic about whether the language in verse 2 when Isaiah writes “that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains” is to be taken literally or whether it is merely figurative. It is certainly possible that God could physically raise up the Temple mount in Jerusalem so that it was higher than any other mountain. But we also know that the terms “mountains” and “hills” are consistently used throughout the Bible to refer to countries, governments, or seats of power. So at a minimum, we know that Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, will be the seat of government and the place from which Jesus and His followers reign.
• Jesus will teach the people directly
To me, this is the most exciting aspect of the Millennium. We’ll all be able to go up to Jerusalem and be taught directly by Jesus Himself. It seems likely that this will somehow be connected to the Feast of Booths, when as we saw a couple of weeks ago, all nations will be required to come to Jerusalem to take part in that feast. Can you imagine how exciting that will be to join together with other believers and sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him teach us directly?
• It will be a time of peace
Apparently there will still be conflict present on the earth. But we won’t go to a courthouse or to some bureaucrat or to the United Nations to deal with those conflicts because Jesus himself will be the arbiter of those disputes. And since He will judge perfectly and carry out justice quickly and fairly, there will be no need for any weapons of war. All the resources that we now use to build up our military will be able to be used to provide for the needs of the people.
[Read v. 5]
This is the key verse in this entire passage and it is also the one that speaks directly to us today. When Isaiah described the millennial reign of Jesus, he didn’t just want it to be something that the people longed for in the future, but rather it was to be…
2. A call to walk in the light right now (v. 5)
When we began this journey through the Old Testament prophets in preparation for our study of the Book of Revelation, we made it very clear from the very beginning that this journey is not just for the purpose of gaining more information, but rather it is for the purpose of applying what we learn to our day-to-day lives right here and now. And that’s exactly the message Isaiah had for his audience. The way that the people were to prepare for the “Day of the Lord” and the millennial reign to follow, was to walk in the light right then and there.
We’re going to come back to this verse shortly when we deal with the application that this passage has for us.
[Read vv. 6-8]
Although Isaiah had called the people to walk in the light, as he looked around him, he observed…
3. The sins that prevented Judah from walking in the light (vv. 6-8)
What is really interesting to me about this section is that these same words could very easily be written about those of us who live in the United States in the 21st century. Isaiah points out three ways in which false worship had crept into their presence:
• Worshipping false gods in the name of diversity (v. 6)
The people of Judah hadn’t completely given up their worship of YHWH. They still went to the Temple and observed the feasts. But in the prosperity of their day, they also had the opportunity to trade and interact with the nations around them. And as they did that, they began to pick up on some of the religious practices of those people and gradually, over a period of time, they had incorporated those practices into their worship.
Many looked upon this syncretism of their worship as a good thing because it would be a good outreach to the non-Jews who would feel more comfortable if the worship practices included some rites and rituals that were more familiar to them.
Of course, we would never do anything like that today, would we? We wouldn’t “dumb down” our preaching or avoid preaching on things like hell and judgment because that might be offensive to someone? Or we wouldn’t allow practices with pagan origins to become part of our celebration of the birth of Jesus or of His resurrection so that others would feel more comfortable attending one of our services? Or we wouldn’t join together with those who claim that there are many ways to God or those who adhere to beliefs that are incompatible with the words of Jesus when He made it clear He is the only way to God?
• Worshipping the false gods of materialism (v. 7)
As I mentioned earlier, this was a very prosperous time in the history of Judah. And in the midst of all that prosperity, the people had come to trust in their wealth for their security. They had forgotten the One who had given them the ability to amass all of their wealth and began to worship their material possessions. Again this was quite subtle. The people didn’t bow down to their horses and chariots or their silver and gold. But the quest to accumulate more and more of those assets consumed them to the point where God became merely an afterthought.
Of course, we don’t have to worry about that happening today, do we? Certainly no one would get so consumed with their finances or their job that they wouldn’t have time to read their Bibles, or pray, or go to church, or teach a children’s Bible lesson, or minister to someone in need, would they?
• Worshipping the false gods of their own making (v. 8)
Finally, the people had become obsessed with the gods of their own making. They still worshipped God, but sometimes it was just more convenient to substitute some hand-carved image rather than go all the way to the Temple or to make proper preparations for the feasts.
Of course, this isn’t a problem at all today. After all, how many people do you know that are making some kind of little statues and bowing down to them in their living rooms?
But the issue here isn’t the images or the statues themselves. It is the idea of bowing down to the works of our own hands. It is taking the God of the Bible and molding Him into the kind of God we want Him to be rather than the God who has revealed Himself to us through His Word. It is deciding that we know better than God what is good and proper for our lives. It is anything that we do to try to be the potter rather than the clay. It is anything we do to make a god of self rather than worshipping God as he really is.
[Read vv. 9-21]
4. How corruption is transformed into light – the “Day of the Lord” (vv. 9-21)
In this section Isaiah describes the “Day of the Lord” and how God is going to use that time to judge the sins of Judah so that they might return to God and be able to walk in the light. Before we look at Isaiah’s description of the “Day of the Lord”, this would be a good time to review the definition of the “Day of the Lord” that we’ve developed from our study of the Old Testament prophets so far:
The “Day of the Lord” = a cycle consisting of:
• God revealing man’s sin,
• A means of salvation,
• An opportunity for repentance,
• Judgment,
• Restoration
Everything that Isaiah describes here in chapter 2 fits that pattern quite well.
• Man will be humbled; God will be exalted
The “Day of the Lord” will be a time when God is going to humble man and exalt Himself. Seven times in this section, Isaiah writes that man is going to be “humbled” or to be” brought low” by God. Although He has given man a chance to repent and to accept the means of salvation that He has provided, since man has rejected those opportunities, there will come a time at which it is no longer possible to return to God and God will bring judgment in order to humble man.
But that same act of judgment will also serve to exalt God, since His judgment will make it clear to everyone that He is sovereign.
• Every source of pride will be destroyed
This is quite consistent with what we saw last week in the Book of Obadiah. The judgment of the “Day of the Lord” will result in the complete destruction of everything that had been a source of pride for the people – their fortresses, their commerce, the work of their own hands, their false gods of diversity and materialism.
God gives all of us a chance to humble ourselves and to reject pride in our own accomplishments and our own works and to exalt Him. But if we fail to do that of our own accord, then at some point in time, God will step in and destroy those things which are a source of pride in our lives.
• Men will attempt to hide from God’s judgment
This time of judgment will be so dreadful and man’s heart will be so hardened at this point that rather than turn to God and plead for His mercy, men will actually try to hide from the judgment of God, as futile as those attempt will be.
Certainly the picture that John paints in Revelation chapter 6, after the opening of the sixth seal, is the same one Isaiah has provided for us here in Isaiah 2:
Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Revelation 6:15-17 (ESV)
[Read v. 21]
5. A final admonition – stop regarding man (v. 21)
In a sense, here is the heart of the problem for the people of Judah. They have become much more concerned about other men that they have about God. They are so busy trying to please other people, that they no longer have time for God. And Isaiah warns them very sternly that if they don’t stop doing that, it is going to be their undoing.
As Jesus prepared to send out His twelve disciples, he gave them some detailed instructions about how they were to conduct themselves. He also warned them that they were going to face some serious persecution at the hands of other men as they served Him in this world. And then he shared these words with the twelve:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28 (ESV)
That’s the message that both Jesus and Isaiah have for us this morning. We are not to live our lives in fear of what other men might think, or even the persecution that they might bring against us. All of that is merely temporary, and no matter how unpleasant it might be at the time, it can’t harm us for eternity. But if we kowtow to other men, we do risk potentially fatal damage to that which will live for eternity – our souls.
APPLICATION
The application that I’d like us to focus on this morning comes directly from verse 5. Although in Isaiah’s prophecy, the call to walk in the light of the Lord is directed at Judah, we know that as followers of Jesus, we have also been given the command to walk in the light. Perhaps you remember these words from our study of the Book of Ephesians:
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Ephesians 5:8 (ESV)
Jesus’ own words also implied that His followers are to walk in the light:
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12 (ESV)
In fact, that is the very essence of how we are to respond as we continue our journey through the Old Testament prophets and the Book of Revelation. We are beginning to see two consistent themes regarding the “Day of the Lord”.
On one hand, there is going to be tremendous tribulation as God brings judgment upon those who have failed to submit their lives to Him. That tribulation is also going to be used by God to identify those who are truly the righteous in Jesus.
And for those who are proven by that tribulation to be God’s children, they get to experience the second aspect of the “Day of the Lord” – a period of restoration in which Jesus will reign and be exalted and where we will have the opportunity to have Jesus teach us directly.
And both aspects of the “Day of the Lord” are to be the motivation to:
“Walk in the light of the Lord” right now:
But how do we do that in practical terms? Fortunately for us, the Bible gives us some very practical instruction on how to walk in the light of the Lord. In fact, that is the main theme of John’s first epistle. We obviously don’t have time to look at that whole letter this morning, but in the opening chapter, we find three practical principles that will help us to walk in the light of the Lord right now.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:5-10 (ESV)
• Imitate God’s character
Since God is light, then if we are truly His children we will exhibit that same character in our own lives. It is impossible to say that we are God’s children and that we have a relationship with Him if we do not practice the truth.
That means that first of all we must know the truth. Since truth is a person, Jesus, that means that we must know Jesus. And the primary way that we do that is through His Word. As we’ve pointed out before, every word in the Bible, from cover to cover, is breathed by God and therefore is truth. So we must begin by knowing that truth through the systematic reading, studying and memorizing of His Word.
But that’s only the starting point. If we are going to walk in the light, we also have to put into practice the things that we read on the pages of Scripture. In fact, Jesus made it clear that doing what God commanded is the most important thing that we can do right now and also to prepare for eternity:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
• Acknowledge my sin as sin
As we’ve seen throughout our study of the prophets so far, one of the main problems that both Israel and Judah had was that they didn’t recognize their own sin. They looked around at the nations around them and cheered when God pronounced judgment on them, but they failed to recognize that their own sin was actually far worse, since they should have known better.
Although most of us here this morning would admit that we are sinners, we still have a tendency to deceive ourselves into thinking that our sin really isn’t that big of deal. That can take several different forms.
Sometimes we just ignore our sin and just hope that it will go away on its own. But sin doesn’t just disappear on its own, whether we ignore it or not.
Sometimes we try to make excuses for our sin, kind of like the old Flip Wilson comedy routines where he claimed, “The devil made me do it.” But the fact is that no one can force us to sin, no matter how strong the temptation. That’s not my opinion; it’s what God’s Word says:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
Sometimes we try to justify our sins by claiming that it’s our background, or our personality or even the way God made us that causes us to sin. Sometimes we just fail to call sin by its proper name. Instead, we just “make a mistake”, or “have a lapse in judgment” or “live an alternate lifestyle”.
To confess my sins means to acknowledge that my sin is sin. That’s the first step in dealing with that sin in a manner that will provide the cleansing that only Jesus can bring so that I can walk in the light.
• Engage in true fellowship with other believers
I’m not sure that we often connect fellowship with walking in the light, but John makes it clear in this passage that if we walk in the light, one of the evidences of that is that we will have fellowship with our fellow believers
Unfortunately, even in the church, we often don’t have a very good understanding of the word “fellowship” that John uses here. In fact, when I use that word, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Food, right? Because in our culture, we associate fellowship with food of some kind. In fact, right after the worship service today, I’ll encourage you to stay for a time of fellowship, which for most of us means eating while we talk about the weather or some other equally meaningless topic.
But the word used here comes from a Greek root word that means to share something in common. It also indicates a relationship in which people are interdependent on each other. One of the best definitions of Biblical fellowship that I have run across is this one:
Fellowship is a relationship of inner unity among believers that expresses itself in outer co-participation with Christ and one another in accomplishing God’s will on earth.
So true fellowship doesn’t revolve around the weather or the U of A Wildcats. It must be centered in our common relationship with Jesus and it results in working together as a body of believers to carry out God’s will here on earth.
The best fellowship in this church doesn’t take place on Sunday mornings while we eat snacks together and converse after the worship service. But there is true fellowship going on in this body each week:
• It occurs on Tuesday mornings at 6:30 a.m. where a group of men gather together with nothing but our Bibles and something to take notes on. Most of us might bring a cup of coffee or tea with us, but that’s not what makes it fellowship. What makes it fellowship is the Bible passage that we are examining together and the discussion about how we can apply that passage to our lives.
• It happens on Thursday nights. Sometimes it occurs during our classes where God’s Word is that which we share in common and which our time is built around. Other evenings, it occurs as we pray, using God’s Word as our guide. What is shared in common then is a desire to see God’s will carried out in the lives of the people that we are praying for.
• It happens during our “Connections” Bible study time, where we have time to discuss together a section of God’s Word and where we can help each other and encourage each other to apply those Bible passages in their everyday lives.
In other words, if I want to walk in the light, church is not optional. And as we approach the “Day of the Lord”, it will become more and more important for us to make sure that we engage in true fellowship with other believers. So I’m going to close this morning with a passage that we seem to be coming back to over and over again in this series, one that I want to encourage all of us to memorize. In fact, on the back table, there are cards printed with that verse on them and I want to encourage each one of you to pick up one of those cards and use it this week to assist you in memorizing this passage:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24, 25 (ESV)
