Everyone likes to be on the side of a winner. When our favorite sports teams win, we can gain some bragging rights over our friends who might cheer for other teams, and we can spend the rest of our lives re-living “the glory days,” when our team had a great run of success.
In politics, everyone wants the candidate that they voted for to win because its much more likely that you will see laws enacted that you agree with. If you are a close friend or strong supporter of a winning candidate, there could be personal benefits for you as well, such as an appointment to a job or special access to the White House or the Governor’s Mansion.
In times of war, people must choose very carefully which side they will join. Their choice very well could mean the difference between life and death. No one wants to end up on the losing side of a war and find themselves at the mercy of the victors.
When it comes to the grand sweep of human history, the Bible tells us that God will win in the end. He will emerge victorious over all His enemies and will usher in a kingdom of peace and righteousness in this world before doing away with this world to create a new heaven and new earth.
In our present time, God sometimes allows His enemies to have power and success for reasons that I doubt we fully understand. Sometimes God allows an Adolf Hitler or a Joseph Stalin to come to power, but there is coming a day when God alone will be exalted, and the beauty of His ways will be in full bloom throughout the world.
The Bible contains many prophecies about the future, and it always gives us this information so that we will change the way that we are living today. God has not told us about the future just to satisfy our curiosity—He has told us these things so that we can be prepared for them. During our days in school, our teachers give us advance warning about tests so that we can be prepared for them; that is the same reason that God tells us about the future.
In Isaiah 2, we encounter some thrilling and terrifying prophecies about the future. The Lord’s intent was to call His people to repent of their sins in light of the coming days. So in this chapter we see:
We should trust God and walk in His ways because He alone will be exalted in the last days.
1. The days of God’s exaltation (2:1-5)
In Isaiah 2, we are immediately greeted by a thrilling prophecy about the days of God’s exaltation in this world. Let’s read vv. 1-4 [READ vv. 1-4]. Now a passage like this forces us to decide what we believe about the Bible, because this passage is clearly offered to us as a prediction about the future. So each one of us must decide—do I believe that this book is simply the product of humans, who cannot predict the future, or do I believe that these words were written by men under the direction of God, who decided to give us a glimpse of His plan for days yet to come? Which is it—is this book merely human, or does it bear the fingerprints of God?
I hope you agree with me that the Bible bears the fingerprints of God, and if that’s the case, we read here that there is an unparalleled time of peace and righteousness in store for our world. The centerpiece of this prophecy is that the Lord Himself will be reigning in Jerusalem. Since we have the New Testament to give us some more details, we know that this prophecy will be fulfilled when Jesus returns to the earth. He will usher in a time of peace when men from all nations will come to Him to learn the proper way of life.
Notice how thorough this peace will be—not only will people do away with the weapons of war, but people will no longer learn the art of war. There will no longer be any military academies; no longer will there be secretive camps that train people in the art of terrorism. The elusive goal of world peace that so many people have longed for will finally be realized—not through any genius of humanity, but through obedience to the ways of the Lord.
Notice, then, the appeal that Isaiah makes to the people of Judah in light of this prophecy [READ v. 5]. There is an echo here of v. 3, when the people of the nations say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…that we may walk in his paths.” So in v. 5, Isaiah is kind of using this prophecy to egg his people on towards obedience to God’s commands. It’s like he’s saying, “Look—here’s how its going to be someday. People are going to come from all over the world to seek our God and to learn from him, and then they’ll go back and destroy their weapons and there will be peace and it will be great! But just think—we can do that now! We have God’s Word right now, and we can live it out and experience some of that peace.”
You know, friends, we find ourselves in a very similar situation. We have God’s Word right here in the Bible, and we can read it and learn about how God wants us to live. We may not have this worldwide peace that will exist during Jesus’ kingdom on earth, but we can have greater peace in our homes if we will walk in God’s ways. We can maintain peace in our church, and we can be a force for peace in our community.
So we can have an appetizer of this glorious future in our lives today if we will obey the Lord. But as we see in the next few verses, Isaiah was looking not only at the future, but also at the sad, present-day reality for his people. We can simply call that time…
2. The days of Judah’s unfaithfulness (2:6-9)
The people of Isaiah’s time needed to repent not just in light of the future, but in light of their present situation as well. In vv. 6-8, Isaiah laments over three examples of misplaced trust that had caused the Lord to bring severe discipline on His people.
a. The people were looking to foreign nations for insight
Let’s read v. 6 [READ v. 6]. Now in light of what we just read in vv. 1-5, there is a lot of irony in this verse. Isaiah had just spoken of a day in which the nations would look to Jerusalem for insight, but at that time the people were sinfully looking to other nations for insight. They were adopting the pagan practices of other nations—like fortune-telling—perhaps in an effort to understand why they were facing such adversity. They had the answers from their own prophets if they would just listen to them, but instead, the people were turning to other sources in an effort to find understanding.
b. The people were amassing money and military might
We can easily become tempted to place our ultimate hope in these two things, and the people of Judah had apparently walked right into this trap. Look at v. 7 [READ v. 7]. Now in Deuteronomy 17, God had specifically stated that the kings of Israel were not supposed to acquire excessive silver and gold or an excessive number of horses. Both of those objects would be a tempting place for the kings and their people to place their ultimate trust, which would lead them away from trusting God.
During most of Isaiah’s ministry, the people of Judah were living under constant threat of attack and invasion from other nations. Apparently, they thought they could either finance their way out of danger, or just fight their way out of it. As Isaiah says, they were filling their land with these things rather than filling their hearts with the word of the Lord.
c. The people were worshipping worthless idols
Look at v. 8 [READ v. 8]. There is an interesting word play involving this Hebrew word for “idols.” The common Hebrew word for God is elohim, and the word used here for “idols” is elilim, which literally means “worthless things.” So the people had turned from elohim to worship elilim; they had forsaken the living God to embrace worthless idols that they had made themselves!
So Isaiah summarizes the situation in v. 9 when he says, “So man is humbled, and each one is brought low.” The idea is that the people had lowered themselves to such depths; they had plunged themselves into the chasm of rebellion. So Isaiah says, “do not forgive them.” That Hebrew phrase could be literally translated, “do not lift them up.” Basically, Isaiah is saying, “Lord, if they want to wallow in the depths of sin, don’t pick them up! Let them get a full taste of their foolishness.”
The people were indeed being foolish, and it was imperative that they repent and place their full trust in God, not just in light of their present situation, but also in light of the day of God’s judgment that is described in the rest of the chapter.
3. The day of God’s judgment (2:10-21)
Let’s read through v. 21 to get the full effect of this passage, and I’ll only pause to make some brief comments [READ vv. 10-21]. The ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is recorded in Revelation 6—why don’t you turn there with me if you would? In this chapter, the apostle John is describing a vision that he was given of the future where he sees the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven opening a scroll which had been sealed with seven seals. As the Lord opens each seal, God’s wrath is progressively poured out upon the world through various judgments. Here is what we read in vv. 12-17 [READ vv. 12-17].
Friends, I would be guilty of ministry malpractice if I did not sound the warning as Isaiah did and tell you that there is coming a day when everything in which men place their pride will be counted as nothing in light of the terrible wrath of God and the glorious display of his majesty. In light of this coming day, we should walk in the Lord’s ways and keep ourselves from placing our pride in the things of men. Let’s review the criticisms that Isaiah had for his people and apply them to our own lives.
First, he had criticized them for seeking insight and guidance through pagan practices. We read in v. 6 that the land was filled with fortune-tellers. When we think of such things today, we probably think of Tarot cards, psychics, and horoscopes. I certainly hope that none of us pay any attention to such things, but we must also be on guard for the far more subtle ways that the so-called “insights” of men can influence our thinking, such as through books, movies, magazines, music, advertising, and the Internet.
Let me ask you a question, friends—how do you know your opinions are truly biblical? The only way to ensure that they are is to saturate our minds with the Word. If we are not regularly reading the Bible day in and day out, then it is very likely many of our opinions are simply unbiblical. With the flood of false ideas that Satan pours out at us, a mere trickle of God’s Word in our lives will not do. We must ensure that we are looking to God’s Word for insight into our lives, not filling our minds with the so-called “wisdom” of humanity.
Second, Isaiah had challenged his people for heaping up money and military strength as walls of security. In modern America we have both, so we could be tempted to place our hopes for security in these things as well. Now unless we have a loved one in the military, you and I probably don’t spend much time thinking about our armed forces. I’m sure that’s at least partially due to the fact that we’ve been able to take our military strength for granted for so long. But the path of history is littered with extinct and long-forgotten empires who were once the military powerhouses of their day. We in America must simply make sure that we take refuge in God rather than guns. To paraphrase a quote from Abraham Lincoln, our concern should not be whether God is on our side, but whether we are on His side.
For most of us, money presents a much stronger temptation as a place to put our greatest trust. Though our military might may not come to mind very often, our money probably crosses our minds several times a day. It can be so very tempting to think that if we can just get our hands on enough money, then we will always have the security in life that we need. And why shouldn’t we as Americans think this way? After all, our bank accounts are insured by the federal government, and we all know how financially stable the federal government is! So we have nothing to worry about—our money will always be here for us, right? Yeah right!
Finally, Isaiah criticized his people for worshipping idols. We may think that we couldn’t possibly be guilty of idolatry because I’m sure that none of us have ever bowed down to a little statuette of an animal or a human. But remember—acts of worship can take many different forms. To worship something means to assign it a high value or worth, and we can do that through the amount of time we devote to something or by looking to something for the blessings that only God can provide. We may not have statues that we’ve carved with our hands, but our hearts may be a gallery of objects that we’ve placed ahead of the Lord.
A day is coming in which God will humble everything in which we may be tempted to place our ultimate trust. So when the story of this world is all said and done, don’t you want your heart to be on the side of the winner?
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