Hope in God’s Promise; Humility in God’s Presence
This next section of Isaiah’s prophecy starts out in v2 with the phrase “In the last days”
Which is what we think of when we think about prophecy – future – but, it’s important to remember that biblical prophecy is not merely concerned with the future and when it is it is not merely predictive – as in, clues when certain things will happen at certain times, or signs that certain things were foretold to happen validating the truthfulness of an overall message but that have really no present right-now bearing upon a person.
There is some predictive element of prophecy but the vast majority of it, it is telling God’s people how to live right now; and so it’s bringing together present and future;
and the way it brings together present and future isn’t by making them the same thing but by directing God’s people to live a certain way in the present, in light of future realities.
And sometimes those future realities are more specific and sometimes less; and they don’t always point to the same time in the future and they don’t always point to one fulfillment at one time but often point to many different stages of fulfillment at many different times;
And this phrase “last days” – refers to the jewish understanding that there were two ages – this age, or these days, and the age to come; or the last days.
These days, are, these days; the last days, are the future days – and the future realities that would come about when God would fulfill his promises.
And so this is dealing with the future for them – the very end of existence as we know it in this evil world and the establishment of God’s new world order –
and it’s a beautiful picture; giving them hope to prepare them for a dismal present circumstance that was coming upon them.
There were dark days ahead. And, Isaiah is preparing them for those days by telling them that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
And it’s to teach them to persevere in hope when life crumbles. It’s to teach them to relocate the source of and basis for their hope out of the past; out of the here-and-now; and into a future promise that didn’t exist yet in their experience but that required faith and trust in the certainty of God’s promise.
Sometimes people try to locate their hope in the past. In the good-old-days; but the problem with that, is that the good-old-days by definition are gone; and they can only cause you to lament that they are no more; and they are unreturnable and irrecoverable.
Sometimes people try to locate their hope in their present circumstance. But just as the past is gone, neither cant he present really be held on to – it becomes the past as soon as you are there;
It has no guarantees; and the good things about it are uncertain – easily and quickly lost.
But even while we’re in it, the present isn’t always that comforting. The world isn’t great and on it’s own the world isn’t getting any better.
Past – gone; present – uncertain & unstable; future – unknown.
Hope apart from faith in a divine promise is foolish; it’s empty; it’s wishful thinking because there is no basis to hope that “things will just turn out in the end”
but the promise of God gives us real reason to hope;
because its the promise of God:
and that it’s a promise, means it’s: presently unfulfilled; and needs to be met with faith and believe and trust in it;
and that it’s the promise of God: means that it’s certain; and that faith and believe and trust in it are warranted.
Hope is a changed outlook based upon a future reality that is certain to us, even though it isn’t yet fulfilled for us.
Because God’s promise is always true; God’s promise is always trustworthy; God’s promise never fails; God always fulfills his promise.
And if you believe in a bright future, you can persevere in a dismal present. That is what Isaiah is doing here. And these first few chapters are really introductory because that’s what’s happening through so much of Isaiah and through so much of the prophets and through so much of the Bible – that’s what so much of the Christian life is about. Hope in a glorious future that gives us strength, perseverance, and patience in the present.
So what is that glorious future?
The establishment of his Worship
The establishment of his Truth
The establishment of his Righteousness
The establishment of his Peace
- The establishment of his worship (v2-3)
We saw in chapter 1, the deterioration of God’s worship – that God’s people had scooped God out of it and were offering hollow and hypocritical worship; but here is the promise that The Lord’s Temple will be established; and the temple was for worship – for meeting with God in the special most intimate of encounters.
And so God’s worship is re-established – and the way it’s re-established is that it’s lifted up: it’s the highest of the mountains, it will be exalted above the hills;
In those days worship occurred on mountains – high places – and so what this is saying is that God’s worship – true worship of the true God, will be exalted & established over and against false worship of false gods.
Clearly, this is not a popular or easily received truth in our culture – that wants to assert that all religions say the same thing and are equally valid;
which first of all ignores the fact that the major world religions don’t say the same thing and don’t believe all religions are equally valid;
but secondly, that viewpoint itself is a humble-looking power-play that sets itself up as the religion above all others that is true over and against others because you can’t escape exclusivity or absolute truth claims – you can only make better or worse ones and that is a worse one, while the one which is verified and vindicated by the risen-from-the-dead-and-appeared-to-humanity Son of God is the better one.
That is the religion that will be lifted up and exalted and those who trust in Him will not be put to shame.
The Christian faith is exclusive in it’s truth claim; it alone is the true way to worship the true God. It’s exclusive in its truth claim, but its inclusive in it’s invitation.
we see that because it is promised that God’s worship will become a beacon of truth to all the world – all nations – with irresistibly magnetically attractive force such that – v2 – all nations will stream to it – uphill.
Water doesn’t flow uphill, because water follows the path of least resistance. But the call of the gospel is not the path of least resistance. It is a battle against the current of the world and against the pathway of sin; but it gives the power to resist the current and go upstream
It draws people from every corner of the earth – this had it’s initial fulfillment in pentecost and continues through the age of the church as it seeks to be obedient to its mission, until heaven where there is a multitude of those redeemed by the blood of Jesus from among every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every people.
What’s being described is, and excuse the political analogy, but what’s being described, is an open border for the church. Where the only admittance requirement is faith and then that is enough no matter who comes or where they come from as long as they share the same savior then they share the same father and family.
And if you don’t think there’s room in the church – in your church – for people like that then you won’t like heaven very much. And the church – Christians – need to lead the way in warm embrace of and reaching out to those who are different from us rather than hostile rejection or fear-filled self-protective insulation.
That’s why the church does missions; thats why we reach out and do evangelism – because we know that the purposes of God in salvation reach more broadly than we do; so we keep reaching out because we know we haven’t reached out as far as we could or are called to.
2. The establishment of his truth (v3) – “he will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
And here is more than just God’s truth being established in an abstract sense, but that it’s established in a personal and experiential sense:
He will teach us his ways; so that we may walk in his paths.
God is our teacher; and he teaches us his ways which are different than our ways; and the purpose he teaches, and the reason we learn, are not so that we can know some new information but so that our lives can be shaped and transformed by his truth.
That’s so crucial. We can’t have empty professions. We can’t have head knowledge without heart & transformation. If we do we end up with hollow and hypocritical lives.
The goal is to walk in God’s paths; and if you’re not walking in his paths then his truth really hasn’t been established in your life even if you know it intellectually.
3. The establishment of his Righteousness.
v4 – he will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.
God is the ultimate, final judge over all.
Often times, in humanity’s justice, the weak and vulnerable are trampled; evildoers & oppressors prosper; the godly are persecuted; evil prevails.
But not in God’s justice. He will bring perfect justice that will judge justly and settle disputes in fairness and righteousness; and turn back right what this world has flipped upside down.
If you’ve been wronged; if you’ve seen first-hand how this life often doesn’t dole out perfect justice: you need to hold onto hope in God’s promise of his perfect justice being established. Your life being vindicated and your enemies being exposed and dealt with, either in God’s justice or at the cross – in either place, no act of evil will be left unseen and unaccounted for and unpaid for – and it’s final word won’t be the word of suffering in your life but the word of victory of God’s righteousness.
4. The establishment of God’s peace.
v4. Just think about that. Can you imagine that? A world with perfect peace?
Marriages & families with no conflict or abuse? Friendships with no fighting? Siblings with no arguing? It seems impossible!
Human relationships with no assault or attack and no need for any defense? A world with no war such that every weapon ever made could, with peace of mind and total assuredness of safety, be turned into an instrument of peace for human flourishing instead of a tool for human destruction?
Ok, I’m not a pacifist and I don’t think the bible requires someone to be. I tend to think that a pacifist is a little naive about the harsh realities of life in an evil world. But if a pacifist is naive about the harsh realities of life, then a war-monger is callous towards the harsh realities of war.
And I don’t have time to get into just war theory in one sermon, but:
And just as much as the bible doesn’t require us to be pacifists, so the bible teaches us that war is the result of living in a sinful, fallen world where evil is rampant and needs to be resisted and kept in check sometimes by state’s use of force.
God is going to establish a world of peace. And you know what, what that means is that if we are God’s new people being made ready for God’s new world then we need to be people who love and seek peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” – children who display the likeness of their heavenly Father – the God of all peace who sent his Son the Prince of peace to redeem us into people who love peace.
Because when people are made right with God, and made at peace with God, they become people of peace.
Now, look at the invitation: Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Think about what that invitation is saying. Even if you’re skeptical of the truth of God’s promises about the future he has planned for those who trust in him, don’t you wish they were true?
And if you aren’t skeptical of the truth of them; if you believe them; then why wouldn’t you walk in the light they provide? Why wouldn’t you hold on to them and trust in them and let them light your path in the darkness of the present – and let them like the light at the end of a dark tunnel keep you pressing on until you emerge out of the darkness into the freedom and joy of God’s new reality?
And we have even more reason than they did. For them this was all future. But for us, it’s already begun. Not fully arrived yet, but broken in.
I mentioned before: this phrase “last days” – refers to the jewish understanding that there were two ages – this age, or these days, and the age to come; or the last days.
For them all future; but the NT calls the age we live in right now the “last days”; even though it still looks forward to a future age.
And that doesn’t mean there is a new 3rd age; but rather an overlap, where we still live in the present evil age but God’s future last days has broken in with the coming of Jesus; has started in a real but provisional way, until the final & full fulfillment of it is established at the return of Jesus.
And so the church ought to reflect the future promises of God by living them out as much as is possible in the present – and we can do that because we have the king of the kingdom reigning in our hearts and lives.
“The church’s future is secure. The only question is whether we choose to be a part of that future through present obedience to the Lord of the church.”
Hope in God’s promise; humility in God’s presence.
The only way you can live out a real trust in the promise of God such that it gives you hope, is if you cease to trust in yourself and in the fleeting promises and empty things of this world – and you can only do that if you live in humility in God’s presence.
The problem here that needs to be confronted before God’s people can have hope in their better future is human pride and arrogance – it’s a universal human problem with endless ugly expressions. And it’s at its ugliest, perhaps, when it’s dressed in religious clothing.
And most of Israel’s audience would have looked forward to a day when God would destroy their enemies, but the problem that Isaiah and the prophets address is that the very people of God had taken on the attitudes and actions of their surrounding neighbors and so could only expect the same judgment that they wished upon them.
And in fact, the irony here, is that while vv 1-4 envision a day when the nations around Jerusalem are flooding into it in true worship; Isaiah looks around right now and sees God’s people busy inventing and making and worshiping idols.
describes the effect of their idolatry in 3 ways:
they are full, but empty (vv6-9) their land is full of silver and gold; full of horses; full of idols.
They have filled themselves up with the things of the world, but they are empty of the things of God.
they view themselves as high, but they are low (vv9-18)
describes them as tall and lofty trees, and high hills, but as tall and secure as they appear and seem, God will chop them down and level them.
“When we exalt ourselves, we are hammered to the ground, and God alone is exalted. But when we exalt God alone, we too are lifted up with him.”
they see their idols as precious, but they are worthless: (vv19-21)
look at v20 – their idols made of silver and gold – which in and of themselves are precious valuable things – when turned into idols are made worthless and are seen for what they are – they are thrown away to the moles and bats – unclean and kinda gross animals.
what a contrast – that which is supposedly so valuable so precious, is thrown in the trash.
And the result is that the proud, when they are confronted by God’s holy fearful presence, they are terrified and flee and hide in caves – they who tried to reign in heaven aren’t fit to be surface-dwellers.
Because God is always opposed to human pride; and the only way you can rightly, and confidently, be in his presence, is through genuine humility.
And that’s the choice that Isaiah is presenting here:
Either, you can repent of pride and humble yourself, and be lifted up by God; or God will oppose your pride, and bring you low.
v9, 11, v12, 17, v19, 21
Because God opposes the proud.
Pride is utterly disgusting to him; it is treasonous to him; because we try to live in the place that only he rightly occupies – we try to be god.
and so pride is connected to idolatry, because pride is ultimately self-idolatry: it’s the trust in human strength and wisdom and the exaltation of self as god.
It’s setting oneself up as god, & then constructing things in the world to be our gods that serve me and my purpose and my agenda.
And it makes us empty; it reduces us; and in it we put our trust in worthless things.
& seeks to exalt ourselves to God’s level, but in doing so it brings us face to face with the true, eternal, holy God. And he opposes the proud.
To attempt to exalt myself is to become nothing; to submit my life in humility to God is to gain everything.
1 Peter 5: “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”