Isaiah 2:1-5
Advent – it’s the season of hope, waiting, and joyful anticipation. It’s the beginning of a new year for the church, pregnant with the expectancy of Christ’s soon coming. How appropriate that our opening Old Testament text is this passage from Isaiah 2, a familiar oracle that is also found in Micah 4. The oracle is a vision of hope, dramatically spoken into a world of brokenness, rebellion, violence, and despair… a world not unlike ours.
Isaiah of Jerusalem, 8th century prophet, speaks to God’s people. Most are aware that Amos and Hosea, prophets to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, had given similar warnings to their sisters and brothers to the north. But Israel had failed to heed the prophetic warning, and Assyria swooped down upon them as God’s executor of justice to the ten tribes of Israel. Now it is Judah’s turn to “hear the word of the LORD.”
Isaiah has opened with harsh imagery about God’s people: rebellious children (1:2-4); a bruised and bleeding body with a sick head and faint heart (1:5-6); a desolate country with burned cities, like Sodom and Gomorrah (1:7-10); no sacrifice, offering, incense, or worship service will suffice (1:11-14) for God’s eyes are closed, God’s ears are shut up, for these people of injustice and oppression have blood on their hands (1:15-17). An appeal is made to reason it out (1:18-20), but alas, the people are whores, murderers, rebels, and thieves (1:21-23). If there is no genuine repentance, judgment will surely precede any meaningful future restoration (1:24-31). This is not a great sermon introduction. Most congregations would have walked out on the preacher by now.
So it is here, early in his book of oracles, that Isaiah inserts this beautiful vision of hope. Maybe, as a preacher, he realizes that the people need to hear some good news if they are to endure the onslaught of judgment that is about to waylay them through chapters 2 – 39. Listen to his words:
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD![1]
Zion is the place to be! The center of the theological universe, the highest of all mountains (figuratively, not literally), God rules the world from Zion. All the nations of the world are summoned, and begin their pilgrimage to God’s holy city. They ascend the mountain to the house of the God of Jacob (one always goes up to Zion and descends down from it – again, this is theology, not geography). The purpose of their pilgrimage is discipleship… instruction… to be taught (Hebrew yarah) in the ways of God’s law (Hebrew Torah). The root idea for Torah is not law that restricts, but instruction that leads us into God’s ways of holiness.
There are two significant occurrences of Hebrew parallelism in verse 3. The first announces God’s intentions to teach us God’s ways so that we may walk in God’s paths. The ways of the LORD are reliable, well-traveled paths (ruts in the road produced by the many pilgrims who have walked these paths before us). Our fathers and mothers have left us dependable footprints so that we may discern God’s way… and walk in it (Isaiah 30:21). We are tempted to turn to the left or right, but the voice of God, through our ancestors from the path is faithful to remind us, “This is the way, walk in it.”[2]
The second parallelism forms a chiasm: From Zion, Torah will go forth; even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. The identification of Zion and Jerusalem is expected, but the equation of God’s word with Torah is powerful. The word of God is designed to instruct us, to reveal to us the way of life that God has laid out for human flourishing. This is why we were created; this is why we are redeemed; to walk in the ways of the LORD.
Verse 4 is the telos of our theological pilgrimage and hope – oh may that day come soon for us! God will judge and arbitrate – a favorite word of Isaiah, used notably in 1:18 and the oracle of Isaiah 11 to speak of God’s desire to set right all that is wrong in this world. When God’s judgment and arbitration are complete, we are restored to full humanity, and our weapons of destruction, used against our neighbors turned enemies, become instruments of agriculture to feed and bless our fellow humans. Oh, how we all long for the day when swords are beaten into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. And if this is the telos of our pilgrimage, we gladly join the poet in saying, not just to the house of Israel, but to all people in all places, “Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.”
How might I preach this passage? I think the sermon structure offered by Paul Scott Wilson’s The Four Pages of the Sermon, could provide a fruitful pathway. Start with Trouble in the World – and it is abundant. War (Ukraine), Gun Violence (more than 700 mass shootings in the first 11 months of 2022), the divisive, alienating political rhetoric of our recent midterm elections … the evidence of our collective brokenness abounds!
Then move to the Trouble in the Text. A quick review of Isaiah chapter one sets the context for Isaiah’s beautiful vision. This is a nation who has strayed from God’s ways, God’s paths. Idolatry, violence, oppression, injustice marked the religious and social fabric of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom. They should have learned their lesson from their northern neighbors who had recently fallen to the invading Assyrians. But these are people who “listen, but do not comprehend, who look, but do not understand.” (Isaiah 6:9-10). Judah’s recalcitrance is testimony that when we neglect God’s instruction, we invite self-destruction. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, “If you go against the grain of the universe, you will get splinters.”
Our passage functions as the Grace in the Text. Even though God’s judgment is upon us because of our own rebelliousness and failure to walk in God’s ways… there is still hope. The hope is rooted in the faithfulness of a God who makes and keeps promises. Here is where I would unpack the beautiful poetic images of Isaiah 2:2-4. God has not left us to our own devices. The instruction of the LORD, (the Torah) is available to all who will listen. God’s reliable paths, like well-worn wagon ruts in the trail will lead us to our telos.
Finally, invite your congregation to imagine what this telos might look like in our world today – in their lives on Monday. Can we imagine a world made new, people restored to full humanity, a community that flourishes by making sure all are loved, protected, provided for, and welcomed as sisters and brothers? The season of Advent invites us to lean forward, into God’s good future, where all is set right and all is made whole. A world of shalom, where nothing is broken, and nothing is missing! Are we ready for the coming of the LORD? This is the season to get ready! Amen!