ISAIAH’S VISION OF MOUNT ZION
There is nothing in all creation that is as majestic and mighty as a mountain. Sharon and I had the privilege of seeing Greece in all its mountainous glory. We had no idea that this nation was so full of mountains. Often we would see the clouds scraping the peaks of the mountains as if heaven and earth had come together.
As the tour bus turned yet another winding corner we thought there was nothing more to see. Just then a mountain range like the one near Kalambaka would appear and we would nearly gasp. To look at the mountains from the lower vantage point was to behold a daunting trek to the top. But at the top you were filled with great satisfaction at having made it to the apex of this God-made pinnacle. There is nothing like looking down on creation from the roof of the world and seeing a wondrous valley.
As beautiful as this vision was to us, Isaiah’s vision of Mount Zion blows it away one million fold. The prophet was not sight-seeing in old Anatolia; he was not vacationing in the mountains of Macedonia. The LORD took Isaiah away into a future place through the Holy Spirit and showed him something awesome. God showed him the glory of Mount Zion.
1. Isaiah saw a mountain rise
What did Isaiah see? “This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days…” (2:1-2a). When we read this passage a number of questions will surface. Before we continue on we must ask, what are the last days?
There are two or three ways of looking at this phrase. Isaiah could be talking about the last days of Jerusalem. As they were surrounded by enemies and soon to be conquered these would certainly be the last days. When prophets speak of the last day, the final day, that is the judgment day when the earth and time will cease and God will judge all things. But here Isaiah speaks of the last days. What is this?
This refers to an era, to a time the Bible teaches is the era following Christ’s resurrection. It is the Church age, the last era. The book of Acts is the beginning of the Church age and we find the apostles waiting in a room in Jerusalem for God to do something. We know that the Holy Spirit came and filled them and they spoke in tongues. Peter then preached a sermon quoting the prophet Joel who said, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people…” (Acts 2:17). In the last days the Holy Spirit will come.
Then in Hebrews chapter one we read this: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…” (Heb 1:1-2). These are the last days according to what our Bible tells us. We may assume very confidently that Isaiah is speaking to our time.
What is supposed to happen in our time, in this Christian era? “In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills…” (2:2). This is a very odd image. And some of us, no doubt, will see this as some apocalyptic event where perhaps the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. But we must put our minds into the mind of the Jew who heard this in his time. What did he think?
He must have thought something very huge was going to happen. A great change was going to take place. For you see, in his day the chief mountain was not Mount Moriah, or as we know it, Mount Zion, it was Sinai. It was from Sinai that the law was received; it was Sinai that Moses went up and met with God and was enveloped in thunder and smoke.
Here is something else very odd. Mount Zion is not much of a mountain. It is a hill among some other taller hills that could be called mountains. Something very important is going to happen here if the chief mountain is going to be Zion and not Sinai.
Mountains played an important role in the religions of those times. It was on the mountain that heaven and earth came together in the primitive mind. It was thought that the gods could be reached on mountain tops. That’s why they built altars and temples on mountain tops.
The Parthenon in Athens was built on a mountain top as an offering to the gods. I read up about this after our trip. When the Greeks defeated the Persians they built this magnificent structure to honor the gods for the victory they gave.
Now Isaiah saw a mountain rise above all other mountains. It became more prominent, more important than all other places of worship. One preacher put it this way: Mount Zion became the center of the universe. In other words, Yahweh becomes the focal point of everyone’s attention in the world. Does the mountain literally rise? No, but it becomes chief among the mountains as the place to meet with God.
“…and all nations will stream to it” (v. 2). Here we find another oxymoron: a stream that runs uphill. This is the picture the prophet paints for us. People from all nations will drop their patriotism to stream like a river to Yahweh. They will be joined into one throng of people, a people of God. When will this happen? Or has it happened already?
Who was gathered that day when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in Jerusalem? “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia…” (Acts 2:9). That’s a good chunk of the known world. They were there to celebrate the Passover, having come from all parts of the world, and they witnessed the shift from Sinai to Zion as the Mountain rose.
2. Isaiah saw a world-wide pilgrimage
This Mount Zion will attract a great number of people, as Isaiah wrote: “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob’” (2:3).
What is it about Mount Zion that was so radically different from Mount Sinai? Why would people stream to Zion?
Look at Hebrews again: “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words, so that those who heard it begged no further words be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: ‘If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned.’ The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear’” (12:18-21).
This was Mount Sinai, the untouchable mountain where God lived. Don’t touch the mountain. While God was there only Moses could go up and talk to God. Don’t touch the mountain. It was a frightening time in Israel’s history. Here is the monumental shift in how these mountains are perceived.
“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Heb. 12:22-24).
This is what has changed so dramatically. This is what Isaiah saw. Coming to the Mountain of the LORD is no longer something to be feared because we could not keep his law. Now we come to a mountain where we can approach the presence of God without fear. Isaiah saw a time when people could come to God without terror and that time is now!
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths” (2:3).
Isaiah saw a pilgrimage to the mountain of the LORD where people would learn his way of life. The law would not frighten them away; grace would invite them to come. This is why Isaiah saw a stream running uphill – it was the magnetism of the LORD, drawing people to himself in an inspired momentum.
And as the people come to the mountain of the LORD Isaiah saw an outflow coupled with this inflow. “The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (2:3). Think of all those excited people on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit performed this amazing work on the disciples. They went home to their own countries and told their countrymen about this Jesus. That’s what Jesus commanded his disciples to do when all this happened: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Now do we literally take a trip to Israel, brave the rockets and missiles that occasionally rain down, and go to Mount Zion? Is this the pilgrimage that Isaiah saw? Mount Zion, the holy city, the New Jerusalem is a metaphor for the presence of God. And as it said in Hebrews you have come to this mountain, to the angels singing, to the church of the firstborn, to God himself.
We know this in part for we are still in the last days, but we will know it fully when Jesus comes again: “I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them’” (Rev. 21:2-3). John saw what Isaiah saw, the glory of the LORD in the presence of his people.
3. Isaiah saw true World Peace
Punctuating this vision of Mount Zion is the knowledge that in these last days the Word of God will go forth and produce real peace. “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (2:4).
Now consider once again how the Jew of Isaiah’s time would feel about this prophecy. Assyria had invaded their land and burned their crops and homes. Jerusalem was surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by these idol-worshipping pagans. What would you do in this situation? If you were playing Risk, you would surrender. This was a real dilemma. Do you make peace with the enemy?
Isaiah’s vision of universal peace can only become a reality when the nations are willing to submit to the Word of God. This is the condition we read in these passages. The One true God must be acknowledged for real peace to come to the world. Peace on any other terms is a cruel delusion, a truth we need to bear in mind as we seek to be faithful to God’s word in our own modern world of religious pluralism. The world asks us to make peace by being more tolerant. What it really asks is that we compromise the Word of God for so-called peace.
To make peace with the Assyrians was to forsake the living God. What do we have in common with the Taliban? What do we have in common with Al Qaeda? Or any form of terrorist? Judah could not trust Assyria to keep the peace. Assyria wanted to dominate the world. How do you make peace with those who want to make war? For that matter, how do we come to realize the peace Isaiah speaks of?
First of all, the apostle Paul warns us, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:14-17). Christianity cannot be at peace with anyone or anything that opposes the Word of God. We cannot make treaties or bargains with those who refuse to submit to the LORD. Live at peace with everyone so far as it depends on you, Paul says to the Romans. But peace does not mean keeping your mouth shut about Jesus.
What peace is Isaiah talking about then? Jesus said this in his last days before the cross, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (Jn 14:27). And then a little later he says this: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).
The kind of peace we first experience is the peace we now have with God. There was a hostility between us and God that was a barrier to relationship. But God, for his own sake, for his own glory, wanted to reach out to us through Christ His Son and give us peace so that we could know him.
Then there is the kind of peace that exists between those that love God. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” (Eph 2:13-14). There is a relational, social peace for those who follow Jesus and obey his teachings.
G. Charles Sackett said, “There is a peace that is unlike anything the world has ever known that isn’t about the absence of conflict. It is not about the absence of war. It is not being ultimately prepared so that no one can ever surprise you again. It’s different than that. It’s not like the world has to offer. It is a peace that is radically new.”
Two hundred thousand spears and chariots faced the walls of Jerusalem. But Isaiah knew peace. Cancer can ravage your body and throw you down like you have never been thrown before. But you can know peace. I have witnessed people dying who knew this peace. You can hope for world peace and an end to terrorism; you can sit up at night and worry about your children or your finances; you can worry about your future…or you can know the peace that passes understanding.
Peace is not an end to trouble. Peace is not a treaty that politicians hammer out at the point of a gun. Peace is not a good feeling because the house is clean, the children are bathed and you have a moment to sip some coffee.
Peace is this: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom 5:1-5).
This is what Isaiah saw; this is his vision of Mount Zion. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ according to Isaiah. And one day it will be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus; swords and bombs will be gone. No one will train for war anymore. We will know peace.
Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
AMEN
