Awaiting the Eternal Kingdom
Isaiah 2:1-5
The Book of Isaiah contains many rapturous songs of joy and hope. Its promises have sustained His people for thousands of years. We have this morning’s passage. We also have the Emmanuel prophecy which prophesied the virgin birth of Jesus, whose name means: “Indeed, God is with us.” We have this promise of the divine birth in Isaiah 9:6. “For unto us a child is born.” One’s mind is lifted by the majesty of Handel’s Messiah, which incorporates many of Isaiah’s text. Chapter 12 tells us that with joy, His people will draw water out of the wells of salvation. Isaiah 65 tells about a new heaven and a new earth. Time here just does not permit me to show you all of these passages.
But we must also realize that Isaiah is equally full of judgment. In fact, the book begins with it. It describes a stubborn and rebellious Jerusalem. They were stubborn, ignorant and rebellious of the rule of Yahweh. Even oxen and donkeys were easier to control. Isaiah’s call in Isaiah 6 is framed in Isaiah being given a message to these stiff-necked people who would hear his words without understanding. So the book of Isaiah is a mixture of joy and judgment. There was going to be restoration, but first judgment for the sins of his people. Catastrophe would come to both Israel and Judah. They would suffer captivity and humiliation. Other nations would be judged as well for their sin. But after this would come restoration. The high point comes in Isaiah 53 where we hear of the obedient servant who is punished for our sins. Jesus becomes the means by which hope can be born from the ashes of judgment.
So now let us examine this morning’s text from the second chapter of Isaiah. From the judgment pronounced in chapter 1 springs forth the joyous aftermath of restoration. Jerusalem and Judah were a far cry from being a city on a hill. It was on a hill, all right, but it was broadcasting the wrong message. There was nothing to be joyful about in that city. People should take pride in their city, their history and culture. We have cities which had glorious foundations which have now become the harbor of uncleanness, vice and decay. We can be sure that the local tourism bureaus want to show picture of their glistening alabaster cities rather than pictures of homeless camps, rats, drug needles, and worse. Jerusalem was not the glorious city God had exalted it for, the place of His abode. We can think of the words of the psalm: “Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. The words of this psalm were paraphrased by John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace and put to the heart-warming tune by Haydn. This became one of the songs of the church. But Hitler borrowed the tune to this hymn and made it the tune of the German national anthem: “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles” to proclaim Germany’s dominance, and not Yahweh’s over the earth.
But God is not going to let rebellious sinners have the final say over His city. He instead proclaims through Isaiah the prophet that things were going to change. God could rightly have destroyed Jerusalem for its transgressions. Instead, Jerusalem, having been properly purged, was going to fulfill His expectations for it. It shone brightly; it became dim; but in the end, Jerusalem would shine brighter than ever. The City of the Great King will not disappoint.
Jerusalem is going to be transformed into a place that everyone wanted to come. People will come from all over the earth from every nation. It isn’t just ethnic descendants of Jacob who will come. The glory of the King would draw them. The word of mouth, which is the best advertising, would go out. They will say: “Let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob!” They will come to learn of Him. The days of ignorance will be over. Instead of rebelliousness and obstinacy, there will be obedience and righteousness. He will sort out the disputes of nations. The things which plague humanity will be forever gone. Isn’t is our great hope that our weapons of war become farming implements. Do we not look forward to a day when the arts of war are no longer taught? There shall be nothing but peace. The need for armies and police gone forever. It is only this hope that makes the six o’clock news bearable. The misery we see now will be gone forever.
The problem with humanity, of course, is that they want this millennial blessing apart fro
m the rule of Yahweh. These are like the Children of Israel in the wilderness who tried to storm the Promised Land on their own. Because they had failed to believe the LORD’s promise and instead accepted the majority report which implied that the enemy was too strong, and they would be killed. They did not think that the LORD would fulfill His promise. When rebuked and told God would not go up with them, they rebelled and said that they would do it on their own. The result was a disastrous defeat. These people would never inter into this rest.
In our own history, we have been through many attempts, for good or ill intention of trying to make this vision a reality in our own world. The best of these attempts was that of Calvin’s Geneva. Geneva was indeed transformed by the gospel. Before Calvin, Geneva was a thoroughly corrupt city. It was always going to was and trying to defend itself from such as the Dukes of Savoy. There was little care for the sick. Disease was rampant. Orphans were sold into slavery or sent to workhouses. Literacy rates were terrible. Women were not taught and left in servile condition. The transformation of Geneva was remarkable. For hundreds of years, it became the city on a hill and an inspiration to the world. This is because this was a thoroughly Christian transformation. But this adherence to the teaching of the LORD slowly declined so that in 1900, instead of being the city which was transformed by the Goepel, it was the city of Sigmund Freud.
There were many of these Calvinists who came to Massachusetts in the 1630’s to establish a new community which was remote from the abuses in Europe. They wanted Boston to be “A city on a hill.” This was the plan and motto of the governor. From this comes the experiment in democracy in America. The same is true here. As much as the people were faithful to the teaching of the LORD, it became a great attraction and drew people from all over the world. What has happened to Boston and this country? It has decided it can do better without God. It is stubborn and rebellious. It has become the Jerusalem of Isaiah’s day and not the Jerusalem envisioned by God. The world strips some of this millennial hope of Isaiah and tries to make a go of it. We don’t need God, but we like some of the teachings, so long as we get to pick and choose.
The world has become tired of waiting on God. We will make world peace and prosperity on our own. We will have Marxism. Everybody will be equal. All will be equally distributed. We will destroy nations and cultures and replace it with one world government. We will let the scientists fix our flaws. Globalism is the answer. The world has now had several generations to preach the new gospel. Have wars ceased? Have disputes gone away? Is there world joy and goodwill? Have scientists mended our every flaw? Is everything equally distributed or are the rich in Socialist areas becoming even wealthier? Orwell’s Animal Farm is a must read. It begins with “All animals are created equal” and ends with: “all animals are created equal; but some animals are created more equal than others.” Animals! People have stopped looking up to God and being like Him and are instead seeking solidarity with animals. Instead of setting one’s gaze upon the Lord of Zion, they are degenerating. Our alabaster cities are become dunghills.
So, what do we make of this? It certainly would be despairing to stop here, as much as it would to stop reading at the end of the first chapter in Isaiah. We must needs get to the second chapter or we will be overcome. It is true that both Calvin’s Geneva and Boston failed to stop human ills. Wesley’s massive social reforms in England failed to produce the just society we see in Isaiah 2. Were not both Calvin and Wesley devout Christians, people of one book, the Bible? So, what went wrong? I think the best way to answer this is to say that as much as the Bible was rightly applied, it worked well. It is clearly better than the alternatives we see today. The problem is that there is still a fundamental problem with the nature of our humanity. As much as this is expressed, then even the best models are doomed to fail.
There shall be a restored and glorious Jerusalem. After the time of judgment, the LORD shall return with His new and Eternal Jerusalem. The decay of even the most glorious human cities mean that they are but for a season. But this shall be for ever. There will be no more wars and death because the LORD has decreed it. The new city is made of eternal stuff by a perfect and eternal God. It cannot decay. This promise drives us on during this Advent season where we anticipate the LORD’s return. Jesus is our hope, not ourselves.
In the meanwhile, we anticipate His coming. Charles Wesley says” Anticipate your heaven below and know that love is heaven.” As we anticipate, let us advertise this coming Kingdom, both in our preaching and in our practice. We need to show in our churches what heaven will be like. This means in our love for each other, our worship, our fellowship and even in our business meetings. This is not to say we well do so perfectly. But let us at least be the best billboard we can be for the Kingdom. Let us learn to settle our own disputes. Let us as we are able strive to make the communities and nations better places to live in. Let us visit the sick and feed the poor. The promise of God has come near. Let us be uplifted!
