ISAIAH 2:1-5
“God Will Teach Us”
In our Old Testament passage for this morning, we are told about “the mountain of the Lord” where God will teach us God’s ways so that we will be able to walk in God’s paths.
God will judge and settle the disputes for the nations.
There will be no more need for weapons; the swords will be beaten into plows, and the children’s stomachs—gnarled from hunger—will be filled.
There will be no more need for spears; they will be beaten into pruning hooks as men and women, once again, work in the fields… …bringing in the bountiful harvest that God will provide for them.
This is the promise of this Scripture passage—
--never again will a sword from one nation be lifted against another.
Never again will the peoples of the earth have to train for war.
It kind of sounds like a return to the Garden of Eden…
…a return to the time before the Fall of humankind.
It kind of sounds a bit like the description of the new Jerusalem in Revelation Chapter 21 and 22 where we are told: “No longer will there be any curse,” and “the dwelling of God is with men, he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Maybe some of us think this promise is too good to be true, but even the most remote possibility that it could be true makes the journey to the mountain worthwhile.
“Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
How in the world could anyone refuse this?
And yet, the people of Isaiah’s day did just that.
The remainder of Isaiah Chapter 2 gives testimony to the choices the people of Judah and Jerusalem made.
Their choice was not to travel to the mountain, not to know the ways of God, not to be instructed in the ways of peace.
Yes, this promise from Isaiah is so wonderful, one wonders how we could refuse it.
And yet we do.
The world as we know it gives us testimony to the choices that we humans continue to make.
We decide not to travel to the mountain, even though the place of God promises us peace.
Maybe peace is not what we want.
Perhaps, in some sick, twisted, perverted way—we actually like war.
Perhaps, in some sick, twisted, and perverted way—we actually enjoy chaos.
In the Creation, God fashioned the world from chaos to order and beauty.
And did we mess it up?
You better believe it!
It is frightening, the violence we do to one another.
Many of us, walk around like a bunch of children who are afraid of our own shadows…so in order to find some security…in our insecurity we steal some fragile security at the expense of others.
Frightened bigots slander the person or group they fear.
It seems to make us feel better and more secure to have an identifiable enemy.
And oftentimes we find ourselves the victims of someone else’s efforts to shore up their sense of security and worth—cutting us down in the process.
Corruption also spills over into the systems and groups in which we live.
Pain and suffering are inserted into our families, nations, classes, and religions.
The high management of Enron Corporation concealed the plight of their company at the expense of their employees.
They secured great wealth for themselves by divesting their shares of Enron stock before they became worthless.
Apparently, they cared very little for those who lost their life savings and pensions.
Choices—we do make some awful choices.
As we see in Isaiah chapter 2, the choice of Isaiah’s listeners was not to travel to the mountain, not to know the ways of God, not to be instructed in the ways of peace.
What choices will we make?
Isaiah speaks of the last days.
And we are living in them, of course, we have been living in them for approximately 2,000 years because the last days were ushered in with the birth of the Lord Jesus…
…as Paul declares in our Epistle Lesson that Sara read earlier: “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
How do we put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light?
We certainly can’t do it on our own.
History and our own lives are testaments to this fact.
The only way we can know peace is to do things according to God’s terms, not our own.
It’s not the high idealism of the Prophet Isaiah that should strike us, but the everlasting sanity of what he is telling us!
Surely, we have learned enough about life to know that if we leave God and God’s will out of the picture—we get the kind of world we now have.
And if this is what we want, then this is what we will get—we were created with the freedom of choice.
We can choose our way or God’s way.
I don’t know about you, but I believe it to be high time we started choosing God’s way!!!
There’s a particular Proverb that I really, really like—not because it is particularly beautiful, but because in it’s coarseness—it conveys a truth which none of us can deny.
Proverbs 26:11 tells us: “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”
Let’s not be fools any longer!!!
The Israelites didn’t listen to the promise of Isaiah, and thus were told that the day of the Lord would bring terrifying judgment.
For the haughty and the proud, the return of Jesus Christ will not be a day of peace…
…but for those who humble themselves under the Lordship of Jesus Christ…for those who “go up to the mountain of the Lord…” And are thus taught God’s ways so that they can walk in God’s path…in the light of the Lord—it will indeed be a day of Peace!!!
A most wonderful day.
Remember the words from the Prophet Micah?
“With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Do we act justly?
Do we love mercy?
Wow, isn’t that a beautiful thought—to love mercy?
Are we walking humbly with our God?
Listen again to what Isaiah has to tell us:
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.”
There is one small word in here that should truly get our attention and wake us from our slumber!
The word is “will”.
Five times in two verses of Scripture that word appears!
This leaves no room for doubts, no conditions upon which this shall occur, and no room for alternate views.
“Will” means that these things shall absolutely come to pass!
The question for us is: do we want to be a part of this coming consummation?
Do we want to live in peace?
Do we want to “go up to the mountain of the Lord?”
If our answer is “yes,” then we must put God in the only place God can rightfully be…
…at the center of our thinking and our planning, and at the center of every problem which comes our way!
“Here I am!,” Jesus tells us in Revelation Chapter 3, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him or her and she or he with me.”
“I am coming soon.” Jesus tells us in the same chapter.
Our salvation comes through Jesus Christ.
May we give ourselves, without reservation, to Him!
And in doing so, God will teach us His ways, so that we can walk in His paths!
Come, O Parkview United Methodist Church, let us walk in the light of the Lord!!!
