The Day of the Lord
This article is based on a message first given by David Couchman at Above Bar Church, Southampton on Sunday 4th July 2004. It may be reproduced in print or on other web sites, subject to the copyright notice below.
I have only been in an earthquake once in my life. (You might say: once is enough!) I had flown into Seattle from London that afternoon; I was jet-lagged out of my mind, and I went to bed to sleep it off. Sometime in the evening I was woken by the hangers rattling in the clothes cupboard. The room seemed to be swaying alarmingly. My first thought was: the jet lag is worse than usual - it has never been like this before. Then I realized that the room really was swaying. There is something very unsettling when the solid ground starts to behave like a boat on a choppy sea.
The next morning, my hosts took delight in showing me the cracks in the roads, and telling me that while San Francisco and Los Angeles have stringent earthquake-proofing building regulations, Seattle does not.
When the solid ground under you starts to gives way, what do you rely on?
The message of Isaiah chapter 2 is that everything you think is solid is one day going to give way, and the key question is, what - or who - will you rely on on that day?
Isaiah was a prophet about seven hundred years before Christ. As verse 1 says, he prophesied to Judah and Jerusalem. At the time, Judah was a small nation in western Asia, surrounded by much more powerful neighbors - Egypt, Assyria, Babylon.
The background to these chapters is the threat from Assyria. The challenge to Judah, in the face of this threat, was whether they would rely on God, or would try to sort out their own problems by a political or military alliance, whether with Egypt or someone else.
But behind the political maneuverings, there is a deeper issue: the people of Judah have turned their backs on God and have turned to false gods, and because of this, they are under his judgment. So God's judgment is the key theme of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah.
But then in chapter 40, the wind changes, and the rest of the book is about rescue and restoration beyond judgment. The two parts are so different that some people even think they must have been written by different authors.
But even in the chapters on judgment, there are many flashes of light that point forward to God's future deliverance. That is the pattern here in chapter 2: verses 1-5 are a message about deliverance; verses 6-22 are a message about judgment.
There was a historical fulfillment of both parts: the Babylonians - not the Assyrians - swept over Jerusalem in 586 BC, wrecking the city and taking many of the people away into captivity. Among them were Daniel and his friends. And then, two generations later, some of the people did return and rebuild Jerusalem, under leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah.
But the historical fulfillment was never complete - the judgment when Jerusalem fell to Babylon was not the kind of worldwide and final cosmic judgment that the prophets had foretold. And the return was never a complete fulfillment either. The Jews who came back recognized this, and went on looking for something more - for a future deliverer - God's promised Messiah.
So what does this chapter have to say to us today? We are not going to try to walk through the chapter verse by verse. Rather, we are going to answer two key questions, corresponding to the two parts of the chapter:
First, in verses 1-5, what is the 'Mountain of the Lord'?
Second, in verses 6-22, what is the 'Day of the Lord'?
The Mountain of the Lord (verses 1-5)
The time is the future - 'in the last days' (verse 2).
Look at what is happening in the last days. Notice how many times it refers to the nations, or the peoples:
- In verse 2, all nations are streaming towards Jerusalem - the picture is of a river that is flowing uphill!
- In verse 3, many peoples are looking for some kind of spiritual benefit from going to the mountain of the Lord. They are seeking to know the true God.
- In verse 4, God judges between the nations, and settles disputes for many peoples - and the result of this is world peace. 'Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more.'
God's purpose for the nations is one of the key themes of Isaiah. And God's purpose for the nations is that they will know him, and this will lead to peace, and justice.
At the heart of the picture, there is the mountain of the Lord, or the Lord's temple:
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,
and all nations will stream to it.
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.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.'
The law will go out from Zion, [Nothing to do with the Matrix]
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem...
The picture is that Jerusalem, the city where God lives, is going to become the center of worldwide attraction, the center of worldwide revelation, the center of worldwide peace.
So how are we supposed to understand this picture? Do we take it to be the physical city of Jerusalem? That God has great plans for its prosperity, and for reigning over the nations from Jerusalem one day?
There are lots of people who have taken it this way. Depending on how old you are, you might think of Tim La Haye's 'Left Behind' series of books, or of Hal Lindsay's 'The Late Great Planet Earth.' If you belong to an earlier generation, you may remember the works of Fred Tatford.
The basic idea here is that in the Old Testament, God was interested in the Jews. Now, in the Church era, God is interested in the rest of the world, and there will come a day when God's interests will switch back to the Jews as a nation. There will be a future, literal, physical fulfillment of these verses.
Is this right?
Whenever we are not sure about something in the Old Testament, a good principle is to see what the New Testament says about it. Many things that are obscure in the Old Testament are made clearer in the New. This applies especially to prophecy, which can be really confusing.
So how does the New Testament understand these Old Testament pictures such as Jerusalem and the temple? Let's look quickly at a couple of passages that will help us to recognize a pattern:
Look first at Galatians chapter 4 verses 21-26:
Paul is talking here to Christians who want to go back to trying to obey the whole Jewish law. Let's not get bogged down in the details of the passage - but just notice what he says about Jerusalem:
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. (Galatians chapter 4 verses 21-26)
Again, do not get bogged down in the details of the passage, but notice that Paul makes a distinction between the physical city of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem as a metaphor of heaven itself - the place where God lives among his people. Paul says that the physical city of Jerusalem stands for slavery, 'but the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.' So there's a literal, physical Jerusalem, but there is also Jerusalem as a picture of a spiritual reality.
Then look at John's Gospel, chapter 2 verse 18. Jesus has just been clearing the tradesmen out of the temple:
Then the Jews demanded of him, 'What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' But the temple he had spoken of was his body. (John chapter 2 verse 18)
Do you see what Jesus is doing? He is saying 'this building isn't the real temple. I am the true temple.' The temple is the place where people could meet with God - and Jesus says, you can meet with God through me. The temple in the Old Testament was never an end in itself. It was a physical symbol, pointing towards the spiritual reality - and the reality is Jesus.
There is a pattern here, isn't there?
There are a number of other Bible passages that we could have looked at. The whole book of Hebrews is about this. The message of the book is that the Old Testament system of priests and sacrifices and the tabernacle was a picture that pointed forward to Christ.
So all the things that were so important in the Old Testament - Jerusalem as a physical place, Israel as an ethnic nation - all these things were symbols, pointing forward to a reality that is fulfilled and completed in Jesus Christ and the Church.
I have gone into this at some length, because it is a vitally important principle for understanding the Old Testament. If we get this wrong, it leads us into all kinds of confusion. What was a physical reality in the Old Testament points to a spiritual reality in the New.
So if you were to go to Paul, or John, or the author of Hebrews, and ask 'Does the Old Testament foretell that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and sacrifices be offered there again?' they would give you a very odd look - and then say: 'No, all that stuff is finished with and fulfilled through Jesus. What would be the point of going back to it?' God does not have any plans separate from Jesus Christ.
So in the last book of the Bible, John picks up Isaiah's vision, in his own vision of heaven itself, in Revelation chapter 21 verses 9-11:
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
God's interest today, and for eternity is in those who become his people through faith in Christ. They are his true Israel. God has no plans outside of Jesus Christ. There is never going to be a day when he will go back to the Jewish nation as such, and when the temple will be rebuilt and the sacrifices re-instated.
So the picture of the Mountain of the Lord here in Isaiah chapter 2 is a picture of ultimate spiritual reality. It is a picture of heaven itself.
If you are still not convinced about this, read Isaiah chapter 65 verses 17-25. In these verses, the equation between Jerusalem and heaven is very clear.
The Day of the Lord (verses 6-22)
This section divides into two parts. In verses 6-9, Isaiah highlights the things in the nation's life that invite God's judgment, and in verses 10-21, he describes what that judgment will be like.
I began this article by saying: when the ground you stand on is shaken, who do you rely on? The people of Israel should have been relying on God - but they were relying on other things:
Verse 6 says:
You have abandoned your people,
the house of Jacob.
They are full of superstitions from the East;
they practice divination like the Philistines
and clasp hands with pagans.
They were relying on their occult practices - on magic, on witchcraft, on horoscopes, on charms and crystals - on things that would enable them to manipulate their destiny in some way. There are lots of people today who rely on these things, aren't there? What about us, as followers of Christ? Do we rely on this kind of stuff? A quick peep at the horoscope column? Wearing a crystal?
The beginning of verse 7 talks about people who rely on their economic wealth to get them out of trouble - on their money:
Their land is full of silver and gold;
there is no end to their treasures.
The second half of verse 7 talks about people who rely on their military strength:
Their land is full of horses;
there is no end to their chariots.
Verse 8 talks about people who rely on false religion to help them:
Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.
Each of these things is a contrast with what Isaiah saw in his vision of heavenly Jerusalem in verses 2-5:
- In verse 2, the world is drawn to Jerusalem - all nations stream uphill to it, but in verse 6, God's people are drawn to the world - they have become just like their unbelieving neighbors
- In verse 3, the world looks for spiritual benefit from the mountain of the Lord, but in the beginning of verse 7, God's people are storing up material wealth.
- In verse 4, the result of people coming to Jerusalem is world peace, but in the end of verse 7 Jerusalem is full of weapons.
The tragic irony is that while in verses 2-5, the world seeks to know the one true God, in verse 8 God's people are busy inventing their own false gods.
So there is a contrast between how things should be - and one day will be - in verses 2-5, and how they actually are now, in verses 6-9.
I wonder whether God sometimes looks at us, as his people, and his desire is that we should bring his revelation, his law, his peace, to the nations - but we are so wrapped up in manipulating our own destinies, storing up wealth for ourselves, building up our own strength, re-inventing God to suit our preferences. These verses come as a challenge: what matters most to us? What are we relying on?
There are two key themes that overlap through the rest of the chapter:
The first is that God will judge, and people will flee. There is this repeated picture of running to hide in caves (verse 10, verse 19, verse 21).
The other key theme is that God will be exalted and self-reliant people will be humbled. Human arrogance will be destroyed.
'The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day.' (verse 11, almost identically in verse 17).
Look at how all the things people have relied on fail them: military strength fails in verse 15, economic success fails in verse 16, idols disappear in verse 18.
So the Day of the Lord in Isaiah chapter 2 is a picture of worldwide judgment: God judges, and people flee; God is exalted, and self-reliant humans are humbled. Everything that seemed so solid will be shaken.
How does this apply to us? For example, does it apply to our nation, being under the judgment of God? Well, we certainly deserve his judgment, in all kinds of ways. But we cannot just take something that the Old Testament applied to the nation of Israel, and apply it to Britain or America today, because the situation is not parallel.
There are many examples of God's judgment in the Bible. There are historical examples, such as his judgment on the Pharaoh of Egypt who would not let his people go. There are prophetic examples, such as the foretold Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. All God's judgments in the Bible are pictures pointing to a future great day of worldwide and final judgment, which the Bible calls 'The Day of the Lord.'
We look at the news, and the world seems to be a chaos of random events. But when we read the Bible, we see that God is in control, and he is working out his plans and his purposes. History is going somewhere. Things will not just continue as they are for ever. There will be a day when God will wind up history. And whatever its immediate historical point of contact, Isaiah chapter 2 is ultimately a picture of that day.
So we should not apply this message to our nation, or our church. It is more direct, and more personal than that. God is speaking to you and me as individuals, not to nations, and he says, are you ready for that day? What are you relying on?
Application
So if God is speaking to us as individuals, what does he want us personally to take away from this chapter? Well, the two parts of the chapter both end end with a challenge to God's people:
At the end of the prophecy about the Day of the Lord, verse 22 says
Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his mouth. Of what account is he.
Literally, it means 'give up on man.'
If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, the Bible warns you that the things that you think are solid ground are going to be shaken, and the only really dependable thing to rely on is God himself, and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only ground that will not be shaken on judgment day. And the basic message is: turn to God now while you can. Get things sorted out! Rely on him, not on any of these other things.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ - well, this prophecy was originally written to God's people. And it poses the same question to you: who are you relying on? Are you relying on your career, or your force of character or your bank balance, or on the strength of some human leader? The only person you can really rely on is the Lord Jesus Christ.
But secondly, the vision of the Mountain of the Lord in verses 2-5 challenges us too. Yes, it is a picture of future perfection. It is also a picture of the nations coming to God, learning from him, and being ruled by him. And in the New Testament, this is tied in with the worldwide spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Verse 5 says, because of God's purposes for the nations:
Come, O house of Jacob. Let us walk in the light of our God!
Alec Motyer says in his commentary on Isaiah:
If others are ever to say 'Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord,' God's people must heed the call 'Come... let us walk in the light of the Lord.'
How does it relate to us here and now? Well, God blesses the world through his people. We are supposed to be a worldwide blessing - just as the ancient Jews were.
This vision calls for a response from us. God does not intend that we should waste our lives in speculations about weird and wacky interpretations of Bible prophecies. The coming day of judgment is not meant to turn us into great visionaries, but into great missionaries - people who live for God, and walk in his light.
So the chapter challenges us: Who are we living for? Whose light are we walking in? Who are we relying on?
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