Sermon Series:  Big Mouths, Old School                                                                              August 6, 2006

Sermon Title:  Of Swords And Plowshares                                                                          Isaiah 2:1-5

ISAIAH THE PROPHET

The book of Isaiah has always been considered, by both Christians and Jews, as the pinnacle of Israelite prophecy.  In Rabbinic teaching, Isaiah was deeply cherished because its repeated messages of hope seemed to round off the dark and dreary prophecies of the other two major prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  For Christians, the book is particularly important because it speaks to the salvation through the agency of the Messiah.  So many church fathers regarded Isaiah not just as the first and greatest prophet, but as the first apostle and evangelist.  In fact, the NT quotes from Isaiah more than from any other OT book.  So, for that reason, we’ll stay in Isaiah one more Sunday.

PATTERNS OF PROMISE AND DOOM

I want to have you look closely at the way Isaiah 2:1-5 is situated in the first few chapters of the book.  Look with me at the section headings in the Bible.  It really doesn’t matter what Bible you are reading, if it has section headings, they will be similar enough.  In the NRSV, Is. 1:2 is headed with the words, “The Wickedness of Judah.”  Without reading that portion, I know that it is a judgment text.  Isaiah ch. 1 is a message of severest judgment of Judah for their participation in idolatry and immorality.  Ch. 2 is headed with the words, “The Future House of God” in the NRSV.  In the NLT there is, “The Lord’s Future reign.” 

This is a message of hope, a dream and a promise of good things to come for Judah.  But starting at verse 5 in the NRSV, the heading is, “Judgment Pronounced on Arrogance.”  And from that point until ch. 4 vs. 2 we have a message of judgment.  But the heading of ch. 4 vs. 2 is, “The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion.”  So we are back to hope and promise.  Ch. 5 is full of doom; “The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard,” which, believe me, is full of doom.  And chapter six is Isaiah’s famous vision of Yahweh in the temple, his calling to the prophetic ministry.

So what we have here is a pattern of doom and promise, doom and promise.  We see a stark contrast between what Israel is destined to be and what Israel is in fact.    The unit runs from the real to the ideal and back again.  The meaning of the schema seems to be something like this: proud and self-sufficient Israel can and will become a witness to the greatness of God only when she has been reduced to helplessness by his just punishment and restored to life by his unmerited grace.  It is as if God is saying, “I see how you are presently rejecting me for the worship of idols and all the associated immorality, but I’m not giving up on you.  I’m going to bring punishment, and it will be severe, but that punishment is to break you of your pride, to bring you to a point of helplessness, and to restore you by my unmerited grace, so that you will learn to trust in me alone.”

ISRAEL’S WITNESS TO THE NATIONS

It is in the midst of this pattern that we encounter Isaiah 2:1-5.  It is the first message of hope and promise, and it sets the stage for the hopeful message of God’s plan for Israel’s role as a witness to the nations.  It is well-known that these words are found in almost exactly the same order in Micah 4:1-4, and it is most likely that Isaiah borrowed them from Micah rather than the other way around.  So Isaiah, in his desire to speak words of greatest comfort and hope to his people, to counterbalance his messages of doom, draws from Israel’s heritage of prophetic sayings, from his fellow prophet Micah.  This theme becomes especially prominent later in the book, and eventually finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and in the church. 

THE PROMISE OF HOPE

The message of hope is not what one would expect.  It is interesting for what it does not promise as well as for what it does.  It does not promise that Israel will dominate the earth, or even that Israel will one day live up to its calling to faithfully worship Yahweh, the one creating and redeeming God.  No, this passage promises that one day Israel’s God will be faithfully worshipped by those who are not from Israel, that the nations who presently worship idols will one day see that Israel’s worship of one God is to be emulated, and they will stream up to Mt. Zion and into the Temple from all over the earth.  They will come with great interest and zeal to be taught from Israel’s Torah. 

To them, Israel’s Temple will become the most important place in the world, such that it can be said to have been raised above all other mountains.  Out of Zion shall flow forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (vs. 3), signifying that not only will they learn of Yahweh in the temple, they shall flow out of the temple back to their own countries, and there they will teach others of what they have learned.

This will bring forth a new period of world peace.  Since they all now know the God of Israel, all will come to him to arbitrate between them.  I like the way the NLT (translated by one of my seminary professors – John Oswalt) translates vs. 4, “The Lord will settle international disputes.  All the nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  All wars will stop, and military training will come to an end.”

THE QUESTION OF FULFILLMENT

Has this passage been fulfilled?  Should we look to the future for its fulfillment?  Or is it foolish to expect any real fulfillment from a passage such as this?  I want to propose to you that this passage is being fulfilled right where we sit.  Look around.  We are sitting here in this place with our Old Testaments open on our laps, learning from the texts written by people inspired by the God of the Jews.  We are those who are streaming up to learn from God’s laws so that we may walk in his ways.  While the temple of Israel hasn’t literally become the most important place in the world (as NLT reads), it figuratively has become that for many who come to Israel’s God to worship and learn.

I think this is very interesting.  It is one of those texts that point to the fulfillment of OT expectations in Jesus Christ.  Jesus saw his ministry as the summation of all the expectations of the Hebrew scriptures – the covenant come to fruition and fulfillment.  Here we see this is the case.  When you came to church this morning, you probably didn’t think you were fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah the prophet.  But here you are, coming up to the mountain of the Lord that we may be instructed in his ways, etc.

COME, LET US GO

But there is an important principle of spiritual truth found in verse 3.  Let’s read it again closely.  Notice that there is a connection of purpose here. 

 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,
       the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

The purpose of going is to be taught, and the purpose of being taught is to walk in the light of what is learned.  While this is quite simple, it is yet somewhat profound.  First we must leave our self-sufficiency and independence, and come to God humbly for his guidance and instruction.  God cannot or will not teach us until we come to learn.  Yet the purpose of God’s instruction is so that we might live in divine light.  There is an interlocked partnership of human and divine participation.  The ‘Let-go-and-let-God’ approach to spiritual growth just doesn’t cut it.  God demands your active participation, your humble approach, and your determination to walk in his ways.  He doesn’t do the hard work for you.  God teaches you so that you can walk, but he doesn’t walk for you. 

There is your part, and there is God’s part.  You’ve got to say, “Come, let’s go to the mountain of the Lord.”  It starts with you, your intentionality, your passion, your desire.  God wants to meet with you but will not slap you in the face to get your attention.  Look, we live in an age that offers incredible spiritual distractions.  If you want, you can life an exciting life until you die and never think two seconds about your spiritual life.  People do it all the time.  You just fill your life with excitement, travel, money, pleasure, etc.  Our world offers every pleasure imaginable.  But what a wasted existence that is.  Come, let us go up to the mountain.  We do that especially as we partake of the Lord’s Supper.

NO MORE MILITARY TRAINING

There is another interesting connection to be exploited here.  Once the word of the Lord is disseminated from Jerusalem, and people are determined to walk in its light, all international strife comes to an end.

  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.

Of course, in this regard, we still await the fulfillment.  This is especially evident with the recent outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon (Hezbollah). 

But what about the universal world peace part, the swords and plowshares?  As I said, we await the final consummation of the ages for the fulfillment of this prophecy.  But the prophecy is more than just a prophecy – it is a teaching.  It teaches us about who God is, what God wants, what God is working for in the world.  And we only have to read the paper to see the need. 

FROM PROPHECY TO PRINCIPLE

So I want to shift our attention from the prophecy itself to the principle it teaches.  But the principle and the helpful truth to be attained is this: real holiness leads to real peace.  The closer we walk with God the better our human relationships.  Let me say this more directly.  Two godly people can never be out of fellowship with each other.  This bears repeating.  Two godly people can never be out of fellowship with each other.  You see, in the passage we read, as soon as God had his total way in human life, wars came to an end.  Strife and divisions always represent some failure, some human sin, some unwillingness, on the part of at least one party, to admit fault and repent.  Sin, essentially is that which brings division and strife.  Holiness heals human relationships.

THE SIN OF DISUNITY

We think of sin as simply breaking the laws of God, or doing things that the Bible commands us not to do.  But sin is much more than that.  Sin is that which destroys unity, which makes people not want to have anything to do with another person.  At the heart of every dispute, every divorce, every war, someone is refusing to admit fault, someone is being petty, someone is blaming others rather than accepting fault.  This is not to say that two godly people will never disagree.  But if they are humble and non-defensive, if they are determined to not be petty and easily hurt, if they are mature enough to try to be sympathetic and see from another person’s perspective, relationships are not destroyed.

You see, the doctrine of original sin teaches us that each of us is born with an innate tendency to rationalize.  It comes as easily as breathing.  We find ways of stilling that conscience within, and its discomforting yet prophetic voice.  We don’t want to face our faults, or admit that we have been petty or childish.  We always find ways of stilling that inner voice, and of fooling ourselves into believing that we are in the right, that they deserved what we gave them, that we had the right to be nasty, that we were just speaking our mind so it was justified.  The inner voice can be easily snuffed out by our rationalizing pride.  This is what Christians have traditionally called Original Sin.  All humans have this tendency, and this the part of our nature that must die.

But for this reason we also need the word of God.  When the inner voice is drowned out, we need the outer voice, the word of the prophet to say, “Thus saith the Lord, thou art the man.  You are guilty.  You have some repenting to do.”  I am here to tell you that if you are not on speaking terms with someone in this church, you are in sin, you are actively rejecting God’s grace, and you must repent.  It is time to beat the swords into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks.  You know exactly what I mean.  Remember what the text taught us earlier.  God does his part, but you must do your part.  God is teaching you of his ways so that you may walk in his paths.  It is time to get up and walk.