Sunday, September 01, 2013

ISAIAH CHAPTER 2: A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE- A DREARY PRESENT

A BEAUTIFUL FUTURE TO LONG FOR:

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
 It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
 and many peoples shall come, and say:

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.

“The pathway to peace and prosperity is not putting your confidence in man but in the rule of God”

For out of Zion shall go the law,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.                             TRUTH

 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;                           JUSTICE

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;                                       PROGRESS

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.                                      PEACE

O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord.


THE PRESENT CONDITION IS IN DISARRAY- UNDER THE JUDGMENT OF SIN AND REBELLION

For you have rejected your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of things from the east..... WHAT AM I FULL OF?

SUPERSTITIONS AND PAGAN MYSTICISM

and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

CONSUMERISM AND MATERIALISM

 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures;


TRUST IN MILITARY MIGHT

their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.


RAMPANT IDOLATRY

 Their land is filled with idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their own fingers have made.

So man is humbled,
and each one is brought low—   

  (EJ Young “When we exalt God, we too are lifted up- when we exalt ourselves we inevitably humiliate ourselves leaving God alone exalted”)


These things are timeless and relevant in every generation. Don't we try to live by luck, live by prosperity, and trust in our military supremacy?

Some of these are neutral but when we propose our ultimate confidence in them we are practicing evil and forsaking God.


do not forgive them!

 Enter into the rock
and hide in the dust
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty.

 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
 For the Lord of hosts has a day
against all that is proud and lofty,
against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;

 against all the cedars of Lebanon,
lofty and lifted up;
and against all the oaks of Bashan;
 against all the lofty mountains,
and against all the uplifted hills;
 against every high tower,
and against every fortified wall;
 against all the ships of Tarshish,
and against all  the beautiful craft.

 And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

 And the idols shall utterly pass away.
 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
 In that day mankind will cast away
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
 to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.

 Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?

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