WHAT THE SEER SAW
Opening Prayer
Loving Father, I need you today— and every day. Speak to me through your Word; teach me more of yourself so that I can walk more closely with you.
Read ISAIAH 2
The Mountain of the Lord
2 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
2 In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple 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.
4 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.
5 Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord
6 You, Lord, have abandoned your people,
the descendants of Jacob.
They are full of superstitions from the East;
they practice divination like the Philistines
and embrace pagan customs.
7 Their land is full of silver and gold;
there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is full of horses;
there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.
9 So people will be brought low
and everyone humbled—
do not forgive them.[a]
10 Go into the rocks, hide in the ground
from the fearful presence of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty!
11 The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled
and human pride brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
12 The Lord Almighty has a day in store
for all the proud and lofty,
for all that is exalted
(and they will be humbled),
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,
and all the oaks of Bashan,
14 for all the towering mountains
and all the high hills,
15 for every lofty tower
and every fortified wall,
16 for every trading ship[b]
and every stately vessel.
17 The arrogance of man will be brought low
and human pride humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
18 and the idols will totally disappear.
19 People will flee to caves in the rocks
and to holes in the ground
from the fearful presence of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.
20 In that day people will throw away
to the moles and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made to worship.
21 They will flee to caverns in the rocks
and to the overhanging crags
from the fearful presence of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.
22 Stop trusting in mere humans,
who have but a breath in their nostrils.
Why hold them in esteem?
Footnotes
- Isaiah 2:9 Or not raise them up
- Isaiah 2:16 Hebrew every ship of Tarshish
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
The Bible has a remarkable way of giving us a God’s-eye view. We need the wisdom it offers to see as he sees.A friend once told me that his parents realized he needed glasses when he couldn’t see a battleship that had sailed into the harbor! In this chapter, Isaiah had clear sight of a glorious future, as well as the unedifying present. What the prophet could see embraced ‘the last days,’ as well as his own day, the heavenly Jerusalem and his own Jerusalem, peoples of the world and the locals.
What will it be like at the end of time? Isaiah gave one of the Bible’s earliest answers. He saw the world’s peoples streaming to the mountain of the exalted Lord to adopt his way (vv. 2–4). He saw that Jerusalem and the world were key in God’s plan of salvation. One day, as we know, his Word would go out worldwide (v. 3c) from a green hill and an upper room in this Jerusalem. Ultimately, the Lord will reign over a new, reordered world. War and armaments will be obsolete (v. 4).
By contrast, Isaiah saw that his contemporaries’ faith was full of pagan practices, materialism, idolatry, and pride (vv. 6–18). They would be rejected. God’s judgment will be like a violent earthquake from which people will flee (vv. 12–21). ‘Come…let us walk in the light of the Lord’ (v. 5).
Apply
Where are places in your faith journey that you need to be more focused on God’s purposes for you?
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). May my values match the values of heaven.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.