Lesson on Isaiah 2:1-2

In the previous lesson, we summarized the message of Isaiah's first chapter, which, in large part, speaks of Judah's future and the choice they will have to make: repentance and redemption, or stubbornness and destruction. In this lesson, we will continue to look at God's plans for Judah's future.

Isaiah 2:1-2.(NIV)(NASB)(NKJV)(NCV)

The second chapter of Isaiah begins with an introduction similar to the first. He says that his vision of things to come concerns Judah and Jerusalem (v. 1). However, in the next verse, Isaiah speaks not only of the temple but also of all nations! This partnering makes sense if we consider God's plans for the Israelite nation, at its beginning, before the patriarch Israel had ever come along.

Israel's grandfather was Abraham, whom God called to leave his home and family to follow God into a new land. According to the Biblical record, God issued a promise to Abraham at that time, a promise that He would make Abraham into a great nation, make Abraham's name great, and bless all peoples on the earth through Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3).

All those years before Isaiah, even before Abraham had a child, God had promised that all peoples of the earth would receive a blessing through Abraham's line of descendants. In Isaiah 2:2, we read the beginning of another reference to this same blessing. We'll see more of this blessing in bits and pieces as we go.

This particular piece refers to the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was a permanent structure for Jewish worship meant to replace the movable tabernacle, which was a large tent. Abraham knew the area that would one day become the temple site as Mount Moriah. God provided a substitute sacrifice for Abraham at this location. About a thousand years later, David, the second king of Israel, offered a significant sacrifice at the threshing floor of a man who lived on Mount Moriah. Although David designed the temple, his son Solomon, the next king, actually built the temple over a period of seven years. Over the next several hundred years, the temple underwent a cycle of neglect and restoration, until the Babylonians finally destroyed it. At the same time, the people of Judah were taken to live as exiles in Babylon. When the Jews returned from Babylon, they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. Herod the Great rebuilt this temple years later, and this remodeled temple is the one Jesus visited when He walked the earth. Roughly 40 years after Jesus was crucified, a Roman general attacked Jerusalem and ransacked the temple. He literally tore every stone apart. Subsequent attempts to rebuild the temple failed. After the Muslim conquest, a mosque was erected on the Temple Mount. Despite a change of hands during the control of the Crusaders, the Temple Mount returned to Islam and has mostly remained under Muslim control to this day. ¹

Even this brief summary of the temple's history demonstrates how Jews, Muslims, and Christians have all gone to great lengths to secure the Temple Mount. Yet, according to Isaiah, the "mountain of the LORD's temple" will one day become the centerpiece of the world. He says that "all nations will stream to it" (Isaiah 2:2). In that day, all the wars over the Temple Mount, as well as the suffering they have caused, will be wiped away. In fact, these promises are so rich with hope, let's peek ahead at another description Isaiah provides of this time of global peace. It's not only a time of peace among people:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9).

Isaiah reiterates this description in Isaiah 65:25. Clearly, God cherishes extensive plans for His people. And now we see that He plans to restore peace to the world. As we will see later, this blessing of peace will indeed come through the tribe of Judah.

Now, what does this description of God's holy mountain have to do with today's world? Once again, we must return to the description that John gave in Revelation of the new heaven and new earth that God will create. It sounds strikingly similar to Isaiah's description of the new heaven and earth. Of course, the similarities are intentional. Let's read Isaiah's description first:

"Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more" (Isaiah 65:17-19).

A few verses later, God then talks about peace between the wolf and the lamb. Of course, if we consider that wars and strife have ceased, and the suffering they cause have perished along with them, it seems reasonable that the earth's inhabitants should cease their weeping.

As we turn to John's description of his vision of the new heaven and earth, we find that he also describes the new Jerusalem as the centerpiece of the restored heaven and earth. He writes, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth . . . . I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God . . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away'" (Revelation 21:1-4).

It's so easy to dismiss this idea of heaven as either a myth that has been treated in overly sentimental fashion, or as a reality that has no tangible effect on our lives today. What a terrible mistake! As the Bible describes it, the new heaven and earth constitute the unending climax and final culmination of God's plans throughout all the ages.

Randy Alcorn, author of the non-fiction book Heaven and several novels that deal with the subject of heaven, asserts that God wants us to look forward to heaven because it's a place He is preparing for all those who love Him. Alcorn writes, "The infinite God reveals Himself to us in tangible, finite expressions. Next to the incarnate Christ, Heaven will tell us more about God than anything else." Alcorn explains that the joys we encounter in that new place, as well as those we encounter in this life, all proceed from God. He is the source of all good things, and because He is the source, we should not separate our enjoyment of these things from our enjoyment of Him. Alcorn says, "Every thought of Heaven should move our hearts toward God, just as every thought of God will move our hearts toward Heaven. That's why Paul could tell us to set our hearts 'above' in Heaven, where Christ is, not just 'set your hearts on God' (Colossians 3:1-2). To do one is to do the other." ²

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¹"Highlights in the History of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount." Based upon document prepared by Lambert Dolphin for Jerusalem Temple Foundation. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

² Alcorn, Randy. "Enjoying God and Enjoying Heaven: Why They Are Inseparable." Eternal Perspective Ministries.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.