In Isaiah 2-4 we read of a somewhat surprising message from Isaiah’s pen. Chapter 1 had unfolded the tragic state of God’s people. They had been called to trial and found guilty. They had abandoned the Lord, their Master, allowed injustice to characterize the society in which they lived, and had sought out sin and acted as an unfaithful bride. They were a guilty and sinful people. However, at the opening of Isaiah 2, we see a vision of beauty focused on Jerusalem. In the first six verses Isaiah sees a vision in which Jerusalem is the center of the world, and individuals are flocking there to learn of God and the law is going out from there to all the earth. In addition, men are beating their weapons of war into gardening tools and are not even training the art of war anymore, for there is no use.

So, what is going on here? Has Isaiah forgotten everything in verse 1? Is Isaiah 2-4 just placed in this text in no organized way with the rest of the book so that there is no flow or message to the book as a whole? Is Isaiah simply dreaming up what he wishes would one day be true but knows that it never will? The answer to all of these questions is, “No.”

Rather, Isaiah 2-4 is comprised of three sections. The first is 2:1-4 as Isaiah sees a glorious vision of Jerusalem and many coming to know the Lord. The second section, 2:5-4:1, serves as a reminder that Isaiah had not forgotten the current state of Judah as he describes the people in their sin and arrogance. Then, finally, 4:2-6, serves as Isaiah’s declaration that the vision will come to pass, regardless of Jerusalem’s present state, for God will purify his people and their society. Therefore, this morning I want us to look at each of these sections, see what Isaiah’s teaching the Israelites through this message, and then see how this text applies to us.

The coming and glorious future of Zion (2:1-4)

As aforementioned, though Jerusalem is a city of sin and guilt (as seen from chapter 1), Isaiah reveals (from God) a glorious image of the city. He writes, “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” (2:2). In his vision, Jerusalem is lifted up high (showing its supremacy), and nations are flocking to it to come to know the Lord and have him teach them his ways, as the law will go forth from the city (2:3). He also pictures the end of war and a time of peace, as instruments of war are beaten into instruments of gardening (2:4). In short, he pictures a time when life is much like that of Eden, as the people are right with God, the curse is removed, and the serpent’s dominion has ended.¹ He’s getting a picture, I think, of the new creation, a redeemed world.

Yet Isaiah’s thought is not therefore, to say, “Hey, everybody, just relax; things will get better. Don’t fret about our current situation but rest in what will one day be.” No, rather, his charge in verse 5 is: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” In other words, if Judah is one day to say, “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord” they need to hear the command of Isaiah, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Because their situation will one day be glorious, this should motivate them to labor toward that end right now. Thus, he uses this second section to remind them of their current position. It’s as if he pulls their thoughts back down to earth as if to say, “Yes, that’s a true picture of the future, but look at our situation right now.”

The current and disgusting situation of Jerusalem at that time (2:6-4:1)

In this second section (2:6-4:1), Isaiah shows his readers their current sin. In 2:6-21 he shows their sin in light of this future. First, whereas Zion is supposed to be the place where the nations are coming to know and learn from the Lord, Jerusalem is right now seeking to conform themselves to the ways of the world, being “full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners” (2:6). Second, as the glorious vision shows the world seeking out spiritual profit, Jerusalem is simply storing up material wealth with silver, gold, treasures, horses, and chariots (2:7). That is not to say that wealth is bad, but they were seeking it out as their hope and security. Third, where the glorious vision shows the nations seeking to know the one true God, now “their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made” (2:8). And, finally, whereas in the vision the world finds acceptance with God, now Israel has been rejected and forgiveness seems unthinkable (2:6, 9). In short, their current situation could not be most opposite of this glorious vision.

Therefore, Isaiah’s message is that the Lord will exalt himself and humble them in their arrogance (2:10-11). He will exalt himself over “all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up – and it shall be brought low” (2:12). He will bring all things low that exalt themselves before him, and that includes Israel (2:12-17). In addition, the idols will be shown to be nothing as they “shall utterly pass away” (2:18), and the people will run to hide from the great and terrible appearance of the Lord (2:19). All will be exposed before him and these false God’s and the Israelites’ supposed security in material things will be shown to be helpless (2:20-21). Isaiah speaks of a coming day of judgment because of Israel’s arrogance. Therefore, he urges them in verse 22, “Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?” In essence, he commands them to stop elevating man higher than the Lord.

Then, in 3:1-15, he illustrates their arrogance and sin in regards to leaders. God says he will take them all away as right now they are not seeking solid leadership. Therefore, there will come a day when they will seek leaders and there will be none, for their sin has eroded all of society. Thus, we read in 3:8, “For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence.”

Therefore, this section ends as the Lord proclaims their judgment in 3:9-11, especially verse 11, as Isaiah writes, “Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.” Then, in verses 12-15 the Lord holds up the court scene again showing why judgment must come. Again, Isaiah writes in 13-15, “The LORD has taken his place to contend; he stands to judge peoples. The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and the princes of his people: ‘It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses.’ What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?”

Therefore, as one reads 3:16-4:1 we see the Lord’s judgment executed. Because the people (illustrated in the daughters of Zion) are arrogant and haughty, seeking to exalt themselves, the Lord will strike them and humble them (3:16-17). He will take away all that they have delighted in outside of him (3:18-23) and will show them the worthlessness of their efforts (3:24). Isaiah writes in 3:25-26, “Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.” Judgment is coming, and it will result in such great disaster and death that in that day the women will outnumber the men in such proportion that seven will long for one man to marry then so that they do not have to walk through the world alone and unprotected (4:1). God is coming and bringing harsh judgment as Israel has exalted itself in great arrogance before the Lord.

The purified and glorious Zion after judgment (4:2-6)

Then, just as we would expect 4:2-6 to include this horrible and devastating picture of an annihilated people, Isaiah picks up in verse 2 and begins to discuss a beautiful vision of Zion again. There is a branch that is beautiful and glorious and the fruit from that branch is Zion’s pride. Those left in Zion will be holy, all of those who have been recorded for life in Jerusalem (4:3). “But how can this be?” we might ask. The answer is in verse 4 as Isaiah writes, “when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” God’s is going to bring judgment and fire not to annihilate everything but to purify it. And then he will re-create beauty and glory and a shelter where there was once the sin of arrogance and pride in man, where society stood utterly opposed to the Lord. Thus, Isaiah ends the section writing in verses 5-6, “Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” God’s goal was not to destroy his people and his city in their sin but to purify them through fiery judgment so that he might make them an honoring people and society before them.

How does this affect us?

How does this vision and message from Isaiah affect us, however? After all, does it have anything to do with what God is doing now or have anything to do with us and our society? I think it does.

There could be a temptation for us to say, “Yes, God is going to redeem his people and his creation when Jesus returns. Here is one promise of it, and so it really has nothing to do with us today but is just a promise for us to rest in as we speak peace to our hearts about eternity.” However, with such a thought, I think we are making two errors that lead us to dismiss how this text does indeed have implications for us today.

The first error we are making is forgetting what a monumental thing occurred when God sent his Son Jesus. That is to say, we do indeed wait for the complete arrival of his kingdom at the Lord’s coming when life will even exceed Eden, as the people are right with God, the curse is removed, and the serpent’s dominion has ended. It is clear that such a time is not here fully. However, nor can we ignore that when Jesus came he announced that his kingdom had come, at least partially.

Therefore, when we look at Isaiah’s vision, we need to see that Christ has already brought about a partial fulfillment of this. The “branch” which Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah 4:2 is used in Scripture to refer to the Messiah. Therefore, we read in Jeremiah 23:5, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Therefore, that day when the branch shall be the glory of Israel is in part already here. Christ has already begun his work of redemption, his work of the new creation. We ourselves are the firstfruits of the new creation according to James 1:18. Also, according to the author of Hebrews, the nations come to Mount Zion as they come to faith in Christ. He notes that in coming to Christ, they “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem … to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22-24).

Now, again, this is not to deceive ourselves into thinking everything has already been perfected, for it has not. Society is still not reflective of the Lord’s holiness, and the complete purifying of God’s people has not taken place to make us perfectly conformed to his image. Yet, now that Christ has come, lived, died, risen from the dead, ascended back to the Father, and poured out the Spirit, something monumental has happened. And we live in this time. Therefore, we live in a different time than those to whom this letter was written and realize more. However, what is true as well is that much that was true for God’s people then has even greater implications for us today.

Therefore, for example, one of the things we need to realize is that we do not need to sit back and say to ourselves, “Oh, won’t it be great when this vision of Zion is fulfilled, when all the world flocks to Jerusalem, to Mount Zion and come to know God for the Lord’s Word will go out from Jerusalem.” No, rather, we need to say that individuals come to Mount Zion when they come to faith in Christ, and just as Jesus’ first disciples were sent out from Jerusalem to take his Word to the ends of the earth, so we must take this gospel to those who have not heard and to those who still do not believe. In short, the law goes out from Jerusalem in some sense as we continue to take the gospel to all nations so that they might “come to Mount Zion,” placing their faith in Christ. This text should serve as a reminder of the responsibility and privilege we have to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Also, we should be reminded again of our responsibility to labor in society. This vision from Isaiah includes the redemption of society as a whole. We read in Revelation 11:15 that the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. One day it will be very clear that all the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1). Therefore, we should not sit back and say, “Well, one day that will occur, but today there is little hope. Society cannot be redeemed. Government cannot be redeemed. Art and literature cannot be redeemed. Therefore, if you want to serve as a Christian laboring unto Christ in this world we need to avoid society and try to labor in the church.” Such is a wrong and absurd thought. Isaiah had actually encouraged the Israelites to walk in the light of God because they knew what one day would be and because they did not right now reflect it. Therefore, we should not give up on laboring in society. Rather, we should say, “Because society will be redeemed one glorious day I am going to labor with all my might so that each aspect of society gets as close to that glorious picture as is possible.” The realization that this will not be perfectly realized this side of Christ’s return should not deter us in any way. In fact, knowing what will be should motivate us, even as we look at one another and know that we will not be perfected until Christ returns we do not cease to labor in one another’s lives but are motivated in our work to see one another excel in holiness so that we might look more like that end goal. Therefore, this vision is again a call for Christians to labor for the good of society, to see righteousness, justice, beauty, goodness, and holiness reflected throughout God’s creation.

These three chapters also serve as a call to God’s people to repent from our pride and idolatry. Pride in the new covenant is as disgusting as pride in the old covenant. In fact, probably we could say it is more disgusting, for we have seen God’s glory even more richly in Christ. Therefore, as Christians, we need to battle with everything the temptation to think somehow we are great in and of ourselves, and we need to learn that true humility will manifest itself in a life that seeks after God, for apart from him we can do nothing.

Finally, I would also add that this text is a good reminder to us not to hate the Lord’s chastisement. We do not know why everything in our life is happening as it is. And the Lord does not promise to give us answers to all such questions. However, in the context of showing that his goal for us is to be conformed to the image of Christ, God says that he will work all things together for our good. That is, just as for Jerusalem God had a glorious goal that he was willing to make happen through great tribulation, so with us God will be willing to bring about much in our life that we may not think is a good thing to do for our happiness, but God is less concerned about our present happiness than about our eternal glory. He is willing to bring whatever is necessary in our lives now to make us more like his Son. Therefore, do not hate and fight under God’s molding and chastisement, but pray in those times that God would indeed conform you to the image of his Son.

Therefore, I think Isaiah 2-4 is a call to us to examine ourselves, taking sin seriously, and to repent where we find it. And it is also a reminder of hope. Our God is working, and he is working in us specifically. So this morning as we come to the table, may we celebrate both what God has done and what God is doing. Amen.

¹J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 54.

A VISION OF ZION AND A CALL TO REPENTANCE