The Heavens Hear

From Isaiah 2:5 O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord. 6 For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with eastern ways; They are soothsayers like the Philistines, And they [b]are pleased with the children of foreigners. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders," suggests Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. "Instead," he contrasts, "teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Prophetically, the second chapter of Isaiah takes a similar approach. After a largely negative, justly confrontational first chapter, the opening of Isaiah 2 is visionary and inspiring. Wherever the ultimate fulfillment of its picture of eager, contagious fellowship of the nations at the throne of God lies on the eschatological timeline, the glimpse gives Isaiah's audience something to yearn for. This rapturous motivation bigger than ourselves and our present dra...

Isaiah 2:3-4 English Standard Version (ESV) 3 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.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. What a glorious and beautiful time Isaiah is foretelling of. I can only imagine how he must have felt, after having spoke of such doom, death, and destruction, to be given words full of life. To be able to see that all the pain and sorrow is more than just removing things from His sight, but that there is a greater purpose being fulfilled to bring about a future where His glory and power ...

From Isaiah 2 – 3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore. David Wilkerson in The Cross and the Switchblade advises on more than dogs when he suggests how to get a bone away from one. Give him a pork chop. Isaiah has pointed to this kind of glad exchange already on an individual and national scale. In the first chapter of the prophecy, God revealed to him, both the worshiper by habit and the self-gratifying prince begin to change as they grasp the glory of God. What each has been satisfied with heretofore is paltry indeed, a shadow of th...

Isaiah 2:1-2 English Standard Version (ESV) 2 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 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, Isaiah, the faithful servant and speaker of the word of God, whose first chapter was about the wickedness of Judah and and the unfaithfulness of the City of Jerusalem, has now taken a deep breath and launched himself into a prophecy of how the mountain of the Lord will look in the latter days. This will be a time of great change and upheaval on the earth as can be seen with even a brief reading of the Book of Revelation, another book full of prophecy about the latter days. So what is this mountain? In all likelihood this is the mountain where Abraham prepared himself to sacrifice his son Isaac, where David me the Angel of the Lord...

In a May 14, 2018 issue of the New Yorker , Emily Nussbaum Ryan Murphy as, "the most powerful man in TV." She faithfully reports that even Murphy has difficulty persevering in creativity. He confesses that good ideas are used up in early episodes of television seasons and in the early seasons of shows and counters this ennui with a radical proposal. He pitches a series in which producers, actors and viewers are drawn in with the co-mingling of enthusiasm and novelty, which is reinjected in the show's second season when many of the same actors reappear as different characters under divergent premise. The Lord our God does not need to counter boredom. He is compelling both to Himself and to His Creation in perpetuity. Nevertheless, between what we divide as the first and second chapters of the book of Isaiah, He showed a fondness for a reboot that isn't entirely dissimilar. While men have put some of the chapter divisions of His Word in puzzling places, this one is in...

Isaiah 1:28-31 English Standard Version (ESV) 28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. 30 For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. 31 And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them. As we finish out the first chapter with these last four verses we see what will happen to those not a part what was happening in the previous verse. There the city was redeemed as those who were in her repented, but what about those individuals who chose not to repent? They are here lumped together as rebels and sinners, along with those who forsake the Lord. They shall be broken and consumed as there will be no place for them in a redeemed Jerusalem. Isaiah then us...

From Isaiah 1 – 28 The destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together. And those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29 for they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees which you have desired; and you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen. 30 for you shall be as a terebinth tree whose leaf fades, and a garden that has no water. 31 The strong shall be as tinder, and the work of it as a spark; both will burn together and no one shall quench them. Elton Trueblood memorably cautioned that the same sun which softens the wax hardens the clay. In this, he offers the sobering assessment that the same blessing or adversity from the hand of the Lord can have very different results on divergent hearts. One softens before either His grace or His chastisement, while a neighbor under similar circumstances becomes even less supple before the Lord. Thus we arrive at the end of Isaiah 1. Within it, Isaiah has spelled out the details of both judgment and ...

Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice. Isaiah 1:26b and 27a The Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 chronicled life producing a late-night television show. In the first episode, the proud franchise has fallen on hard times, with predictable jokes and a lack of bite to its social commentary. Alumni are coming back to resuscitate the show, and one of them quotes Pericles. Good things should flow into the boulevard. The culture deserves better. There is something of his heart behind the flow in Isaiah 1, culminating in the end of verse 26 and the beginning of verse 27. The Great Physician gave His sober prognosis for the sick culture to which He speaks, with fatal idolatry contagious from the very biblical sacrifices of those who claim to be God's people. Not surprisingly, if those who at least go through the motions of attention to the Bible's details don't have changed hearts, don't apply His Word in the...

Isaiah 1:27 English Standard Version (ESV) 27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. Zion, Jerusalem, The City of David, and, as God in the previous verse calls the city in the time to come, City of Righteousness, and the Faithful City. God, through Isaiah, has used the verses from 1:21-25 to show how wicked and evil the city has become. Then with verse 26 he shows us a picture of Jerusalem restored to not only its former glory, but a future glory that is totally dependent on Him and His will. The next five verses from 27-31 are almost a mirrored reflection of 21-25, but instead of showing how far the city has fallen from God, these show how the restoration will happen. Isaiah is saying here that the redemption the city needs comes through justice. There is a beautiful picture here. We, as Christians have been redeemed through Christ, who is our justification. Through Him we are being brought to wholeness, or holiness,...