Most scholars agree that the writings that comprise the first half of the book of Isaiah are genuinely his writings. Beyond that there are disagreements about the extent to which chapters forty to sixty-six contain Isaiah’s own prophecies and that of later writers following in the mould of the prophet. The book of Isaiah as a whole is regarded as the greatest and most consequential of the prophetic writings especially since he more than any other, prophesied about the coming Messiah which would come to pass several centuries later. We do not know a lot about Isaiah the person but his writings have remained consequential through the passing of time to our present day.
As we begin the Advent season, the time when we concentrate on preparing our hearts and minds for the coming of the Saviour, Isaiah’s words here in chapter two are most apt. Today in particular we are focusing our thoughts on Hope, the hope that the season of Advent points to for all who would allow themselves to embrace it and in turn see their lives radically transformed for the better. How, you may ask, does this text express or point to the hope that the season brings? Let’s reflect on it some more. In doing so,we must take note of these two important things in Isaiah’s message in our text.
First, Isaiah chapter two begins by telling us about the establishment of the mountain of the Lord.
This mountain is where the Lord dwells. It will be the highest of all places suggesting the absolute superiority of this mountain. But why a mountain? In the Old Testament, it was up in a mountain that the Lord spoke to Moses and then later gave him the tablets with the commandments. The Lord often met his servants, notably Elijah, from the mountains and as such the mountain became the symbol of where God dwells. It is not by chance that David conquered the Jebusites and took their city of Jerusalem to be his capital city. Jerusalem was on a very high hill and it was a virtual fortress. More importantly, the Temple in Jerusalem would symbolize the very presence of God and in order to meet God everyone would have to make the journey up to the mountain top. We must also bear in mind that the mountain was seen as a place of refuge, as we can glean from Psalm 121:1 where it says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come?” It must be said here that the concept of the mountain being the place where God dwells was not originally an Israelite concept. In fact, all the rival nations around had a similar idea that the mountain top was particularly significant because their gods dwelt at the top of the mountains. This is why the prophet points to the Lord’s temple being exalted on the highest of the mountains and that it would be exalted above other hills. Isaiah who lived long after David was only a memory must have been envisioning this same scene with Jerusalem as the seat of God to which all peoples would flock in a new day of peace and justice and righteousness.
Secondly, the prophet frames his message as an invitation. He says that people will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…” (Isaiah 2:3 NIV) The invitation suggests that all are welcome which is in keeping with the theme that “…all nations will stream to it.” (Isaiah 2:2 NIV) Ultimately this is an invitation into a relationship with God, a relationship that is not established by a particular location, as Jesus told the Samaritan woman, but by intentionality, a desire to meet God in Spirit and in truth. (See St. John 4:21-24) The hope that we desire to have in God can only be realised through our heartfelt and genuine desire to have a close relationship with him.
When we come to God as the prophet declares, wherever we find him, that is your mountain. The key thing to focus on is what will happen for us when we meet God on that mountain top. The prophet Isaiah again tells us what we should expect to ensue from this. I would like us to reflect for a while on these three things that meeting God on our symbolic mountain top must result in for all of us.
First, we will be taught God’s ways.
We cannot enter into a relationship with anyone without being prepared to learn about them, what are their habits, what are their principles and what are their likes and dislikes and so on. God is no different. We come to meet God so that we can learn his ways. God’s ways essentially refer to the way of life that we must pursue in order to remain in a right relationship with God. Later in Isaiah chapter fifty-five verse eight, we are reminded that God’s ways are not our ways, (Isaiah 55:8 so we must seek the ways of the Lord if we intend to have a relationship with him.
Secondly, He will judge between nations and peoples.
This suggests that God’s intervention is universal in scope. God’s intention is for the world to be at peace. The Advent message therefore has a universal appeal. The word for judge here harks back to the idea of a judge in court deciding on the merits of a case before him or her. Ultimately the aim of such a judge is to make decisions that are fair and right based on the facts of the case that has been presented to him. Isaiah is clearly not naive. The world has always been in conflict and different peoples and nations, ethnic groups, tribes, religious groups etc. have always been in one conflict or another. What if there was an ultimate judge to whom all the peoples and nations could go to to present their case and plead for justice against their adversary like that poor widow in St. Luke’s gospel? (See St. Luke 18:1-8) The world would certainly be a better place wouldn’t it? This I believe was the idea behind the formation of the United Nations and its various organisations after World War Two until the United Nations itself was rendered impotent and virtually useless by the large influential nations who, because they pay the most money to it, control the influence and work of this once notable institution. One reason why conflicts rage across the world is because the one body established to judge between nations has very little power to do so.
The truth is that Isaiah is reminding us that humans can never be trusted with the awesome and divine responsibility of judging fairly and righteously by themselves. Only God who is the ultimate judge can do so through the means and the institutions and the personalities that God himself has chosen. The United Nations was probably never God’s chosen instrument of justice notwithstanding all the good it has done in other areas of human life.
God alone can and will judge righteously in all human affairs.
Thirdly, true and lasting peace can only come from a new relationship marked by the knowledge of God’s way and yielding to God’s system of justice among humanity.
Because people have been radically transformed by God’s law and through a renewed commitment to living the way God demands of us, there will be less reason for conflict and open warfare. Human hearts would have been transformed and people would live more respectfully and lovingly with each other. Selfishness and prejudice and greed would be a thing of the past. There will then be no violence. People will now turn weapons of war into productive tools that heal the earth and human lives rather than destroy it.
If we are continuing to be disturbed by an increasing proliferation of violence at all levels whether between individuals or nations then the reason must be very clear. God’s law is not governing human affairs. With all of this in mind we do have great cause for concern with the way the world is heading. We have not fully wrapped our heads around the atrocities of the Israel-Hamas war, with the atrocities carried out by both sides, and the current war in Europe between Ukraine backed by its support from the West both economically and militarily, and Russia backed by those countries which give it economic and military support. This war is truly a re-emergence of the Cold War between the Soviet communist ideology and western democratic nations although ironically many of these Western nations are themselves very undemocratic in their internal governance structures. On top of that you have civil wars taking place in different parts of the world especially in Sudan and Myanmar to name a couple of the outstanding ones. In light of this, it may be easy to interpret Isaiah’s message to be suggesting that one nation, Israel, as God’s people is the source from which God’s peace will flow to all other nations but this would be a simplistic and inaccurate interpretation. Certainly, in light of Israel’s recent bombing campaigns in the Middle East, seeing them as the fountain of peace would be an unpalatable view to many. However, we must see Isaiah’s message in a broader light which is that it is to God that humans must ultimately return in order for true transformation to take place. Only then, can the world see peace, that peace which can only come from God.
My friends, after hearing all of this you might be asking where then is the reason for hope? The hope that we seek is real and present in a world in which we make the conscious decision to obey God’s laws, to seek to follow God’s ways and as a result to love one another as God desires of us all without any kind of prejudice or selfishness. Then we can see a new day that we all can embrace with joy. Each of us has to claim it by living in the way that God wants us to live. That is how we embrace with hope this new day of peace and righteousness. This is how the message of the Advent is realised among us people of God. We cannot sit down on our hands waiting for some miraculous intervention. We must be God’s agents and messengers of hope and transformation as we live in expectation of Christ’s coming into the hearts of people and thus creating a new world of peace and love for all.
May God give us the vision, to meet him again in our mountaintop experiences, the courage to learn God’s way and the strength to be His agents of justice and peace in the world wherever He leads us. Only then, will Isaiah’s prophecy of a new day become real in our world today. Amen.