Isaiah 2:1-4
“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
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, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
We will be taking a look over the next few weeks, or as long as I think the Lord is leading, to go over the relationship between God and Israel. There are prophecies about Israel and Jerusalem that are yet to be fulfilled. God cannot break promises, and He cannot leave prophecies unfulfilled.
At the time of this writing, the Temple in Jerusalem still existed; it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s army and sacked with a lot, if not all, of the really good trinkets being removed and exported to Babylon (2 Kings 24:13). There they were preserved for a time when the Temple would be rebuilt after Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians. The Temple was rebuilt and then razed again in AD70 by the Roman government.
These are all actual historical facts that you can investigate for yourself. But Isaiah tells us that this prophecy he is unveiling is for the ‘latter days’ (verse 2). The latter days refer to our time, the time of the end. In Acts 2:17, we are told by Peter that when the Spirit came on the local church there in Jerusalem, this was a sign of the ‘last days.’ Paul later tells Timothy that in the ‘last days,’ men will be certain things…
2 Timothy 3:1-5 “You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.”
So, we can see that the last days are a part of the church age, and we are still here right now, so we are in the ‘last days.’ Isaiah then is telling us that this prophecy will find its fulfillment in and around our time. We are still waiting for this prophecy to be fulfilled, and we can explore why in the next paragraph.
The Lord’s house is NOT established in the mountains. This is a reference to Jerusalem and that one day soon, once again, the House of the Lord will be there. The Temple is not rebuilt; it is still in ruins from the Roman invasion of AD70. But we know from Daniel 9:27 – we see this prophecy:
“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”
We see here that some event causes ‘an end to sacrifice’; there has to be a sacrifice for there to be an end. In Daniel 9:17, we are told that the Temple in Jerusalem is not desolate; there is nothing happening there. So, this was not a prophecy about the then Temple but a future Temple.
In Daniel 9:26, we are also told that this event would happen ‘after the Messiah is cut off,’ a reference to Jesus’ execution. These sacrifices would be happening again after Jesus’ death, and they stopped in AD70. So, they start up again sometime after that. There are no sacrifices now in Jerusalem at the Temple Mount, but soon, once again, there will be, and there will be a new Temple. That Temple will be defiled according to Revelation 13, and if one reads Ezekiel 40-46, you will see the dimensions of a new Temple built, one that has not yet been built. It is a very large footprint, much larger than the one in Jerusalem that we are familiar with.
God’s plan is to have a new Temple in Jerusalem where the nations of the world can attend and come to it freely. By the way, we will still have nations and people entering the Holy City, but that is another lesson. At this house of the Lord, there will be judgment (verse 4); there, the nations of the world will establish some kind of peace that makes them willingly abandon their military armaments and refuse to learn war any longer (verse 4).
In verse 3, we see that the ‘God of Jacob’ will teach His ways, and out of Zion, the law will go out to the rest of the world. This has not happened yet; we are still waiting for it. But God promised that it would happen, so it will. This prophecy is in the 2,700-year-old range or so. It was not for the people of Isaiah’s day; it was for us in the latter days. God is not done with Israel; He is not done with Jerusalem, and to teach this is wrong. If God can forsake Israel, He can forsake you and me. God gave this promise through Isaiah 43:1…
“But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'”
God clearly states that Israel is His, and only He can determine what happens to her.
God bless you,
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
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