A Commentary on Isaiah 2, Pt. I: The Mountain of the Lord
"Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." - Phil. 2:9a
I once attended a women’s Bible study where I posed a question that seemed so out of left field that you could feel the record stop when I asked: “What is everyone’s eschatology?” The three responses I got were:
a) Our what?
b) It doesn’t matter
c) Premillennial
After clarifying what exactly I was asking, the group of about a dozen women unanimously agreed they were premillennial, though some admitted they had never studied it. I was the only dissenter. But the most disheartening response I received was from an elder’s wife who, with great enthusiasm, declared, “There’s so many opinions and you just can’t know. You can’t know. People might say they know, but nobody really knows.” It wasn’t just an expression of her opinion, but an active attempt at discouraging anyone from looking into it or having any discussion on it.
I had asked to gain insight on how the group was understanding the text being discussed that day. This is because I have come to understand that one’s eschatological persuasion deeply impacts the way one reads scripture. It tells me a lot about how a person understands the Bible when they answer the question of eschatology. It tells me how they view the future, the present, and even the past. And how they will view controversial passages and their implications for this present age.
This will be a two (or maybe three) part series to demonstrate how having a particular eschatology influences a person’s understanding of scripture. Specifically, I want to demonstrate how much theology can be missed by assuming a premillennial eschatology when approaching more ambiguous passages like Isaiah 2. Instead of letting a presupposed eschatological position determine the meaning of the text, I want to demonstrate how letting scripture interpret itself through the repeating images and themes of the Bible will reveal the meaning of the text. From there we will see a different eschatological view implied.
The Premillennial Persuasion
Theological websites like Got Questions (which is a wonderful resource I refer to frequently and commend to you) unfortunately have almost dogmatically assumed and continue to popularize a premillennial position. This is consistent with what I observed in the women’s Bible study. Even the most unstudied on the issue assume a premillennial position simply because it is popular consensus today, especially among evangelical denominations.
In case premillennial eschatology is unfamiliar to you, here, again, is a summary from Got Questions: Premillennialism.
It is also important to make a distinction between historic premillennialism and dispensational premillennialism: Historic vs. Dispensational Premillennialism. But for the purposes of this series, it is a distinction without a difference, so I will simply be using the term “premillennial” when generally referring to the position I am critiquing and refer to them more specifically when required.
Concerning Isaiah 2 in particular, I want to quote another website I have frequented and recommended often, so we can have an idea of the premillennial presuppositions being imported into the text before it is even given a chance to speak for itself.
From David Guzik’s commentary on verses 2-4 of Isaiah 2:
“In context, the term latter days refers to the ‘time of the Messiah,’ when the Anointed of the Lord reigns over the earth. Broadly, this speaks of the time many refer to as the millennium, the thousand-year reign of Jesus on this earth… During the millennium, Israel will be the ‘superpower’ of the world. It will be the leading nation in all the earth, and the center of Israel will be the mountain of the Lord’s house—the temple mount, which will be the ‘capital’ of the government of the Messiah. All nations shall flow to the ‘capital’ of the government of Jesus… During the millennium, the citizens of earth will acknowledge and submit to the Lordship of Jesus. It will be a time of perfectly administrated enforced righteousness on this earth… During the reign of the Messiah, there will be no more war. There will still be conflicts between nations and individuals, but they will be justly and decisively resolved by the Messiah and those who reign with Him… It isn’t the reign of the Messiah itself that will change the heart of man. Citizens of the earth will still need to trust in Jesus, and His work on their behalf, for their personal salvation during the millennium. But war and armed conflict will not be tolerated… It is important to see that this is not the peace of surrender. This is the peace of enforced righteousness. There would be no more war, and no more need for swords and spears, so it made sense to make them into plowshares and pruning hooks. But there will be no more war because there will be a new ruler on earth, Jesus Christ.”
Guzik latches onto a few words and phrases to build his interpretation. A few verses are cross-referenced, but not to an extent I find satisfactory. Much is presupposed to arrive at the conclusion that this generally must be referring to a future literal thousand year reign of Christ on this earth. His interpretation does take a more dispensational direction as he names the geopolitical nation of Israel the “superpower” of the world. However, the text does not support that nor does it support premillennial eschatology in general. (Perhaps you can find a text that does, but so far I have not seen it—feel free to submit texts to prove me otherwise!)
Scripture Interprets Scripture
Letting scripture interpret itself means that we don’t pull from sources outside the text to aid our understanding, which the dispensational does frequently. Although we may need some cultural background from time to time to make sense of things, scripture can generally tell us everything we need to know just by cross referencing its rich vocabulary of images and symbolism. There are two points to consider here:
1) All scripture is a testimony of Jesus; the narrative, epistles, history, prophecy, visions, poetry, and law all present different pictures of the same repeating patterns relating to Christ and redemptive history.
2) When you read the Bible from cover to cover again and again, these patterns will naturally start to reveal themselves. You’ll read passages that sound familiar and recall previous things you’ve read and form your own cross references over time.
(Side note: I’ve often heard it said that, yes, the whole Bible is about Christ, but that one can allegorize the Old Testament wrongly to a point of finding Christ under every rock. While this is true, I want to push back a little bit. Although every rock and tree and creature doesn’t represent Christ himself, I do see that every rock and tree and creature depicts some aspect of redemptive history. No detail is there by happenstance. This is in addition to a plainer reading of the text, of course. In short, the text almost always has layers of meaning, though all interpretations should be consistent with the full counsel of scripture and not twisted to mean something that goes against it.)
The First & Second Comings
One of the themes in scripture we must address before turning to Isaiah is the idea of Christ’s first and second comings.
We speak of the coming of Christ as occurring in two bodily advents. The first time he appeared in the flesh was 2,000 years ago to live a life of obedience, die by crucifixion, resurrect from the grave and ascend to the Father. The second time will be when he comes to judge the world at the end of the age. This second coming is referred to most often in scripture as “The Day of the Lord.”
This is true, but there’s actually a repeating pattern here:
God comes in grace. He delivers his word or instruction and warning to a particular people or person.
God appears a second time to judge whether that people or person heeded his word.
This is something that happens over and over again both in scripture, historically, and even in modern times. It does not mean that God appears in the flesh every time he dispenses his word or comes to judge its hearers. Here are some examples of this pattern:
God came first to Adam with instructions not to eat from the tree; God returned in judgment to find that Adam had disobeyed and threw him out of the garden.
God came first with a warning through the preaching of Noah; God returned in judgment with a flood that destroyed the wicked.
God came first to Nineveh with a warning to repent; God returned in judgment to find that they had repented and relented from destroying it.
God first comes to a man through the preaching of the word; God will return in judgment to each man to see whether he has heeded the message of the gospel.
Just the same, Christ came as the living Word of God to the Jews. When they rejected him, God “returned in judgment” in the year 70AD. The temple and the nation were destroyed. (This is what the events of Matthew 24 are largely concerned with.) When we speak of Christ’s first and second bodily advents, we are referring to the most comprehensive instance of God coming with his word and then returning in judgment. But, make no mistake, this visitation of first the word of God followed by the judgment of God is happening continually through history. Any time and anywhere the gospel is presented, God tarries until he returns to judge—both nations and individuals.
Take the United States for example. How long has the Word of God been at our fingertips? How long as God been patient with a world power that blasphemes his name? And how much longer will God tarry before he “returns” to destroy a nation that has not heeded his warning? In fact, our nation is already under judgment (Romans 1) and is only awaiting a final decimation.
Just the same, God tarries with great patience for each man who has heard and rejected his word before returning to make his judgment.
The Mountain of the Lord
With this framework in mind, we can look at Isaiah 2 and see exactly the same pattern repeated. In verses 1-5, we see Christ coming as the Word, lifted up for the house of Jacob (the nation of Israel) to see and, subsequently, the whole world.
Verses 6-22 speak of “The Day of the Lord,” when he returns to judge.
A Vision of Christ
Per verse 1, Isaiah “saw” this word concerning Judah and Jerusalem, meaning it was a vision—images representing a spiritual reality. Visions in scripture are rarely (if ever) to be understood literally, but symbolically. (Be careful to distinguish between prophecies that are seen and prophecies that are heard. I.e. Isaiah saw this prophecy in a vision, but Moses heard the word of the Lord without a vision when he received the ten commandments.)
Latter Days: From Christ Forward
Returning to verse 2, the “latter days” does not reach as far into the future as the premillennial assumes. In fact, it is the opposite. The latter days refers to this present age and reaches all the way back to the time of Christ’s first advent.
The mountain of the Lord was established as the highest of the mountains when Christ was lifted up on the cross, from the grave, and into heaven:
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” - Phil. 2:9-11
“All” in Christ
Since then, the gospel has gone forth to the whole world and all nations flow to Christ, as Christ himself said would happen: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). “All nations” and “all people” does not refer to every individual nation or person, but to the diversity of the people who make up the kingdom of God.
The dwelling place of God is no longer restricted to the temple in Jerusalem, but God dwells with every Christian across every tribe, tongue and nation. In the Old Testament, people did indeed have to “go up to the mountain of the Lord” to offer sacrifices at the temple mount. But temple practices were a dress rehearsal for the new and better covenant we have in Christ. Now, rather than going up to a physical temple, people from all nations are spiritually going up the mountain of calvary to THE house of God—The body of Christ, in whom the fullness of God dwells (John 2:21; Col. 2:9). And his body isn’t just his body. Since Christ is in us and we are in Christ, we are his body and he is the head (Eph. 5:23,30). It is to the church that the nations flow!
It’s tempting to take these verses as meaning all war everywhere is eradicated, which a premillennial reader assumes. However, the seemingly sweeping statements of the Hebrew language don’t always encompass every individual in a group when referring to “all” of something. This is especially the case in visions due to their figurative tone. Context and a whole-Bible perspective are important. Just as we saw in the preceding verses, “all nations” does not mean every nation and “all people” does not mean every person. Otherwise, we would have universalism and that is decidedly not the reality scripture presents.
Peace in Christ
Christ is on the throne reigning right now over all nations, he is the judge of the earth and deciding disputes for many. This is not in the sense that all war has ceased, but has to do with the unity of all tribes, tongues and nations in Christ and the diversity of the Kingdom of God. Hostility between Jews and Gentiles and all nations is put away in Christ:
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” - Eph. 2:13-16
(There is more to say on these verses, but I am putting it on hold until part II.)
The Light: Christ
The portion of this vision concerning the Lord’s first appearance ends with a final urge that the descendants of Jacob—the Israelites—would walk in the light of the Lord. A sentiment that would later be echoed by John: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Yet, John tells us, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1).
Out of Zion
When the literal temple in the physical nation of Israel was the dwelling place of God, no other nation had access to the Lord unless they were shown mercy through the nation of Israel. The nations walked in darkness.
Ruth is a good example. She believed the God of Israel and told Naomi she would serve the Lord and not return to her pagan homeland; to return would have been to leave the dwelling place of God.
But when Christ came, the law and word of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem, beginning with the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2). There, many nations heard the gospel in their own language and went up to the house of the Lord to learn to “walk in his ways.” Since then, virtually the entire world has heard the word of the Lord and the gospel continues to spread to even the remotest places. The word of God is no longer bound up in Israel in a written code, but is now written on the heart of every believer and the whole world has access to the Word that has gone out from Zion.
But with great power comes great responsibility. In other words: once the Word of God has been spoken, its hearers are accountable. After Christ himself came and preached, Israel was brought to account in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem, the slaughter of her inhabitants and the flattening of the temple.
This was the fulfillment of the latter half of Isaiah 2—but not the only fulfillment. The fall of Jerusalem—who heard and saw the Word of God and rejected him—was a type of what is to come for the whole world at the end of this present age.
Marching To Zion
I don’t know if Isaac Watts was a premillennialist, but every time I sing his hymn, the reality of passages like Isaiah 2 is freshly impressed on me. The premillennialist can only read with vague ideas about a future government and can hardly feel the words applying to him personally—and much of the scripture he reads this way! It is nothing short of reading with blinders on.
But these verses reveal something much more precious—and present. Truly, the mountain of the house of the Lord has been establish above all and we who believe are all flowing to him from far and wide. Truly, the word has left Jerusalem and rested in the hearts of men and brought peace among us. We’re all going up together singing:
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heav’nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We’re marching through Immanuel’s ground
To fairer worlds on high.
We’re marching to Zion,
Beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God.