Isaiah 2

B. The problem with Israel chs. 2-4 This second major segment of the introduction to the book (chs. 1-5) contrasts what God intended Israel to be (Isaiah 2:1-5), with what she was (Isaiah 2:6 to Isaiah 4:1), and what God will make of her in the future (Isaiah 4:2-6). Thus the progress of thought is from the ideal to the real and back to the ideal.

Isaiah 2:1

The presence of another superscription to the following prophecies (cf. Isaiah 1:1), the only other one in Isaiah, bears witness to the composite nature of the book; it consists of several different prophecies. Probably one appears here to set off the prophecies that follow (in chs. 2-4 or chs. 2-5) from what preceded (in ch. 1).

Isaiah 2:5-4

2. God’s discipline of Israel 2:5-4:1 In contrast to the hopeful tone of the sections that precede and follow it, this one is hopeless. In contrast to the dignity of humanity there, Isaiah presented its folly here.

Isaiah 2:6

Israel must walk in Yahweh’s light because God had forsaken her in her present condition for departing from Him. Contrast the nations that will seek the Lord in the future (Isaiah 2:2). Israel had stopped living as a distinct people in the world, had adopted the ways of other nations, and had relied on them rather than on the Lord. She had looked to the east (first Assyria and then Babylonia) for light rather than to the Lord, and had become like her despised enemies, the uncircumcised Philistines.

Isaiah 2:7-8

Specifically, Israel had filled herself with the wealth, armaments, and idols of the pagan nations (cf. Deuteronomy 17:16-17; 1 Kings 10:26 to 1 Kings 11:8). King Uzziah’s successful reign brought material prosperity to Judah, but this wealth had only encouraged Jewish materialism and neglect of God. Judah had accumulated these things to make herself secure, but she was only trusting in what she herself had made. Contrast the nations that will seek spiritual benefits (Isaiah 2:3), enjoy peace (Isaiah 2:4), and follow the Lord (Isaiah 2:4).

Isaiah 2:9

Glorifying created things rather than the Creator results in the humiliation and abasement of those who do these things (cf. Romans 1). Forgiveness is unthinkable when people do these things (Isaiah 2:9; cf. Exodus 34:7). “Do not forgive them” is an idiom meaning “for sure you will not forgive them.” [Note: Motyer, p. 56. Isaiah was not asking God to refrain from forgiving His people.

“A major motif in OT theology is here (and in Isaiah 2:11-22): pride and ambition are humanity’s besetting and most devastating sins. Idolatry is seen as an expression of this drive by which man seeks to exalt himself.” [Note: Watts, Isaiah 1-33, p. 35.

Isaiah 2:10-11

The proud and lofty people would eventually try to hide from God’s judgment of them when He exalts Himself in the day of His reckoning (see Isaiah 2:12). Having boasted in earthly resources (Isaiah 2:6-8), they now have only the earth to turn to (cf. Isaiah 1:24). Contrast the nations that the Lord will accept in the future (Isaiah 2:4). “In preaching as he does here, Isaiah is going contrary to modern psychological theories which assert that it is unwise and even wrong to use fear as a motif in preaching and teaching. How different God’s appraisal of preaching!. . . The only way to run from God is to run to Him.” [Note: Young, 1:122.

Isaiah 2:12-17

Everyone, not just the Israelites, who exalts himself against the Lord will suffer humiliation. The Lord’s day of reckoning (Isaiah 2:12) is any day in which He humbles the haughty, but it is particularly the Tribulation-in which He will humble haughty unbelievers. Isaiah used nature and the works of man to symbolize people (cf. Isaiah 1:30; Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 9:10; Isaiah 10:33 to Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 44:14; Isaiah 60:16). Here several of these symbols represent the spiritual pride of Israel (cf. Romans 12:3; Ephesians 4:2).

“Throughout this section (Isaiah 2:6 to Isaiah 4:1) and many others in the Book of Isaiah, there is an interesting interplay between the judgment which the Lord will inflict on the nation by the Assyrian and Babylonian Captivities and the judgment which will come on Israel and the whole world in the ’last days’ just before the Millennium. Probably Isaiah and the other prophets had no idea of the lengthy time span that would intervene between those exiles and this later time of judgment. Though many of the predictions in Isaiah 2:10-21 happened when Assyria and Babylon attacked Israel and Judah, the passage looks ahead to a cataclysmic judgment on the whole world (‘when He rises to shake the earth,’ Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah 2:21).” [Note: John A. Martin, “Isaiah,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament," p. 1039.

Isaiah 2:18-21

Even more explicit figures of speech picture Yahweh’s humiliation of the self-aggrandizing. Here the similarity of Isaiah’s description of the eschatological judgment is very close to the apostle John’s in the Book of Revelation (cf. Revelation 6:12-17). When God acts in judgment, all attempts to glorify the creation over the Creator will appear vain. Valuable idols will be cast aside to the bats and mice and consigned to the dark, unattractive places where those creatures live. “Idols are precious. They are always our hard-won silver and gold. That’s why we prize them. They are beautiful, but also contemptible. J. R.

R. Tolkien portrayed this in The Lord of the Rings. Everyone who wears the golden ring of power morphs into something weirdly subhuman, like Gollum, who cherishes it as ‘My Precious.’ So for Middle-earth to be saved, the ring must be thrown into the fire of Mount Doom and destroyed forever. Tolkien understood that the key to life is not only what we lay hold of but also what we throw away.” [Note: Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Isaiah, p. 54. “This portrayal of the Lord’s day contains several parallels with ancient Near Eastern accounts of the exploits of mighty warrior kings and deities. First, the very concept of the Lord’s ‘day’ derives ultimately from the ancient Near East, where conquering kings would sometimes boast that they were able to consummate a campaign in a single day. [Note: See Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:36.

Ancient Near Eastern texts also sometimes associate cosmic disturbances and widespread panic with the king’s/god’s approach (cf. Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 2:19-21).” [Note: Chisholm, “A Theology . . .,” pp. 309-10.

Isaiah 2:22

The prophet’s second exhortation 2:22 This section (Isaiah 2:5-22) closes as it opened, with an exhortation, this one being negative. Isaiah called on his hearers to stop trusting in man. His life, after all, comes from God, who should be trusted (cf. Genesis 2:7; Genesis 7:22; Psalms 146:4). Human beings have no real value as objects of trust. Idolatry is but a result of man’s self-glorification, not its cause. Human beings will never bring about Israel’s glorious destiny. Only God can and will do that. This verse, like Isaiah 2:5, is transitional, and bridges the preceding proclamation of universal judgment with the following more specific judgment.