“It shall come to pass in the latter days ...” (Is 2:2 ESV)

Isaiah 2-4
There is certainty in the statement: “It shall come to pass”. Whatever Isaiah’s next sermon discusses, we are reminded about the certainty behind what God does. Whether blessing or curse, without a doubt, “it shall come to pass”.

This sermon is framed by two pictures of the “latter days”:
1) “the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains” - Is 2:2
2) “the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious” - Is 4:2

No matter what would transpire between the day Isaiah spoke the words and the commencement of “that day”, God’s mountain and branch would be the most powerful and glorious around. It’s hard to say what the mountain and branch are supposed to be. Are they the physical or spiritual kingdom? Maybe they are referring to a return from exile or the New Testament church.

We do know, however, that the nature of God’s teaching, paths, law and judgment are what make his mountain attractive to people. The attraction to peace through righteousness may best describe what the mountain is supposed to represent: living in godliness & Righteousness. These are both the means to reach God and the reward of being in his presence. The height of the mountain and the glory of the branch.

This is what will come to pass in the latter days to God’s mountain & branch: the peoples will stream to it and the survivors of Jerusalem will be holy. With God’s righteous teaching and lifestyle as the goal, Isaiah begins to itemize problems he saw in the people around him.

~ People were influenced by the world - 2:6-8
~ People who hide from God (like Adam & Eve?) - 2:9-11, 19-21
~ People with “haughty looks” & “lofty pride” - 2:11
~ People who, left to themselves, lived foolishly - 2:22-3:8
~ People live and speak against the LORD - 3:8
~ People without shame for sin - 3:9
~ People with misleading guides - 3:12

When God looks at the behavior of his people, their faces betray them (Is 3:9). When God opens his court of judgment against all peoples, his own have no answer to their oppression of the poor & helpless (Is 3:13-14). When God looks to the women of the land he only sees decadence and pride (Is 3:16-4:1).

When God look out to his people, what does he see? A city that stumbled and a country that fallen “against the LORD, defying his glorious presence” (Is 3:8). Not quite the picture of expectation we read in Isaiah 2:2 & 4:2.

If Isaiah’s previous sermon (Isaiah 1) was a “wake up call”, this sermon is a tool to educate the child of God. It contrasts the ideal ways and paths of the LORD with the current lifestyle Isaiah’s audience was a part of. When you grow up “on a pew” in a religious family you grow accustomed to the assumption that you are in the way of the Lord. Isaiah challenged his audience to reconsider - the same way James did in his letter to the early Christians.

Isaiah says, consider how the nations will be drawn to God’s paths, judgment and decisions - are you drawn to these aspects of God? The behavior of the people in Isaiah’s day indicated otherwise.

“In that day ... when the Lord shall have washed away the filth from the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem” - Is 4:2-4

It is a sure thing - sure enough to speak of the approaching purging to have already happened. Isaiah wanted his brothers and sisters to consider whether they would be purged from Jerusalem or be “he who is left in Zion ... who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem” (Is 4:3).

Brothers and sisters, just as Isaiah warned Zion of the “spirit of judgment” and “spirit of burning”, we are warned of the same spirit - Matthew 3:11-12. What will we be revealed by fire in our day? (1Co 3:10-15)