Going Home

Isaiah 2: 1-5 (November 28, 2010)

1) The Text

2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; 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 any more. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

2) The Context

Isaiah was a court prophet in Judea during the reign of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His court service began with a peaceful, independent Judea. But it ended with the domination of the small state by the rising Assyrians. Isaiah saw the glory and the shame of Judea under four different kings. His writings (chapters 1-39) reflect the extent of those experiences, but not in sequential order.

The book of Isaiah can be divided into two (and possibly three) parts. Chapters 1 to 39 were written before the exile, from about 740 BC to about 700 BC. These were difficult times for the southern kingdom, Judah: a disastrous war was fought with Syria; the Assyrians conquered Israel, the northern kingdom, in 723 BC, and threatened Judah. Isaiah saw the cause of these events as social injustice, which he condemned, and against which he fought valiantly. Because Chapter 1 begins with similar words, it appears that this and the next few chapters originally formed a separate document. The ideas in vv. 2-4 are also found in Micah 4.

Chapters 40 to 66 were written during and after the Exile in Babylon. They are filled with a message of trust and confident hope that God will soon end the Exile. Some scholars consider that Chapters 56 to 66 form a third part of the book, written after the return to the Promised Land. These chapters speak of hope and despair; they berate the people for their sin, for worshipping other gods. Like Second Isaiah, this part speaks of the hope that God will soon restore Jerusalem to its former glory and make a new home for all peoples.

3) Interpretation

Thomas Wolfe famously said, "You can't go home again," but the Bible suggests otherwise. It could be said that going home, going to the right home, is the Bible's central theme. And Advent is the quintessential time for going home. But if the Bible focuses huge attention on going home, how is it different from the nostalgic call to go on home, to hug your parents, to eat some rich food, to sit about the fire? Isaiah 2 does have a different take on the hope of homecoming. A careful look at the text shows just how different this Israelite, this world, homecoming will be.

The difference begins immediately in the introductory verse; this word that comes from God to Isaiah is not heard by the prophet, but is rather "seen" by him (2:1). The Hebrew verb means "to envision," as if the word has come in the form of a new way of seeing. If we are to understand a new way of going home, we must see differently, we must change our angle of vision. In fact, the vision of the prophet is to occur in "days to come". Rather than thinking about this as some future time, it is helpful to imagine this as a vision always available to those whose eyes have been opened to the newer reality of God. You can always go to this home, if you can see it, envision it -- and in the power of God you can.

Isaiah sees the mountain of God's house established as the highest of the mountains, lifted higher, better than all the hills there ever were (2:2b). The temple in Jerusalem may be the physical reference, resting on the hill of Zion, but visions are not merely about geography. The prophet sees in the vision that God is the center of the universe and all that God represents.

"All the nations are streaming (flowing)" to this mountain (2:2c). "The nations" (goyim) are those non-Israelite peoples who stand over against Israel. Their numbers are legion: Egyptians, Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Arameans, Canaanites, and countless smaller groups who over the centuries have warred and struggled with those who live in the tiny land of Israel. There is no agreement when this oracle was composed. But its vision could have come at any time to a people always ready to find out new meanings of their home.

The vast human stream flows toward God's mountain to learn what God uniquely has to teach. And what that is now becomes clear. What God has to impart to the world is Torah. It means "instruction," "teaching," the very ways and paths of God. As the nations approach the sacred mountain, God appears as judge, chief arbiter between and among the huge throng of peoples arrayed on the hill of Zion. The grammar of the sentence is important. God is judge and arbitrates between the peoples "in order that they beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation does not lift up sword against nation; they no longer learn war." And there is the home to which this vision calls Israel and us. Visions are not merely future hopes and dreams; visions are present potential realities.

When the proverb says, "Without a vision the people perish," it is not only saying that we need to keep some future hope alive in order that we can live in our difficulties now. The vision of a world without war, mandated by the great God of Zion, is far more than a fanciful dream of a few foolish overly-optimistic peaceniks. When Martin Luther King, Jr. helped all of us envision a world without racism, he was doing more than dreaming. He was casting a vision, another way of seeing the world. If we can see the vision, we can live into it, and need not wait for some long-expected future to do so. We simply must see the visions that God has for us and live always into them and toward them. And that is the home to which Isaiah points Israel and us. Advent points us toward home where the hope of genuine peace reigns.

Advent is a time of anticipation. These verses from Isaiah should fuel our spiritual anticipation. We have a bright future that God will provide. All we have to do is look and walk in faith.

4) Thought Exercise

What are the visions God has for you?

In what ways are you living into these visions?