Sunday of Creation (Mon: OTA)

Isaiah 2:1-5

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 

²  It shall come to pass in the latter days 

that the mountain of the house of the Lord 

shall be established as the highest of the mountains, 

and shall be lifted up above the hills; 

and all the nations shall flow to it, 

³  and many 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 the law, 

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 

⁴  He shall judge between the nations, 

and shall decide disputes for many peoples; 

and 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. 

⁵  O house of Jacob, 

come, let us walk 

in the light of the Lord. 

In the final days before Christ returns you have a picture of God gathering his people. He has them flow like a river up a mountain where there is peace and rest for this nation. This can remind us of a return to Eden. Eden had rivers flowing out to the rest of creation. Eden was the perfect place of rest for God's people. Eden was the place where God walked with his children.

But now Eden is no more. The world is filled with war, and trouble. Isaiah's main struggle for God's people is the fight they face with other nations. It is not the fight we general think of with the Law of God or God himself. This battle is a physical war that is being waged across the entire world. And so we can look at Israel being consumed by Babylon and Assyria. Israel has enemies on all sides ready to conqueror, there have been very few years in their history to find rest. 

We can also look at the world of today.  World War I was supposed to be the War to end all wars. But the world has constantly been at War since. Nations fighting across the sea and in distant lands. Like one person said, it is hard to identify the difference between wartime and peacetime anymore.

This is the final gift that God will give when Christ returns. He will bring his people together. He will gather them in houses built for peace. He will instruct them in his word. He will show them what true peace really is, and how it is found in Christ Jesus his son. Then later in Isaiah chapter 2 he has these people flow out from this place and spread the Torah of God. It is Christ who brings us forgiveness and sends us out into the world to shine that light to all nations.