Isaiah 2:1

This chapter has three paragraphs. The first (Isaiah 2:1-4) speaks of the proclamation of the Kingdom of God from Mount Zion by God himself in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord; the second (Isaiah 2:5-11) is a call for apostate Israel to repent and heed the word of God; and the third (Isaiah 2:12-22) reveals the inevitability of the "Day of Jehovah," namely the Great and final judgment identified with the second advent of the Son of God.

Isaiah 2:1-4

"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established upon the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways; and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning 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 any more."

This is one of the most important passages in the Word of God, so important, in fact, that God gave the same message through two different prophets. Micah 4:1-3 has this:

"But in the latter days, it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow into it. And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem; and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off; 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 any more."

It is a great hoax among critical commentators in this era of Biblical exegesis to engage in very erudite and scholarly guessing as to who copied whom, whenever very similar, or identical passages are encountered. To us, such scholarly doodlings are ridiculous. All such allegations are founded on the incredible proposition that God could never have given the same message to more than one prophet. Where is any authority for a canard like that? Jesus gave identical, or nearly identical, teachings on many occasions, as witnessed by the two records of the Lord's prayer in Matthew and in Luke, and also his repeated prophecies of his Passion. As An example of the critical comment offered on passages like this, we cite the words of Rawlinson:

"The resemblance of this prophecy to Micah 4:1-3 is so close as to necessitate the conclusion that either one of the two prophets copied from the other or that both copied from an earlier document."[1]

The tremendous importance of these passages in Micah and Isaiah is such that there cannot possibly be any wonder that God gave the same message twice. In the first place, this teaching is not talking about the earthly Jerusalem at all, but the "heavenly Jerusalem" which is our mother (Galatians 4:26). God simply was not speaking of the literal Jerusalem, nor of the Law of Moses in any sense whatever in this passage. Moses' law never went forth from Jerusalem, but from Sinai; and "many peoples" have never flowed unto the literal Jerusalem, but unto the spiritual Jerusalem which is Mount Zion (Hebrews 12:22).

That God Himself actually revealed this prophecy to Isaiah is affirmed in Isaiah 2:1, and no believer has a right to understand it any other way.

"It shall come to pass in the latter days ..." "Whenever the latter times are mentioned in Scripture, the times of the Messiah are always meant; and, with regard to this passage, nothing could be more clear and certain."[2]

It is significant that here is revealed the earthly center from which the true authority would be issued, that being here designated as Jerusalem, and not Rome, Salt Lake City, Boston, or any other "source" of true religion.

"Jehovah's house shall be established ..." This is not a reference to the Jewish temple, but to the Church of Jesus Christ. As an apostle expressed it, addressing a faithful church, "Ye are the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16). Other passages that identify God's "house" are Heb. 12:18-23,1 Timothy 3:5.

Perhaps the most difficult portion of this prophecy to understand is the last portion of it which speaks of beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, which is often misunderstood to teach that war shall pass away as an instrument of national policy and that universal peace on earth shall prevail. This is totally in error. Christ himself taught that "there shall be wars and rumors of wars" throughout the current dispensation" (Matthew 24:6). What we actually have, therefore, is a statement of the way it will be among the citizens of the kingdom of God, or the church of Messiah.

Here the prophet is certainly not speaking of the world, for its peoples will war continually, but rather of the all nations and many peoples who will come to Jehovah's house. He is describing the citizens of the new kingdom.[3]

The fulfillment of this prophecy is seen in the general practice of believers in all generations. Except for the example of the apostate Medieval church's acceptance of war as an instrument used to further their secular ends, God's people have consistently rejected war as an instrument of evangelism or for any other purpose. This is a sure indication that denies authenticity, in the sight of Christ, to the followers of Mohammed.

Homer Hailey's writing on the subject of the swords and plowshares is by far the best that we have encountered on this subject. The new kingdom would not be extended or defended by the weapons of carnal warfare' because the apostle Paul gave us a list of our spiritual weapons in Ephesians 6.

Another most important teaching of these verses is the call of the Gentiles to be co-members with the old Israel in the new kingdom of God which was announced by John the Baptist in Matthew 3. This is the specific teaching of verse 3 in this chapter (above).

An example of the teaching of Millennialists is the following: "All will be governed by Christ's judicial decision; weapons of war will be converted to tools of peace; the Millennial kingdom will be a warless society."[4]

All such postulations are founded upon a mistaken view of the Millennium, which contrary to popular superstition has already been in progress ever since the resurrection of Christ. The present dispensation is, without doubt, the Millennium of Scripture; and, as we learn from the Book of Revelation, it is not a time of universal peace, but of conflict. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse give the true picture of this Millennium. The White Horse indeed continually goes forth conquering and to conquer in the preaching of the Gospel; but he was followed by the Red Horse of war and carnal conflict. Contrary to the popular current myth, the sacred prophecy did not depict that Red Horse as disappearing from history, but as going all the way to the end, followed by the Black Horse of famine and the Pale Horse of death. See my exposition of this whole sequence in Volume 12 of my New Testament Series of Commentaries, pp. 128-137.

Of course, we are aware of the urgent postulations of critical enemies of the Bible who, because of their a priori dictum that the Messianic hope did not enter the minds of Jewish prophets until after the exile, are determined not to allow the true interpretation of countless Old Testament prophecies that contradict their silly rules. The ultimate hope of the heavenly Messiah was not invented by post-exilic prophets. It shines in the great Protoevangelium of Genesis 3:15, in the prophecy of Jacob that the scepter should not depart from Judah until the coming of Shiloh (Genesis 49:10), and in that magnificent prophecy of Micah 5:2 which speaks of that great Ruler of Israel "whose goings forth have been from of old, even from everlasting!" Pray tell, WHO in heaven and earth could this Ruler be if not the Messiah. NO! As Eiselen pointed out, "One cannot escape the suspicion that specific objections (to prophecies like these we have just cited and to many others in Isaiah...J.B.C.) are meant simply to bolster up the assumption urged by many scholars that the pre-exilic age did not know any Messianic hope."[5] Of course, this is a profound fact; and, unless one wishes to be deceived, his first duty is to reject the arbitrary, irresponsible, and unbelieving rules of exegesis laid down by the critical enemies of Christianity.

All of the fog about multiple Isaiah's and the ridiculous late-dating of various chapters in this prophecy are nothing at all except the efforts of unbelievers to identify the genuine prophecies of Isaiah with their post-exilic nonsense about the origin of Messianic Hope, which was most certainly known by Moses in his great prophecy of" A PROPHET LIKE UNTO ME." See our somewhat extensive dissertation on this in Vol. IV of the Pentateuchal Series, pp. 203-210.

That the eighth-century Isaiah did indeed prophecy repeatedly of the Holy Messiah is abundantly testified in the New Testament, where our Lord and the New Testament writers quoted Isaiah, duly crediting him with literally dozens of quotations! One of the great joys which we unhesitatingly promise believers is the study of many of those wonderful Messianic prophecies in this incredibly beautiful prophecy.