 GCO Mission and Goals | GCO Ministry Testimonials | Projects | Resources/Donations/Contact | SEARCH | |
Cease Ye From Man
Exploring Isaiah chapter two, what and when?
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone, California, United States
Delivery: 2007-08-26 00:06Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2007-08-26 00:06Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kir-isaiah2.php
Let Us Go Up to the Mountain of the Lord
Isaiah chapter two is full. Let us be filled.
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 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 the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord (Isaiah 1:1-5).
These are beautiful words; they tell of a beautiful time—when the Great Controversy War is concluded. Then God’s kingdom will be established. The redeemed of all nations will assemble in worship. Whatever our ethnicity, we will be at peace one with another. Continuously learning, continuously growing, God’s people in the new earth will flourish.
That’s one interpretation. It sounds good. But as one thinks more carefully about that picture, one sees that what was just described is not the correct interpretation of the passage. The more correct interpretation is more radical.
You see, Isaiah is not describing a distant future in the new earth. He is describing the life of the remnant believer in the last days of the conflict, not the first days of the aftermath. Notice that Isaiah says that he is speaking of what “shall come to pass in the last days.” The chronological location is during the conclusion of this epoch, not the “in the first days” of the next.
See that God’s house will be established in the high place. True worship is restored. It is also interesting that in Jerusalem’s high place that was where the temple, the sanctuary then, stood. And Seventh-day Adventists have been called to faithfully uphold God’s sanctuary and its true work. What, after all, is the work of the sanctuary? It is the center of the eradification of sin, the center of the cleansing of God’s people. It is where their sins are recorded, transfered to, and finally cleansed by the melchisedec high Priest (Hebrews 5:10; 6:20). Of course, Jesus is our great high Priest; He is the Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 9:15; 12:24), Intercessor (Isaiah 53:12; Romans 8:27, 34; Hebrews 7:25), Cleanser of the sanctuary (Hebrews 9:28).
All nations shall flow into it. And today people from almost every corner of the world are entering the Seventh-day Adventist message. Jesus is teaching us His ways, we are learning to walk in His paths.
Out of Zion shall go forth His law. And where is God’s law going forth from today? Not from your run-of-the-mill Christian. Many Christians do teach obedience but as only an option. But there is nothing in the Ten Commandments that is optional. And if we take “God’s law” here in the broader sense, to mean instruction, then still it is true that in terms of Present Truth, it is the Seventh-day Adventist who has been especially commissioned to shepherd a message particular for this time. God’s law will go forth out of Zion, not into thin air, but in the people of Zion. That law is written into their minds. As they flow out of Zion so does God’s law flow out of Zion. As Seventh-day Adventists increase in the purity of their Christianity, so will they, as they leave the place of worship, take with them all of God’s will, all of God’s law, in themselves. The law flows forth from Zion in the people of Zion, into the world to bless it.
He shall judge among the nations and rebuke many people. How? By more and more clearly unveiling the Great Controversy War. As all that is right and all that is wrong comes ever more clearly into view, the causes of earthly warfare will be seen as what they are; the fundamentally miniscule value of earthly things will be seen. The issues which rivet us to the television news screen will be seen by us—in these very days—for what they are. We will lose our interest in the battles of earth fallen, and gain an interest in the things of God’s unselfish kingdom. We will not take up weapons against our fellow man over petty issues, and even our teaching of truth will take on a more Christlike aspect.
This section ends with the appeal for God’s people to walk in the light of the Lord. God wants us to catch His vision here. He wants us to see, in these very verses, His purpose for His remnant church, not 2,000 years from now, but now. This is a picture of what we should be experiencing at this time.
Replenished From the East
Therefore Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not (Isaiah 2:6-9).
The beautiful picture given at the head of the chapter is now spun 180 degrees on us. What He longs to see is not what is. He has, Instead, forsaken His people. On what basis?
First, they are replenished from the east. That is, they have forsaken God’s ways for false religious concepts. They are not only receptive to religious ways that are alien to God’s Word, but they have commenced a commerce of ideas and practices with other religious groups. They are feeding on them. Instead of manna they are eating scorpions. They have become great friends with these false religionists. They sell Philistine books in the religious bookstores of Zion. They borrow their theories, their illustrations, go to their training events, and copy their methods of worship and evangelism.
Consequently, instead of becoming like God, the people of God have become like the Philistines. As the NIV puts it, “they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans.” In urgent desire to be seen as legitimate by other groups, they have come to see the other groups as being legitimate. When they saw the other groups as legitimate, the practices of the other groups became legitimate in their eyes. And so, Israel begins to give preference to alien religious concepts. Things they otherwise would have stood firm in opposing now become common in the church.
There is great material wealth in the land. They may feel financially beset, but actually they are drunken with the benefits that surround them, forgetful of spiritual matters.
Idolatry is rampant. Not only that which they have made materially but also that which they have made mentally—their own corrupt ideas and intellectual creations, including religious—receive their energies and affections.
At verse 9 the NIV gives, “So man will be brought low and mankind humbled—do not forgive them.” Men will be brought low for their idolatry, materialism, and adoption of false religious themes and practices. Could this be applicable, I ask, to Seventh-day Adventists?
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Revelation 3:15-17).
This is the diagnosis of the True Witness Jesus to the Laodiceans, the last of the seven churches listed in Revelation two and three. We apply it to ourselves in warning. We dare not think of ourselves as full, as not needing God’s further insight and instruction. God is still instructing His people. When He sends us His insight, what do we do with it? Sometimes it seems we are glad to drop His name and claim to be Christians, but we are less interested in copying His character and truly being conduits for His light to the world.
The Lord Alone Exalted
Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols He shall utterly abolish (Isaiah 2:10-18).
Here we have a fascinating section. Where we saw in the first verses how God would be exalted, here we see how man will be humbled. God’s judgment will address the proud. Trees are often used to represent people, and here the cedars and the oak trees are brought down. The high towers and the fences—that is, military fortifications—will be subject to God’s just wrath. Heaven will act. They trusted in their own idols and false religion; they trusted in their riches and their ability to defend themselves. They are set for a humbling.
As for application to us as a church, do we not trust too much in committees, too much in the latest books from our presses, too much in our favorite preachers and teachers? If we would be true Jesus-following Seventh-day Adventists, we will have to train ourselves to study and think for ourselves. We need to spend more of our energies in the Bible. God’s Word must become, more than it is, our word. The law must go forth from Zion, and we are to be the conduit. If we are to think for ourselves, this is no call to total independence. We need the counsel and insight of our brothers and sisters. We need to team together in the living and sharing of God’s truth. Bullheaded Christians slow the work of God, they hinder it. They cannot work together with their fellow church members. God help us to be thoughtful and kind with each other.
In the humbling of His people, we are told that the idols will be utterly abolished. Seventh day Adventists will learn, in many cases perhaps the hard way, how cherished ideas and ”replenished from the east” theology (the attempted synthesis of alien to Adventism theology with Adventist theology) cannot fit together. That which does not fit, every plant which our heavenly Father has not planted (Matthew 15:13)—will be uprooted, utterly abolished.
Cease Ye From Man
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? (Isaiah 2:19-22).
In the end we know there will be two groups. One will have followed the Lamb Jesus Christ wherever He led them. The other will be confirmed rebels. Each group has chosen its course by the time of the end. Here our text has a similar structure to what we saw before. Whereas before we saw the haughtiness of men being brought down and the Lord alone being exalted (Isaiah 2:11, 17), now we see men hiding from God when He rises to shake terribly the earth (Isaiah 2:19, 21). The closing scene, for the rebels, is one of a recognition that comes too late, that they have been worshipping nothing but their own constructions.
Here you have a reversal of Eden. Adam and Eve chose sin and fell and ran to hide when God came to them. But He does come to them and seek them out, calling “Adam, where are you?” The reversal in Isaiah is that God has already been seeking, He has already come after the rebel, but the rebel has rejected His initiatives. Whereas in Eden God comes at the beginning of the time of mercy, in Isaiah’s prophecy, He comes after the conclusion of the time of mercy. Adam recognized he had made a dramatic mistake. So does the rebel here in Isaiah. But the timing is important. Adam made his poor choice out of an immaturity, but the rebel who goes into the holes of the rocks and the caves of the earth has brought his rebellion to full bloom. It is a matured rebellion, hopeless.
What he finds is that his self-made worship is worthless. Consider again these lines from verse 20: the rebel casts away “his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship.” These are not just idols of silver and idols of gold, but “his” idols of silver and gold. There is ownership. But the crucial point is, “which they made each one for himself to worship.” These have been highly valued idols, actually, religious ideas that have seemed so very convenient and helpful, so very apparently freeing. But they have, now all too late, a realization that actually they have made these idols which they have themselves proceeded to worship. Now they see the bankruptcy of these ideas. Now they abandon them with haste. But it is too late. No time remains in which to open the heart to the Creator, so that out of him the law might go forth from Zion.
The last statement in the chapter is its strongest. “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?” We hear it in light of the rest of the chapter. After the first verses outlined the picture of what God’s people will be doing in the last days of our epoch, and the next offered God’s principle complaints against His people, and the last verses affirmed the imminent humbling of the proud and glorification of God, after wealth has been found empty and idols abandoned. At last, man has no false stays left. All the crutches are gone out from under him.
The prophet foretells the harrowing end of the rebel, at last making his ultimate pitch: Do not trust in yourself. The contrast is between true worship in the first verses, and the last verses’ false, self-made worship which is worthy only of throwing to the moles and the bats.
This is not a statement about man’s inability to worship God; it is no invitation to a passivist, fatalist religion. It is testimony to the ease with which fallen man talks himself into the fantasy that his own ideas about the worship of the infinite God give him freedom to blend God’s ways with other innovations. It is a warning to us about trusting our own capacity to synthesize error and truth into “err-uth,” nothing more than an idol made by our own hands; a very combustible idol.
Conclusion
These lines do indeed offer us points to ponder as Seventh-day Adventists. For if we all continue on the trajectories we are on, some of us will be part of that shining throng going up to worship the Lord, those through whom God’s law goes forth to the nations; but others will in the end be found with no shelter in the time of storm. And it all boils down to trusting in the Lord or trusting in ourselves. Two futures stretch before us. Two groups are indicated, and we can choose to be part of either one. One will echo the character of Christ, not in fiction but reality, and endure through eternity. The other will resist that same character, clinging to their fancy ideas about God. They will think they have obtained to wonderful new vistas of advanced truth. But they worship idols that their own intellectual craftsmanship has made.
These are the two pathways marked out. One with Jesus; one attempting, unsuccessfully to hide from destruction. Let us learn the lessons of trust in God, and distrust of our own personal fallibility, here found. May every listening heart have part in the law of our Lord that goes forth out of Zion. GCO
© 2007 by GreatControversy.org. GCO grants permission to individuals, wholeheartedly encouraging them to copy and reproduce documents and files appearing on this site, in an unaltered state, and for non-commercial use, unless otherwise noted. All other rights reserved. Other groups or entities wishing to reproduce these materials are encouraged to contact us with reproduction requests.
 |