David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are 2 Chronicles 26, Isaiah 1-2, Psalm 17.

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 forth 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.

What a breath of fresh air Isaiah is! There will be hard words that need to be spoken. The very next verse is one example:

For you have rejected your people,
the house of Jacob,
because they are full of things from the east
and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. – Isaiah 2:6

But how sweet are these opening words, especially in light of the sorry track record of Israel’s kings. Judah’s kings fared somewhat better. Yet even under the better kings, God’s people needed a word of hope and grace. The kingdom was divided. The northern kingdom would fall to Assyria during Isaiah’s lifetime. Even Judah will go into exile following Isaiah’s days (and he prophecies this in Isaiah 39). Troubled days lay ahead.

But Isaiah holds out hope. God’s law would go forth. His ways would be known. His truth would be acknowledged. God himself would act. He would raise up Zion as a light to the nations and establish his ways among the peoples. It would become so evident that people would say to one another, “Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

This is a good word for us as well. In these times of war and unrest – Israel and Hezbollah, Russia and Ukraine, Iran, ISIS, Sudan, Boko Haram, Nigeria, and countless other places – we need a promise that one day swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.

That promise finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and will reach its completion in the new heaven and the new earth. Jesus himself said there would be wars and rumors of wars until the end. Yet the Gospel will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come. That is the hope Isaiah places before us.

So when you see trouble, turmoil, war, violence, injustice, and corruption, do not despair. Do what you can to uphold truth and righteousness. But above all, remember the promise of God. The light of the LORD has already dawned in Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us walk in his light while we await the day when peace reigns forever.