Sunday 10 July 2016

Isaiah 2:1-5 Fulfilled?


Isaiah prophesied that all nations would go to the Temple at mount Zion.

Some say it's to be literally fulfilled in the future.

Others say it's been fulfilled already - not literally in Israel, but instead in the Church.

But I'm wondering whether it has been fulfilled already - literally, in Israel first, before it can be extended and applied any other way.


ISAIAH 2:1-5

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

[So the prophecy was first and foremost about the twin nations of Judah and Jerusalem, literally. Judah and Jerusalem were nations distinct from each other only prior to captivity - they aren't distinct from each other any more, and won't be again in future.]
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.
['Last days' could just have meant, in the future, far in the future. Even if it didn't happen until the time of Jesus, that could still be said to be 'the last days' - because the Apostles said that it was 'the last hour' already in their day; they said Jesus died 'at the end of the world'; they said they were those 'upon whom the end of the ages have come'. So it's not necessarily still in our future.]
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.
[It says the people would go up to the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord ceased to exist around AD70.

It also says they would go up to the God of Jacob. God is no longer the God of Jacob exclusively. He has already included Gentiles in His program. But He was the God of Jacob prior to the New Covenant being made.

Jerusalem is no longer the required place of worship, according to Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well of Samaria. But Jerusalem was the required place of worship while the Old Covenant still stood.]
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.

[Swords and spears are not the weapons of choice of nations today. But they were, in ancient times.]
O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

[The whole episode involved the house of Jacob being distinct from the nations. That distinction is not relevant now. The prophecy was about Israel and Gentile proselytes keeping the Law of Moses, back in Old Covenant times.]

And the Bible provides the history, showing how it happened (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, the Gospels and Acts.

Sure, it's a shadow of the Gospel - but the history had to happen first before it could be a shadow!

Once it was fulfilled, at the return from captivity, it was then in Jerusalem also that the Saviour came. And from Jerusalem, the Gospel went to all the world. The shadow was fulfilled - but it began in Israel first, literally, already in the past.

It was fulfilled already, on the ground in Israel, during Old Covenant times - then beginning in that historical and geographical location, the Gospel of Jesus Christ went out to all nations.

We are now part of the true heavenly mount Sion, heavenly Jerusalem. The Kingdom is in us, and we are in it, already.

And someday it shall come visibly, and we shall all be with the Lord forever.

But it doesn't mean a return to Judaism is in our future.

And it doesn't mean Israel's salvation has been postponed until the future.

The Gospel is Israel's salvation. JESUS is everyone's salvation. 

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