Read Isaiah 2 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
2:1-4 {p} All nations shall flow to the house of YHVH to learn Torah when Messiah returns to rule
2:5-11 {p} Jacob, walk in YHVH’s light, for YHVH forsook Jacob, but He will humble the pride of man
2:12-22 {p} The day of YHVH will humble everything proud/ the idols He shall abolish
YHVH had abandoned His people because they are filled from the East (1A). Literally, they are filled to the full, satisfied, with that which is from the East.
Let’s step back and look at the big picture of biblical history. Since the tower of Babel rebellion (Gen 11), the world was in agreement with one philosophy, the philosophy from Babel. They served idols which their hands had made, they practiced soothsaying, they walked in all the way that had been introduced by Nimrod at Babel. But everything changed when God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldaeans (literally, moon worshippers) to separate himself from his father’s house and go the land which YHVH would show him (Gen 12).
Abram went west to the Holy Land from Ur, and with Abram, came the Hebraic or Biblical worldview, a dramatic shift diametrically opposed to the worldview of the East which he had left behind. Abram is the father of all who believe (Rom 4:11–12)–who believe that God is—that He exists as Creator and Ruler of the universe—and who believe Him—that His words are true—and act accordingly.
But his descendants in Judah and Jerusalem had forsaken YHVH and were full, satisfied, not remorseful or troubled, with a return to those Eastern ways that Abram had left behind.
In the 2A pair, YHVH admonishes His people to separate themselves from man. The way of Babel, after all, is the way of man; it is the way of the world and that which seems right to a man, but whose end is the way of death (Pro 14:12). The inverse is implied: embrace the ways of YHVH, walk in His paths, and be filled to the full with His righteousness and steadfast lovingkindness.
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