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the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
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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.
THE LAST DAYS
‘And it shall come to pass in the last days.’
Isaiah 2:2
These words are in themselves of sufficient importance and interest to justify our separating them from their context to concentrate our attention on them. The expression ‘last days’ may be traced from the dying words of Jacob on the coming of the Shiloh ( Genesis 49:1) through the words of Balaam the son of Beor ( Numbers 24:14; Numbers 24:17) (and its use, with a more limited reference, in some parts of Scripture), right on to the speech of St. Peter on the Day of Pentecost ( Acts 2:17), and in one of his letters ( 1 Peter 1:20). It thus has its meaning authoritatively assigned it, especially in Hebrews 1:2: ‘God, Who spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.’ The ‘last days’ to us are days of mingled mercy and judgment, both which elements are prominent in this chapter, but in the first coming, mercy is predominant above judgment, as in the second, judgment will tower over mercy. In the eyes of the prophets ‘the last days,’ the days in which we now live, were:—
I. Days to which their own were only preparatory.—How long was this time of preparation! There is a sense in which every generation with all its doings is only a preparation for the next, and thus all the ages were but preparations for Christ’s coming.
II. Days in which abundant mercy should be manifested.—(1) The Church should be a conspicuous object, and as such a centre of unity to the world. All nations are to flow to her like the waters of a river. ‘Behold, I will extend peace to Zion as a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream’ ( Isaiah 66:12). (2) The Church should be the source of knowledge to mankind. ‘Out of Zion shall go forth the law.’ (3) The God of Jacob should be the teacher of peace to the nations ( Isaiah 66:4).
III. Days which shall usher in the consummation of all things.—This is the meaning of ‘last days.’ However long they may be, the period that closes them will bring to an end the final dispensation of mercy. Christ will come to judgment, the dead will be raised, the work of mercy finished, and then, in the judicial rather than the administrative sense of the word, ‘He shall judge among the nations.’
Illustration
‘The prophet foresees a time when the nations of the world will turn from all other forms of religion to that which had been given to the world through the Jews. 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.” Already this dream of the prophet is being realised, and in every land earnest souls are turning to the God Whom this Book has made known. What an incentive to faithful service! “In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” ’
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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.
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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.
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O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
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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.
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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:
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Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
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And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
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Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
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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.
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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:
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And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
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And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
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And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
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And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
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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.
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And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
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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.
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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;
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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.
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Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?