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Contents Page What is New
Now the Highway,
Then the Heights
CHAPTER TWO
THE WORD AND THE WORKS OF GOD
Two Areas for Concern
It is important, as in the last Chapter, to look at the nature of existence, information, creation and desecration, if the eyes are to be open to reality, not shut in irrational paradigms of pseudo-philosophy. As to that, it is the highly propagandised creation of this world, which does not care to be created by God for its existence, rationality of thought, understanding of heart and validity of thought, but is pleased to ruminate in the ridiculous, for which there is no reason, just hope expressed in formalistic language, contrary to all reason, evidence, verification and validity. In this way, avoiding the petty pomp of philosophy, we look at what is before us, not blighted by the blinders often self-bound on the eyes, like contrary horses with self-imposed blinkers.
Christ referred to this obstructive obfuscation, indeed blindness, in terms of shutting the eyes, LEST they should see, and it is precisely this mechanism in favour of wilful ignorance, that has been practised for millenia of muddle and provoked puzzle, as man has so often missed the mark, though it is more manifest than the mountains (Matthew 15:13).
However it is no less important, and indeed more so, to study not just such criteria as the protein building DNA and its operative control associates in its other regions*1, that control information manipulation, to make it a supervised system with reciprocal powers to present and to interpret: an arrangement of operative symbols of great precision, and brilliant multiplication of meaning by systematic realignment of components. What is even more important is the word TO our created minds, as distinct from that divinely directed word which makes all our equipment, so that the spirit given man can use this for conscious probing of himself, his universe, and his situation.
It is the imparted word to the created called mankind, that is paramount, and from it we find it is the incarnated Word of the living God, who executed the remedy for man, by His own execution, which is exposed as the criterion for life*2. The premiss that God is too busy or ignorant or involved or remiss to provide a handbook for the greatest visible invention that this world has even known or seen, in its human kind, rings as true as an engineer who spent colossal effort making a structure to dwarf all else, not bothering to provide operating instructions. To test these instructions, you just need to apply them at home and abroad, in the department of your own life and in history, in the fields of knowledge and truth*2A!
When then we turn to the only testable, logically verified (and hence verifiable) and validated account expressly from God Almighty that is in existence*3, we find pure gold (not the metallic variety but the essence of wisdom, worth far more). The harassing questions are becomingly answered, and that with a depth unique to their presentation, the realms of order and reason have their base, the meaning of life and history appears clearly, the authority where there is no law, as in the human spirit, is made clear and the reason for love is made most manifest. It is like a cool change in the midst of Summer heat, not only solacing, refreshing, enjoyable and delicious, but signifying a change in the entire atmosphere, burning and blighting replaced by restoration quietness. Such is the word of God found in the Bible. As to its criterion for man, like him, it is personal, and that same Jesus Christ who has been so masterful despite His not fighting for His life, throughout history. After all, He was fighting for ours! (cf. John 3:15-19).
Nor is He some dictator, like those seductive claims of fraudulent politics so common especially in the last two and a quarter centuries, nor does He capitulate to the mob (however nice it may seem at first in the exuberance of 'liberation'), but presents for mankind the truth and the way, indeed the life for which He was created: take it or leave it. Nor is this all: from before our time began, He knew the answers to our desires, even before we were created: the architect of time and the matrix of truth beyond all psychological wiggling, deceived by nothing and no one. Indeed, the wonder is this: suppose you want Him, then it is not He who would prevent it (Colossians 1:19ff., I Timothy 2, Matthew 23:37ff., Luke 19:42ff., Ezekiel 33:11ff., Micah 7:19ff.). Quite the contrary. This is a buck which cannot be passed. You come or you just go (Proverbs 1).
That is the vital aspect then, for mankind, the one which ultimately counts for him, for his spirit, like breathing or heartbeat for his body.
There is then, not only the construction and constriction of communication expressed in that symbolic form which is at the heart of language in our own bodies, but that which is for our own minds, our lives, directed as is the other, by the necessary operation of the mind which creates and controls (Psalm 1, 8, 100, 115, 135). Just as He has enabled mind to body communication in concept by symbolic reciprocity (cf. SMR Chs. 1 and 3, with 10), in our physical construction though DNA for example, so there is mind to mind scope in and through His written word.
Through this, in turn, there is the restoration of the mind, the enlightenment of the spirit, the instruction of the heart and the way of life in Christ Jesus the Lord. God was not daft, just loving; it is man who becomes so deaf as to grow daft, and as daft, exceedingly dangerous, often like a pit of scorpions, at other times as if dazed and wandering in unworkable delusions or wilful ignorance.
Let us then consider this written word of God, authorised alone as such, for mankind, and ponder its message in Isaiah 1-3 especially, with focus on 2:22.
One Area for Current Investigation
Its Setting
Today, then, it is to Isaiah 2 that we look, in terms of its dire and yet wonderful message. We shall see the sandwiching in between outright condemnation and the finale of purity available to man (Isaiah 1, with 2:6ff.), the prodigious period of peace to come (Isaiah 2:1-5, with 11:1ff.), which finds its ground and grace as shown in Isaiah 49-56, with the means toward it, the reason for it and the theme within it. Indeed, Isaiah even moves to the resurrection to come (Isaiah 26:19), and the marvel of the shepherding of the Messiah (Isaiah 40).
At present, our major concern is with Isaiah 1-3 however.
Man is made responsible by God, with a selection panel in the last analysis, vested in man himself (Isaiah 1:18-20), but this as known by God before our version of time even existed (Ephesians 1:4, John 3:19, Colossians 1:19). Its principles are as selected and stated by God, sovereignly executed by His own infinite wisdom (Isaiah 40:10-15); but they are equally probing to man, the preference for darkness in the face of self-defining light the differential ground of exclusion from felicity (Isaiah 53:1,10, 48:15-20, 55:1-7).
There is no superior qualification, since it is without works as a criterion (Romans 3:23-27), though as James points out so clearly, it is exhibitable by works, as is all reality in the end. If it IS what is says, then whatever that is, is what will be. With God, it is always as He says; it is, He, the Speaker who knows what he is talking about, having made all and having no barrier or constraint imposed nor any imposable, since there is nothing from which it can come. It is God who knows all without limits or inhibition from any source, for there is no competition there. If there were, that would be a dual system to require a cause for its two beings to cohere in action, and so require its Creator. Shortly, God is the source*4. For Him to contradict His word or works by lying is impossible (Titus 1:1-3), since it would imply a clash within which implies an inner structure or character which does not match His eternally operative will*5, and hence an imposed barrier to it, a limit. Limits are made BY God, not for Him!
What does He have to say ?
In Isaiah 1, you find what transcends sensitivity to feelings (as when a father speaks to an errant son with a gambling debt of $500,000 through pure self-assertive and wild rebelliousness, and deals roundly concerning the problem and the solution, without pretending to curb realism). It is far removed from what appears the current craze for civility as a bond for religious expression.
What IS it to be civil ? If it means to treat someone as if truth were not so, and facts were not warranted, and dreams were crucial and self-regard were paramount, then it is merely a form of lie. Imagine a GP speaking about cancer like that to someone still wilfully inducing it! On the other hand, with love goes not only realism, but hope if it may be found. Special modes of treatment for an existing cancer may be noted, with their cost (in various personal or financial regards), amid a thrust for a better procedure in a better person with better results. If you do not want these, then alas you appear to have become a mere doom-gatherer, preferring death in anguish or agony or both, to the salt of truthful speech and hopeful expectation.
Love is not a witless fop, a mode of disguising the truth, nor is it a callow fan of callousness; but it looks for the best, seeks to find hope, is ready to rebuke (Revelation 3:19), envisages what is best for the one loved, and does not force, since that is not the condition of love. Justice, on the other hand, may come when murder is committed, or when a nation is betrayed and in such cases, it is not dismissible as once again, life were a fairy tale. When a person chooses principle and acts on it, then the results for other persons become relevant, and the consequences of guilt in overlooking truth become clear. Mercifully God has a way out (He is the author of ingenuity!), for those who find in His appointed way of approach, the way in (John 10:9,27-28, 5:24). This is focussed in Isaiah 50-55. At present, however, let us see the point from the first in Isaiah.
Thus in Isaiah 1 you find this:
"Alas sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
A brood of evildoers..." in 1:4),
and the paternal concern and outlay of hope, despite the dismal misdeeds of the one loved,
"Why should you be stricken again ?
"You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faints.
From the sole of the foot even to the head,There is no soundness in it,
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;
They have not been closed or bound up,
Or soothed with ointment."
Here is pity and realism jointly operative.
God indicates that He is weary of hypocritical religious ceremonies, because of their misuse as substitutes for spirituality, and formalities for godliness. "Put away your evil doings from before My eyes," He declares (1:16).
"Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good!" (1:16-17).
This is not all. Another positive element enters into the divine communication.
"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean ..." (1:16).
Now this is difficult when you have muddy hands and clayey water.
God knows this, for love and wisdom in Him act jointly.
"Come now, and let us reason together," He says (1:18),
"Though your sins be as scarlet,
They shall be white as snow;
Though they be like crimson,
they shall be as wool."
Isaiah 52-3 shows on what basis this is done, but here our concern is that it is presented as available. God has the remedial plan prepared and is ready to present it; indeed HE COMMANDS that it be followed, while not acting as if it will be done, just because it is commanded. He has made man free, but sin has many combinations and complications. Yet nothing is impossible with God: nothing which He may confront (Luke 1:37). There are things contrary to His Being, which are therefore impossible with Him; but as to what He confronts, NOTHING is impossible, not even incarnation! The brilliant richness of the infinite intimacy in the trinity enables this (cf. Isaiah 48:16).
Now in Ch. 2 of Isaiah, we come as before, to the light of hope, the wonder of what is to be achieved for man, as many as receive the way of salvation (as in Isaiah 53:110, John 1:1-14). Here in Isaiah 2:1-5 you find the sound and clear prediction without limitation or qualification, or condition as to its arising, of a time, of a day, a way in which the place of crucifixion for atonement, even Jerusalem (Psalm 22, Isaiah 52-53) will be the centre of instruction to a willing people. It is this which will be in the midst of a supernaturally gained peace, engendered in hearts by God in His own presence. There the law of God, His revelation and His grace and shepherding, will go forth in His name, and nations will flow to this, its source, the Messiah, Jesus Christ Himself, as in Psalm 72.
Many may be wilfully absent, spiritually sundered in wilful preference for darkness, differentially (John 3:19); but the time will come. Many aligned in defiance, may be sadly missing from it; but the time will come. Some will even seek to betray it (Revelation 20:7ff.), but the time will come. It is not heaven, which is to follow. It is the manifestation of the majesty of God on this earth in the purity of holiness and the beauty of truth (cf. Isaiah 11, Habakkuk 2:14), for as the scripture says, "The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea."
He will not faint nor be broken till all is fulfilled (Isaiah 42:4). Just as the incidence of death could not defeat Him (Acts 2:24) as Peter had found out to his delight and to his correction, more also the impact of life is His most personal field. Just as He has empowered His people for 2 millenia now as the resurrected Messiah, the condition of rotting unrealised for His body, unavailable for triumph by His enemies, so also in the appointed time, will He empower His kingdom on earth before that particular orb is dismissed by the same power as that with which it was created (II Peter 3, Matthew 24:35).
When God does things, they have scale for majesty and intimacy for personality, and there is no limit to His exploits.
Thus in Isaiah 2:1-5, another ingredient of objective felicity is introduced, even the thrust of His majesty and rule over this earth; but this is with no dictatorial flush, as when the red blood flushes the wilful countenance of the imperious dictator. Absent yourself from this blessed time, if you will! We have been told of its coming often and for long enough, as in Psalm 2, 110 and Psalm 72, in Micah 7, as is Isaiah 65, not to omit Revelation 20.
From this beauty of truth and exposure of light in a lovely lordliness ultimately unique to God, Isaiah moves onward in Ch. 2. There is a sudden dip to the dynamic difficulties for the nation, in the period contemporary to the prophet. "Their land is full of idols; and they worship the work of their own hands," Isaiah 2:8. As Ezekiel indicates in Ch. 14, people were putting up idols in their hearts, and thus if they then and in this state unrepentant seek to know the 'burden' or message from the Lord, then the false prophet to whom they seek will be as the people, all for one, one for all, for the judgment was ready to act.
Ezekiel was writing as judgment was sitting on their doorstep, even about to enter; but Jeremiah a little earlier, had a message between these two. From his prophecy, came the rehearsal of the evils of this ancient Israel at that time, and before, as God adjured them to consider:
"What injustice have your fathers found in Me," He asks,
"That they have gone far from Me,
Have followed idols...
Neither did they say, 'Where is the LORD,
Who brought us out of Egypt,' "
He declares.
"Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods? " He asks,"But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit."
In Isaiah 2, the judicial review following 2:1-5 moves on swiftly through exposure of sin, to the arena of ultimate judgment to come in verses 10-22; and in this the prophet here specialises, just as Jeremiah noted above, did in exposing the travesty involved in this abortion of beauty and acme of unfaithfulness on the part of the ancient nation, at this phase of its history. As people humble themselves, that wonder of God's own creation, and do so with neither dignity nor decency, reality nor truth, bowing to things that are not even really there, "gods newly come up," as Moses foretold it in Deuteronomy 32, they invite disaster and invoke calamity. In fact, the situation became almost like an experiment, What happens if you do this or that ? in the laboratory of history.
God challenges them when the time duly comes, as appointed, to "Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord, and the glory of His majesty." There may be somewhere somehow, a safe place when an atomic bomb explodes; but when the judgment of God sits, there is none. You see the same in Micah 7:15ff., where the very nations crawl away like serpents to slither in hope of safety. Then as in Isaiah 2:17, "The loftiness of man will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low... the idols He will utterly abolish." Hide, hide "from the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily."
Isaiah 2:22 in its setting,
its site
and its significance
There is thus mounting, as likewise in Micah 7, an utter, a universal, an international, a thrust of finality for all the nations; for this, the day of the Lord is to be upon everything lifted up. There is a totality about the confrontation with the human race, with mankind. Just as the glory would be to cover the earth, when its time arrived, so the shame now. "All the high mountains," "every high tower," indeed all the mercantile world, "the ships of Tarshish", the one as the other indifferently, they are not forgotten. It is the LOFTINESS of mankind which is to be bowed down, and it is HAUGHTINESS of men which is to be brought low.
Let us look at 2:17. What is the topic ? It is man, the generic, the race, all in whom pride is displayed, for whom idols usurp the glory of the Lord. It is the earth which is to be shaken mightily, says Isaiah 2:19, as in Hebrews 12:25-29, itelf cited from Haggai 2:6-7 where the Lord is to "shake all the nations." Indeed, He is to "shake heaven and earth." Such is the site and such its companions in this universal work to come.
What word is used for mankind in Isaiah 2:17 ? There the loftiness of "man" will be bowed down. It is what is transliterated ADAM, and in particular, the adam.
There are some 5 words which might be used for "man", one with a sense of weakness often found, one with a sense of warrior, and so on; but THIS one has an interesting past and usage, fit for a check.
In Genesis the first man is called Adam, this same term. We read that God, as in 8:21 and 9:5, the former twice, refers to man in this way, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake," despite the fact that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," this being the almost universal situation at that time (as in Genesis 6). The word follows readily from its use with respect to God's speaking of Adam, as in Genesis 3:24, "So He drove out the man," the Adam. Thus the word from a direct use of a name, moves to a generic, a term for the race, those of Adam, those incorporated in his situation, drawn from him, as in 8:21 and 9:5.
Thus you have a natural progression to such texts as Isaiah 2:17, and as Harris, Archer and Waitke point out in their Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, the term transliterated ADAM may be used somewhat distinctively of mankind. This word for man, they note, "has to do with man as being in God's image, the crown of creation," and should be "distinguished" from the other options for "man" found in the Hebrew. The term is still used after the fall, bringing back to mind the height from which the fall has come, and at times the consequences!
This is the term precisely in this sense, used in Isaiah 2:17. Divine repugnance to the gross and thankless abasement of man is to lead to the shaking of the very earth. Loftiness and haughtiness in this racial entity is wholly derogated, for it is derogatory of what the Lord has done for man. It is the EARTH which He is to arise to shake so severely, yes and as we have seen, the heavens also! The loftiness of the man is to be reduced, the race.
Thus in Isaiah 2:22 we again have this term chosen for dealing with the human race as such, as a distinctive in emphasis, in vocabulary. It has been used in this very chapter in precisely that manner, emphatically, dramatically, characterising the situation to the uttermost, with all the entailments and background leading right back to Adam in its nuances. The race deserves and is about to receive its comeuppance, indeed its judgment for irremediably resisting remedy; for when scar tissue is often enough misused, you gain a chronic mess. The Lord will not always strive with man, because his spirit would fail in the thrust of things at this level (as in Isaiah 57:16). All and each, all not in the Lord, as in the type of the ark in the day of Noah, are waiting for immediate peril. It is here that you read Micah 7:15ff. as an amplification of that particular element.
What then is the coherent, comprehensively indicated summary of the situation in view, where ANY phase, ANY individual, ANY thing, ANY sinful substitute for due relationship with God, or indeed with Him is to have but one result ? It is this, and it is eloquence itself:
"Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils,
for of what account is he!"
Cease from Adam and his race as your criterion; it is a context and NOT a compulsion. It is a grouping but not the site for groping. It is to the majesty and the mouth of the Lord that man must seek, no matter what high tower or vain idol or element or person or group or military might there may be in view. CEASE FROM MAN, from this whole tribe of Adam. Do not make of it your criterion, feature, fear or example. Divorce from this world and from its ways, and do not let its culture control or infect you (John 17:9, James 4:4, I John 2:15-17). It is all delusive. It is only when you sight the majesty and the power and the wonder of the Lord, and look to the rock from which you were hewn (as in Isaiah 51, in the broadest sense), that you gain spiritual and personal stability and illumination, perspective and safety!
Isaiah 3 continues in unrelenting itemisation of the comprehensive coverage of all to be condemned, lest any part or particle be omitted, lest anything seem above or beyond this, in type; for here we meet itemisation, even of universal condemnation of the human race as it is, with only the Lord as the outlet. From Him man came; to Him man must go, and if not, noble and fine as man once was, it is not so now. In fact, delusive attraction to his wandering will and woeful ways is not only unwise: it is like taking arsenic with tea, and indeed, making a practice of it. It does not continue, this usage: because it ends, in abrupt and in overwhelming judgment on its corruption, this as broad as the human race.
Thus "the mighty man", in the case of Israel, will give no support in the day of judicial calamity, being himself as liable as any other. The "counsellor" will have nothing to say, or if he speaks, it is air, vanity. Moreover, the "expert enchanter" is vacuous (as he always was, but now it is immediately manifest that his ways were air and deception), neither guru nor mandarin, commissar nor mullah, ranter or deceiver able to abide before this reality, and its impact in ruin.
In this desolatory judgment period, it will be so derisible that " I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them," indeed, this is something which increasingly is becoming apparent already, as the feuds of false religion and philosophy claw at each other, petty, grandiose in turn, vicious, vacuous, without solutions, making matters worse, like children spitting at one another, misusing power, as if incapable of considering what they are there for.
"The child will be insolent toward the elder," something increasingly ASKED FOR in this land, as child-centred considerations, in a mobile culture moving to slackness and indiscipline, continue their idolatrous course. ALL is so fine when it is in the place assigned; but as with a delicate time-piece, it becomes so horridly tangled and mangled, when carelessly misused. With the spirit of man, it is even worse, for not only does it not work properly when abused; it leads on to violence prodigious in scope, vileness to make hell seem a competitor, to presumption like that of a sparrow attacking a falcon.
In this sequence in Isaiah, which we are studying, the Lord, in His specialty on the people to whom the prophet first of all speaks, then mounts a moral attack on their cruelty, stark immorality, things resultant liberally from their self-exaltation, with idols gazed on instead of truth. IIn place of beauty, therefore, there will be branding (Isaiah 3:24).
It is then that the Messiah (Isaiah 4:2) comes as in Psalm 72, Psalm 2, Zechariah 6:12, and Isaiah 11, with His title, the "Branch of the Lord." This leads at Isaiah 11:10 to the very earth being crammed full of the glory of the Lord, with His rule in counsel and power, manifest and exposed to the uttermost, as shown in that same Chapter.
So is the totality in view depicted, the judgment and the joy, the ruin and the relief, like a furnace in Jerusalem, where the Lord is to come (Zechariah 14:5), that city where He was crucified, where He arose, where His power is to flower in its day, when bud-time is finished for this earth. All this is exposed as Isaiah 2 - 4 develops, a thrust from the first Chapter; and so is the judgment comparable to the cause, at its end! So moreover is the coverage comprehensive both as Isaiah 2:17 moves on to 2:22, and in the generic,mankind, as we proceed to Isaiah 3-4. Individuality is the last thing in view; resultant perspective is the summary, the situation and the relentless fury of it, and it is this which commands both summary and flow.
Look then at the summary verse in Isaiah 2:22, and the most unfortunate change here from the AV, to be seen in the NKJ translation. To add "such a" in this setting is as insupportable as egregious. It is to ignore the context and the usage just made, normative and entrained like a gun, well established and pointing repetitively at the case. The New King James translation at this point is a disaster, but as with so many fine things, in many ways, it comes as a reminder: do not let ANYTHING or ANYONE ever rate without qualification, EXCEPT the Lord. Indeed, NEVER be anaesthetised by what grabs your taste or your affections: for the mortal man who does not sin on this earth, he does not exist, and just as you must not say, I of Paul, I of Apollos, or I of Wesley, or I of Calvin (I Corinthians 3 giving the type, and inveighing against this hype), concerning the one (other than Christ) whom you follow, SO is it with translations. The AV is a marvel, with few the blemishes, and it does not mislead in any known doctrine, though it does lack in some information that is available in the text, and in clarity at times.
As based very largely on it, the NKJV has a good heritage, using much of the highly refined AV, and it often adds in clarity to its virtual parent, occasionally very aptly; but it has come with a few almost unbelievable moves that lead to nothing good, and have no sustainable warrant.
What remains is the word of God, and it is not too hard, but very beautiful; and just as many have done remarkable works of translation, none exceeding the AV, so when one does not rest till the uttermost is found, does this self-same word reward with its purity and its glorious content, yes to the jot and to the tittle.
CEASE therefore from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and live for, by and with God in Christ, the ark of our deliverance, without the cultural clamminess of unclean association with what trifles with, taunts or taints the word of God.
Seek the lost, but do not have a week-end in their shacks. Do not LIVE that way, or THINK that way, or lose yourself in the intoxication of man's bountiful arrogance, continual move to usurp and to imagine great things concerning himself. It has an end. Get back to the beginning, to Genesis, to Adam, to the fall, and consider the failure, and live by the remedy, the Redeemer, not the defilement which like a plague, is on all sides. CEASE FROM MANKIND as your ultimate kinship, and relate to God as your author and Saviour, your Lord and your Light. Be in this more like Daniel, or Moses, or David, or Paul, singing and praising God while bearing what is your lot, as the Lord appoints, and moving on as He leads, as with Shepherd's skill He does, as we rely on Him, with relish, as in Isaiah 64:5.
NOTES
See Waiting for Wonder, Appendix for example.
See Biblical Perspective on Missions, showing the acute marvel of God's unique and only authorised mission of mercy to mankind. See also TMR, Crosses and Losses, and Creating Waves.
See for example
LIGHT DWELLS WITH THE LORD'S CHRIST
WHO ANSWERS RIDDLES
AND WHERE HE IS, DARKNESS DEPARTS.
See It Bubbles ... Ch. 9, *1A in the context of
SMR, TMR and Deity and Design ..., together with
Light Dwells with the Lord's Christ, Who Answers Riddles And Where He is, Darkness Departs.
See the theme:
THE NECESSITY OF THE LOCATION
OF THE DIVINE REMEDY
FOR MAN
For this work, click here.
This work is entitled:
The Meaning of Liberty and the Message of Remedy
See for example Sparkling Life in Jesus Christ Ch. 4, and Barbs ... 6 -7.