Remember that Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries. Yesterday we read very familiar sounding verses at the beginning of Micah 4:
1In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house
will be the highest of all—
the most important place on earth.
It will be raised above the other hills,
and people from all over the world will stream there to worship.
2People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of Jacob’s God.
…
I thought that this must be quoted in the New Testament, but no. The three verses are found, almost exactly the same, in Isaiah 2. No wonder they sounded familiar.
Note that God, as he speaks in Micah, frequently jumps from one time to another without warning. He can tell the people, “You will be exiled to Babylon” in one verse, but then very quickly, God says, “Rise and crush the nations, Jerusalem.” We just have to accept that this kind of unannounced switching is a feature of prophetic writings.
For those who read the PDF: Note that a more literal translation of the Hebrew says this:
NIV 5All the nations may walk in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.
To ‘walk in the name’ is a metonymy which doesn’t work in English. One can’t walk in a name in English. Once again, NLT does a good job translating meaningfully.
NLT: 5Though the nations around us follow their idols,
we will follow the LORD our God forever and ever.
In Isaiah 51, God was talking about the time that had not happened yet as already happening. It is a chapter full of hope. The end of chapter 50 should be read with the beginning of 51. To those who find themselves “walking in the dark without a ray of light,” God says,
1“Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance—
all who seek the LORD!
Consider the rock from which you were cut,
the quarry from which you were mined.
2Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor,
and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation.
And our family will remember this verse from a song we used to sing:
11Those who have been ransomed by the LORD will return.
They will enter Jerusalemc singing,
crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
and they will be filled with joy and gladness.
Yesterday we heard the last of the seven letters, the one to Laodicea, the spiritually indifferent church. If we were seeking to interpret the seven letters as seven church ages, we would have no difficulty in saying that that last letter fits us to a tee. Laodicea was a medical center and was known for making an eye salve. So this letter is full of irony that Christ finds them poor, wretched, blind and naked. And note that the Savior doesn’t tell them to fix the problems by their own effort. He tells them to buy the eye salve, white garments, and the gold from him. What an awesome word is this statement:
“I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.”
Then the famous word about Christ knocking is not spoken to unbelievers (although I myself have often used it to encourage people to come forward to receive Christ at our retreat meetings in Indonesia). In its first application, it is to the members of the church who are turning from spiritual indifference that Christ says, “Listen, I stand at the door and knock.…”
20“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will [eat//share a meal] together as friends.
