Isa 2:2-4; Acts 17:26-28
SS Lesson for 03/29/2026
Devotional Scriptures: John 14:23-29
Throughout history, war is a constant reality. Examples of conflict are not hard to find; you can pick any century. In modern times, many of us grow weary of seeing headlines about wars and threats of war on a regular basis. We live in a world that is often gripped by terrorism and violence. Nevertheless, most people desire peace. We yearn for it. But how can such peace arrive? Where will it come from? The Bible tells us that true, lasting peace will only come from God. The total peace he promises has two aspects. The first is peace between us and God. The second is peace between humans, nations, and people groups. The first aspect has already been achieved through Jesus (Romans 5:1). This week, our Scripture texts reveal the path toward the second aspect.
Isaiah began prophesying at the end of the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, in about 740 BC (Isaiah 1:1; 6:1). During Isaiah’s lifetime, the kingdom of Judah faced threats from within and without. Whether the danger came from war with the massive Assyrian Empire (7:17) or injustice and violence within Judah itself (1:21-23), the future of its capital, Jerusalem, was uncertain. The beginning of the book of Isaiah warns Judah against an even deeper conflict: a war of rebellion that the people were waging against God. The people of Jerusalem led lives filled with unrighteousness, idolatry, and oppression; the once “faithful city” had become a “prostitute” (Isaiah 1:21). Isaiah explains that the Judeans will have no peace with other nations or among their own people until they first accept God’s terms of peace. Thus, Isaiah calls Judah to repent (1:16-17). Amid promises of fearsome judgment, however, Isaiah also announces a message of hope: Jerusalem would once again become a “City of Righteousness” through God’s redeeming work (1:26-27). The first of today’s texts (which has a parallel in Micah 4:1-3) picks up on this theme.
On his second missionary journey (AD 52-54), Paul traveled through the region of Macedonia (modern-day northern Greece). During this journey, he planted churches in the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica (Acts 16:6-15; 17:1-9). Due to persecution in Thessalonica, Paul fled to Athens, some 300 miles to the south (17:14-15). As Paul walked around Athens, he became distressed by all the city’s idolatry (Acts 17:16). He responded by engaging fellow Jews, God-fearing Gentiles, and others in conversation about Jesus. Paul’s teaching drew the attention of local philosophers, who invited him to speak at the Areopagus, the space in which the city’s political council met (17:19). The Areopagus council likely had authority over which religious teachings were allowed into the city. These men had a rich knowledge of Greek philosophy but almost no familiarity with Hebrew Scripture. Today’s passage comes as Paul addresses this new, highly educated audience with the gospel.
Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
15 The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains; rugged are the mountains of Bashan. 16 Why gaze in envy, O rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign, where the Lord himself will dwell forever?
29 And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.
3 This is what the Lord says: "I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain."
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints,
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
3 He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.
10 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
17 that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things'
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
65 "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'
1 Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
17 I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.
6 Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. 7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
1 In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. 2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. 3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. 4 Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.
This second major segment of the introduction to the book (chs. 1-5) contrasts what God intended Israel to be (Isaiah 2:1-5), with what she was (Isaiah 2:6 to Isaiah 4:1), and what God will make of her in the future (Isaiah 4:2-6). Thus the progress of thought is from the ideal to the real and back to the ideal.
Verse 1
The presence of another superscription to the following prophecies (cf. Isaiah 1:1), the only other one in Isaiah, bears witness to the composite nature of the book; it consists of several different prophecies. Probably one appears here to set off the prophecies that follow (in chs. 2-4 or chs. 2-5) from what preceded (in ch. 1).
Verses 2-4
The glorious future of Israel presented here is in striking contrast to the condition of the nation in Isaiah’s day described in chapter 1. An almost identical prophecy appears in Micah 4:1-3 (cf. Psalms 2, 46). Perhaps Isaiah quoted Micah here, or Micah quoted Isaiah, or both of them quoted another prophet. [Note: See Delitzsch, 1:111.]
"The last days" is a phrase that describes a distant time from the perspective of the prophet. The Hebrews regarded history as a series of days, the days of their lives. The title of the Books of Chronicles means literally "the words of the days." When these days come to an end, in their last part, human history on this earth will end. New Testament Christians applied this term to the time following Messiah’s coming (Acts 2:17; Hebrews 1:2; James 5:3; 1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 1:20; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 John 2:18). Here, it must mean after His second coming, since these conditions did not follow His first coming. [Note: See John H. Sailhamer, "Evidence from Isaiah 2," in A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus, pp. 79-102.]
"The expression ’the last days’ (acharith hayyamim, ’the end of the days’), which does not occur anywhere else in Isaiah, is always used in an eschatological sense. It never refers to the course of history immediately following the time being, but invariably indicates the furthest point in the history of this life-the point which lies on the outermost limits of the speaker’s horizon." [Note: Delitzsch, 1:113.]
The term "mountain" is sometimes a symbol of a kingdom, nation, authority, or rule elsewhere in the prophetic writings (e.g., Daniel 2:35; Daniel 2:44-45; Amos 4:1; Revelation 17:9-11). The ancients also regarded mountains as the homes of the gods. If Isaiah was using "mountain" as a figure of speech, he meant that Israel and her God would be the most highly exalted in the earth eventually. This will be the case during Messiah’s earthly reign. The reference to "the mountain of the house of Yahweh" (Isaiah 2:2), however, may indicate that the prophet had a more literal meaning in mind. He may have meant that the actual mountain on which the temple stood would be thrust higher in elevation. This may happen (cf. Ezekiel 40:2; Zechariah 14:4; Zechariah 14:10), but the primary implication seems to be that Israel and Yahweh will be exalted in the world.
"The analogy of streams is particularly apt, because the major traditional oppressors of Israel were associated with great rivers-the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates (cf. Isaiah 8:6-8)." [Note: Grogan, p. 35.]
Israel’s God would be recognized as the God, and she would be seen as the nation among nations. Under the Old Covenant, the Israelites made pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times a year, but in the future the entire world will go there. In that day, Yahweh’s instruction will go forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 2:3). Jerusalem will be Messiah’s capital city at this time. [Note: See John F. Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy, p. 121.] He will judge everyone, and people will live in peace (Isaiah 2:4). There will be a rebellion against Messiah’s rule at the end of the Millennium (cf. Revelation 20:7-10), but this will involve unbelievers fighting against Him, not one another.
"The prophet saw the new Jerusalem of the last days on this side, and the new Jerusalem of the new earth on the other (Rev. xxi. 10), blended as it were together, and did not distinguish the one from the other." [Note: Delitzsch, 1:113.]
Isaiah’s description pictures a return to paradisiacal conditions (cf. Isaiah 11:6-9). The amillennial interpretation of this passage sees the church as fulfilling what Isaiah wrote of Jerusalem and Judah, and the gospel as going out to the whole world, as illustrated by the following quotation.
"Such instruments [as swords, plowshares, spears, and pruning hooks] are mentioned only as symbols" [Note: Young, 1:109.]
"From whence comes peace? From the recognition that God is the source of all good, that our needs and our destiny can be submitted to his judgment, and from the knowledge that he does all things well. . . . Until persons and nations have come to God to learn his ways and walk in them, peace is an illusion." [Note: Oswalt, p. 118.]
Disarmament now is suicide because of man’s greed and aggression. Nevertheless, modern people should trust in the Lord more than in their military power, as the next section emphasizes.
In contrast to the hopeful tone of the sections that precede and follow it, this one is hopeless. In contrast to the dignity of humanity there, Isaiah presented its folly here.
Verses 5
This emphasis is a major one in Isaiah 1-39, and the prophet introduced it at this point. Many in his day-and this is still true today-preferred to trust in strong people, especially nations, rather than in the Lord.
In view of what the nations will do eventually, Isaiah appealed to the house of Jacob (Israel) to do the same thing immediately, namely: walk in the Lord’s light (presence and truth). Commit to following the Lord. This motivation is also applicable to present-day Christians (cf. Ephesians 5:8-20). Virtually all the commentators recognized that this verse is transitional. Some make it the end of the previous section and others the beginning of the next.
Verse 6
Israel must walk in Yahweh’s light because God had forsaken her in her present condition for departing from Him. Contrast the nations that will seek the Lord in the future (Isaiah 2:2). Israel had stopped living as a distinct people in the world, had adopted the ways of other nations, and had relied on them rather than on the Lord. She had looked to the east (first Assyria and then Babylonia) for light rather than to the Lord, and had become like her despised enemies, the uncircumcised Philistines.
Several facets of Israel’s national life, all evidences of self-sufficiency rather than trust in Yahweh, invited judgment (cf. Micah 5:10-14).
Verses 7-8
Specifically, Israel had filled herself with the wealth, armaments, and idols of the pagan nations (cf. Deuteronomy 17:16-17; 1 Kings 10:26 to 1 Kings 11:8). King Uzziah’s successful reign brought material prosperity to Judah, but this wealth had only encouraged Jewish materialism and neglect of God. Judah had accumulated these things to make herself secure, but she was only trusting in what she herself had made. Contrast the nations that will seek spiritual benefits (Isaiah 2:3), enjoy peace (Isaiah 2:4), and follow the Lord (Isaiah 2:4).
Verse 9
Glorifying created things rather than the Creator results in the humiliation and abasement of those who do these things (cf. Romans 1). Forgiveness is unthinkable when people do these things (Isaiah 2:9; cf. Exodus 34:7). "Do not forgive them" is an idiom meaning "for sure you will not forgive them." [Note: Motyer, p. 56.] Isaiah was not asking God to refrain from forgiving His people.
"A major motif in OT theology is here (and in Isaiah 2:11-22): pride and ambition are humanity’s besetting and most devastating sins. Idolatry is seen as an expression of this drive by which man seeks to exalt himself." [Note: Watts, Isaiah 1-33, p. 35.]
Verses 10-11
The proud and lofty people would eventually try to hide from God’s judgment of them when He exalts Himself in the day of His reckoning (see Isaiah 2:12). Having boasted in earthly resources (Isaiah 2:6-8), they now have only the earth to turn to (cf. Isaiah 1:24). Contrast the nations that the Lord will accept in the future (Isaiah 2:4).
"In preaching as he does here, Isaiah is going contrary to modern psychological theories which assert that it is unwise and even wrong to use fear as a motif in preaching and teaching. How different God’s appraisal of preaching! . . . The only way to run from God is to run to Him." [Note: Young, 1:122.]
Isaiah 2:10-21 are a poem on the nature and results of divine judgment. Note the repetition of key words and phrases at the beginnings and ends of the sections and subsections. This section breaks down as follows:
The Lord is exalted over man and the world (Isaiah 2:10-17)
The fact that the Lord is exalted and man is humbled (Isaiah 2:10-11)
The demonstration that the Lord is exalted over every exalted thing (Isaiah 2:12-17)
The Lord is exalted over idols (Isaiah 2:18-21)
The fact that the Lord is exalted and idols and man vanish (Isaiah 2:18-19)
The demonstration that the Lord is exalted and idols are exposed (Isaiah 2:20-21) [Note: Adapted from ibid., p. 57.] (Adapted from URL:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dcc/isaiah-2.html)
When we suffer, or see others suffering, from the devastating effects of conflicts between nations, any hope for lasting peace may seem unrealistic. Christians might be tempted to imagine that God has left the nations to fend for themselves. But today’s texts tell a different story. The Lord promises in Isaiah 2:2-4 that, eventually, people will end their conflicts with each other when they embrace his ways. Peace between humanity and God will ultimately result in peace between nations. Christians can rest assured that peace has been established between God and people through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1; 2 Peter 3:14). Yet while God’s reign of peace has begun, it is not yet fully complete. Until Jesus returns, there will always be wrongs to make right in the world. As his disciples, we are called to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9; James 3:18). Through Christ’s power, the church can be a shining example of peace in the world, starting within our own relationships. We must seek to live peaceably with everyone as far as it depends on us to do so (Romans 12:18). By leading the way in peacemaking, the church can truly be a light to the nations. Although conflicts sometimes appear too deep to heal, Acts 17:24-26 reminds us that God has made each of these different groups for the purpose of seeking him. Like Paul before the Areopagus council, we can use these differences as a launchpad to share the hope of the gospel. One day, people from every nation and region, from every ethnic group and language, will stand before the throne of God and enjoy God’s peace (Revelation 7:9-12). This will happen when God renews all things, and the new heaven and new earth appear (21:1-4). Finally, all the kingdoms of this world will become one kingdom in our Lord.