Several peoples shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob that he might possibly teach us his strategies and that we may perhaps walk in his paths'.
~Isaiah two:3a-d (NRSV).
In a passage of biblical text that also appears in Micah four:1-3, the excerpt above details a time when all peoples will be attracted, supernaturally maybe, to the New Jerusalem: the Church.
From a multinational influx, as the nations congregate within the property of the God of Jacob, there is envisioned a unitary response that can be observed as international inclusiveness: a planet, way more or much less, united below the banner of the Church.
This is a comprehensively magnificent vision.
THE BOLDEST AND GRANDEST OF VISIONS
Even the most learned and hopeful of Christians will struggle with such a prophecy they will sincerely wish it to be the case, but a worldly realism threatens to ambush such a belief as unworthy in our lifetime.
There is perhaps the belief, also, that a specific quantity of human beings, even whole nations, might miss the calling of God - it depends upon the circumstance and theology we use as a gauge.
But it is nevertheless a captivating and worthy vision for the Church that entire consumers groups would flock under the allegiance of the LORD in order that they might possibly be taught his ordinances and willingly walk that holy path, eternally.
HAS A VISION LIKE THIS TRACTION FOR Currently?
Indeed, it ought to. There are a great number of thousands evangelised into the Kingdom just about every year, some at single crusade-like events, particularly now from the remotest regions. Paradoxically, there are fewer Westernised nations featuring for revival like, for instance, Africa.
The globalisation of the planet, also, indicates that profound enemies of the Kingdom - poverty, injustice, persecution, and the thwarting of the evangelistic end - may possibly be dealt with inside a generation or three. But, this could certainly come only by the will of God and the faithful innovation of humankind to acquiesce technology such that the Kingdom objective could prevail toward the quickening of the Parousia (Jesus' second coming). But, only by the LORD'S decree!
A VISION, 1st, FOR FAITHFULNESS
Isaiah speaks for a faithful God and, equally, against a faithless, supposedly holy nation. His vision for the future residence of God is sullied by what he sees with his personal eyes.
The prophet's vision is of a unified multi-nation, effectively submitted to the LORD, for the have to have to go his way. There is nothing of compulsion that manipulates these "quite a few peoples." No, this is a vision of the New Jerusalem a vision for the Church somehow not rather completed.
As vision of the New Jerusalem is imagined, we come replete with awe, that all tribes and tongues will join together as one particular to worship the LORD that day - if we can call it a day - is coming. Maranatha!
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
