000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Year A
First Sunday of Advent/Year A
Isaiah 2:1–5
This utterly appropriate passage for the first Sunday of Advent is a futureoriented
“word” (debar) that Isaiah “saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem”
(2:1). It addresses four themes: (1) the reestablishment of Mount Zion and
the Temple (tacitly understood) “as the highest of the mountains” (v. 2); (2)
the claim that “all the nations [Gentiles] shall stream to it” (vv. 2–3); (3) the
claim that YHWH will “teach us his ways” that “we might walk in his paths”
(v. 3); and (4) the claim that “in days to come” (v. 2) there will be universal
peace and the abolition of war (v. 4). This is a future-oriented “forth-telling”
by the prophet; it is not necessarily eschatological or apocalyptic. It is a concrete
hope for a real future that issues in a plea to the people: “come, let us
walk in the light of the LORD!” (v. 5). Isaiah speaks for a God who calls on
a covenant people to live into a future of blessing and well-being.
That Gentiles will learn to walk in the ways of the Lord was Isaiah’s hope
and an early promise to Abraham: “in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). This promise was at the heart of Paul’s outlook as
well as that of the Gospels; in Luke, Simeon sang at the birth of Jesus that
he was “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people
Israel” (Luke 2:32). Today’s passage also appears in Micah 4:1–4 verbatim
with the addition of verse 5: “For all the peoples walk, each in the name of
its god, but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.”
Isaiah and Micah demonstrate openness to Gentiles, to their coming to
the Jerusalem Temple, and to their receiving “instruction” (torah) from
Zion (Isa. 2:3). The inclusion of Gentiles is a prominent theme in Isaiah
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