Isaiah 2:1-22
2:1-2 An opening chapter of the book of Isaiah, chapter 2 promises the hope of God's kingdom to come.
2:3 People will flock to the kingdom of God to receive instruction from Him, for instruction from God will have been proved to produce blessing.
2:4 Within the kingdom, all will be judged for their actions on earth, and the evil extracted (eliminating the need for war). Weapons will be transformed into implements of peace.
2:5 The promise of God's kingdom and judgement is a blessing, a light like no other, that we are encouraged to walk toward.
2:6-9 Humanity is encouraged to walk not just into the light... but specifically out of the darkness. The Lord observed much cruelty among His people and the harm it caused. They had exchanged their faith for greed and pagan practices and it ruined the peace and equality within their kingdom. God wants us to remove the idols from our lives and hearts and recommit to servitude to His righteous plan for humanity.
2:10-11 A promise to the evil, the selfish, the negligent... the Lord is angry. His anger is fierce enough to humble the haughty.
2:12-19 God's judgement will be comprehensive... all souls subject to His discerning gaze and watchful heart. For righteous and compassionate souls, it will be a blessed reunion with God. But for the evil, it will be a destructive one. God has planned complete removal of idols, arrogance, cruelty, deception.
Many people read the books of the major prophets and think we have an angry God... we have a kind God who is indignant and fierce against the evil because of how they hurt the ones He loves.
2:20-21 Indeed, the day of the return of the Lord will be the day of the removal of idols which cause greed and lust and disloyalty.
2:22 We are encouraged here to not regard the opinion of humans above the opinion of God. We should endeavor to please God not lust, not another person, not any other thing.
