Isaiah 2:1-4. A Magnetic People who Love

Group Discussion Question

“What role did the Lord God want his people to play in Old Testament times?”

God’s chosen people have always been meant to attract other people and draw them to know the Lord God their creator. No-one can come to God unless they have first had God reveal himself to them. Our creator is a speaking God who has made himself known, are response should be a response to his revelation of himself.

Old Testament

In Old Testament times God revealed himself primarily through his specially chosen prophets but his intention was that all his chosen people should act as his representatives to the world, both by what they said and how they lived.

The problem was that this seldom happened. The way his people lived conformed to the worldly views of those living near them, both in their religious practices and in the way they lived. So much of the teaching became syncretistic with the religions of the people they mixed with. Compromise was the name of the day. The prophet Isaiah spoke about this clearly in the following excerpt but he looked forwards to a day when God’s people will again live as God wants.

1 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established

    as the highest of the mountains;

it will be exalted above the hills,

    and all nations will stream to it.

3 Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

    so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,

    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He will judge between the nations

    and will settle disputes for many peoples.

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. Isaiah 2:1-4

The ‘last days’ is a technical term in the Bible that refers to the years between the first and second comings of the Messiah, God’s chosen king of all the world. Isaiah foresaw that God’s church, his temple, would be universal and people ‘of all nations’ will stream to it.’ The image suggests that the streams will be flowing uphill, so these streams must be streams of people!

It is striking that it would be the ‘word of the Lord’ that would ‘go out’ from God’s people to the nations. God intends that all those coming to the Lord are not just to understand what God says but his intention is that they ‘may walk in his paths.’ Doctrine without obedience does not impress God. Repentance is essential for anyone to be accepted into God’s kingdom.

In the Old Testament, the emphasis is on people of other nations becoming God’s people by becoming Jewish, but in the New Testament the emphasis is on the need for people to become God’s people by becoming members of his church. The church goes out into our societies and to other nations in order to share the gospel that all people can become God’s people because of what Jesus has done for them. The prime role of the church in the world is to teach the world God’s Word which teaches us how to be saved and then how God wants us to live. Many Christian organisations started with this aim, such as mission hospitals but all too often the mission aim gets forgotten.

Another danger is that churches are content to pass on their traditions as if they are the gospel, just as the Jews were more concerned about their traditions than the good news of salvation that the Bible emphasises. It is so easy for the message we are seen to share to be a distorted one. Any church should keep asking itself whether it is known for the vibrant teaching of God’s word of salvation or for upholding denominational dogma or being satisfied by supplying just social needs. It is all too easy for us to lead a good life in society and for us to get the praise, not our Lord.

Professor David Short was the Queen’s Physician who practiced in Aberdeen. One day he overheard a group of junior doctors talking about him, without them knowing of his presence. They talked about how pleasant a man he was, his patience, his superb teaching skills and excellent diagnostic acumen. However he noted with shame that they had not mentioned his Christian faith at all. He realised how much of his life resulted in praise for himself but not for his Lord.

If a church’s primary emphasis is to create a friendly community, supporting one another and encouraging involvement in social concerns and helping those who are suffering but not sharing the good news of eternal life we are falling short of our Lord’s commission. If our emphasis is on life in this world people will inevitably drift from church. They will say,

“We can get our satisfaction and entertainment in our sports clubs and other communities and social support groups - we don’t need Jesus Christ for these things.”

The same goes for organisations that purport to be Christian - do people see that we are pointing them to Christ? It is a tragedy that many organisations with a social concern, such as Christian Aid, Oxfam, YMCA started as Christian organisations but now appear to have dropped a gospel emphasis.

Jesus was very clear that we must remain Christ centred in all we do. He taught,

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26

“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.” Matthew 10:32

Some recognise that being Christ centred can cause discord and friction. It is significant that Jesus recognised this but he continued,

“Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the earth.” Matthew 10:34

So teaching Christ will have conflicting effects. Some will be violently opposed to him but the effect of people living Christ’s way will be to bring peace between people of different ethnic backgrounds and languages. ‘Peace on earth and goodwill to all men’ should be the effect Jesus has on his people.

New Testament

This problem of defective understanding remained prevalent in Jesus’ day. Jesus was confronted by a religious man who asked him a very good question even if his motives were dubious.

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 10:25

He has asked a very good question to the right person, indeed to the only person who could give eternal life - he claimed to be God himself. However the man’s focus was on what he should do to obtain eternal life. The basis of this thinking was that eternal life was the reward for merit or good works. What a danger such thinking is. The Scriptures are clear that none of us are good enough for God, we all fall short of his standards (Romans 3:11 and 23).

Jesus could have bluntly told the man that there was nothing he could do as he could never be good enough for God. It is likely that the man wanted to hear the answer, ‘Become a Jew.’ However Jesus astutely takes him back to the Scriptures which was their common ground. He helps the man to see the answer for himself. As so often happened, Jesus turns the question round and asks another question.

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

“He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” Luke 10:26-27

It is significant that he was not asked for and did not give the current Rabbinical answer. Rabbi Hillel had taught the negative,

“What is hateful to you, don’t do to another.”

The man certainly knew his Bible. The first half of the answer is from the Shema, a quote from Deuteronomy 6, which became part of the compulsory prayer that has always been recited every morning and evening in an orthodox Jewish home. The second part is a quote from Leviticus 19:18. He answered well but he needed to realise that neither academic knowledge or intellectual assent to Biblical doctrine saves nobody.

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Luke 10:28

The man should have said,

“Yes, I understand this but my problem is that I cannot do this.”

Romans chapter 7 is explicit that the point of the law is to awaken in our minds a sense of sin our need of a sacrifice to atone for this. The Old Testament is clear that the law is meant to lead us to our need for God’s grace and his sacrifice. Did he really not realise that his standards were so much lower than those the Lord requires? Apparently not, for next he demonstrates that he thinks he can justify himself - put himself in a good standing with God.

“But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’” Luke 10:29

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone which seems to be getting somewhere but they pick up on some detail of what you have said and use this to go off at a tangent. This is what the man seems to be doing to get himself out of a hole by asking ‘Who is my neighbour?’. But Jesus again helps the man to understand that formal religion does not please God and saves no-body. He told the story we know as ‘The Good Samaritan’. Parables are riddles God uses to help us understand his message. God’s answers are only given to those who dig into the stories to discover God’s message.

30 “In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho (21 miles of rocky road), when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.

32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise. Luke 10:30-36

Jesus turned the original question of verse 29, “Who is my neighbour?” into a different question in verse 36 which was essentially, “Who was the neighbour to the half dead traveller?” Jesus is actually asking the Jewish scholar, “Are you a neighbour to those in a serious predicament?”

Who is my neighbour? A good answer would be,

“My neighbour is not an object one defines but a relationship into which one enters.”

Jesus is always doing this. He turns everything round to the heart of the questioner. He does that with you and me too. He is not so interested in the presence of a right belief but whether that belief is influencing how I relate both to God and others.

Understanding the story

There has been much confusion about how this story should be explained.

Is it emphasising morality for salvation?

I remember hearing one awful sermon on this passage in which the speaker thought God was saying,

“Do your best to help those in need around you. Then you will be saved!”

Although Christians should do what they can to help those around them, our actions can never save us. Such teaching is totally against what the rest of the Bible teaches. No-one can ever become right with God by ‘his good works’, it is only by trusting in what Jesus has done for us, by entering this world and dying for us on that cross. A ‘scout philosophy’ although admirable is not good enough to save anyone.

Is it an allegory?

Another approach is not to emphasise ethics but uses allegory. This approach was very popular in the early church and middle ages.

The wounded man - represented Adam and humanity

Jerusalem - represented the state of innocence from which Adam fell

The thieves - represented the devil who deprived the man of eternal life.

The Priest and Levites - that is Old Testament Judaism which has nothing to offer

The Good Samaritan - that is Christ who comes to rescue mankind

The Inn - represents the church that the injured man is taken to by the good Samaritan

The two coins - those are the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper.

The donkey - I haven’t read who he represents!

The inn-keeper - self-evidently that is the pope!

Clearly this cannot all be right either, even though there is an element of truth here too.

The Roman and Greek gods that were worshipped in the first century AD didn’t really care what happened on earth. They just enjoyed themselves with wine, women and song in the Elysian Fields. They were not interested in coming to earth and helping those who were suffering and in trouble. Their followers kept up the rituals of religious practice but their lives were godless. Jesus was utterly different to such pseudo-gods, he emphasised that although God wants us to hold to true doctrine, this is not all that God requires but doctrine must lead on to changed lives, lives that love.

Historical - Is it a critique of religion?

To understand the story correctly we must put it in the historical setting. Jesus was speaking to a religious man who represented Judaism and Judaism which at that time had been reduced to a matter of law-keeping to an absurd extent. The ritual and doctrines were there but they were not changing many into being the sort of Godly people God wanted

In another passage Jesus describes a self-righteous Pharisee who prays,

“I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Luke 9:18

This is almost laughable. It is as if the man is saying that as long as I keep to the obligations commanded by God, then he will be pleased with me. That religious man did not go away justified. Much established religion in the West has many similarities to the religious in Jesus day.

All religion can putrefy in the very same way. Isaiah chapter 1 is a good description of the formal but impotent religion that God hates and is well worth reading.

Love is the essential product of a true faith

At the beginning of the history of God’s people, God called Abraham into a relationship with himself. This was sheer grace. God called Abraham into a loving relationship with himself and demanded loyalty in return. Religion was meant to be a relationship of love but degenerated into a religion of rules.

That original intention for Godly religion is to be producing loving relationships both with God and others. This is demonstrated in the summary of the law that the expert in Jewish law gave:

“Love the Lord you God with all your heart . . .”

“Love you neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Essentially what God wants to see in us all is a response to his love that he has poured out on us. This love will overflow into loving others. All ethnic religion is essentially law. Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are in essence rule religions that do not result in love. Similarly Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Freemasonry, Non-Conformism and even evangelical religion can degenerate into a loveless religion of rules. Such people who want to be called religious tend to want to prove this by the religious rules that they keep.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the rules said that the Levite and Pharisee could become unclean if they touched a severely injured man who might be dead. The rules advised staying clear from being tarnished by the unclean, best to stay clear!

In the Jewish synagogue a way was found to twist the meaning of the phrase, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ They would change the emphasis and say that it is only you neighbour that has to be loved, you can therefore ‘hate your enemy’.

Jews certainly did not love their Samaritan neighbours. It was not just a matter of disagreeing with their teachings, they hated the Samaritan people. So the Jews brought God’s perfect standards down to a manageable level. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus repeatedly reminded his Jewish listeners,

“You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you . . .”

He is contrasting what God wants with what the people were taught in their religious meetings. Jesus finished this section of the Sermon of the Mount with the words,

“You have heard it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:43-44

This is what religion, without Christ at the centre, always does. It makes religion into something manageable so that I feel I can cope. I will then be satisfied with my religion and be at risk of thinking that God will be pleased with my outward show of faith. Jesus will have none of such thinking. He says that God looks at the heart.

Charlie Brown in ‘Peanuts’ once said,

“Of course I love the human race, it’s just that I can’t stand Lucy!”

When we really understand what God wants of us in this summary of the law given in verse 27, we rightly feel condemned. But too often we also try to justify ourselves, as the Jewish man did in verse 29. We want to set boundaries that we can keep.

So historically we should surely understand this story as a critique of the Judaism of his day and a demonstration of how far it had moved away from what God intended. It was still outwardly biblical but had been twisted into an unloving, inward looking religion.

The Hebrew word for ‘love’ is ‘ahara’. The root of this is ‘ha’ which means ‘to give’. Thus in Hebrew real love is shown by giving, both to God and others.

Surely God is telling us that if we see someone in trouble we should go out of our way to help them. This reflects what Jesus has done for us and can help us point people to Jesus. He came a long way from heaven and turned away from his rightful status to come and die for us.

In summary Jesus is teaching us that it is vital that his people love others. Real love will include a concern for their eternal salvation but coming to follow the only person who can give eternal life, that is Jesus himself.

Religious people can all put on defences and say to ourselves,

“I’m better than most.”

“I’ve never done any real harm to others.”

“I go to church.”

“I belong to the true faith.”

People who talk like this are trying to ‘justify themselves’, but all the time God sees selfish people who are hiding behind religion. The bible is clear, without a personal relationship with Christ we are all lost and will be eternally separated from God.

A young student was listening to a Christian talk and this idea of eternal separation from God, hell, was mentioned. She stood up and exclaimed,

“Are you trying to scare us into becoming Christians by talking about hell?”

The speaker turned to her calmly and replied,

“You are asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is whether there is a hell. Jesus talked about there being a real hell more than anyone else so the question boils down to the vital question, ‘Who is Jesus and what is his authority for what he said.’

What is needed is a complete revolution. When God calls us, as he called Abraham, we respond with a heartfelt love and loyalty for him. He calls us to constantly repent and start again with him in charge. Then we will inevitably have something to share with others around us, enemies and all. Christians must never move away from the story of the cross where Christ died for our sin. We keep needing to be reminded of this both for ourselves and for those we talk with.

The Bible talks about a faith that results in love. The Samaritan was hated by the religious people, just as Jesus was. It is because we fail so much that we desperately need to remain dependant on Jesus and his death on our behalf for our salvation. We cannot justify ourselves before God, the Good Samaritan surely represents Jesus to us very needy people, we are helpless without him.

A modern illustration

You have probably never heard of the island of Molokai. It’s located in the state of Hawaii. And it has quite a history. You have to go way back to the late 1800’s to understand its significance. Back then, there was no cure for the highly contagious and deadly disease called leprosy. A disease that would attack the extremities of the body, the ears, the toes, the nose, the fingers. It is a horrible, dreadful disease which today is curable, but it wasn’t back then.

In order to keep it from spreading and creating an epidemic, the government would send lepers to a colony on the island of Molakai where they would be secluded and isolated for life from those who were not infected with the disease.

In 1873, there was a young, brave Catholic priest named Father Damien who volunteered to spend his life serving the people secluded on the island of Molokai. When he arrived, he was startled to see people who were not only suffering physically, but socially, and emotionally, and spiritually. In the leper colony he saw extreme drunkenness, immorality, abuse, and an overall sense of hopelessness. What he saw were people who desperately needed to know the answer to a question we all ask... where is God? They needed God’s presence in their life.

And so, in 1873, Father Damien lived among the 700 lepers. Knowing the dangers, realising the inevitable results of so much personal contact with a highly contagious disease. He built hospitals, clinics, and churches and built some 600 coffins. And the whole while he was giving them the answer to that question... where is God?

And whenever a church service was held. He would stand up in front of the lepers, and he would warmly, and lovingly address them as "my dear brethren." But then one morning in 1885, at the age of 45, in a calm clear voice, instead of "my dear brethren," he began with, "My fellow lepers, I am one of you now."

You see it was out of love that a humble priest became one of the them. Out of love he gave those lepers a gift that would change their life for all of eternity. He shared with them the answer to the ever present question... "Where is God?" And the only way he could give them the answer is by becoming one of them.

Group Questions

Parables are riddles that only benefit those who dig into them,

What is the lesson Jesus wants the Jews to understand from the riddle of the Good Samaritan?

What should Christians learn?

How can any of us live as Christ wants?

BVP