It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it and many 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 may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
– Isaiah 2:2–3
There’s so much here. The picture doesn’t miss it is all the nations coming, all the nations coming to the mountain of the house of the Lord, to the place where the glory of God dwells. The nations flowing to it. Many people are coming saying “Let’s go and see behold the glory of God and let’s learn his ways and let’s walk in his paths.”
Isaiah 2:2–3 points to a day when all nations will worship the Lord.
This goes back to Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8, for the temple, for this place where God’s glory dwelled among his people, that God would draw people from all the nations to see and behold and know and love God’s glory. And the picture is out of Jerusalem, so flowing from Jerusalem, the Word going to the nations. So that’s all Old Testament and that’s what Isaiah 1 is talking about.
There’s a day coming when all the nations will come, and this just points us to the New Testament, first and foremost, to Jesus’s commission, not just to his disciples then, but to you and me for the Word to go from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. This is why we pray every day on this podcast for unreached people groups because this is what God is doing in the world today.
Isaiah 2:2–3 teaches us that God is drawing the nations to Himself.
He’s drawing the nations to himself and he’s invited all of his people, you and me, to be a part of that, to be a part of the spread of the gospel to all peoples through the way we pray, and through the way we give and through the way we live day in and day out for all of us. Until Revelation 7 tells us that all the nations will behold the glory of the Lord, every nation, tribe, and tongue when we gather around his throne, singing praises to God for his salvation in Jesus. That’s where all of history is headed.
Do you want your life to count in this world? Then live for where all of history is headed. So let’s pray for this. God, help us to join in what you are doing in the world. What you promised in Isaiah chapter 2 would happen. All the nations beholding you and all your glory.
Prayer for the Hazara People
God, we pray today specifically for the Hazara of Afghanistan. Four and a half million of them, some of them spread out in different countries. God, this almost totally unreached people. God, we pray for this Muslim people group theara to be reached with the good news of your grace.
Bring them to see your glory, oh God, in the face of Jesus, to trust in Him as Savior. And Lord God, we pray, bring the hara in, and bring in all 7,000 other unreached people groups today. Bring them in and we pray, oh God, and use our lives toward that end. God, help us to give toward that end. Use our resources for the spread of your glory among the nations. Help us to live right where we are today. God, I think about the man I was sharing the gospel with from Afghanistan and an Uber this last week.
God, we thank you for the opportunities we have in different places where we live to spread the gospel in our neighborhoods, to people from the nations. Lord help us to be faithful… To draw the nations to you through your Word going out from our lips… Our lives and our families and our churches. God, in all the different jobs we have and the different schools where we are learning God… All the different places you lead us. God help us to follow Jesus and make him known. We pray this according to your word promised in Isaiah chapter two verses two and three. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
