Judgement and Salvation in Isaiah

I've been preparing sermons from Isaiah recently.  What's really striking me is the universal judgement pronounced by the LORD.

The book has rightly been called a tale of two cities and the remarkable thing is that both cities are Jerusalem.  Jerusalem stands at the head of both old and new creation.  The earthly Jerusalem has its earthly copy of the heavenly reality - the temple.  And contemporary threats to earthly Jerusalem (from Assyria and Babylon) are the sign of universal judgement on this present evil age.  But there is a heavenly Zion, eternal capital of the new heavens and new earth.

Hope is not found in avoiding the universal judgement.  Hope is not found in belonging to some other earthly city or people.  Humanity will be judged wholesale from the top down.  Judgement will begin with the house of God (1 Pet 4:17) - meaning temple, meaning household (people), meaning Christ!  The world will go down in flames.  This is root and branch demolition.

So it's not:

Instead it's:

And the only path to salvation is the path through judgement.

Salvation is not the absence of judgement, it's bowing your head to the Refuge found in the LORD alone.

Some of these thoughts are in a recent sermon on Isaiah 2:6-22 (listen here).

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