There he will teach us of his ways. Note, God's ways are to be learned in his church, in communion with his people, and in the use of instituted ordinances; the ways of duty, which he requires us to walk in, the ways of grace, in which he walks towards us. It is God that teaches his people, by his word and Spirit. It is worth while to take pains to go up to his holy mountain, to be taught his ways, for those who are willing to take that pains, shall never find it labour in vain. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know, the Lord. 2. What they promise for themselves, and one another; "If he will teach us his ways, we will walk in his paths; if he will let us know our duty, we will by his grace make conscience of doing it." Those who attend God's word with this humble resolution, shall not be sent away without their lesson.
IV. The means by which this shall be brought about; Out of Zion shall go forth the law, the New Testament law, the law of Christ; as, of old, the law of Moses from mount Sinai, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The gospel is a law, a law of faith; it is the word of the Lord; it went forth from Zion, where the temple was built, and from Jerusalem. Christ himself began in Galilee, Matth. iv. 23. Luke xxiii. 5. But when he commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to all nations, he appointed them to begin at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. See Rom. xv. 19. Though most of them had their home in Galilee, yet they must stay at Jerusalem, there to receive the promise of the Spirit, Acts i. 4. And in the temple on Mount Zion they preached the gospel, Acts v. 20. This honour was allowed to Jerusalem, even after Christ was crucified there, for the sake of what it had been. And it was by this gospel which took rise from Jerusalem, that the gospel-church was established on the top of the mountains. This was the rod of divine strength, that was sent forth out of Zion, Ps. cx. 2.
V. The erecting of the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world; He shall judge among the nations. He whose word goes forth out of Zion, shall by that word not only subdue souls to himself, but rule in them, v. 4. He shall, in wisdom and justice, order and overrule the affairs of the world for the good of his church, and rebuke and restrain those that oppose his interest. By his Spirit working on men's consciences, he shall judge and rebuke, shall try men, and check them: his kingdom is spiritual, and not of this world.
VI. The great peace which should be the effect of the success of the gospel in the world; (v. 4.) They shall beat their swords into ploughshares; their instruments of war shall be converted into implements of husbandry; as, on the contrary, when war is proclaimed, ploughshares are beaten into swords, Joel iii. 10. Nation shall not then lift up sword against nation, as now they do, neither shall they learn war any more, for they shall have no more occasion for it. This does not make all war absolutely unlawful among Christians, nor is it a prophecy that in the days of the Messiah there shall be no wars. The Jews urge this against Christians, as an argument that Jesus is not the Messiah, because this promise is not fulfilled. But, 1. It was in part fulfilled in the peaceableness of the time in which Christ was born, when wars were in a great measure ceased; witness the taxing, Luke ii. 1. 2. The design and tendency of the gospel are to make peace, and to slay all enmities. It has in it the most powerful obligations and inducements to peace; so that one might reasonably have expected it should have had this effect, and it would have had it, if it had not been for those lusts of men, from which come wars and fightings. 3. Jews and Gentiles were reconciled, and brought together, by the gospel, and there were no more such wars between them as had been; for they became one sheep-fold under one shepherd, Eph. ii. 15. 4. The gospel of Christ, as far as it prevails, disposes men to be peaceable, softens men's spirits, and sweetens them; and the love of Christ, shed abroad in the heart, constrains men to love one another. 5. The primitive Christians were famous for brotherly love; their very adversaries took notice of it. 6. We have reason to hope that this promise shall yet have a more full accomplishment in the latter times of the Christian church, when the Spirit shall be poured out more plentifully from on high. Then there shall be on earth peace. Who shall live when God doeth this? But do it he will in due time, for he is not a man that he should lie.
Lastly, Here is a practical inference drawn from all this; (v. 5.) O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. By the house of Jacob is meant either, 1. Israel according to the flesh. Let them be provoked by this to a holy emulation. Rom. xi. 14. "Seeing the Gentiles are thus ready, and resolved for God, thus forward to go up to the house of the Lord, let us stir up ourselves to go too. Let it never be said that the sinners of the Gentiles were better friends to the holy mountain, than the house of Jacob." Thus the zeal of some should provoke many. Or, 2. Spiritual Israel, all that are brought to the God of Jacob. Shall there be such great knowledge in gospel times, (v. 3.) and such great peace? (v. 4.) And shall we share in these privileges? Come, then, and let us live accordingly. Whatever others do, come, O come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. (1.) Let us walk circumspectly in the light of this knowledge. Will God teach us his ways? will he show us his glory in the face of Christ? Let us then walk as the children of the light and of the day, Eph. v. 8. 1 Thess. v. 8. Rom. xiii. 12. (2.) Let us walk circumspectly in the light of this peace. Shall there be no more war? Let us then go on our way rejoicing, and let this joy terminate in God, and be our strength, Neh. viii. 10. . Thus shall we walk in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.
6. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are sooth sayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. 7. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. 8. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. 9. And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
The calling in of the Gentiles was accompanied with the rejection of the Jews; it was their fall, and the diminishing of them, that was the riches of the Gentiles; and the casting off of them, that was the reconciling of the world; (Rom. xi. 12··15.) and it should seem that these verses have reference to that, and are designed to justify God therein; and yet, probably, they are primarily intended for the convincing and awakening of the men of that generation in which the prophet lived; it being usual with the prophets to speak of the things that then were, both in mercy and judgment, as types of the things that should be hereafter. Here is,
I. Israel's doom; this is set forth in two words,
