The Cosmic Mount Zion in Isaiah

Summary

Podcast Summary: BibleProject – "The Cosmic Mount Zion in Isaiah"

Release Date: January 6, 2025

In this illuminating episode of the BibleProject Podcast, hosts Tim Mackey and Lindsay delve deep into the symbolic and theological significance of Mount Zion as portrayed in the Book of Isaiah. Through a rich dialogue, they unravel the multifaceted themes of divine presence, justice, transformation, and hope that the mountain motif embodies within the biblical narrative.

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Introduction to the Theme: The Mountain in the Bible

Tim Mackey opens the discussion by framing the mountain as a central symbol in the Bible, representing the intersection where heaven and earth converge, facilitating God's divine presence among His people.

Tim Mackey [00:37]: "Mountains in the Bible are the place where heaven and earth are one, the place where you can be in God's divine presence."

Mount Zion: The Ideal vs. Reality in Isaiah's Jerusalem

The conversation shifts to Mount Zion, synonymous with Jerusalem, portrayed as the envisioned dwelling of God's presence. Lindsay highlights Isaiah's poetic depiction of Zion as a "new Eden" and a "cosmic mountain" intended to disseminate divine blessings globally.

Lindsay [01:14]: "It's described in the poetry of Isaiah as a new Eden, as a cosmic mountain through which God wants to spread divine rule and blessing to all of the nations."

However, Isaiah's Jerusalem starkly contrasts this ideal. The city grapples with rampant injustice, idolatry, and social inequity, undermining its status as God's chosen dwelling.

Tim Mackey [01:24]: "In Isaiah's day, Jerusalem was far from that ideal. Many people had abandoned Yahweh and his instruction, and they practiced pagan sorcery and divination."

The Day of Yahweh: Judgment and Transformation

Isaiah prophesies a forthcoming "day of Yahweh," a period of divine judgment aimed at dismantling the "false mountains" erected by societal elites who exploit the poor and engage in idolatrous practices.

Lindsay [01:51]: "Yahweh's going to raise up his mountain and he's going to bring down every false mountain. And that's the day that is coming."

Despite the looming judgment, Isaiah offers hope through the promise of a faithful remnant. This group remains steadfast on Mount Zion, embodying the new Garden of Eden through their righteous living.

Tim Mackey [01:58]: "Isaiah also promises that a crew of faithful Israelites will remain on Mount Zion, creating a new Garden of Eden people."

Surrender and Ascension: Pathway to True Life

The hosts explore the concept of ascension as a transformative act of surrender. Ascending Mount Zion requires humility and the relinquishment of self-serving ambitions, enabling individuals to receive "true life."

Lindsay [02:09]: "The whole point of all these people having crisis moments on the mountain isn't just because God's out to, like, get people to be more tough. It really is to transform them into a state so they can actually receive true life."

This theme is recurrent in the narratives of biblical figures like Abraham, Moses, and David, who experience both success and failure, building up to the awaited messianic figure capable of providing ultimate salvation.

Tim Mackey [05:09]: "And then you get a growing portrait, especially once you get into the stories of Moses and David, Elijah or Solomon, of the moments where they surrender is not just on behalf of the person up there on the mountain, it's on behalf of others who are down the mountain who are blowing it."

Isaiah Chapters 2, 3, and 4: A Detailed Exploration

Isaiah Chapter 2: The Vision of Mount Zion

Isaiah 2 begins with a visionary poem forecasting Mount Zion's exaltation above all other mountains. This elevation symbolizes God's instruction (Torah) emanating from Zion to guide all nations.

Lindsay [07:14]: "Mount Rock. And it was the heaven on earth place at that moment in the biblical story."

The imagery mirrors the Genesis narrative of divine provision, envisioning an "inverted Eden" where blessings flow outward rather than emanate from a singular paradisiacal locale.

Tim Mackey [13:05]: "And that's the symbol of the blessing going down out of Eden, the water of life that comes out of the garden, that creates the garden, becoming four rivers that go down into all the land, splits into four heads is what it says, and then goes out to the nations."

Isaiah Chapter 3: Judgment Against Jerusalem's Elites

Chapter 3 focuses on the impending judgment targeting Jerusalem's societal elites—merchants, priests, and officials. Their self-exaltation and luxurious lifestyles, built on oppression and injustice, are condemned.

Lindsay [24:54]: "There's a day coming, the day coming. This is where we're coming to our test moment."

The "day of Yahweh" serves as a catalyst to dismantle these "false mountains," purging the city of its corrupt structures and restoring divine order.

Isaiah Chapter 4: Restoration and the Remnant

Chapter 4 shifts back to the ideal vision post-judgment. A remnant of Israel, embodying holiness and righteousness, remains on Mount Zion. This group becomes the vessel through which God's Torah is disseminated to the nations.

Lindsay [33:06]: "That is, yes, the day of the Lord. The sprouts Yahweh will be for beauty and for honor, and the fruit of the land will be for pride and for beauty for the escaped remnant of Israel."

The chapter underscores the transformation from a corrupted society to a purified community, aligning with the Genesis theme of divine creation and human redemption.

Symbolism and Metaphors: The Cosmic Mountain as a Microcosm

Throughout the discussion, Mackey and Lindsay highlight how Mount Zion encapsulates broader biblical themes:

• Transformation Through Judgment: The "hot wind" and "consuming heat" symbolize cleansing and purifying forces that facilitate the remnant's emergence.

  Lindsay [38:21]: "You get washed with a wind of consuming heat. That is justice."

• Reimagining Tools for Life: Isaiah's prophecy of turning swords into plowshares reflects a profound societal transformation from violence to peace and productivity.

  Lindsay [20:13]: "The nations are the water, in this case, coming back up. And many people will come, and they will say, come, let us ascend to the mountain of Yahweh."

• Wedding Tent as Divine Covenant: The imagery of a "wedding tent" symbolizes the intimate and enduring covenant between God and His people, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and the Tabernacle.

  Lindsay [41:56]: "It's called the wedding tent. Yes. It's a wedding feast."

Connections to Broader Biblical Narratives

The hosts draw parallels between Isaiah's Mount Zion and other biblical narratives:

• Garden of Eden: The restoration of Zion mirrors the original creation, emphasizing themes of abundance, purity, and divine-human fellowship.

• Sermon on the Mount: Jesus' teachings echo Isaiah's mountain themes, reinforcing the continuity of biblical theology.

  Tim Mackey [51:14]: "You're the city on the mountain. Build your house on the rock."

• Apostolic Teachings: References to Paul’s writings highlight the enduring relevance of Mount Zion’s themes in New Testament theology.

  Tim Mackey [39:09]: "So this theme of individuals going up a mountain, which we've been tracing here, it's that the fiery test will come to Mount Zion and the whole mountain's going to undergo the test that is all the people on it."

Conclusion: The Ongoing Journey from Isaiah to the Gospels

The episode culminates with a reflection on how Isaiah's portrayal of Mount Zion sets the stage for New Testament revelations, particularly in the Gospels. The promise of a restored Zion serves as a foundation for understanding the Messiah's role and the unfolding of the biblical story towards Jesus.

Lindsay [51:31]: "So from Isaiah to the Gospels, which actually, it's a nice. I kind of planned it that way because the word Isaiah is the main source of what the word gospel means and why it's even used in the gospel accounts of Jesus. In the first place."

As the hosts preview the next episode, they hint at further exploration of mountain themes in the Gospel of Matthew, promising listeners a continued journey through the unified biblical narrative.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Tim Mackey [00:37]: "Mountains in the Bible are the place where heaven and earth are one, the place where you can be in God's divine presence."

• Lindsay [01:14]: "It's described in the poetry of Isaiah as a new Eden, as a cosmic mountain through which God wants to spread divine rule and blessing to all of the nations."

• Lindsay [01:51]: "Yahweh's going to raise up his mountain and he's going to bring down every false mountain. And that's the day that is coming."

• Tim Mackey [05:09]: "And then you get a growing portrait, especially once you get into the stories of Moses and David, Elijah or Solomon, of the moments where they surrender is not just on behalf of the person up there on the mountain, it's on behalf of others who are down the mountain who are blowing it."

• Lindsay [24:54]: "There's a day coming, the day coming. This is where we're coming to our test moment."

• Lindsay [33:06]: "That is, yes, the day of the Lord. The sprouts Yahweh will be for beauty and for honor, and the fruit of the land will be for pride and for beauty for the escaped remnant of Israel."

• Lindsay [38:21]: "You get washed with a wind of consuming heat. That is justice."

• Lindsay [41:56]: "It's called the wedding tent. Yes. It's a wedding feast."

• Tim Mackey [51:14]: "You're the city on the mountain. Build your house on the rock."

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This episode offers a profound exploration of Mount Zion's pivotal role in Isaiah's prophetic vision, weaving together themes of judgment, redemption, and divine instruction. By connecting these ancient texts to broader biblical stories, Tim and Lindsay provide listeners with a deeper understanding of how these timeless themes continue to resonate within the unified story of the Bible.

Transcript

[Lindsay]

Hey, this is Lindsay at bibleproject. I produce the podcast. We've been exploring the theme of the mountain in the Bible and we're currently collecting questions for our upcoming question and response episode for our podcast series on the Mountain. You can record your question and submit it to us on our [e-mail] QR by January 7th. Let us know your name and where you're from. Try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question in the form provided. That's super helpful to our team. We're looking forward to hearing from you. Here's the episode.

[Tim Mackey]

Welcome to BibleProject podcast. We've been tracing the theme of the mountain in the story of the Bible. Now, the Bible begins on a mountain, and throughout the story, God again and again invites his people up to mountains to be with him. Because mountains in the Bible are the place where heaven and earth are one, the place where you can be in God's divine presence. Today, we explore the theme of the mountain. In the scroll of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah lived in Jerusalem, which is also known as Mount Zion because it's meant to be the place where God's divine presence lives amongst his people.

[Lindsay]

It's described in the poetry of Isaiah as a new Eden, as a cosmic mountain through which God wants to spread divine rule and blessing to all of the nations.

[Tim Mackey]

And so to live on Mount Zion means to live in right relationship with God and others. But in Isaiah's day, Jerusalem was far from that ideal. Many people had abandoned Yahweh and his instruction, and they practiced pagan sorcery and divination. The rich and powerful, they exalted themselves at the expense of the poor, making themselves false mountains. So In Isaiah, chapter 3, Isaiah warns that a day of judgment is coming.

[Lindsay]

Yahweh's going to raise up his mountain and he's going to bring down every false mountain. And that's the day that is coming.

[Tim Mackey]

Isaiah also promises that a crew of faithful Israelites will remain on Mount Zion, creating a new Garden of Eden people. So how can people truly learn to live on the mountain?

[Lindsay]

The whole point of all these people having crisis moments on the mountain isn't just because God's out to, like, get people to be more tough. It really is to transform them into a state so they can actually receive true life.

[Tim Mackey]

Today, Tim Mackey and I explore the theme of the mountain in the early chapters of Isaiah. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey, Tim.

[Lindsay]

Hi, John. Hello.

[Tim Mackey]

Hello. We are. We're ascending mountains.

[Lindsay]

Yes, we are. Let Us ascend the mountain of the Lord. We are going to also ascend to a new section of the Bible. We have been talking about the theme of the mountain, the cosmic mountain. We've been touring through the Hebrew Bible, but we've been doing the narrative books. Oh, and then the Psalms. Yeah, we were in the Psalms. But the main narrative that goes from Adam and Eve all the way up through the kings of Israel and the exile in Babylon, and all these events.

[Tim Mackey]

That happen on a very important place high in the sky, the heavens and the land connect. The mountain.

[Lindsay]

The mountain, yes. Mountains are the places where heaven and earth are one. It's a place where it's land. So humans are made for the land to be images of God so that humans themselves imagine image the God of heaven on earth. So humans are like a heaven on earth spot, ideally. And then mountains are this topographical symbol in the ancient world and in the imagination of the biblical authors. And then what is interesting, the drama of the mountain, is that it's the place where heaven touches earth.

[Tim Mackey]

It's a place where heavenly blessing will then descend down to the rest of.

[Lindsay]

The land, down the mountain, out to the rest of the land. But the human images of God just keep fouling it up. And so if God wants to release now, once Adam and Eve blow it and they're exiled from Eden and separated from the Eden blessings on top of the mountain, how are they going to spread? Well, it's going to be by somebody getting back up the mountain to intercede and do something that will open up those mountain, heaven on earth, blessings down to the land. Back down to the land. And so we get all these narratives, whether it's Noah, Abraham, Moses, Moses. Yeah, Elijah, David, where they have success and failure moments. But it keeps building up the tension to what we need is someone who can ascend the mountain of the Lord.

[Tim Mackey]

The success moments are when they surrender themselves. They surrender the thing that they think that they need to do on their own terms to preserve their life or preserve the life of their family. And that sacrificial surrender allows them to ascend the mountain.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. And then you get a growing portrait, especially once you get into the stories of Moses and David, Elijah or Solomon, of the moments where they surrender is not just on behalf of the person up there on the mountain, it's on behalf of others who are down the mountain who are blowing it.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, the intercessor.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, the intercessor. So the story ends with all of the kings of Israel, David, all these figures who even though they had success moments, they ultimately fail. And so the main narrative line goes from Genesis to two Kings. The Hebrew Bible just sets you up to be like, well, there's only one type of solution. The story's priming me to expect that. And we haven't met anybody who can ultimately, once and for all, bring that solution. And so that's how the story works in terms of a messianic trajectory driving you forward to hope for that fulfillment.

[Tim Mackey]

Once and for all. You mean because there has been moments of success.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, but temporary.

[Tim Mackey]

But it's temporary.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, they're temporary. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[Lindsay]

So in this conversation, what I'd like to do is to show this whole set of themes is explored throughout the Isaiah scroll, which is the first of the section of the latter prophets in the Tanakh, or the Hebrew Bible.

[Tim Mackey]

Cool.

[Lindsay]

And the mountain that is Mount Zion, that is Jerusalem on the high hill.

[Tim Mackey]

It's one of the mountains that becomes a cosmic mountain in the storyline of the Bible. It's the one associated with David.

[Lindsay]

With David and then the lineage of kings. Yeah. That come from him. And so we explored imagery connected to Mount Zion in the Psalms in our last conversation. And Isaiah is turning that over from another angle, specifically from the vantage point of where the Book of Isaiah began, which is with this guy named Isaiah, or Yeshuahu in Hebrew. He lived in Jerusalem, also known as Mount Zion, which, remember Zion most likely means rock. So Mount Rock.

[Tim Mackey]

Mount Rock.

[Lindsay]

Mount Rock. And it was the heaven on earth place at that moment in the biblical story.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Isaiah is the character. He lives in Jerusalem.

[Lindsay]

Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Which is Mount Zion, which is a way of talking about a city in the hills, that it's not just a city up in the hills, it starts to be imagined as a city on the cosmic mountain.

[Lindsay]

That's right, yeah. When it's described in the poetry of Isaiah, and we saw in the Psalms, it's described as a new Eden, as a cosmic mountain through which God wants to spread divine rule and blessing to all of the nations. Yeah. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

All right.

[Lindsay]

And there's expectation and reality, gap between those 2. The ideal Mount Zion and then the actual Mount Zion that Isaiah finds himself in. In a way, that's kind of the tension. Yeah. Maybe you could say a driving tension about Mount Zion in the Book of Isaiah.

[Tim Mackey]

So you're saying there's this ideal Mount Zion, Jerusalem, that's going to be the heaven and earth spot that extends the blessing out to the land.

[Lindsay]

Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

And there's going to be this anointed king who is the one who can be the one that ascends the mountains. Who rules from the mountain, unleashing the heavenly blessing. That's the ideal. And everyone's celebrating it in the poetry of the Psalms. But then you go and you look who's in charge. What's going on in the city.

[Lindsay]

That's right.

[Tim Mackey]

And you're like, this is a mess.

[Lindsay]

Yes. The real Jerusalem is far from the ideal. That is the driving tension in the scroll of Isaiah. So we only are going to have time to touch down in a handful of passages, but throughout really good ones. And one of them is a poem that we've read multiple times over the years. So let's dive into the poem that we call Isaiah Chapter two. So I guess it's a bit of a false start, because Isaiah chapter two comes after Isaiah Chapter one, which is the actual introduction to the scroll of Isaiah, to which I'll just say Isaiah 1 begins with a big overview. To say the current Jerusalem of Isaiah's day is full of irresponsible leaders, especially the kings and the priests.

[Tim Mackey]

He's comparing it to a vineyard.

[Lindsay]

Is that he compares Jerusalem to Sodom and Gomorrah.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh, well.

[Lindsay]

And what he highlights is what also the prophet Ezekiel saw in the Sodom and Gomorrah, which is abuse of the outsider and the poor and extravagant wealth that led people to apathy and to oppress those who don't have as much.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. It's interesting how in the prophets, when they talk about Sodom and Gomorrah, they talk about justice and oppression.

[Lindsay]

That's right. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

When you read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Genesis scroll.

[Lindsay]

Genesis, yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

It doesn't really talk about that. It kind of just.

[Lindsay]

Oh, it depends on the lens that you bring to it, because it's about how outsiders, immigrants, or visitors to the city, instead of being shown hospitality, are taken advantage of and gang raped. The men of the city want the gang rape.

[Tim Mackey]

Right. You then have to assume, okay, there's a whole culture of oppression and violence.

[Lindsay]

How does the city get to that place? And Ezekiel highlights specifically, too much wealth concentrated in too few hands.

[Tim Mackey]

Too much, Toph.

[Lindsay]

Too much. Yeah. That has led them to be apathetic and even antagonistic towards the poor in the city. That's what Ezekiel says the problem is. So that's what Isaiah sees happening in Jerusalem. Injustice. He says, all kinds of people are coming to worship me in the temple. And you spread out your hands in prayer, but your hands are full of bloodshed, the blood of the innocent. So that's the situation Isaiah 2 begins just with a real shock to just say, but what about the ideal? Like, what is the ideal? Let's upload the ideal. And that's how Isaiah 2 begins. It begins this way. The word which Yeshyahu Isaiah, which means Yahweh, will bring deliverance or rescue. Yahweh will rescue Yeshu, son of Amotz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it will be at the end of days that the mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the head of the mountains. There's lots of mountains out there on the land, but there's one that will become the head of. Of them all.

[Tim Mackey]

There's a lot of places claiming to be the place where heaven and earth will unite.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Within the biblical story, Babylon said, let us make a city with a tower whose head is in the skies. So this is echoing that. But then, yeah. In terms of cultural background, our earliest conversations in this series were all about the different Mount Hermon and Yabel Acre way up north. We're like, for the Canaanites, and they're cosmic mountains. So let us remember, Mount Zion in Jerusalem is not even the actual tallest mountain in the hills that the city surrounds it. Yeah. Like, there's a taller hill, taller mountain just like a mile away.

[Tim Mackey]

Right.

[Lindsay]

So this is talking about symbolic exaltation. The mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the head of the mountains and lifted up more than the high hills. All of the nations will river to it.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, we've talked about this river as a verb.

[Lindsay]

River is a verb.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

It's cool. And it's a verb of the noun river that was used back in the Garden of Eden.

[Tim Mackey]

And that's the symbol of the blessing going down out of Eden, the water of life that comes out of the garden, that creates the garden, becoming four rivers that go down into all the.

[Lindsay]

Land, splits into four heads is what it says, and then goes out to the nations. Yeah. So this is an Eden image of an inverted Eden river. But the.

[Tim Mackey]

It says, now the nation's like, swimming back up.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. The nations are the water, in this case, coming back up. And many people will come, and they will say, come, let us ascend to the mountain of Yahweh. Now, this was the main theme in the Psalms. Who can ascend the mountain?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

Have you ever heard exactly the same phrase? Yes. So how different is this? Because in Psalm 15 and 24, you're like, Man, I don't really know anybody at this point.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, hopefully somebody.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. And then here's this vision of all humanity will get an invitation and feel this confident hope. Let's go up, let's river up. Let's ascend to the house of the God of Jacob. So specifically, notice the universal reach of this promise, but then also that it's focused in on the God revealed through the one family of Abraham and Jacob. So it's very particular. And that's kind of the paradox of the biblical story is it's a universal story for all humanity told as through the lens of one particular family. So once the nations get up there, what do they hope to experience? Let Yahweh instruct us from his way.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Teach us good and bad.

[Lindsay]

Yes, exactly. And to let us walk in his paths. So the word instruct is Torah as a verb. It's the root. The noun form is Torah. And then the verb is yore.

[Tim Mackey]

And we talked about yora when we talked about in the Sermon on the Mount being the light.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, exactly. Yes. Right. Torah rhymes with the word light, which is. Or. Yeah. And then actually that word play will get drawn out in this poem.

[Tim Mackey]

Cool. So they're learning God's Torah, which was the point in the original cosmic mountain. Adam and Eve walking with God, being instructed by him. Don't take the knowledge of good and bad on your own terms. Walk with God, learn his voice.

[Lindsay]

You got it. Yeah. So again, the word Eden isn't referenced here, but this whole poem is kind of built on the premise of the storyline set up in the Garden of Eden. So that was what the nation said. Now the poet kicks back in and he says, listen, dear reader, it is from Zion that Torah will go out. And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.

[Tim Mackey]

So now we're streaming back out again.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. So the nations stream in.

[Tim Mackey]

That's the vision. The vision is a time when the nations stream in.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. Because it's from Mount Zion that God's instruction will go out, which kind of raises this puzzle within the nation.

[Tim Mackey]

If the nation's already in, why is it going back out?

[Lindsay]

Why does it need to go out? So there's one sense in which there'll be a reunification, which is this image of a procession to Zion. But then immediately there's this awareness that but not all humanity can fit in Zion. And that's never the point. All humanity can't fit inside the garden.

[Tim Mackey]

This isn't about everyone being in one place. This is really about the blessing going everywhere.

[Lindsay]

That's right. Yeah. It's almost the Genesis one fill the land.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

So go out and fill.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

So there's this poetic image, kind of. It's almost like a snapshot of the reunion. Oh, but like, maybe if you've ever gone to a high school or college reunion, I have. You know, let us go to the. I don't know where do you have those things? Wherever they are. Some meeting hall, convention hall. But the point isn't. The reunion's great, but the point is actually to go out, shaped by those encounters and go back out into your life. Right. So here the people come in. Are you having a memory moment?

[Tim Mackey]

Well, I'm trying to connect. High school reunions are the worst. So, like. Yeah, it's not landing for me.

[Lindsay]

So what about a reunion with people that you, like, love?

[Tim Mackey]

Well, you're saying, like, going up the mountain, the nation's going up is like a reunion of sorts. Yeah, I think it was like a pilgrimage.

[Lindsay]

It's like, that's better.

[Tim Mackey]

We're all going to go. There's going to be this party. It's an important moment. This place is important.

[Lindsay]

God will become our personal teacher.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, but we're not here to, like, now spend the rest of our days. We're going to go back.

[Lindsay]

Back out. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And we're going to be living in our own lands.

[Lindsay]

That's it.

[Tim Mackey]

The Torah will go out.

[Lindsay]

That's right.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

So the nations come up to get Torah, and Torah will go out to all of the nations. It's this inverse.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. There's access in and then there's outpouring back out.

[Lindsay]

There you go. That's it. And man, what will happen when God's Torah, God's personal instruction goes out to the nations? Well, he will render justice between.

[Tim Mackey]

The word that I'm looking at is judge between nations.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. To judge between, which means to settle disputes between.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

To judge between.

[Lindsay]

This is what Solomon does for those two women who both claim to be deploying the wisdom. Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Understanding good and bad, reconciling and making peace.

[Lindsay]

Yes, that's right. Because remember that word between in Hebrew is a preposition ben, which is the root for understanding related to the word, the Hebrew word bin, which means to discern between, discern between. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Which is often translated, understand, understanding. Correct.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. You like that word?

[Tim Mackey]

I do love that.

[Lindsay]

And then also notice, he will mediate for many peoples. This is actually tricky. It's at least a double meaning. So it's the verb hokia, which can mean you get a synonym of judge between. Like you get involved in two Parties or in conflict. And you settle.

[Tim Mackey]

Mediate.

[Lindsay]

But it also, it can be used the word you mediate between the peoples and somebody else, namely God.

[Tim Mackey]

So, like intercede.

[Lindsay]

To intercede. This is also the word used of like a go between. Intercede.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[Lindsay]

So the phrase to Hokiah for many peoples could mean Yehokiah between the peoples who are at odds. Or it could mean on behalf of all the peoples, implication before God. But in this case, it's God mediating for the people.

[Tim Mackey]

And who's the he? Sorry?

[Lindsay]

Oh, Yahweh. So the word of Yahweh will go out from Jerusalem.

[Tim Mackey]

He will judge.

[Lindsay]

He will judge between the nations. He will mediate the word peoples.

[Tim Mackey]

The word of Yahweh goes out and Yahweh will judge between the nations.

[Lindsay]

Yahweh will mediate for many peoples. And what will happen when Yahweh is the one rendering justice between groups who are in conflict? True righteousness will result. And so the line of the poem goes. They will beat their swords into plow blades and their spears into pruning knives. Beat meaning like a blacksmith beating on the anvil.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Take weapons of war and turn them into weapons of instruments.

[Lindsay]

Instruments to produce food. Produce for the preservation of life. Yeah, yeah. Instruments of death get turned into tools for life. There is a really cool installation in the British Museum. It's a sculpture created by a collective of artists in Mozambique. And it is built out of the pieces of thousands of guns that were used in the civil war that ripped Mozambique apart many years ago. But all the weapons have been taken apart and then welded together into this huge sculpture of the Tree of Life. When you stand back and you don't know what it's made of, it just looks like this rad blossoming tree with all these animals around it. It's the old. Yeah, but it's made of metal parts. And then when you get close to it and zoom in, you can see it's made of, like, revolvers and AKs, barrels of AK47s, like bullet magazines, triggers. Like this turkey's head is made of, like, trigger pieces.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Lindsay]

So it was their way of taking instruments of death and turning them into a symbol of life. Something like that is what Isaiah has in mind of beating swords and spears into plow blades and pruning knives.

[Tim Mackey]

And art pieces.

[Lindsay]

And art pieces. Yes, that's right. Nation will not lift up sword against nation. They will no longer learn war. Then the last line of the poem. So come, house of Yaakov Walk. Let us walk in the light of Yahweh. So remember, all of the nations were coming up to the house of the God of Jacob. And Jacob there is using the name of a guy who was the father of the 12 tribes to refer to all of the united Israel. So the image of the one family of Jacob becomes the vehicle through which God's Eden, life and instruction goes out from Mount Zion to all the nations. But that requires that Jacob himself and his family walk in the light. Yeah, if Jacob's going to be the vehicle of God's light and Torah going out to the nations, they themselves at least have to start organizing themselves by God's justice. And that's, of course, what they're not doing. Which, you know from chapter one, this hints at the real Jerusalem. So this is the ideal image right here. Isaiah, chapter two, verse one through five. So interestingly, where the poem goes from here is he starts to just lay into Israel for all of the ways that they are not corresponding to the ideal. And the rest of Isaiah, chapter two, remember that there was this real emphasis on the high mountain, that Mount Zion, the house of the Lord will be raised up. But then he goes on to say, verse six. But you, Yahweh, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the east. They practice divination like the Philistines. They embrace pagan customs. So they're doing magic and sorcery and astrology. They're trying to learn God's will by reading the stars instead of listening to God's word.

[Tim Mackey]

They're finding their own way. Gain wisdom.

[Lindsay]

That's right. Their land is full of silver and gold. Too much tov. Too much goodness. This is all connected to the Solomon stuff. Yeah. Their land's full of horses, no end to their chariots. And you're like, oh, yeah, that was Solomon's. He started that one. Blame it on Solomon. And so what we learned about is there is a day coming, verse 12. Yahweh Almighty has a day in store. And this begins the day of the Lord theme. So that gap between the real Jerusalem and the ideal Jerusalem, how are we gonna bridge that gap?

[Tim Mackey]

It's gonna be a crisis moment.

[Lindsay]

There's a day, the day coming. This is where we're coming to our test moment. So all the stories we've looked at is the individual going up the mountain to have the moment of crisis.

[Tim Mackey]

It's an individual moment.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. For that person. And in Isaiah, the moment of the test is going to happen for all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, in fact, for all of Israel. And all of that is condensed into this phrase, the day of Yahweh. So the day of Yahweh. We've made a video about this theme. We also did the test video and the test. That's right, yeah, yeah. And I think when we made both of those, the deep connection between those wasn't even clear to me yet. But the day of Yahweh and the Prophets is about the great moment of test for Israel and for those who are willing to trust and surrender God, they will survive through the test. And that's the group called the remnant. In the book of Isaiah, the Remnant will survive the test. But verse 12, Yahweh Almighty has a day in store for all of the proud and interesting. The word proud means the word exalted.

[Tim Mackey]

Those high up, like Babel, trying to make their head in the sky.

[Lindsay]

That's right, yeah. Those who are proud and lofty for everything that is exalted, it will be brought low.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, that's interesting. We have this sense that we do need to get to this elevation.

[Lindsay]

In fact, we love to elevate ourselves.

[Tim Mackey]

We love to elevate ourselves.

[Lindsay]

We have something that we know that being up on high is to be more important.

[Tim Mackey]

We love going up on mountains. We love being in a high position. We love elevation.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

It's this intuitive like, yes, we want to be up on the mountain.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. Up is good, down is bad.

[Tim Mackey]

And it's kind of the same as like the knowledge of good and bad. Yeah, we want it. Everyone wants it. It's kind of like, how are you going to do it? How are you going to ascend?

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. So the real Jerusalem has exalted itself with too much tov, gold and silver, chariots, horses, pagan divination, not the word of God. And what it's resulting in is that the poor, the immigrant, the widow, the orphan are all losing in Jerusalem.

[Tim Mackey]

There's injustice.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay, so this is landing for me because we're talking about the way up the mountain is surrender.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

There's this humility that you need to go up the mountain. You're ascending with humility. But you could also ascend with pride and loftiness.

[Lindsay]

Build your own mountains.

[Tim Mackey]

Build your own mountains.

[Lindsay]

Babylon.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

Okay. Yeah. All right. So people elevate themselves on their own self made mountains. And isn't it interesting how little surrender that requires when you are atop your self made mountain?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

Doesn't require a lot.

[Tim Mackey]

No, you get. Not only are you not Surrendering, you get to keep the parts of you and reinforce the parts of you that are probably causing damage.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's totally right. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So the day of Yahweh is coming. That is going to lay low and humble everyone who is high up. And that's how the poem goes on. I mean, all the cedars of Lebanon were the tallest trees in that part of the world. They'll be brought low. All the towering mountains and high hills, they'll be brought low. Every high tower and fortified wall. So even cities with like defense walls that are really high. He's working that metaphor. Those will get brought low. Every trading ship that's different and vessel well, I mean, that's how you make money. All these groups of people were by the Mediterranean.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

So how you really cash in is to build a trading fleet.

[Tim Mackey]

I went down a rabbit hole about the Phoenicians.

[Lindsay]

Oh, yeah?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. They probably got really wealthy with the way they were able to.

[Lindsay]

Crazy wealth. That's actually a lot of how Solomon made his money. Was he buddied up with the King of Phoenicia.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh, okay.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

You go to a country that has a bunch of tin and like, you buy it, you bring it over to a country that needs it to build, to create, like bronze. And you just become these middlemen, Merchants just can start just cashing in.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. Really big.

[Tim Mackey]

And if you're able to do that by sea, the first ones to do it by sea, like the Phoenicians, that's your world.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. What do you say? They cornered the market. They cornered the market on the eastern Mediterranean.

[Tim Mackey]

They made a lot of money.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. No, I was just talking with my son last night because he's taking ancient history class right now. And so he was telling me, which I had heard about but forgot, that off the coast of modern day, like Beirut up in Lebanon.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. That's one of the most ancient ports.

[Lindsay]

Exactly. Of the Phoenicians.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

And they're still finding sunken ships with straight up treasure, like big boxes of gold coins.

[Tim Mackey]

Remember the guy we sat at a dinner with who grew up in Beirut?

[Lindsay]

Oh, yes.

[Tim Mackey]

And he said you could just snorkel around and find. And find treasure.

[Lindsay]

Treasure off the coast. Yeah, that's it. It's totally right.

[Tim Mackey]

Anyway, also they would. Those Cedars of Lebanon. Like.

[Lindsay]

Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Egypt needed that. So there was these trading routes. They just were bringing that stuff down like ancient barges.

[Lindsay]

So Isaiah's tapping into all of that, like the High trees of Lebanon, the ships. That is the Phoenician ships. And Israel was constantly trying to buddy up to get more money to buy more horses and more chariots, taller defense walls. It's all one package.

[Tim Mackey]

The economic machine.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. And all of that's coming down. That represents the mountain of man and not the mountain of Yahweh. And all that is being brought low. That's Isaiah 2.

[Tim Mackey]

Right.

[Lindsay]

So Yahweh's going to raise up his mountain and he's going to bring down every false mountain. And that's the day that is coming. In chapter three, then it targets the men of Jerusalem. It targets merchants and priests and officials and city rulers and how all of they're all coming down. It's all going down. Then he targets the women of Jerusalem, calls them the daughters of Zion. Specifically the elaborate fashion trends of the wealthiest of the wealthy women of Zion, how they're spending more and more extravagantly on fashion while the poor are ignored. That's Isaiah, chapter three. Okay, so the way this section works then is the day of Yahweh that's coming for everybody. High and lifted up. Then a poem about the man of high social rank. And he uses all the same language of the high and lifted up men. Then he uses the language of the high and lifted up women. And then he comes back to the mountain and he's going to go back to the ideal. So we had the ideal three moments of the day of Yahweh where the test is coming, and then chapter four.

[Tim Mackey]

Back to the ideal.

[Lindsay]

Chapter four, back to the ideal. But now this is what will be on the other side of the day of the Lord. Of the day of the Lord. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Everything's been brought low.

[Lindsay]

Yep. And now everything's going to get restored. And this poem is fascinating. It is a poem written by such an extreme Bible nerd who has the whole of the Hebrew Bible so hyperlinked in his mind.

[Tim Mackey]

So dense.

[Lindsay]

It's so dense. As you'll see, it's hard to read because the hyperlinked metaphors are just stumbling over each other. You have to know Bible speak to make. Anyway, I love this poem.

[Tim Mackey]

It becomes a riddle of sorts.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, it's like a riddle in that day.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay, day of the Lord.

[Lindsay]

Isaiah, chapter 4, verse 2. That is, yes, the day of the Lord. The sprouts Yahweh will be for beauty and for honor, and the fruit of the land will be for pride and for beauty for the escaped remnant of Israel. This first opening bit.

[Tim Mackey]

So the day of the Lord brought things low. There will be a remnant that survives.

[Lindsay]

Yes. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And they will have a sprout of Yahweh and the fruit of the land, which will give them honor.

[Lindsay]

That's it.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

There you go. Good job. That's a great summary.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay. Yeah, I just read it in reverse.

[Lindsay]

Oh, good. Yeah, like you should. Okay. Yeah. You don't know who this is describing until the last line. That's saved for the end. And then you know that this escaped remnant is going to have restored to them honor and also beauty and goodness.

[Tim Mackey]

But then they also will have pride, which was the problem.

[Lindsay]

Totally. Okay, so there's pride in a positive sense. I guess honor is maybe a better honor. Yeah. When you've been elevated by God because you've waited, it's a proud moment. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Maybe we still use the word like, I'm proud of you, you're proud of you. That's a good sense of pride.

[Tim Mackey]

So in Hebrew, it's the same idea.

[Lindsay]

Same idea, yeah. You can have good pride. Same pride. And then what they're likened to is the sprout of Yahweh and the fruit of the land.

[Tim Mackey]

And there's the riddle.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. Sprout of fruit.

[Tim Mackey]

That's the first riddle for me.

[Lindsay]

Totally.

[Tim Mackey]

Sprout of Yahweh, the fruit of the land. I think I can kind of imagine. Especially fruit of the land. I mean, that was the point of Garden of Eden.

[Lindsay]

Exactly. Yeah, that's right.

[Tim Mackey]

Abundance.

[Lindsay]

Now, notice that fruit of the land in Genesis 2 sprouted up out of just a dry, wilderness. Okay. Yahweh brought fruit and sprout out of dry, dusty, waterless desert. That's how the eating story works.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[Lindsay]

And it's hard to tell are the fruit the people. It says the sprout of Yahweh. And the fruit will be for pride and beauty for the remnant.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

You're like, oh, so they have fruit growing for them so that people honor them.

[Tim Mackey]

On the other side of this, there's gonna be abundance, and there's gonna be life. And when you experience it. Cause it's happening in a good way. There's gonna be honor. It's gonna be beautiful. You're gonna feel proud of it, like all those things are gonna be yours.

[Lindsay]

Yep. You'll be the Garden of Eden people, and you'll be known as that. Yep. Verse 3. And those remaining in Zion, there's the remnant image and the one left over in Jerusalem. Holiness will be spoken of him, of everyone who is written for life in Jerusalem.

[Tim Mackey]

Holiness.

[Lindsay]

Again, this goes all back through the previous poems, which describe Israel as the opposite of holiness. Their hands are full of blood. There's both moral impurity and ritual impurity, injustice. It's the opposite of holiness is holiness here.

[Tim Mackey]

Are we talking about righteousness?

[Lindsay]

Oh, so no. Holiness is about being in proximity to Yahweh, who is the Holy One of Israel.

[Tim Mackey]

To do that, you need to have a pure heart.

[Lindsay]

That's right.

[Tim Mackey]

And you need to be doing the.

[Lindsay]

Character of God and live in proximity to God, because Mount Zion is where the house of Yahweh is. And so you're going to live in proximity to Yahweh.

[Tim Mackey]

So holiness is a way to talk about proximity. But the way that you're in proximity is through being one who's right with.

[Lindsay]

God, who can ascend the mountain of the Lord, but the one who has clean hands and a pure heart doesn't do wrong by their neighbor. That kind of stuff.

[Tim Mackey]

And when you do ascend, you are.

[Lindsay]

You share God's holiness.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right.

[Tim Mackey]

Awesome.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

I guess what's cool about that word for this theme is I keep thinking about the environment. Like, you're going into this environment, the cosmic mountain environment. And holiness is a word to describe the proximity to something which is kind of an environmental word.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So the transition from the real, impure Jerusalem to the ideal holy Jerusalem, how does that transition happen? Well, all this will happen when the Lord washes the filth of the daughters of Zion and washes the bloodshed of Jerusalem from its midst. So there's a washing coming, A flood. It's a flood coming. But all this is saying is this new Eden and holy remnant in Jerusalem is what will remain after the day.

[Tim Mackey]

Of the Lord is like coming through a flood.

[Lindsay]

That's right. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

That washes you clean.

[Lindsay]

It's a washing you clean. And what do you get washed with? You get washed with a wind of justice, a wind of justice, consuming heat. Well, now it's a dry wind. It's the opposite of a flood. You get washed with a wind of consuming heat. That is justice. So good. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And that's cleansing you.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. You get washed with hot wind. That is like a purifying flood washes everything. So here we're drawing on the flood story and then how the flood story gets drawn upon in Leviticus for ritual purifications with water. And then how the prophets draw on that here. Now the flood becomes a Hot wind that, like, dries everything up, kills the garden, so that it's all.

[Tim Mackey]

That same wind is also cleansing you in some way.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's right. Which is what the test on the mountain is all about.

[Tim Mackey]

Which is what the Apostle Paul talks about. When you build something, it's going to get consumed and what remains will be good.

[Lindsay]

That's right. Yes, that's right. Okay. Yeah. So the whole point of all these people having crisis moments on the mountain isn't just because God's out to get people to be more tough, but it really is to get them. Yeah. To transform them into a state so they can actually receive true life. And that was the theme with Abraham and with David, with Moses. Because what is the thing that Yahweh wants to create? And then we go back to the Eden imagery here.

[Tim Mackey]

Can you think of it as an intense moment of surrender?

[Lindsay]

Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Like you can surrender yourself, which is gonna be difficult. It's gonna feel intense. But then there's gonna be a day when it's just gonna happen where those things that you're holding onto that you don't wanna surrender, they're gonna get just washed away.

[Lindsay]

You can't prevent it.

[Tim Mackey]

You can't prevent it. The fire's coming, the hot wind's gonna just scorch it off like it's gonna happen.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Actually, your appeal to Paul there, in that passage in 1 Corinthians 3, he calls it the day. The fire of the day will bring everything to light. That's it. Yeah. So this theme of individuals going up a mountain, which we've been tracing here, it's that the fiery test will come to Mount Zion and the whole mountain's going to undergo the test that is all the people on it.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Okay.

[Lindsay]

So that they can become the remnant.

[Tim Mackey]

Out of the guard people.

[Lindsay]

Yes. And remember, back to the poem, chapter two. So that the Torah of Yahweh can go out through them to the nations. That's the whole assignment.

[Tim Mackey]

And they can be the light.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. And, man, what could happen when you have a transformed, renewed Israel living on the cosmic mountain? Here's what Yahweh will do. And then here's where the metaphors just come colliding. Yahweh will create. There's our word from Genesis, one new creation. He will create over the foundation of Mount Zion and over all its assemblies, a cloud by day and smoke and a brightness of fire and flame by night.

[Tim Mackey]

This is the Tabernacle.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

So he's gonna create the meeting place.

[Lindsay]

Yes. So, yeah. The fire by night, the cloud by day. First is about the presence of God that accompanied Israel out of Egypt through the wilderness, guided them, protected them, and then took up residence in the tabernacle. So Yahweh's gonna create the fire and cloud over Mount Zion. And over all of the glory will be a wedding tent.

[Tim Mackey]

Hmm. Yeah. No longer is it the tabernacle tent. It's now a wedding tent.

[Lindsay]

It's a wedding tent. It's called chuppah. Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Wow.

[Lindsay]

It's a wedding feast.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

This is the origin of the bride.

[Tim Mackey]

This is the first time this feast of the lamb theme shows up.

[Lindsay]

Well, because you have wedding imagery all the way back with Adam and Eve being made for each other in Eden.

[Tim Mackey]

Oh, we need to make the wedding theme.

[Lindsay]

That's where it begins. And then that becomes the image of Yahweh becoming one with his people in covenant on Mount Sinai.

[Tim Mackey]

And Jesus, first miracle in the Gospel of John.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. The wedding feast is a wedding feast.

[Tim Mackey]

Where he brings the wine.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. Actually, the wedding feast would be a rad. It would be a great biblical theme.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

But it just comes out of the blue here.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, it does.

[Lindsay]

Because you were thinking tabernacle, the cloud by day, the fire by night, filling the tabernacle. But then it's called, not the normal.

[Tim Mackey]

Words, the wedding tent.

[Lindsay]

The wedding tent. And then that wedding tent will be a shelter of shade by day from the dry heat. Oh, yeah. That consuming heat.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. And it'll be a refuge and a hiding place from the torrent and from the rain.

[Tim Mackey]

From the day of the Lord.

[Lindsay]

Yes. So there'll be a transformative day of the Lord. And you're like, oh, I thought once that happens, then Mount Zion will be like the new Eden. And the poet's like, yeah. Yahweh's gonna make a new creation and a wedding tent in this new sprouting, fruiting land. Oh, wow. But also, any further dry heat that's coming, that is, any more floods that come. You're in the tent, man.

[Tim Mackey]

This makes so much sense about this.

[Lindsay]

Makes sense to you. That's wonderful. I'm so satisfied right now.

[Tim Mackey]

Well, I'm also making connections to, you know, we just went through Sermon on the Mount.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Everyone with us.

[Lindsay]

Yes. Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

And so Jesus says, build your house on the rock.

[Lindsay]

The rock.

[Tim Mackey]

Because the flood's coming. Yeah.

[Lindsay]

On the mountain.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Build up on the mountain.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And then I also wonder. And I was gonna ask you, when Jesus says to Peter, I'm gonna call you rock. I'm gonna build on this rock.

[Lindsay]

Yes.

[Tim Mackey]

Is he just like, this is all about this?

[Lindsay]

Yeah, yeah. After Peter confesses, Jesus as the Messiah.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Lindsay]

Notice how the hot wind and the flood are brought together here again in this section. And what you thought was just gonna be a one time around the carousel, like the day of Yahweh will just come once and then it'll be done.

[Tim Mackey]

Once and for all.

[Lindsay]

Now you're like, oh, well, good. Okay. So I really want to find that wedding tent and surrender everything so that I can ascend the mountain and live in that tent. Remember in Psalm 15:24, who can ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who can dwell in the tent?

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. But who knew it was a wedding tent?

[Lindsay]

Who knew it was a wedding tent? Because there will be more cycles of hot wind and storm.

[Tim Mackey]

There will be more cycles, but there's also then the vision going back to Isaiah 2 of When it seems like the cycles are over and the nations are streaming up and the Torah is streaming out and it's, you know, like there's now this balance.

[Lindsay]

Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

Okay.

[Lindsay]

I'm just so satisfied that this makes sense to you because, I mean, we're friends doing this project together. But you know, I have been on a journey to figure out how the Hebrew Bible makes sense and how Jesus and the apostles read it. And I have been inviting you on that journey. And for me, the fact that you can look at this poem, because I remember looking at this poem in my Intro to Prophets class. I was like 21 at Bible College and I remember reading the book of Isaiah and just having absolutely no clue what was going on. And now I can see two decades plus later. That's because the people who. There's so much going on, they're so hyperlinked. All of the images and stories of the Bible here around the mountain are all connected together. That when the poem like this could only have been written by somebody who has a whole biblical theology of the mountain theme uploaded in their mind.

[Tim Mackey]

And a poem like this needs to be appreciated by reading the whole story of the Bible through many lenses.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's good.

[Tim Mackey]

Which is what we talk about. Meditation, literature. So I guess to say this poem doesn't make sense to me, but I think it makes enough sense to me. Right. Like I feel at home in the poem.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. Okay, good.

[Tim Mackey]

But there's so many riddles left in this poem.

[Lindsay]

It's only chapter four.

[Tim Mackey]

We're only in chapter four.

[Lindsay]

It's a six chapter book. So what's rad is the interaction of this section, Isaiah 2. Four, and all of the problems it sets up. And the little riddle images, they're like a palette. You know, think of a painter using, like a palette plate with all the colors.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

Isaiah 2. 4 gives you the full color palette. And then the rest of the Isaiah scroll is just drawing on those themes and colors and, you know, crafting whole new sections and exploring all those themes. The day of Yahweh will get big sections, but these poems in particular bear fruit. Pun intended in the latter chapters of Isaiah. So isn't it interesting that in the latter sections of Isaiah, you get lines like, in Isaiah 37, we'll talk about a remnant going out of Jerusalem and survivors out of Mount Zion. So in chapter two, it was the Torah going out of Mount Zion. And then in four, it's the remnant in Jerusalem. That's like the new holy Eden people. But in 37, it bounces both of those together. And now it's the remnant that will go out of Jerusalem. You're like, oh, where are they going to go? Because the exile has scattered Israel all over, and Jerusalem's been left desolate when Babylon destroyed the temple. And then Isaiah 40:66 goes through this whole sequence. First, Yahweh is going to return to Mount Zion. And that's Isaiah 40, which begins with Isaiah 40, verse 9, which is all about, get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion. You're like, wait, Zion is the mountain.

[Tim Mackey]

The people of Zion.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. But it's this image that you're calling the people of the mountain.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. Hey, mountain, go up the mountain.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. And this is where the word gospel comes from in Isaiah. Get yourself on a high mountain of Zion, O bearer of the gospel. Lift up your voice, Jerusalem, announce good news, say to the cities of Judah, here is your God. Yahweh is coming back. He's going to replant the garden. And so all through these sections, you get imagery of Yahweh growing a garden in the middle of the wilderness, or planting a garden on top of a desolate mountain. It's so rad, so springs will come out anyway. Maybe this is just a little homework assignment to podcast listeners.

[Tim Mackey]

Where does mountain show up in Isaiah?

[Lindsay]

Just Isaiah. Just the word mountain, which is in the Hebrew har is, and it's almost 60 times.

[Tim Mackey]

So you could go to what's a free.

[Lindsay]

Oh, like, blueletter Bible to do this.

[Tim Mackey]

Just search for mountain in the Bible in Isaiah. Yeah, it's a lot of hits.

[Lindsay]

It's a lot. So where you get by Isaiah 65 is what's called the seed of Jacob. The inheritors of my mountains, my chosen ones will inherit my mountains, and they're called my servants. And there on the mountain which is in 65 called a holy mountain, you're like, oh, yeah, holiness. Yeah. The wolf and the lamb will graze together. The lion will eat straw like the ox, and the serpent's food will be dust.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah. That serpent.

[Lindsay]

In its place, there will be no more evil or harm, no more rapid on all my holy, holy mountain. And then you get in the last paragraph of the book, this image of all the nations being brought into the holy mountain to worship Yahweh on the holy mountain. So it ends where it begins. So Isaiah's such a rad twist on all these themes that the mountain itself needs to undergo a test. Oh, yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

It makes it corporate.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. It's all Israel that has to surrender its way of living.

[Tim Mackey]

And it really starts focusing in on this remnant.

[Lindsay]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

[Tim Mackey]

And Jesus really picks that up with building his crew.

[Lindsay]

That's right. Yeah. So, you know, really famous in Isaiah are like the suffering servant passages.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

But inextricably bound up with the servant after Isaiah 53 is the group of people called the servants in Isaiah 54. And their portrait builds to the end of the book. And they're the people that follow the servant.

[Tim Mackey]

They're the ones that build their house on the rock.

[Lindsay]

Yeah. So the servant theme in Isaiah is closely connected to the servants. And they're the ones who actually are the ones who surrender.

[Tim Mackey]

They're the garden people who, when they.

[Lindsay]

Ascend the mountain, they have surrendered and they survive out the other side and then become the people which the new Eden will plant so that Yahweh's Torah can go out to the nations living sacrifices. Yeah. And Jesus was so into these themes. Yeah, like, so into these themes. And drew on them most famously in the Sermon on the Mount. You're the city on the mountain.

[Tim Mackey]

Yeah.

[Lindsay]

Build your house on the rock, but also all over. And actually, I think that's where we should go next, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, which has more mountains in it than any of the other gospel accounts. But that's just a little brief snapshot of Isaiah.

[Tim Mackey]

That's great.

[Lindsay]

So from Isaiah to the Gospels, which actually, it's a nice. I kind of planned it that way because the word Isaiah is the main source of what the word gospel means and why it's even used in the gospel accounts of Jesus. In the first place. So from the Gospel of the Hebrew Bible in Isaiah to the Gospels of the New Testament, we go.

[Tim Mackey]

Thanks for listening to this episode of Bob Project podcast. Next week we continue the theme of the mountain and we begin in the New Testament exploring the Gospel of Matthew.

[Lindsay]

Lo and behold, there are seven mountain scenes in the Gospel according to Matthew and they actually all connect to each other in really fascinating ways.

[Tim Mackey]

Bibleproject is a crowdfunded nonprofit and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything that we make is free because it's already been paid for by thousands of people just like you. Thank you so much for being a part of this with us.

[Lindsay]

Hi, this is Nathan and I'm from Auckland, New Zealand. Hi, this is Andrew and I'm from Greenville, South Carolina. I first heard about bibleproject through a podcast while researching a question my wife and I had about Cain's descendants after the flood. My favorite thing about bibleproject is the podcast. Listening to Tim and John on my cycle to work every week, talking about my favorite subject in the world and opening it up in ways that I never thought possible. My favorite thing about bibleproject is their contagious excitement and sharing the beauty of Scripture and the goodness of Jesus with others. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We are a crowdfunded project by people like me. Find free videos, articles, podcasts, classes, and more on the Bible Project app [e-mail] hey everyone, this is JB. I'm a writer and editor at BibleProject and I work closely with our content and product teams. One example being I write the show notes for the podcast. I've been working at Bible Project for almost four years and my favorite part about my work is being a connector both among our internal teams and also with all of our resources to help people experience the Bible as a unified story leading to Jesus. There's a whole team of people that bring the podcast to life every week. For a full list of everyone who's involved, check out the show credits in the episode description, wherever you stream the podcast and also on our website.