Isaiah chapter 2

I visited the Mauritshuis in The Hague yesterday with a friend, and what made the trip especially enjoyable was the audio guide we used, which explained the story of each painting, pointing out details we would have missed without it and explaining the meaning of the symbolism in each picture.

What I would like is an audio guide to Isaiah chapter 2. It seems, at first reading, to be a bit of a jumble, containing hope and terror, worship and idolatry, cedars of Lebanon and a few rats and bats thrown in for good measure. What is going on? Does Isaiah really believe that there will come an actual time in history when nations 'never make war or attack one another'? (Is 2:4) Or is this just a pretty piece of poetry? Verse 11 and 12 sound a lot like the song Mary sang when she realised she was to be the mother of Jesus, but his coming was nothing like the terrifying scenes that Isaiah describes: 'You had better hide in caves and holes- the Lord will be fearsome, marvelous and glorious' (Is 11, 12, 19) Did Isaiah get it wrong? Or do his words refer to something else, the second coming perhaps?

It would be so much easier if there was an audio guide with the 'right' answer. And of course, there are plenty of commentaries that would help. But how should the ordinary lay reader understand this confusing chapter? My belief is still that it is through the pages of the Bible that I encounter God, and so I have to struggle with chapters like this for myself, believing maybe that God has an answer that is right for me, today, and that to wish for a ready-made interpretation borrowed from someone else is abdicating my responsibility.

So today, I have more questions than answers. How does our knowledge of what happened next to God's people, including the coming of Jesus, right up to the current state of the church, fit with the hopeful vision of verses 2-5? What do I think of the terrifying picture of God in these verses, who is repeatedly described as 'fearsome, marvelous and glorious', not at all like the loving Father I am used to?

(Andrew Perriman has a helpful post on the difficulties of reading the bible:
http://www.postost.net/2011/07/why-we-do-not-need-theology, posted just yesterday- so maybe he's reading Isaiah too!)

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