{"id":120212,"date":"2025-10-02T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banneroftruth.org\/uk\/?p=120212"},"modified":"2025-10-02T08:44:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T07:44:51","slug":"isaiahs-tale-of-two-cities-hywel-r-jones-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/book-excerpts\/2025\/isaiahs-tale-of-two-cities-hywel-r-jones-excerpt\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah’s ‘Tale of Two Cities’: Hywel R. Jones Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hywel R. Jones’ appreciation of Isaiah chapters 24\u201327, Isaiah’s Oratorio<\/em><\/a> releases today. The following excerpt explains the theme and approach of his volume:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 24\u201327 has sometimes been described as his \u2018Tale of Two Cities.\u2019 Like Charles Dickens\u2019 well-known novel, they speak of a terrifying urban convulsion which has widespread reverberations. But the difference between them is of course far greater than any similarity, and that has not been minimised by those who borrow that title.<\/p>\n

Dickens recorded the \u2018Terror\u2019 of the French Revolution that sent shock waves from Paris to London (and across Europe to the New World) to which he could only append the desirable possibility of a \u2018resurrection-like\u2019 renewal. Isaiah\u2019s \u2018two cities\u2019 are an anticipation of \u2018Babylon\u2019 and the \u2018New Jerusalem\u2019 in John\u2019s Apocalypse, and what he says about each is certain and everlasting.<\/p>\n

In chapter 24, he refers 16 times to \u2018the earth or land\u2019 (one word in Hebrew). \u2018Earth\u2019 is the better rendering because the \u2018world\u2019 with all its highest people or \u2018nations\u2019 (24: 4, 13) is later joined with it, and so it is more than the land of Israel that is in view. He was well aware of other nations \u2013 although his \u2018world\u2019 was smaller than ours \u2013 but he condenses it all into one global \u2018city\u2019 (24:10, 12) and announces that \u2018it falls and will not rise again\u2019 (24:20). A little later he identifies it as \u2018a heap, a ruin, a city no more<\/em> \u2026 never [to be] rebuilt\u2019 (25:2) and he therefore gives it no name.<\/p>\n

To the other city, Isaiah gives two names, or two in one, namely \u2018Mount Zion\u2019 and \u2018Jerusalem\u2019 (24:23). It is a temple-capital which is set up by the Lord God with \u2018salvation\u2019 for its \u2018walls and bulwarks\u2019 (26:1). In it there is lasting light (24:23) and deathless life (25:7) for all peoples (25:6, 7). A little later it is described as \u2018an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken\u2019 (33:20). This city must be for evermore<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What is said about these cities takes place \u2018in [or] on that day.\u2019 This is a recurring expression in these chapters (see 24:21\u201325:8; 25:9-12; 26:1-21; 27:1; 27:2-11; 27:12 and 27:13). Some reservations have been expressed about treating them all as a reference to \u2018the Day of the Lord\u2019 as the expression \u2018on that day\u2019 can be used loosely. But if what they introduce are acts of judgment and salvation that should settle the matter and that is what Isaiah refers to. We take them as such and so \u2018the Day of the Lord\u2019 will be the theme of this expository study. It will be treated in seven sections with 24:1-20 providing a kind of \u2018overture\u2019 to the whole as it deals with both those realities.<\/p>\n

This is a better procedure than attempting to isolate the \u2018songs\u2019 in the poem because there is no firm agreement as to which portions of the text they are. There is, for example, some uncertainty about whether the song that opens chapter 26 extends beyond verse 2 to include verses 5 and 6 and even verses 7-19. Making a decision as to whether a piece of poetry is a song or \u2018just\u2019 a poem is no easy task. For example, do we decide that 25:1-6 is a song but that verses 7\u201312 are not, in spite of their having a rhythm? But our proposed arrangement is not without its own difficulties because three of these sections contain only one verse. Hopefully, that is outweighed by its closeness to the text itself as well as the overall theme of the poem.<\/p>\n

Taking this route means working our way through the text as it is laid out in our Bibles although the chapter divisions are not strictly adhered to because of the continuity between 24:21 and 25:1, and perhaps between 26:12 and 27:1.<\/p>\n

More significant is the change of perspective between 24 and 25 and 26 and 27 that has been noticed by commentators which Oswalt explains as follows,<\/p>\n

Broadly speaking, one may divide the segment into two subsegments, chs 24\u201325 and chs 26\u201327. In the first subsegment, the major focus is upon the city of this world, its using overthrow (ch. 24) and the response to its overthrow (ch. 25). The second subsegment centres upon God\u2019s efforts on behalf of his people. One of the major elements here is the admission of helplessness on the part of the people (26:7-18). Coupled with this is the conviction that God is able and willing to manifest his power among the nations and to deliver his people from them.1<\/a><\/sup>Oswalt, Book of Isaiah<\/em>, vol. 1, 443. He adds the comment, \u2018In this way 27:12 and 13 climax chs 13\u201327 and remind the reader of the promises of ch. 11 which the succeeding chapters serve to substantiate.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

In commenting on chapter 26, Mackay also speaks of a \u2018change in temporal perspective to focus on the present significance for Judah of the glorious future that is promised to her.\u20192<\/a><\/sup>Mackay, Isaiah<\/em>, vol. 1, 537.<\/span> This distinction of a change of aspect but not of subject, enables our study of these seven sections to be grouped into two which can be subsumed \u2018There and Then\u2019 and \u2018Here and Now.\u2019<\/p>\n

Isaiah 24\u201327 is a magnificent son et lumi\u00e8re3<\/a><\/sup>Lit. ‘sound and light’, the phrase denotes a sound and light show held by night at a historic venue to celebrate it or to showcase its history. <\/span><\/em> of \u2018the Day of the Lord\u2019 in judgment and salvation, and also of godly rejoicing and waiting for it in dark days. It comports with \u2018the already and not yet\u2019 of Christian living, and so Christians should find strength and comfort in these chapters as they look forward and upward to the Lord\u2019s return and \u2018the new world.\u2019<\/p>\n

Behold the mountain of the Lord
\nIn latter days shall rise
\nOn mountain tops above the hills,
\nand draw the wondering eyes.<\/p>\n

To this the joyful nations round,
\nall tribes and tongues, shall flow;
\nUp to the hill of God, they\u2019ll say,
\nand to his house we\u2019ll go.<\/p>\n

The beam that shines from Zion hill
\nshall lighten every land;
\nThe King who reigns in Salem\u2019s towers
\nshall all the world command.<\/p>\n

Among the nations he shall judge;
\nhis judgments truth shall guide;
\nHis sceptre shall protect the just,
\nand quell the sinner\u2019s pride.<\/p>\n

No strife shall rage, nor hostile feuds
\ndisturb those peaceful years;
\nTo ploughshares men shall beat their swords,
\nto pruning-hooks their spears.<\/p>\n

No longer hosts, encountering hosts,
\nshall crowds of slain deplore:
\nThey hang the trumpet in the hall,
\nand study war no more.<\/p>\n

Come then, O house of Jacob! come
\nto worship at his shrine;
\nAnd, walking in the light of God,
\nwith holy beauties shine.<\/p>\n

Paraphrase of Isaiah 2:2-6
\nMichael Bruce (1746\u201367)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Buy the book:<\/h3>\n