When the Kings Come Marching In

ISAIAH AND

THE NEW JERUSALEM

Revised Edition

Richard J. Mouw

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2002 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

All rights reserved

Published 2002 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

www.eerdmans.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mouw, Richard J.

When the kings come marching in : Isaiah and the new Jerusalem /

Richard J. Mouw. —

Rev. ed.

p.       cm.

ISBN 978-0-8028-3996-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Bible. O.T. Isaiah LX — Criticism, interpretation, etc.

2. Christianity and culture. I. Title.

BS1515.52 .M68 2002

224′.106 — dc21

                                                        2002019443

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952 © 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Isaiah 60

What Are the Ships of Tarshish Doing Here?

Here Come the Kings!

The Milk of Many Nations

Where Is the Light Coming From?

Seeking the Celestial City

Preface

When I was invited in the late 1970s to give a series of Bible study–type lectures at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, my hosts encouraged me to choose a theme that would be considered provocative on an Anabaptist campus. I chose to organize my lectures around what I take to be the “transformation of culture” emphasis in Isaiah 60. My Mennonite hearers, while gracious and receptive, were not uniformly “non-resistant” in their responses to what I had to say. I came away from that stimulating encounter with a new appreciation for the complexities of the theme I had been developing.

I continued to revise my thoughts as I tried them out at Regent College, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Woodbury (Pa.) congregation of the Church of the Brethren. In each case I gained much from the dialogue that took place. I also benefited greatly from the critical comments of several colleagues at Calvin College who read a draft of my written lectures. All of this resulted in the first edition of this little book, which I wrote during the 1980-81 academic year, while I was a visiting professor at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

The book was not exactly a best-seller, although it did receive several positive reviews — and it was published in both French and Korean translations. After a few years the English version went out of print, and I was content to see it laid to rest. Over the years, though, I have gotten frequent occasional requests for copies, and a number of people have made a point of telling me that the book had been helpful to them in their thinking about the Bible’s treatment of cultural questions.

For some reason, the requests for copies and expressions of appreciation ...