Isaiah 13: 13-16

¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
And the earth will be shaken from its place
At the fury of the Lord of hosts
In the day of His burning anger.
¹⁴ And it will be that like a hunted gazelle,
Or like sheep with none to gather them,
They will each turn to his own people,
And each one flee to his own land.
¹⁵ Anyone who is found will be thrust through,
And anyone who is captured will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces
Before their eyes;
Their houses will be plundered
And their wives ravished.

We continue forward this week with Isaiah 13 and the prophet's speaking of Babylon's doom at the Day of the Lord. Last week, we looked at creation's response, and Isaiah picks up with that thought in verse 13 as the "heavens tremble" and the "earth will be shaken from its place." Across Scripture, from the prophets to Revelation, the Day of the Lord is associated with some type of earth-quaking. We saw this earlier in Isaiah:

"Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the ground
Before the terror of the Lord
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble."

--Isaiah 2:19

Verse 13 reminds us that it is the "fury of the Lord of hosts" that will bring about His Day. 'Fury' implies not just unrestrained violence but strong passion as well. As passionate as God is about His love for His people, He is equally passionate in His hatred of those who are enemies of His people.

"'Is it nothing to all you who pass this way?
Look and see if there is any pain like my pain
Which was severely dealt out to me,
Which the Lord inflicted on the day of His fierce anger.'"

--Lamentations 1:12

This cross-referenced verse from Lamentations was written regarding Jerusalem at the time of its exile into Babylon. But, in the Day of the Lord, it will be Babylon who will cry out in its pain as the righteous, yet "burning" anger of God is poured out upon them for their treatment of His people.

Isaiah turns back to metaphors in verse 14 as he begins, describing Babylon as a "hunted gazelle." These shy, deer-like animals would find themselves quickly on the move from a roaring, furious lion of a God. "Or," says Isaiah, next, "like sheep with none to gather them." There are so many references to humans being like sheep in the Bible. Sheep wander. They go astray. We attribute this to our sinfulness, our falling short, our trying to be in control of things apart from God. Sheep in a lost situations like this:

"When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things."

--Mark 6:34

The end times picture for Babylon is not one of compassion. The Shepherd is not coming to gather them in and to "teach them many things." The time for that has come and gone. Babylon will be on the run ("flee to his own land," vs 14) for the rest of its time, overcome by fear.

"The army they shall bring into the field, consisting of troops of diverse nations (as great armies usually do), shall be so dispirited by their own apprehensions and so dispersed by their enemies’ sword that they shall turn every man to his own people; each man shall shift for his own safety; the men of might shall not find their hands (Ps. 76:5), but take to their heels."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

Verse 15 indicates that no one will be spared who is in any way associated with Babylon. I love what Matthew Henry says in regard to this: "It is dangerous being in bad company, and helping those whom God is about to destroy." Seems like a no-brainer, but you need to know who the enemy truly is. In addition to the groaning of creation, one of the other predominant themes of the days approaching the end times is that they will be filled with false prophets and teachers. The Antichrist will have many attractive qualities that will sway, confuse and mislead the masses, including some believers. 

Isaiah is warning: "anyone" who is hooked up with the wrong crowd is headed for destruction. Verse 16 is graphic and direct. It sounds horrible. It sounds unimaginable from a loving God. We have to take this fully in context, though. All of its history and all of its history in the making have led Babylon to this position. They brought it on themselves.

"O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,
How blessed will be the one who repays you
With the recompense with which you have repaid us.
How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock."

--Psalm 137: 8 and 9

"Savior, like a Shepherd, lead us. Much we need Thy tender care...."

Isaiah calls the Medes out by name.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo:www.flickr.com

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Next week: Isaiah 13: 17-19

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 13: 9-12

⁹ Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
Cruel, with fury and burning anger,
To make the land a desolation;
And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
¹⁰ For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not flash forth their light;
The sun will be dark when it rises
And the moon will not shed its light.
¹¹ Thus I will punish the world for its evil
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud
And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.
¹² I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold
And mankind than the gold of Ophir.

Isaiah joins with fellow prophets, like Joel and Amos, in bringing forth mention of the Day of the Lord. He is in the midst of pronouncing God's punishment upon Babylon, in Chapter 13, and his narrative will now move clearly from post-exilic Judah to the end times. Verse 9 lays it out: "cruel," "fury," "burning anger," "desolation." As much as Jerusalem may have been decimated by Nebuchadnezzar's forces, a "desolation" as is being described by Isaiah hasn't been seen since the days of Noah. And this will be worse than that because it's permanent! "He will exterminate its sinners from it." That is a truly dreadful picture (unless you know the Lord's salvation!).

Verse 10 moves into a more physical description of what will happen. The Day of the Lord is marked by an absence of light in any of its natural forms. "Oh, when the sun, refuses to shine...Oh, Lord, I want to be in that number...." Even as "He will exterminate its sinners," He will welcome those who have received Jesus into the number of the saints of Heaven! But the earth and all of creation will respond as God begins to exterminate light upon the world. The prophets, Jesus in the Gospel accounts and John in his Revelation all speak of this loss of light. But, I love how Paul describes creation's response, as he recalls the metaphor of childbirth (trouble, labor, torture), which we have been discussing here:
 

"For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body."

--Romans 8: 22 and 23

What is happening is the once-and-for-all punishment of the world's evil. (vs 11) God also makes specific reference to one of the overriding attitudes of the heart that leads to so much of the world's wickedness and evil: pride.

"'The proud look of man will be abased
And the loftiness of man will be humbled,
And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.'"

--Isaiah 2:11

I'm sure I've said this before, but, there's a reason why "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" is Commandment #1! When we lean so heavily upon ourselves for strength and celebrate all that we can be and do--in the absence of God--we are causing the creation to groan! Who is to be exalted? The Lord, alone! As happy as we might be over something we've done, or things our children have done, or things others have done, if we aren't saying that prayer of thanksgiving to thank God for what He has done through everything, then we are changing the look of our face (pride) and the height of our stature (loftiness)--and God's plans for dealing with those things will not be our own (abased and humbled).

Yes, this is Day of the Lord reading, but look back at Babylon before its takeover by the Medes and Persians. We looked at Belshazzar (Neb's son) a bit last week and God's literal hand in writing the happenings to come. Look at what Daniel says to him:

"Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this, but you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified."

--Daniel 5:22-23  (emphasis mine) 

Taking the items from the Temple and using them vicariously were stupid, disrespectful mistakes. But the bigger problem was the pride that ruled over Belshazzar's heart. (And this, after his father had been so severely humbled for his pride by God! Pride so blinding, Belshazzar could not even see it through his father's mistakes.) Babylon may disappear from the realm of world domination, but, she does return, and her pride continues to rule.

"To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, 'I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.'"

 --Revelation 18:7 (on the fall of Babylon)

In verse 12, God compares the presence of man in this Day to that of "finding pure gold." Ophir, also mentioned in this verse, is mentioned in a couple of other places in the Bible. Though its geographical location is unconfirmed, with every mention it is clear that it is a known home for gold. Ophir's gold, yes, available. But the finding of men will be "scarce," as they will fall at the hand of the Lord.

"Then I said, 'Lord, how long?' And He answered, 'Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
'The Lord has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land."

--Isaiah 6: 11-12 (Isaiah asking how long he has to prophesy)

Though men will be "scarce," some will remain. "Like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled, the holy seed is its stump." (Isa. 6:13b)

 

More from the Day.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: www.picstopin.com

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Next week: Isaiah 13: 13-16

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 13: 6-8

⁶ Wail, for the day of the Lord is near!
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
⁷ Therefore all hands will fall limp,
And every man’s heart will melt.
⁸ They will be terrified,
Pains and anguish will take hold of them;
They will writhe like a woman in labor,
They will look at one another in astonishment,
Their faces aflame.

The New American Standard Bible indicates this section of Isaiah 13 as "Judgment on the Day of the Lord." Certainly, as we read through, you will see obvious signs that Isaiah is pointing to the end times. But, we might also read these words as a prophecy with a double fulfillment, seeing the defeat of Babylon by the Medes and Persians as an initial fulfillment of God's words to Isaiah. Isaiah, the writer, is very much present in this passage today, as we receive a very visual picture.

"Wail" or "Howl ye," as the King James Version of verse 6 reads--"the day of the Lord is near!" This is definitely not a "Rejoice!" or "Sing praises!" event for those who have not received the Lord's salvation. "Weeping and gnashing of teeth" comes to mind as a response. The day shall bring "destruction" and that at the hand of the Almighty--El Shaddai (God of the mountain, Encyclopedia of the Bible). How do you describe that destruction? Isaiah begins by reflecting on the appearance of those who will experience it firsthand.

"All hands will fall limp," verse 7, or "All hands be feeble" in the Amplified Bible. The study notes in the Amplified consider this passage in light of an event in the Babylon of Judah's captivity. Daniel 5 tells the story of then King Belshazzar, King Nebuchadnezzar's son, who had a party one night, worshiping false gods while drinking wine in abundance out of the stolen precious gold and silver vessels of the Temple. Suddenly, a hand appears and begins writing on the wall.

"Then the king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together."

--Daniel 5:6

The prophets are giving us a picture of incredible fear with these images. The strong hand of God printed the words that would bring Belshazzar to his knees, literally. He would die, powerless, that night as the city would be taken over, and Darius the Mede made king. Prophecy fulfilled.

But, Babylon is not completely dead. Indeed, "Babylon" will rise (and fall) again, as Revelation tells us; this is the center of operations of the Antichrist. (Revelation 14) Isaiah's words will come back in the faces of those who witness the return of Christ and His armies, as He faces His earthly enemies once and for all. "Every man's heart will melt," or liquefy, as the Hebrew might also be translated. [Strong's] "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord," will not be the chosen lyrics or reality of Babylon!

"And they [of Babylon] shall be dismayed and terrified, pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in childbirth. They will gaze stupefied and aghast at one another, their faces will be aflame [from the effects of the unprecedented warfare]."

--Verse 8, Amplfied Bible

Besides "weeping and gnashing of teeth," another often-used Biblical image of pain is that of "a woman in childbirth." Head back to Genesis 3:16 for the pronouncement: "To the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children....'" The King James Version of verse 8 uses the phrase "woman that travaileth," the root words of that meaning "pangs of childbirth, trouble, toil, labor, torture." (World English Dictionary) Scripture's picture of this kind of pain is not an immediate infliction but a drawn-out ordeal. Childbirth is a process, with increasingly difficult stages of pain. Having experienced this process twice (without medication), I have an appreciation for this metaphor!

Even so, we cannot comprehend fully what the Day of the Lord will look like, though it will leave the mightiest earthly warrior "in astonishment." (vs. 8) We say we are living in the last days, but are these the days of tribulation, as Scripture tells us are coming? The pangs of the end times come in seals and trumpets and bowl judgments, to use the words of Revelation. The events of the past few days--bombings and earthquakes and abominable crimes against new life--make me turn to Revelation and other passages, wondering if the time is at hand and if it's time to measure the size of those "contractions":

"When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

--Jesus, speaking of the Tribulation, in Mark 13: 7 and 8

How long will this labor be? As we travail through these last days, are our eyes looking toward our Strong Deliverer? "Babylon" is beckoning.

"You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary
You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles."

--from "Everlasting God," lyrics by Chris Tomlin 

Mortal man is scarce.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo:www.sodahead.com

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Next week: Isaiah 13: 9-12

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 4:1-3

A Remnant Prepared

1 For seven women will take hold of one man in that day, 

saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, 

only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach!”

² In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, 
and the fruit of the earth will be the pride 
and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.  
3 It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem 
will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.

Chapter 4 may be quite short [we'll finish next week], but it is a passage of hope in the midst of judgments. At least, once you get past verse 1.


Verse 1 might well have gone with the end of Chapter 3, as the daughters of Zion received their calling out by God. "Your men will fall by the sword," we read last week in Isaiah 3:25. Indeed, enough men will fall that there will be a shortage of men. This is the situation described in verse 1, with many women trying to secure a single husband. In the battle that left Judah captive to Babylon, men fell. But this passage also alludes to the Day of the Lord in which men will fall and the wicked [like the women of Judah] will be punished with no husbands.

The quote from the women in verse 1 might sound as part rally cry from the days of women's lib. "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan," right? They said they could take care of themselves. But remember the days of Isaiah. Women didn't do these kinds of things for themselves. These women not only overstepped their area of responsibility, but they were willing to take any husband they could grab for the sake of his name, just to save themselves the shame of not being married.

"...These women will be bound to support themselves; they will eat bread of their own earning, and wear apparel of their own working, and the man they court shall be at no expense upon them, only they desire to be called his wives, to take away the reproach of a single life. They are willing to be wives upon any terms, though ever so unreasonable; and perhaps they rather because in these troublesome times it would be a kindness to them to have a husband for their protector. ...That modesty, which is the greatest beauty of the fair sex, was forgotten, and with them the reproach of vice was nothing to the reproach of virginity, a sad symptom of the irrecoverable desolations of virtue."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

If anyone was to remove the reproach of these sinful women, it was God. They needed only to have remembered His servant Jacob's wife, Rachel, and her struggles to have children. She blamed God for the reproach of her infertility and took matters into her own hands. It was quite a few children born to other mothers later that "...she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach,'" (Genesis 30:23) in the birth of her son, Joseph. Eventually, by His grace, God will remove the reproach of Judah--a remnant of Judah, more specifically.

Verse 2 brings us to mention of "the survivors of Israel." This means that some are survivors and some are not. This group of survivors is called the remnant. What the prophets begin to foretell is a time coming, a last time coming (the Day of the Lord), in which ultimate judgment will be pending. God in His holiness will take with Him for eternal life--"everyone who is recorded for life" (vs. 3)--those who are the true believers by faith in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, depicted in verse 2 as "the Branch of the Lord."

"'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord,
'When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;
And He will reign as king and act wisely
And do justice and righteousness in the land.'"

--Jeremiah 23:5

What Judah has not known in this time of Isaiah's prophecy is a king who acts wisely or justice that prevails. To know that a time of a "beautiful and glorious" reign, from the lineage of David, is in the wings should have provided hope to the lost nation. For some, it must have, as the base of the remnant would come through them. Of course, this is not the people who would see the first Advent of our Lord, but, over the generations--if the word of the Lord were faithfully shared down through the generations, as God commanded--the remnant would and will know His Son. Difficult to be faithful through captivity, unlawful governments, and the continued sinfulness of mankind. But God has not forgotten, and Paul's words are an enduring reminder:

"I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 'Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.' But what is the divine response to him? 'I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice."

--Romans 11:1-5 

'Branch' in the Hebrew can also refer to a sprout. [Strong's] Jesus was certainly more than a sprout, but He is the initial catalyst for the larger picture of spiritual growth and salvation that the Bible is talking about. The metaphor literally grows as we read the Savior's words recorded in John 15. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

Judah would not be saved by a revival of its own doing. It did not abide in the Father. It was not a fruit-bearing nation of the type that was pleasing to God. Yet, for some, a time will come when the "fruit" evident upon the earth and a recognition of the Branch of the Lord will distinguish them from others who cry out, "Lord! Lord!" yet will go to eternal doom, familiarly unacknowledged.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'"

--Matthew 7: 21-23

Jesus said that you will know "by their fruits," those who are abiding in Him. The Jewish remnant and the Christian know the same God and will demonstrate the same good fruits in their lives, even if the Christian does not share the Jewish heritage as one of the remnant. As Chapter 11 of Romans continues, Paul goes into much detail about how God is working out His plan of salvation for all His people! What we must hold fast to, as would be the words of Isaiah upon Judah, the holiness of the one true God and live "by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." (from Deuteronomy 8:3)

"Note, If Christ be precious to us, his gospel will be so and all its truths and promises—his church will be so, and all that belong to it. These are the good fruit of the earth, in comparison with which all other things are but weeds. It will be a good evidence to us that we are of the chosen remnant, distinguished from the rest that are called Israel, and marked for salvation, if we are brought to see a transcendent beauty in Christ, and in holiness, and in the saints, the excellent ones of the earth."

--Matthew Henry

Cloud and fire return over Mount Zion, as Chapter 4 concludes. ....'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: psywarrior.com

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Next week: Isaiah 4: 4-6

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 2: 19-22

¹⁹ Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the ground
Before the terror of the LORD
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
²⁰ In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,
²¹ In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs
Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
²² Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For why should he be esteemed?

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!!


Praise be to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the One through whom we work out our salvation with fear and trembling! He is risen, indeed, that we might worship and serve Him in humility. And as much as that first Easter Sunday resurrection morning was a glorious day, there will be another Day in which we will all see and acknowledge His glory! But, this will not be a glorious day for all....


We conclude Isaiah, Chapter 2, today, with a preview of the Day of the Lord, in which the prophet uses the term "terror of the Lord" to describe the destruction of the Day in tandem with "splendor of His majesty" that which believers in Him would expect from the King in His coming.

Two posts ago, I referenced Revelation 6, which parallels verse 19 and 21 of our text today as well as Isaiah 2:10:

"Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

--Revelation 6: 15-17

Those who have been in denial of the Lord will become fully aware of Him in the events of a Day like no other. They will try to hide themselves from His presence. Hide their sins from His judgment. But, there will be no mercy shown in this time.

Verse 19 holds the first of two references I'll mention to texts in Genesis, the beginnings of creation. "Men will go into holes of the ground." More literally translated, men will go into holes of the dust. This would be the ultimate fulfillment of Genesis 3's predicament for unsaved man: "'For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'" (Genesis 3:19b) Though saved man will be dust for a time, their resurrected souls will be given new bodies for a new heaven and a new earth to come, following the Day.

Verse 20 brings more creation to the forefront: moles and bats! It will take the bringing about of the Day of the Lord for the final dispensation of idols (see last week's post). Why moles and bats? It's not clear from my study resources if mole is a literal mole or a rat or a mole-rat. It may be a weasel! The Hebrew word refers to a burrowing animal, and the idea of unsaved man burrowing itself into the ground, the depths of a rock, a place of darkness is the image I'm taking away from all this. Also, Leviticus 11 puts both moles and rats on unclean lists: mole being a "swarming" animal and bats being lumped in with "birds." The Day may well bring for some the realization that their idols are truly unclean.

"The darkest holes, where the moles and the bats lodge, are the fittest places for idols, that have eyes and see not; and God can force men to cast their own idols there."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

A powerful ending in verse 22: "Stop regarding man...." I like how the Amplified Bible issues the command: "Cease to trust in [weak, frail, and dying] man, whose breath is in his nostrils [for so short a time]; in what sense can he be counted as having intrinsic worth?" The word for cease in the Hebrew means "to be flabby." Do you love that?! Think of the wavering, jiggling, back and forth. Reminds me of James in his exhortation to stay steady on God:

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

--James 1: 5-7 (emphases mine)

The flabby wisdom of fleeting, vaporous men! This is what Judah followed. Although Jerusalem's ultimate issue is their having turned from God, the close-behind issue is that they put their trust in the things of man.

"Thus says the LORD,
'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.'"

--Jeremiah 17:5

Note in verse 22 the second reference to Genesis, as we look back upon the creation of man.

"Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

--Genesis 2:7

God formed man from dust and not only gave the first man life through breath, but continues to give life to all men by giving them breath. The curse of the fall of man would not only return him to the ground but his sin would drive away the basic fundamental to, "Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves." (Psalm 100:3a) Why should man be esteemed?

"Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest and mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived and depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds. Let not him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are subject and subordinate; dread his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your help, and let your hope be in the Lord your God."

--Matthew Henry

Chapter 3: "God will remove the leaders".... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: acts2gathering.com

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Next week: Isaiah 3: 1-5

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 2: 10-12

 

¹⁰Enter the rock and hide in the dust

From the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty.
¹¹ The proud look of man will be abased
And the loftiness of man will be humbled,
And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

A Day of Reckoning Coming

 ¹² For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.

Pride. The Bible does not say that it's the root of all evil. But, man.... It's not a good thing! That strutting peacock above has become a symbol for pride--so beautiful, yet so outward showy and self-important. A tour through Psalms and Proverbs will fill you with references to the evils of pride. For example:

"The highway of the upright is to depart from evil;
He who watches his way preserves his life.
Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before stumbling.
It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly
Than to divide the spoil with the proud." 

--Proverbs 16: 17-19

Today's passage from Isaiah focuses on Judah's pride and the resulting "destruction" and "stumbling" to come. I've left the subhead from the NASB in place, though it might well have been placed beginning with verse 10, as the text focuses on a "day of reckoning" and, more specifically, what the prophets called "the Day of the Lord."


Judah's pride--its self-sufficiency in the face of God Almighty--was the cause of the Lord's consternation. The "proud look" and "loftiness" of man will "be abased" or "humbled." Verse 11 can also be more literally translated as the "eyes of the loftiness of men." We think of a loft being a place up high. Looking at the Hebrew, we get an expansion of that definition: "To be (causatively, make) lofty, especially inaccessible; by implication, safe, strong." [Strong's] The eyes of the nation were not on God but on surpassing God to the point of being inaccessible and utterly powerful. This could not, nor would ever, be and the outcome of their sinful "look" was not unknown.

"Pride will, one way or other, have a fall. Men’s haughtiness will be brought down, either by the grace of God convincing them of the evil of their pride, and clothing them with humility, or by the providence of God depriving them of all those things they were proud of and laying them low. Our Saviour often laid it down for a maxim that he who exalts himself shall be abased; he shall either abase himself in true repentance or God will abase him and pour contempt upon him."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

That "fall" would come in a "day of reckoning." And, no, it's not God saying, "I reckon I'd better do something about My wayward people." [Or is it?!] A reckoning can mean a settling of something, like an account, but it can also mean "an accounting for things done or received" or "an appraisal or judgment." [Dictionary.com] Looking at some of the older English and foreign definitions of the root word, we see it means "ready, straightforward," and "to move in a straight line." Straightening out a wayward people was definitely part of God's plan, and, one can see how Isaiah's prophecy here might be referring to a more immediate day of reckoning through the captivity of the people to Babylon.


But, given some of the other details here in the passage, it is more likely that Isaiah is referring to the Day of Reckoning or the Day of the Lord. If you studied Obadiah, Joel, Amos or Hosea with me, then you know what this means. It's Judgment Day! It is the day that Revelation speaks of--a day of God's ultimate wrath--in which He will destroy His creation, saving those who confess and live out their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. That which is dross will be smelted away, once and forever. (Isaiah 1:25) 

Going back to verse 10, we read of the command to "enter the rock and hide in the dust." There are those who will try and escape this destruction by hiding, even though there will be no hiding or escape from "the terror of the Lord."

"Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;  and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb....'"

--Revelation 6: 15-16

We will read more about this Day in the weeks' verses ahead. Knowing that the Day has not yet arrived, we should be praising God for His grace and His mercy, for there are still those who will come to Him today, who can be reached for Him today, who can be saved from the pride that brings destruction right now. Look at the encouragement Paul gave to the Corinthians, and us, in this regard:
 

"We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.... You are looking at things as they are outwardly.... For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding."

--II Corinthians 10: 5-7; 12

 

Let us not be without understanding, operating out of pride--measuring, comparing, commending ourselves. For it is not the outward appearance but what is in one's heart that matters to God. (I Samuel 16:7) As we enter Holy Week next week, may the words of this beloved hymn carry forth new encouragement:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride. 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

--When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (Isaac Watts, 1707)

A Day of Reckoning against.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: birdsgallery.net

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Next week: Isaiah 2: 13-18

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).