Isaiah 2:6-22 The Day of the Lord

Isaiah has just given us a picture of what Christ’s millennial reign in Jerusalem will look like. Immediately, in the present passage, he contrasts that with a picture of God’s wrath, or the coming Day of the LORD. After describing the glory and justice of Christ’s reign, Isaiah ends the passage with an admonishment to his people, Israel, to “walk in the light of the LORD.” In the next verse, the beginning of the present passage, he laments because God has abandoned his people, Israel.

When Moses went up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, God gave instructions to the people, saying, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” [Ex 19:4-6 NIV] So, the promise is made, God will treasure His people as long as they walk in His ways. There are several other passages in Scripture that prophecy the nation’s doom if they abandon the ways of the LORD. God is not one to go back on His promises, or His covenants.

So, Isaiah declared God had abandoned His people (v 6). This is the fulfillment of His promise to a rebellious people. They had incorporated into their worship, or culture, the religions of the East – picking the parts and pieces that gave them a sense of fulfillment in life. This is similar to many professing Christians today who have taken up Yoga for exercise, abandoning the Scriptural pattern for meditation. Others have abandoned reliance upon God to overcome sin and accepted the Hindu twelve-step practice of Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, many have set up recovery programs as idols, replacing their walk with Christ, with exaltation of victimhood. Many have accepted the wisdom of the world, quoting and following the tenets of Buddhist, Hindu, Baha’i faiths and others. Further illustrating their rebellion, Isaiah lamented Israel’s practice of divination, or the occult, specifically to foretell future events. Today, we have professing Christians using tarot cards, Ouija boards and other mediums for entertainment and comfort. The people embraced pagans, or paganism – the worship of the earth. Today it is known as environmentalism, saving the planet and going green. The wisdom of man has so interwoven the Gospel of Christ, there is no longer any alarm when modern pastors twist the Scripture, or add to it, to make it more palatable to man.

If you claim to be a Christian, if you claim to follow Christ, if you claim a future hope of life eternal, then be sure to attend to your walk. Paul calls us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling – that is, having a holy fear of whom we serve, living in obedience – knowing this, it is God who works through us to bring us to completion (Php 2:12-13). We cannot mix the ways of the world with following Christ. Our walk is not about feeling good, it is about obedience to a holy and just God. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus warned not everyone who claims to follow Him will be saved. Many will do great things in the name of Christ, but they are not following Him and He will say, “get away from Me; I never knew you.”

Another common idea in the modern Christian church is that God blesses those who are faithful to Him. We see wealth as a sign of God’s blessing. The disciples had this illusion also. In Mark chapter ten, Christ was talking about how hard it is to be saved and how especially hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples’ reaction was, “Who then can be saved?” If it is hard for the rich to be saved, why do we view wealth as a blessing from God?

Isaiah says, the people abandoned their walk with God; they incorporated the philosophies; practices and cultures of the world; they dabbled in the occult and they embraced pagans – but they were rich. Despite the fact, as Isaiah mentioned earlier, God had warned the nation by hardship and catastrophe that judgment was coming, yet they were wealthy – they had much. To use modern vernacular, Isaiah says they had plenty of money, they had plenty of entertainment and nice cars (v 7). The land is full of idols – the people worship the work of their hands (v 8).

Worshiping the work of your hands can have a double meaning. In the first case, all idols are the work of mans’ hands. Idols don’t make themselves. In fact, in chapters to come, we will read of Isaiah mocking man for worshiping something he created himself out of scraps of wood and stone. They reject the true God, who made everything, to worship a god who is dependent upon man to create his image. In the second case, man can become consumed with his work. His work can become his idol, or the pleasures his wealth brings – the result of his work – can become his god. In other words, he worships the work of his hands because he is consumed with his abilities, or with the wealth brought about by the fruit of his hands.

Many professing Christians today are consumed with their wealth and with their work. They live for their next pleasure or investment. As a result, they have little time for God – they have ideas of what a Christian is supposed to be, but they do not know how to follow God.

The result of worship of the work of our hands is arrogance in our hearts. This is a natural consequence: we create our own god, whether that god is an idol of wood and stone, or an empire built upon the work of our hands. It would follow, the creator of god, or empires, would rightfully (and I say this in the loose sense) become proud of his accomplishments. I have met several professing Christians who refused to give God glory for their wealth because, they told me, God had nothing to do with it – it was hard work and it was the work of their hands. I have met others who give God credit, or at least a portion of the credit, with their mouths, but nothing in their work or practices gives glory to God. These men become proud in themselves, their abilities and their accomplishments.

God says man and mankind will be brought low and humbled. This means all men – each, the group, the whole! The Apostle Paul tells us every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord of all (Php 2:10; Rom 14:11). Isaiah carries this further saying, “All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. [Isa 45:24 NIV]

Those who have truly received Christ have already humbled themselves. To walk with Christ is to humble oneself – because we are following. We are not leading – we don’t make demands of God, we don’t tell Him what to do, or what He should do and we don’t defy Him when things don’t go our way – we follow. We pray nothing for our kingdom, be it great or small. We pray for God’s kingdom (Mat 6:10). We travel this life with Christ’s yoke upon us (Mat 11:29). Christ turns us where He will – not where we will – we follow. If we have not humbled ourselves and are not following Christ, we can be certain we are not saved.

Since those who follow Christ are humbled already, the only ones who remain, whom God will crush and bring to nothing, are the rebellious, as Psalms chapter two contends. Twice, in this passage, Isaiah says the eyes, or haughty look, of man will be humbled, or brought low and the pride of man will be brought low, or humbled (v 11 and 17). So, this is important and God has determined this will happen.

God will destroy what man holds dear. Lebanon was once known for its cedars. In fact, Solomon used cedars from Lebanon in the construction of the temple (1Ki 5-7). The cedars are no more (v 13). Some catastrophic scientists say this happened as a result of a planetary flyby that resulted in a shifting of the poles of the earth. Regardless how it happened, God brought it about. He will flatten the mountains and the hills, high towers – skyscrapers and such – and fortresses. Even large and stately ships will be destroyed. With the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we have witnessed God’s use of nature to destroy whole cities and even ships upon the sea were not safe, but were dashed to pieces. When the day of the Lord shall come, nothing will be safe from God’s wrath.

Three times Isaiah refers to “from dread of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty.” [v 10, 19, 21] Twice, he appends this with “when He rises to shake the earth.” [v 19, 21] So this is established – God’s plan will not be thwarted. In that day, all mans’ idols will be thrown out (v 20) or disappear (v 18) and the earth will be shaken. “The LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” [v 17]

Regarding this wrath, in the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah, he prophesies the day of the LORD will be a cruel day, the land will be desolate and sinners destroyed within it (13:9). Jeremiah says there will be terrors on every side and no one will escape (Lam 2:22). Ezekiel agrees with Isaiah, in that, people will throw their wealth – or idols – into the street (Eze 7:19); it will be a time of doom for all nations (Eze 30:3). The Prophet Joel says the day of the LORD will be a time of destruction (Joe 1:15) and all who live in the land will tremble (Joe 2:1). It will be dreadful and no one will endure it (Joe 2:11). Amos says it will be a day of darkness (Amo 5:18,20), as did the Apostle Peter (Act 2:20). The Prophet Zephaniah says God will punish princes and kings (Zep 1:8); the cry will be bitter and the whole world will be consumed and come to a sudden end (Zep 1:14,18).

The day of the LORD will be a very dreadful day. Isaiah warns the people to go to the rocks and hide in the ground (v 10). The Apostle John wrote of that day, “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face 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 can stand?’ ” [Rev 6:15-17 NIV] How great is the dread that man will call on the rocks to fall on him and crush him – to hide him from the terror of the Almighty God?

In recent years, we have witnessed great catastrophes. Hurricane Katrina wiped out much of Louisiana. Earthquakes and tsunamis have wiped out cities in Haiti, the East and the islands and now Japan. One thing is certain, catastrophes are growing ever stronger and are occurring more frequently. God is warning us of impending judgment to come. However, we cannot even grasp the terror that is to come – for even in the catastrophes of recent, is there any record of men fleeing to the hills and calling the rocks to fall upon them? Certainly, many fled for their lives – but none have yet begged for death.

If the catastrophic scientists are correct, the day of the LORD will come on the wings of planetary catastrophe. What if Mars were to appear again to the naked eye as it has in the past? And what if it appeared one-hundred times larger than the moon? What if the earth were engulfed in meteor showers and all the plates of the earth were shifting for hours on end – not minutes, but hours? The sky will be dark and the moon turned to blood (Joe 2:31; Act 2:20; Rev 6:12). The earth will be shaken (v 19, 21). Whatever means God uses to display His majesty, it will be a day of great terror.

The voice of the preacher testifying to God reaching out in love will be stopped. All mankind, whether great or lowly, will flee to the mountains – and they will call out to inanimate objects, the rocks, which are now very animate, to fall on them. The dread, or terror, of the LORD will be revealed (v 10, 19, 21).

God says He will crush the rebellious and here we see the rebellious begging to be crushed. Isaiah tells us there are none who seek after God (Isa 64:7) and here we see mankind, faced with imminent danger, preferring death to receiving life. In vain, man has exalted himself and opposed the Almighty God – “the LORD alone will be exalted in that day” [v 11].

In the previous passage, Isaiah describes the glorious reign of Christ. In this passage, he describes the coming destruction of rebellious mankind. These men have witnessed the reign of Christ, the justice and the glory – and just as God’s chosen people of Isaiah’s day rejected God’s covenant, so to, will all mankind reject God’s covenant and face destruction. The rebellion of Israel and the rebellion of man is the exaltation of self, the work of our hands, the philosophies and ideals. Be they great empires or lowly estates, mankind glories in the subset of creation rather than the Creator (v 8; Rom 1:25). Isaiah ends this passage with the warning not to exalt man, or mankind. Man is but a breath (v 22, see also Psa 144:4). What is a breath compared to the majesty of the One who controls the universe and is able to crush the planet?