Wednesday, October 23, 2024 PM

Isaiah’s Day of the Lord and Judah’s False Confidence

I want to grab it. It's not essential, but it may be helpful, so it's over there next to where the music sheets were, if you would like the handout. We're going to be reading Isaiah chapter 2, verses 10 through 19.

Isaiah chapter 2, verses 10 through 19. Let's begin with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day. We thank you for your many blessings in our lives. We thank you for the fellowship and the feasting that we've had here tonight.

We pray that you would help us as we study your word to get a clear understanding of your truth, that we would rejoice in it and be changed by it in just the way you desire. We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Isaiah 2, beginning in verse 10. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up, and it shall be brought low. Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, upon all the high mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up, upon every high tower and upon every fortified wall, upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful sloops.

The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols he shall utterly abolish. They shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake the earth mightily.

Judah’s Pride, Idolatry, and the Coming Reversal

So, last time we were talking about how this is the beginning of the eulogy. This is the first point that needs to be made about this people that are forsaking and forsaken. That's the epitaph over this dead in the water project known as Judah.

They are full of idols, they are so rebellious, they don't even know that God made them and God is their father. They are entirely against God, the one who entirely made them and showed them loving kindness.

And so the epitaph is that they are forsaking and therefore forsaken. They forsake God, so God forsakes them. That's verse 6 of chapter 2. And then in verses 7 through 9, there's an obituary that kind of lists in very quick succession the four confidences that Judah has that everything's going to be fine.

Why is everything fine? Well, because we have a strong economy, we have a strong military, we have diversity, we have great cultural pride. So everything's going to be fine, Judah says to herself. But in fact now, in reverse order, those are going to be handled in chapter 2 verses 10 through chapter 3 verse 26.

So the last thing that was mentioned was Judah's pride and self-focused religion there in verse 9. Chapter 2 verse 9, people bow down and each man humbles himself. That's not the actual kind of humility where there's repentance and poverty of spirit and mourning over sin.

This is the culturally accepted way of respecting everybody and being courteous to everyone. And everybody is so polite and politically correct. We know what that's like in our modern terms, but those are not new ideas.

So they are full of pride, full of self-focused religion. And so now that's going to be handled. Judah trusts in the self, therefore the self needs to be addressed. And in verses 10 through 19, we have the day of the Lord and his righteous reversals on display.

The day of the Lord and his righteous reversals. So you see, and the handout will help you here, but verses 10 and 19 basically cover the same material. The focus is on the day of the Lord, which is described as the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty.

This will be what is on display for everyone on the day of the Lord, the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty. Therefore, what will men do? What's their plan? The plan is to hide. The plan is to get into the rocks, to hide underground, to crawl into the caves of the earth.

Essentially, find your fallout shelter. This is the plan. If you notice that in our very well advanced developed age of modern sensibilities, that the doomsday plans of the most educated, financially secure, philosophically advanced people of our age is still to go climb into a hole somewhere.

This is still what they're planning on. All right. So we've not really progressed all that far. The condition of man is still pretty much the same as it was back in the days of Isaiah. And so, verses 11 and 17, diving a little bit deeper into the theme, we find a reversal happening.

Now notice all these different terms. Terms like lofty, haughty, proud. Terms like high and lifted up and exalted. And they are contrasted with terms like humbled, bowed down, brought low. These are repeated 20 times.

That collection of terms repeated 20 times throughout this passage. And this is what we're supposed to be focusing on. There is a grand reversal happening here. That those who are high are being brought low.

And this is happening by God being exalted. The pride of men are being brought low. So that's the righteous reversal that's occurring on the day of the Lord. So let's think about verses 10 and 19 first of all.

We see how they are very much about the same subject matter. God is being revealed in all of his glory. And of course, this is offended glory against those who would raise up their lofty things against him.

So there is a stooping low in verse 9. We see that in verse 9. It's interesting. They are stooping low, bowing down, humbling themselves. And then verse 10 picks up that theme and says, yes, go ahead.

Practice that because you're going to need it to crawl into your hole. This is Isaiah being snarky again. He does this a lot. Since you're so well practiced in bowing down and humbling yourself, go ahead and keep that posture.

You're going to need it when you crawl into your hole. Because the day of the Lord is coming. And the prideful boast of men and all of these things are undone. We see in verse 19 as well. They run to caves.

They run to crags. And we'll see in verse 20 that they toss their idols as they go. Think about idols, especially the ones made of stone and overlaid with gold. They're heavy. They're heavy. And when bad things happen and the city is falling, you grab your poor little god.

You put him under your arm and you go huffing it to the hills. But man, is that thing heavy. And at a certain point, you get tired of carrying your gods around. And it's time to save your own life. So you toss the god so that you can go save yourself somewhere.

So that's kind of what's going on here. So when we see that all the other confidences have failed. So notice at the very heart of the passage, verses 13, 14, 15, and 16, all these things were items of confidence, items of boasting, things that Judah could look at and say, hey, look at what we have.

Look at what we have. But all of those things are taken away. And so now, in the revelation of the glory of God, men flee. The reversal is inevitable in verses 11 and 17. The lofty looks, the arrogant face, the irreverent head, the pride-filled look, suddenly gone.

No more sneering. No more scoffing. The lofty looks of man shall be humble. The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down. Notice the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Do we see the same thing in verse 17?

The loftiness of man shall be bowed down. The haughtiness of men shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day. Welcome to the chorus. Several verses in this hymn, but this is the chorus.

This is what is repeated because this is the nature of the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is about the exaltation of God, the magnification of His name, His power, His glory to such a degree that all the pride of men is destroyed.

The loftiness of men is undone. Prideful men are brought low. And it is the Lord who brings it about. Now, when we see this, we can see, in a sense, how unstable man is. This whole passage, verses 10 -19, is about the trusting of the self and how it's inadequate.

Man makes for such an unstable object of worship. Man makes for a very unstable object of confidence and trust. As an idol, man is very unstable. He ever needs to be propped up with endless efforts. And as soon as the Lord is exalted, man falls.

Notice what is being rejected here in verses 12 -18. The day, for the day of the Lord of hosts. Now, we've been hearing there's the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty. We hear that the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

But now, His title is lengthened. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything. Proud and lofty upon everything. Lifted up and shall be brought low. So, we see that expression, of hosts.

And then we see the expression, everything and everything. Lord of hosts means He's Lord of everything. The hosts are everything from the grasshoppers to the stars. Pick any category. List any kind of species, any kind of item.

Classify anything. That's a host. The host of the planets. The host of the grains of the sand on the seashore. The host of the birds. He's the Lord of all the hosts. Whatever host that you may find. Even the hosts of men.

And so, the Lord of hosts, on His day, He will be exalted alone. And everything proud and lofty that's lifted up against Him. All of that will be brought low. After all, He owns it all in the first place.

As Lord of hosts, He owns everything. But somehow, man gets the idea he can take something that God made. And turn it around to exalt man and be against God. Doesn't work very well. Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes.

And in one of the great battles of Calvin and Hobbes in their water fights. Calvin gets an idea. I'm going to give up on this water balloon. And I'm going to use the hose. I'm going to upgrade my weaponry.

Hobbes has no idea what's about to happen to him. And so, he confronts Hobbes around the corner of the house. And Hobbes has a water balloon. But Calvin has the hose. And he threatens Hobbes. He taunts him.

And then tries to squirt the hose. And nothing comes out. Hobbes explains, oh, I undid the hose to fill up my water balloon. So, man in trying to confront God. And trying to boast and take what God has already made.

And try to take it and use it against him. And boasting and exalting himself against God. Is that kind of folly. Is that kind of absurdity. Now, in the structure of verses 10 through 19. I think visually, we can just see verses 10 and 19.

Similar terms. Similar structure. Verses 11 and 17. Very much so. Similar terms. Similar structure. Verses 13 through 16 is a quartet of couplets. A, B, A, B. They're kind of rhyming ideas all the way through.

But verses 12 and 18 look a little different. But they are very thematically related. The long of it is, the day of the Lord of Hosts will be brought against everything lifted up. Everything proud and lofty.

All of that will be brought low. The short of it is, God abolishes idols. Right? Because those are the things that are being lifted up against God. Those are the idols that he will abolish. At the heart of this passage is a quartet of couplets.

Beautifully conceived by Isaiah. Best writer of the Old Testament. Each line invokes an image that is easily seen in the mind's eye. Especially by Isaiah's audience. Each site is impressive and carries with it a sense of awe.

To think of the cedars of Lebanon. To think about the oaks of Bashan. To envision the high mountains and the tall green hills. To consider the high towers that are built by men for fortifications. And indeed those walls that are built around these cities.

To consider the skill with which the ships are made. The sloops out there on the sea. Each site is impressive. But also think about this. The first two lines evoke images of raw material. Trees and stones.

Right? The cedars and oaks and the mountains and hills. So you have raw material. First two lines. Second two lines. Man's achievements. Right? Cities and ships. And notice that the wood of the trees is what makes the ships sail.

The outer two thoughts. The inner two thoughts. It's the stone of the mountains that builds the cities and their fortifications on the interior. You see how beautifully this is being conceived. And so also consider.

Mountains are greater than trees. So also, in the same order, ships are more impressive mastery than the cities. Now, to consider its theme in connection to worship. The trees in the hills are the places and shrines of idolatrous worship.

Under every green tree upon every high hill was the complaint of God against his people who were worshiping idols. They are under every green tree upon every high hill. So that's the shrines of idolatrous worship.

But also, why do they worship there? Because those trees and those hills provide the material for fashioning the idols in the first place. Remember, the idols are made of wood and stone. And those idols, once they're fashioned, they're placed in the prominent places in cities and used upon ships for good luck.

Because you need it on the sea. But the cities in their marketplaces and the ships running those trade routes generate that wealth in silver and gold. Which overlays the idols. That's why idols show up in verse 18.

It just makes sense after talking about trees and mountains and cities and ships. Idols is the natural thing to talk about in verse 18. Idolatry is going to be handled much more directly in verses 20 through 22.

But it is the subtext of man's pride. You can't have a proud man without idolatry being there somewhere. God comes against the entire system and therefore undoes every single confidence that man has until there's nothing left.

Trees, mountains, cities, ships. Well, these are also used, aren't they, in the Old Testament as images of national pride. National pride. When talking about nations, trees are often used as a metaphor.

Mountains are used. Cities are used. The ships of, always, some sort of nation. The kingdoms of men boast in what? They boast in the flesh. They boast in their money. They boast in their military. They boast in their name.

So what God is opposing here, it's not that God is, I'm against trees. God's against mountains, you know. It's not that God's against towers and walls. It's not that He's against sailing. What is He against?

He's against the pride of men. That would raise these things in lofty confidences against God. And that all comes out in the day of the Lord and all these righteous reversals happening. It's an axiom more certain than the speed of light and a law more steady than gravity itself that the exaltation of the Lord coincides with the humbling of man.

Every time God gets exalted, man gets humbled. And that humbling may be one of sanctifying grace or it might be of terrifying wrath, but the lifting high of the Lord must mean the bringing low of all the proud and lofty thoughts and systems and structures that sinful men use to exalt themselves.

And as we reflect upon the day of the Lord in which all these things happen, the great reversals, and we're going to talk more about the day of the Lord next time we have and kind of survey all the different days of the Lord in the Old Testament.

When you think about the day of the Lord as an expression of judgment and sifting and reversals, remember that man was made in a day by the Lord. So it makes sense that he can be unmade in a day by the Lord.

All man can do in his mortality is live one day at a time. Didn't Jesus teach us that? Nourishment, shelter, and sleep. Those are norms for the human. And these may be meager, but nourishment, shelter, and sleep are considered and pursued daily by everyone everywhere who lives.

So we think about that and think about how many days God has fashioned and how many days God has provided for us to live. That he sends his reign and his son even upon the wicked and the ungrateful. And day by day we live in utter dependence on God.

Every day we're in total dependence upon God. And then he says also in one day, on his day, he manifests his righteousness and shakes the world and undoes the thinking and posturing of prideful men. It's good to remember when we read passages like this that the same God who makes the day by day also makes the day of days.

When we think about the creator, we also remember that he is judge. And the pride of men is definitely what God is against in this passage. But it's good to remember that the pride of men is not something that's isolated.

It's not something that just kind of happens on its own in its own little area in our lives. It's not an isolated small sin. If you ever read the Puritan, you'll come across a word, picadillo. It's not a dip.

It's not something you use chips with. Picadillo means small sin, like a small error. And often people would have used that term to say, oh, it's not really a sin. It's not really something against God.

It was just a small error on my part. The pride of men is not that. It's not a singular flaw. The pride of man is very expansive, gets into everything. Pride is a gas that poisons all the rooms. Pride is a fire that burns without pause.

Pride is a small leap into a fearsomely deep chasm. There's just no stopping it unless God intervenes. And his intervention may be gracious, it may be wrathful, but it's always glorious to his name. Remember Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Knock, knock, front door of the kingdom. Poor in spirit only. Humility, right? You don't come into the kingdom if you're not poor in spirit.

How do you come in? Like a child, has nothing to offer. You come in lowly. You come in, blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. That's how you come into the kingdom. So, the way that God works is to humble men and exalt his name.

And his name is the Lord of hosts. And so we're not supposed to venerate, worship, or idolize, or put our confidence and trust in anything that God has made. But rather the God who makes everything. That's where our trust and confidence must be.

And when you think about the day of the Lord, as it's being framed here in verses 10 through 19. Every day of the Lord, whether it's against Israel, or Egypt, or Babylon, or Edom, and so on. As we read about those throughout the Old Testament.

Reminds us of the last day, the great day, that is yet to come. And as we think about the day of the Lord in its meaning. One question is, who can stand? Isn't that the question that Joel asks? Who can stand in the day of the Lord?

Who will not run in fear and trembling, looking for caves and crags in the rock? Who may have not just courage, but also have confidence on the day of the Lord? Who may not just have heartiness, but actual hope in the face of the Lord and the glory of his majesty?

And the answer to that is only the one with whom he is well pleased. There's only one he's ever said that about. And that's Jesus Christ. Which is why the question is, are we in Christ? And do we have his righteousness covering us?

Are we in union with Christ, so that we are seated with him in the heavenly places? Are we united to him by faith? This is why it's so important. Only one with whom he is well pleased. And if we're with Christ, then he's well pleased with us as well.

Something to think about that day. But of course, something to think about as we move to our time of prayer is, how is it? And you can think of different passages in the Bible. But how is it that our standing in Christ gives us confidence not just in that day, but in the everyday?

It's not just that I know everything will turn out okay then, but right now I've got a lot of worrying to do. But what is it about our standing in Christ that gives us confidence not just in that day, but in everyday?

So that sounds like Hebrews 4 and Philippians 4, but I'll let you investigate those passages on prayer. We'll leave it there for now.