Isaiah 2:12-22 - What Really Matters

12 For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low; 13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; 14 against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; 15 against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; 16 against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. 17 And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. 18 And the idols shall utterly pass away. 19 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. 20 In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, 21 to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. 22 Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

Target Date: Sunday, 1 October 2023

Thoughts on the Passage:

12 – Lord of hosts – Lord of armies

12 – has a day – there are two ways we can understand the term “day of the Lord”:

There are many “days of the Lord” for the proud and haughty on earth. These are days of humiliation, as in this passage, for the proud and lofty. All of these point to the final Day of the Lord, when all His enemies are finally dealt with eternally.

There Last Day, the Day of the Lord, will not simply result in the humiliation of the wicked, but in their everlasting destruction in the judgment of God’s wrath, hell.

when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed - 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10

The day of the Lord is a prominent theme in the prophets (13:6; Amos 5:18, 20; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; Zeph. 1:7, 14; Zech. 14:1; Mal. 3:23 [Eng. 4:5]). It appears that the phrase must have been used popularly to denote a time when God would vindicate his people and bless their endeavors. But the prophets’ word was that the day of the Lord would be a time of destruction and terror, and only after that time could blessing come (Amos 8:11; Isa. 11:10; 12:1; Zech. 14:1; Mal. 3:23 [Eng. 4:5]). They needed to disabuse the Israelites of the idea that merely because they were called by God’s name they deserved his favor. Surely blessing did result from election but only if that election was confirmed in humble and righteous living.

the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 … destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God - 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

13-14 – God’s judgment of man will often entail the destruction of those things in which he places his value or his trust. Those things that build pride in man are worthy targets for God’s wrath.

14 – cedars – God is not angry with the trees. These represent the men who have earned His wrath through disobedience.

Just as the cedars were not, in this day, planted by men, but by God, so these men who had reached such lofty positions were planted by God.

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.

When we are exalted by circumstance, we have two typical responses:

1. Thankfulness to God in acknowledgement of God’s gracious providence in our fortunate circumstances.

2. Taking the glory on ourselves due to our worthiness of the honor.

In the first case, we humble ourself. In the second, God will surely humble us.

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you. – James 4:10

Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. – Matthew 23:12

It is for the honour of God’s power to humble the proud; by this he proves himself to be God, and disproves Job’s pretensions to rival with him, Job 40:11–14. Behold every one that is proud, and abase him; then will I also confess unto thee.

16 – Two types of ships are seen in this verse: merchant ships (of Tarshish) and pleasure boats.

Only recently has the true force of the word sekiyyoth been discovered. In his ninth campaign Thuthmosis III mentions skt, “ships,” and the same word appears as tkt in Ugaritic. It is a loan word from the Egyptian, and so fits in well here in the parallelism. The judgment, we are taught, will come not only upon those ships which are employed for commerce, but also upon ships of pleasure. All ships, of whatever kind, will be affected.

18 - God can make men sick of those idols that they have been most fond of, even the idols of silver and the idols of gold, the most precious. Covetous men make silver and gold their idols, money their god; but the time may come when they may feel it as much their burden as ever they made it their confidence, and may find themselves as much exposed by it as ever they hoped they should be guarded by it, when it tempts their enemy, sinks their ship, or retards their flight. There was a time when the mariners threw the wares, and even the wheat into the sea (Jonah 1:5; Acts 27:38), and the Syrians cast away their garments for haste, 2 Ki. 7:15. Or men may cast it away out of indignation at themselves for leaning upon such a broken reed.

They went after them to the Jordan, and behold, all the way was full of clothes and equipment which the Arameans had thrown away in their haste. Then the messengers returned and told the king. – 2 Kings 7:15

22 – Can you, O man, extend your life? Did you bring yourself into existence?

Sermon Text:

We pick up this morning in the middle of the second chapter of Isaiah.

If you read the chapter all the way through, you see that this is the third major subject in the preaching of Isaiah here.

The first part is the promise of God’s kingdom of peace that Isaiah saw and welcomed from a distance.

The time of God’s reign in peace over His people directly.

Isaiah was calling the people of God, and by extension us, to live in preparation and in the expectation of that day, so that we walk in the light of the Lord.

The second part represents God’s indictment on the sins and idolatries of His people.

Sins, as we saw, that the people may not have even recognized because the sins are so normal, so natural.

Accumulating wealth, security, and peace that the world offers.

We saw when we looked at that passage that it is no service to God to simply acknowledge Him while we run after our own goals, wealth, and fame.

His requirement is to live in His light, using what He has given us in His way, seeking His glory in all things, especially when it hides any glory to ourselves.

The passage this week explains to us WHY these things that seem so natural are sinful and evil.

We will see what will happen to pride and the proud, to those who flaunt their high station, and those who simply trust that station for security.

He begins this section with the declaration For the Lord of hosts has a day…

After our Bible study on Wednesday night, at the time when we are resetting the space for Sunday and informally discussing questions and insights of the week, a dear brother asked a question.

He asked me when we got to this discussion of the Day of the Lord to explain why this term is used in more than a single context.

Because for most of us, when we see the term “Day of the Lord”, we think primarily of the Last Day, when our Lord will appear in judgment of everyone who has ever lived,

Ending the history of this present earth and establishing His eternal kingdom in a purified, re-created paradise.

There is nothing wrong with knowing that is to come – that is the very thing Isaiah was pointing to in the first five verses of this chapter.

It is our hope.

It is our inheritance as children adopted by God in His mercy through Jesus Christ.

There is nothing wrong with knowing of and hoping for that day, but we have some interpretive difficulties when we read the prophets of the Old Testament.

Because often the day of the Lord to which they point is the day of God’s judgment of a nation or a people on this earth; a day when they will fall or be torn down.

The destruction of Edom was not the end of history.

Nor was the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar.

Neither the destruction of the first temple in 587 BC nor the second temple in AD 70 ended the history of the world and stopped sin, corruption, or death forever.

They were certainly cataclysmic for the people in those areas and at those times, but they did not represent the end of the age.

And so we must be careful to make a distinction between these localized “days of the Lord” and the final Day of the Lord.

And I will say at the outset that every single local, temporary judgment by God on this earth should be taken as a reminder of that great and terrible Day when the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

The intervention of God in history serves as a strong reminder that He reigns over all history and will one day finish it in His glory.

But which does this passage talk about?

There are certainly similarities to the Final Day, the “Day of the Lord” with a capital D.

We see many of the same images in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10:

when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed.

The completeness of His judgment, the exaltation of God – those are found in both passages.

But if we look at verse 12, we see that the Lord’s day is against all that is proud and lofty…

We can certainly read this “all” in the cumulative sense, promising God’s judgment over every element of His creation on the last day.

This would cause us to read this passage as describing a TIME or EVENT.

That is the understanding of many who would make this passage an exclusively eschatological prophecy.

But I think a better understanding of this “all” is to think of it as a general statement about God rather than a specific prophecy of a single day.

Reading it as “the Lord of hosts has a day against everything that is proud and lofty”.

Or “everyone who is proud and lofty” as the NASB reads.

Because I believe it is Isaiah’s intent to declare the holiness and impending judgment of God to the people he is directly preaching to,

But in speaking of this judgment in terms of God’s justice and righteousness, it can apply to any nation, tribe, or people who have exalted themselves.

The statement then reads as a warning for all time, whether in Isaiah’s day, two centuries later, or two and one-half millennia later.

For anything or anyone who exalts themselves, God will bring them low.

Whether Israel, or Judah, or Babylon, or Rome, or the Babylon of the Revelation, God stands at all times and for all time opposed to the proud.

James 4:6 - God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

But how can we know for sure this is what Isaiah means?

For that matter, how are we to understand the other promised days of the Lord promised by the other prophets?

And in answer to that, I would invite you to look at verse 17 in our passage today:

And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

I would suggest to you three keys to understanding the immediate meaning of the term “the day of the Lord”:

1. Ask if the extent of the warning is local or global.

Joel speaks to the people of Judah after the devastation of a locust plague.

Obadiah speaks to Edom.

And although each prophet has some eschatological applications, the day of the Lord they are immediately addressing is the day of the judgment of God upon that people.

2. Look at WHO is being judged: governments, nations, and tribes are judged here on earth; all individuals, and only individuals, will be judged on the Last Day.

I am surprised how many misunderstand this point, but it is crystal clear in the Scriptures.

Governments, associations, nations and the like are not eternal, and so the judgment of these GROUPS lies only in this world.

What government will persist through the veil of death to even appear before God?

People, individual humans, were created with an eternal part that WILL stand before the judgment seat of God.

Thus, if we see the day of the Lord declared against a nation or a tribe of people, we can be certain that this day of the Lord points immediately to an event in this world.

3. Look at the outcome of the day of the Lord: if it is eternal destruction for God’s enemies, that is the eschatological Day of the Lord.

If, as in the case of Isaiah 2, the outcome is the humiliation of the haughty, this would be the day of the Lord (lower-case d).

This is important: the final judgment has one purpose: to judge every PERSON and separate the followers of Jesus Christ from all other people, sending each to their eternal reward.

For the believer, eternal rest and peace in the loving presence of God forever.

For the unbeliever, the haughty: eternal punishment in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Now, just because we determine the immediate purpose of the prophet was to speak to an earthly day of the Lord, we should not then say these days have no remaining meaning for us since that judgment has passed.

God forbid that we should do that!

It is important in every case to judge ourselves, our own hearts, to find within us these very sins that have brought God’s strict sanction in the past.

For example, what sin of Judah listed in chapter 2 of Isaiah are we, both individually and as Americans, not subject to or guilty of?

Accumulation of wealth?

Political alliances with the ungodly?

Trust in armaments or armies?

Exaltation of our nation?

The judgment of God on the nations of the past should assure us that the great Babylon in which we live will its own day of the Lord – soon.

The stench of our sin – both the sin of the pagans and the sin of the church – cannot be long endured by our holy God.

The time we have now is truly borrowed,

Borrowed from God who has given us this time of grace to proclaim His good news while there is still time.

And we see the judgment God will pour out upon the proud and lofty:

Not just the proud and lofty out there, but the proud and lofty in here.

Against their resources (the cedars and oaks),

Against their land (the mountains and hills),

Against their strength and security (the towers and walls),

Against their commerce (the ships of Tarshish),

Against their pleasure (the beautiful craft – a loan word from the pleasure boats that plied the Nile in Egypt carrying the Pharaoh),

And especially against those worthless things they worship and love rather than worshiping God.

What is that idol on the day of the Lord?

It is dead weight, a “god” that must be carried and protected.

That must be guarded from being stolen.

It is the valuable cargo that must be jettisoned overboard in the midst of the storm so that the lives within might be saved.

20 In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, 21 to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

What these people were unwilling to give up in their prosperity, the terror of the Almighty has made them willing to cast aside to the rats.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:36-38

This leads us to the last verse of this passage: Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

Who are you living for?

People? To be respected by them? To be honored by them?

Unfortunately, the temptation is always with us to do things simply to be well-thought-of by other people.

Even when we do good things, things that agree with Scripture – when we do them to be well-considered by people or to be unhumiliated in front of people, we are doing them from sinful motives.

That obedience is not from faith.

That obedience is not from the love we have for our Lord.

That obedience is what Annanias and Sapphira had, doing good things so that the church people will think well of us.

I believe one of the gravest dangers to pastors and Christian leaders is that it is so easy to be obedient to God BECAUSE you are a pastor and, thus, you SHOULD act right.

It is a danger because the obedience is in danger of not being born from a love and devotion to our Lord, but to please the crowd.

And I think that the vast number of moral failures among ministers of the gospel stems from this very thing.

But it is not just ministers who are prone to this self-deception, this idolatry of obedience.

I have known many people in my life who had a “church persona” and a “home persona”, and they were nothing alike.

Now don’t get me wrong: be obedient to God and be aware that people are watching you.

But if you find your only motivation to do good or abstain from sin is what people would say if you did not, I urge you to find the greater, the purer, the more lasting reason behind obedience: the abiding love for God that compels you to please Him.

Sometimes it is a necessary early step in battling sin to consider what people might say – use every tool you can in your striving against sin.

But work to quickly move beyond this superficial trust in your own willpower and monument to your own glory toward trust in God to be faithful to complete what He started in you.