Isaiah 2:10-22

The Majesty of God in his Final Revelation

v. 10. Enter into the rock, as people hide before a cruel enemy, and hide thee in the dust, as the travelers in the wilderness throw themselves down when the simoom, or sirocco, bears down upon them, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty. When the terror of God will strike the world, when the Lord will be revealed in the glory of His majesty, then all willful sinners, all idolaters, all servants of mammon, and all rebellious men, who have let the love of the world fill their hearts, will be filled with terror and heaped with shame.

v. 11. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, every gesture indicating pride will be forgotten, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, humbled into the dust, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, standing secure in the perfection of His essence.

v. 12. For the day of the Lord of hosts, the final Day of Judgment, shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, the day being, as it were, kept in reserve by the Lord, to come as a surprise upon the haughty despisers of His grace; and he, every proud sinner, shall be brought low, Cf Joel 1:15; Joel 3:4;

v. 13. and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, pictures and emblems of the proud sinners, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, the rich pastureland east of Jordan,

v. 14. and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, every creature that excels in majesty and beauty in the world,

v. 15. and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, products of men's ambition and pride,

v. 16. and upon all the ships of Tarshish, the finest instruments of commerce in the ancient days, and upon all pleasant pictures, works produced to satisfy man's lust of the eyes. In short, what human art and human science have produced under the incentive of human ambition, pride, and haughtiness will be destroyed in that great Day of Judgment.

v. 17. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, since all the objects of man's pride will be destroyed, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, the highest and most glorious in the majesty of His essence.

v. 18. And the Idols He shall utterly abolish, literally, "they will be changed," they will vanish away, their vanity will be apparent before all men.

v. 19. And they, the idolaters, shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth, in cellars or cisterns dug into the ground, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cf Luke 23:30.

v. 20. In that day, under the influence of a repentance which comes too late, a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, into the first convenient crevice, in an effort to rid himself of their incriminating presence;

v. 21. to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, his terror driving him to seek safety anywhere and everywhere, for fear of the Lord, namely, dread of the inevitable punishment, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth, to spread terror throughout the world, for His wrath will find His enemies in the most remote corners and hiding-places of the earth.

v. 22. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, all men are admonished not to place their trust in man, weak and powerless as he is in all that he undertakes, dependent upon a breath which quickly disappears; for wherein is he to be accounted of? All human props may and will be taken away in the twinkling of an eye. It is good at all times to trust in the Lord and not to put confidence in man, especially in view of the coming Judgment, which will show the vanity of man's pride and of all his accomplishments.