by Larry Ferrell | December 9, 2017
The scope and content of the book’s message have been laid before us in outline in 1:1-2:5. Now it’s time for the basic themes to be elaborated: first judgment (2:6 -4:1), and then salvation (4:2-6). The movement from Zion under judgment to Zion restored is the same as in 1:1 – 2:5, but now the judgment aspect of the message is focused upon at much greater length. In verses 6-11 Isaiah is in the grip of strong emotions. His appeal of verse 5, like his earlier one in 1:5 and the Lord’s own appeal in 1:18, has met with no response. In his wrestling with God in verses 6-9 Isaiah follows in the footsteps of Abraham and Moses, and anticipates the later struggles of Jeremiah and Habakkuk.

The hub of the problem is pride (v. 11), and it’s not Judah’s problem only; it’s a universal disease, and one to which none of us is immune. It has a thousand subtle and devious ways of manifesting itself, and is ugliest of all when it dons religious garb. Such pride can eventually have only one outcome: a confrontation with God in which the proud will be finally undone. The expression Isaiah uses for this ultimate confrontation is that day, the day of the Lord (vv. 11-12).

Many of Isaiah’s contemporaries looked forward to the day of the Lord as the time when he would step in and destroy Israel’s enemies just as He had done long ago in the days of Moses and Joshua. But Isaiah and the other prophets of his time realized that this confident expectation was grounded in arrogance rather than faith, for Israel and Judah had taken on ways of the surrounding nations and were therefore just as deserving of judgment. In fact they were guiltier than others because of the greater privileges they had enjoyed. This is a most sobering thought, and one that we ourselves would do well to ponder. Interest in the last things – the second coming of Christ and the events associated with it – has always been , quite properly, a strong dimension of our evangelical tradition. But our excitement about such things has not always been accompanied by the concern to amend our lives that it should have been. We are in danger of being ‘caught napping’ because we have sat far too light to the solemn warnings that our Lord has given us.

The day of the Lord is pictured as a great earthquake, a mighty shaking (vv. 19, 21), which leaves nothing standing and sends people running in terror into caves and crevices in a vain attempt to save themselves. There is also a positive aspect, however, to the day of the Lord. Proud people will be humbled, but the Lord (and He alone) will be exalted (vv. 11, 17) and seen in all His splendor (v. 21b). There is therefore a sense in which it is right to long for the day of the Lord, because it will mean the final triumph of God and His purposes. What may be apprehended only by faith now – that the Lord is supreme ruler of the world – will then be plain for all to see. This, among other things, is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer when we ask for God’s kingdom to come. But if we are so bold as to pray such a prayer, we must make sure that we are prepared for the answer!

Isaiah is clear that if the people of Judah and Jerusalem place their ultimate trust where the surrounding nations have placed theirs, then they have forsaken the Lord, and will not escape the judgment that will overwhelm the proud everywhere on the day of the Lord. So then, just as in verses 1-5, a vision of the end issues in an urgent call to action in the present. Verse 22 does not deny the truth, taught elsewhere, that human beings are made in God’s image and therefore have a certain dignity. It does assert, however, that as objects of ultimate trust humans are of no account at all.

Isaiah 2:6-22 Reflection Questions:
What was the cause of the unresponsiveness to Isaiah’s and the Lord’s message?
Do you see this happening today? Explain.
Where are you putting your trust? How are you showing that?

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