Isaiah 2:6-22--The Day of the LORD

Isaiah 2:6-22
English Standard Version

The Day of the LORD
6 For you have rejected your people,
    the house of Jacob,
because they are full of things from the east
    and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
    and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
    and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
    and there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is filled with idols;
    they bow down to the work of their hands,
    to what their own fingers have made.
9 So man is humbled,
    and each one is brought low--
    do not forgive them!
10 Enter into the rock
    and hide in the dust
from before the terror of the LORD,
    and from the splendor of his majesty.
11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
    and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

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?

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We normally think of "The Day of the LORD" as a terrible day of wrath where God's enemies are forever defeated and destroyed or maybe the day when all peoples stand before Him in judgment, and it is those things, but it is also a day of salvation for God's people and a day for Him to deliver to Him all the blessings of His everlasting covenant that He has made with them.

God warns His people that they should be in the world, but not of the world--they should be in the world, but the world should not be in them.  They should not be dabbling in the "magic" and astrology of the people to the East (like Babylon) or the fortune-tellers of the Philistines, for these practices were forbidden by the LORD and the people were told they were of the influence of evil spirits that were not of God.  God speaks to His people through His Word and His prophets, and He speaks so that He reveals truth to those who are supposed to understand, and the truth is concealed from those who are not to understand it.

Such practices and striking business deals, engaging in marriage and having children with foreigners who worshiped other gods have led the people of Israel and Judah to fall into paganism and the worship and practices of these other peoples--things that God finds detestable and worthy of His wrath and judgment.  These are not the kinds of things that His people are supposed to be or do--they are to be a people holy unto Him.

The people of Israel and Judah covet the gold and silver and military strength of these nations and assume it is some kind of indication of God's blessing (or the blessing of their gods) on them.  The people of Israel and Judah start to trust in these foreign alliances to try to protect them from their enemies (we'll see in this book that Judah is afraid of Assyria and turns to Edom and Egypt for help, yet they will be of no help in Jacob's Day of Trouble).

The people of God that fear the LORD are told to enter into the rock to hide from His wrath (possibly referring to the mountain fortress of Petra that is in Edom to the east in modern-day Jordan.  On that Day, the LORD will humiliate the proud but will exalt the humble.

There will be a day that the LORD will destroy everything that people take pride in other than Him and everyone will be forced to bow down and worship Him.  No more will the nations trust in their trees or mountains or ships or chariots or wealth or walled cities and fortifications.  No more will people worship and trust in idols, for they will all be destroyed.  No one will worship any other gods.  The proud kings of the earth will hide in caves and under rocks trying to escape from the wrath of the LORD (praying to the God they said they didn't believe in) for the rocks to fall on them that they might escape the day of judgment that is from the Lamb who sits on the throne.  They know enough to know that this Day of the LORD comes from the throne of God, but not that there is an even more terrible judgment to come for those who are in rebellion against the LORD--an eternal separation from God's favor and blessing for those who died in rebellion against the LORD.

Isaiah ends this message by reminding us that man is nothing but dust that God formed and fashioned and breathed breath into his nostrils.  We would not exist, nor have life, breath or spirit if it were not for the LORD and His miraculous creation.  No one--no man and certainly no angel or demon or spirit--stands on equal footing with God.  He alone stands apart from all of creation as He is the Uncreated One and the Creator of all that is seen and unseen.  Why then do we imagine that we could resist God or that if we have enough people to team together with us that we might thwart His plans or overthrow His purposes? Stop resisting Him and submit to Him and His plans and purposes now.  It will go much better for you if you become a slave in His kingdom than if you try to be a king in the kingdom of this world.  This world will one day quickly come to an end when the LORD decides that the end has come, but the kingdom of God will stand forever and ever.  Which kingdom do you want to be a part of?  Do you want to experience the blessings of God's covenant or the curses that come from breaking His covenant?  The choice is yours here and now for you are not promised tomorrow or even your next breath.  If you want to know more about how to surrender your life to the LORD, repent of your sin, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ fully for the salvation and righteousness that He alone can provide, see the Evangelism Techniques section of this website for some resources to help you know how to receive the LORD's salvation, know for sure that you ae saved, and how to tell others the good news of the salvation that the LORD provides so that the Day of LORD is not something you fear, but look forward to.