Week 20: The Only Safe Place

Isaiah 2:17-19 English Standard Version (ESV)

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.


   With verse 17 we are seeing (with just a couple of words switched around), verse 11 again, which we took that single verse as a full post earlier. (See the entries for January 5th 2019). Why would Isaiah repeat himself so often? It is something that he is trying to drive home to any of the Israelites who will listen, and hence now to the modern world. He then moves on in 18 and 19 to show with language he used previously as well, to show what will happen in that day, not only as a promise of what is to come, but also as a warning to those who would listen. 

  He says the idols shall utterly pass away. Everything man has built to put above God or to supplant Him will be removed. Utterly. Never again will those things exist for man to turn to. Man will then hide himself in any cave or hole he can find for himself. In verse 10 Isaiah tells man to do this, here he is saying that this is what the people will do, thinking that this is the only way to even possibly hide from God. 

  And why hide? Because to those who are not true servants to Him, He will be a terror. To them the splendor of His majesty will be a terrible thing, and the whole earth will be terrified. There will not be anywhere that is safe. The only safety to be found is in Him alone.
   

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