Isaiah 2:6

The Bible says in Isaiah 2:6-11, “Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.” The prophet Isaiah is continuing with his explanation of why the judgment of God had to come against the people of Israel. The first reproof of Israel’s sins mentioned in this passage is that of false religion. The Israelites had begun practicing the religion of the non-Christians who were around them. Verse eight says, “their land also is full of idols.” The truth about God and how to serve God is always under attack, and Christians who are not properly on their guard against the world’s ways will lose the truth that once was revealed to them. They will lose it if they do not faithfully follow Christ, because their contact with unbelievers will have a bad influence on them and cause them to fall away from faith. The greatest falling away ever will take place in the last days. The Bible says in Second Thessalonians 2:1-3, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” False religion begins as soon as the truth ceases to be pronounced. There are many things that can cause a very fast march towards false religion. For example, to stop preaching that Jesus is God is certain to result in false religion. To stop preaching that salvation comes through faith in Christ will result in false religion. Also, to stop preaching that the Bible is the inerrant, trustworthy, reliable, and inspired Word of God will result in false religion. Unless they are very diligent and very watchful all of the time, it is very easy for people to depart from the faith and to fall into false religion. That is why there is so much false religion around us. There are modernists who have fallen into false religion. There are creationists who have fallen into false religion. There are conservatives who have fallen into false religion. There are fundamentalists who have fallen into false religion. As soon as anyone stops preaching or stops teaching the great truths about Christ, then they are falling into false religion.

In addition to falling into false religion the sins of the children of Israel included materialism, humanism, and arrogance. The problem with materialism is that people too easily trust in riches or material possessions as a means to find answers to their problems, instead of trusting God. When someone is materialistic, the material things become more important than spiritual things. It has nothing to do with being rich or poor, because a poor person might be materialistic and a rich person might not be materialistic. It depends upon how much someone loves material possessions. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Materialism is a sure sign that people are turning away from God. It says in Isaiah 2:7, “Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.” The children of Israel had riches, but they did not have a close relationship with God.

We can see that the Israelites had become humanistic at least in a symbolic way because it says, “they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.” The emphasis for these Israelites became what they had done and what they had created. A carnal Christian or a non-believer emphasizes their own works, but a spiritual person emphasizes and recognizes what Christ has done for man. It is a matter of emphasis, and what one is centered on. A Christian should be centered on Jesus and what Jesus has accomplished for us.

The children of Israel were arrogant and proud. This sin of arrogance is related to the error of humanism. Arrogance can be manifested in many ways, but there is one way in which it is ultimately manifested in every person: a refusal to bow humbly before the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the Day of Judgment is coming. Everyone will give an account as to how they responded to the opportunity to believe on the Lord. As it says in Isaiah 2:11 “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.”

The following verses continue to tell us that God has a plan for one day resolving the problem of the arrogance of man. It says in Isaiah 2:12-22, “For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day 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; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”

This is what will happen in the last days: “And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.” God always resists man’s arrogance because this arrogance keeps man from worshipping Christ and serving Christ. Man ought to recognize his need for Christ. Man ought to say: “I am weak and sinful. I need God in my life.” And man ought to say, “My strengths and opportunities come from God. I need to be thankful to Him for all of His blessings.” Those who do not see their need of God, and those who are not thankful to God are arrogant. The Bible says in First Peter 5:5, “for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” Jesus said in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” It says in Proverbs 16:5, “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.”

This passage in Isaiah has a reference to the time of the Great Tribulation. There will be a time “when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” God’s righteous judgment must be manifested against the sin and the evil of man. That is why He will “shake terribly the earth.” No one will get away with anything. There is no such thing as committing murder and getting away with it, or committing any sin and getting away with it because God sees all things, and He is the righteous Judge of the whole earth. The day will come when God’s indignation against sin will be brought against the whole earth. This time of judgment for the earth is called the Great Tribulation.

The Bible says in Isaiah 3:1-8, “For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.” It is interesting to notice that in these verses there are two main ways that God brought His judgment against the children of Israel: the loss of the basic needs of life and the loss of good leaders for the country. God supplies the basic needs of life to human beings. God gives life and God sustains it. But at God’s choosing, He can take it away. That is why Jesus said that we should be thankful for our daily bread. Jesus said in Matthew 6:11 that we should implore the Lord for the basic needs of our life. Jesus said that we should pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The Bible says in Luke 22:19 that Jesus “took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them…”

One of the punishments given to the nation of Israel was poor leaders. Remember that God ultimately decides who is in power in any country. Obviously, if the wrong leaders are in control, everyone in the country will suffer because the leaders make the big decisions. If God wanted to punish a country, one easy way to do that would be to allow the wrong people to be in control. The wrong people will make the wrong decisions. The wrong leaders will go to war when a country should have lived in peace. Or maybe the wrong leaders will fail to properly defend a country. The wrong leaders will raise taxes when they should have lowered them, or will lower taxes when they should have raised them. Terrible things happen to some countries because God did not provide qualified leaders to be put in positions of power. God said concerning the nation of Israel and Israel’s punishment in Isaiah 3:4-5, “And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.”

Notice that the Bible says in Isaiah 3:8, “For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.” The sins of the Israelites had to do both with “their tongue” and “their doings.” Sometimes there are greater sins done by a person’s speech than by their actions. The sins of gossip, and malice, and complaining, and blasphemy are great sins. The Bible says in James 3:6-10, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.”

We are all great sinners. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Therefore, we are very dependent upon the mercy of God that comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the mercy of God we have no hope. Without Jesus we have no hope.

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