THE DAY OF THE LORD, A DAY OF HUMBLING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You, Lord, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and embrace pagan customs. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

So people will be brought low and everyone humbled—do not forgive them. Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty! The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading ship and every stately vessel. The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear. People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth. In that day people will throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags
from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth. Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?

Isaiah 2:6-22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Romans 14:10b-12 (ESV)

For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23:12

Everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled.

Jesus, the One who told us He is the Truth (and the Way and the Life) in John 14:6 spoke these words and in our prophetic scripture from the second chapter of Isaiah, we are told that there is a day coming when those words will come alive, a day of the Lord that will be humbling for the proud and the lofty, the ones who self elevate themselves above their brothers and sisters. This self centeredness is the polar opposite of what defined Jesus, His willingness to humble Himself all the way to the cross where He willingly died a criminal’s death by crucifixion in order to save mankind. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the Son of God and as Christians, we are to model that same humility and selfless attitude.

If we do, then we will find ourselves in the favor of the Lord. If we opt not to and live full of conceit and arrogance, then God’s word promises the following will happen on the day of the Lord:

1. The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low. (v11a)

2. The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled (v17)

3. People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty. (v19)

4. People will throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship. (v20)

5. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty. (v21)

Picture this day of the Lord and what it’s going to be like.

The Lord alone will be exalted that day because there will be no greater power on display than His. On that day the Lord will enter into creation with an extraordinary, magnificent, majestic splendor signified by the shaking of the earth. This will be no ordinary earthquake for no tremor of this magnitude will have ever been experienced like it. It will not be localized but rather global. The whole earth will shake and when that happens, people will respond in fear, awestruck by the awesomeness of God’s amazing power.

Yes, every knee will humbly bow as people cower from the Lord and every tongue will be confessing on that day that there is a Lord God Almighty who reigns in supreme authority over everything He has made. On that day, they will know there is one God and one God only worthy of their worship, as God shows the people just how obsolete, worthless, and useless their idols were.

Friends, we had best heed the warning we find in this scripture passage today. For we can either humble ourselves before God, living a life of obedient service to God our Father just as Jesus did, or we can experience God’s forced humbling on the day when He shakes the earth and comes in power.

I suggest we all choose humility now rather than later.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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