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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, part 11

When God abandoned Israel and Judah (Isaiah 2:6), it does not mean that He abandoned them for all time. Yet neither does it mean that He will return in the same capacity as before. He always does a new thing, and in this case, He returned to them in a new form as the Mediator of a New Covenant. The first covenant, based on man’s vows, had proven to be inadequate, because the flesh could not keep its promises. There was no point in trying again under the same failure-prone arrangement. The New Covenant was not a renewal of the Old Covenant.

The Apostle Paul addressed this problem of abandonment in Romans 11:1, 2, saying,

¹ I say, then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ² God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew…

Paul then proceeds to show how God has not rejected His people, even though Jerusalem was soon to be destroyed and the people sent into captivity. What follows is a commentary on the chosen remnant, that is, “the election” (Romans 11:7 KJV). In other words, God will not abandon or reject the remnant, and so it cannot be said that He has abandoned His people.

Paul then compares the nation to a tree that is being pruned (Romans 11:17). Branches are being rejected but not the tree itself. In his case, the “tree” of Judah was being pruned so that the tree would bear more fruit through the branches (the chosen remnant). See also John 15:2. This remnant, then, remained as the genuine “Jews” (Romans 2:28, 29), while those who rejected Jesus and remained under the Old Covenant were pruned and discarded, no longer to be considered part of the tree of Judah.

See my book, Who is a Jew? for more details.

The continuing presence of the chosen remnant (branches) had the same purpose as we find in Isaiah 1:9,

⁹ Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a few survivors [remnant], we would be like Sodom, we would be like Gomorrah.

The presence of the remnant shows that the nation is not lost forever and not abandoned forever, even when the vast majority are cast away. In the big picture, the remnant also preserves the world itself and ensures that all nations will become Kingdom nations by the time the story is concluded. The restoration of all things is rooted in the law of the remnant.

The Continuing Indictment

Isaiah 2:7, 8 says,

⁷ Their land has also been filled with silver and gold and there is no end to their treasures; their land has been filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots. ⁸ Their land has also been filled with idols; they worship the work of their hands, that which their fingers have made.

God had prospered the people, but they had forgotten that God was their King, just as Moses had warned about in Deuteronomy 8:10-14.

¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. ¹¹ Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; ¹² otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, ¹³ and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Israel’s wealth of silver and gold and houses was indeed a sign of God’s blessing, but it was not necessarily a sign of God’s approval. There are preachers today who make this mistake, holding out their prosperity as a sign of God’s approval. These ought to “beware,” as Moses warned.

Isaiah also says that “their land has been filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.” The prophet will have much more to say about this in Isaiah 31:1-3,

¹ Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!... ³ Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit….

God is the Protector of His people. But when Israel fell into idolatry and God began to raise up their enemies against them, Israel responded not by repenting but by building up their national defenses. In essence, they were trying to defend themselves against divine judgment when they should have conducted a national day of repentance.

This admonition is based upon Deuteronomy 17:16, 17, where God tells the future kings of Israel not to “multiply horses” from Egypt. Neither should a king multiply wives or use his position to “greatly increase silver and gold for himself.” America’s leaders ought to take heed to this, for many have become president as a relatively poor man but have left office as multi-millionaires.

The Day of Reckoning

Isaiah 2:9-11 says,

⁹ So the common man has been humbled, and the man of importance has been abased, but do not forgive them. ¹⁰ Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of His majesty. ¹¹ The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

This is the great reversal of fortune. Those who are now riding high in their pride while abasing God—their true King—will soon be brought low, while God will be exalted. The kings of both Israel and Judah had exalted themselves above God, thinking they had the power to make their own laws and set the standard of their own morality and justice with no regard to the laws of God. This was about to be reversed, and the prophet says, “do not forgive them.” They had enjoyed many centuries of divine forgiveness already, and such grace only served to encourage them in their lawlessness and rebellion.

God will indeed forgive, but meanwhile He disciplines in order to correct and teach. Even His judgments are based upon love and grace, but, as Paul says, we ought not to sin that grace may increase (Romans 6:1).

So the prophet tells the rebellious Israelites to “enter the rock and hide in the dust.” This metaphor is explained further in verses 19-21, as we will see shortly. When arrogant kings run for cover, they lose all dignity and pride.

Isaiah 2:12-18 continues,

¹² For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. ¹³ And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, ¹⁴ against all the lofty mountains, against all the hills that are lifted up, ¹⁵ against every high tower, against every fortified wall, ¹⁶ against all the ships of Tarshish and against all the beautiful craft. ¹⁷ The pride of man will be humbled and the loftiness of men will be abased; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, ¹⁸ but the idols will completely vanish.

The prophet describes the proud ones by comparing them to various stately objects. Cedars of Lebanon were large and thick trees in those days and were often used to symbolize kings and rulers. The oaks of Bashan were compared to strong and mighty warriors. Lofty mountains were powerful kingdoms that dominated smaller hills. High towers and fortified walls were the strong defense of cities. Even the ships of Tarshish, large vessels made for long voyages, were “beautiful craft.”

Yet all of these were to be “humbled” and “abased” in the day of reckoning, for in that day God alone will emerge on top. All idols will be gone.

The day of the Lord (yom Yahweh) is mentioned 16 times in Scripture and another four times using variations such the day of wrath or vengeance. The example above (Isaiah 2:12) literally reads, yom l’Yahweh, “day for/to Yahweh,” which Dr. Bullinger interprets as “a day known to Jehovah.” The idea is that its arrival is uncertain to men but known to God.

The fact that it appears 16 times, the biblical number of love, shows that divine judgment is rooted in love, not hatred, and that divine judgment is designed to discipline His children, not simply to destroy sinners or enemies.

Will it be effective? Will such judgment serve its purpose? Well, in Isaiah 1:5, 6 the prophet said that God’s rebellious son had been beaten so often that he was full of “bruises, welts, and raw wounds,” but all to no avail. Hence, the death penalty (exile) was to be imposed upon him, according to the law in Deuteronomy 21:21.

Even so, the success of divine discipline is prophesied in Isaiah 2:20, 21,

²⁰ In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, ²¹ in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble.

In other words, the day will come—known to God alone—when this rebellious son will be forced to abandon his idols and flee to the protection of caverns and clefts of the cliffs. If he will not be drawn by the love of God, he will be corrected through fear. One way or the other, God alone will be exalted and recognized as King. Those who are corrected by fear will then have to learn of His love afterward and thereby shift from an Old Covenant relationship to a New Covenant relationship with God.

Isaiah 2:22 concludes,

²² Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed?

Why give man credit as if he is the master of his own destiny? Why should we think that man can withstand the will of God? We tend to give man’s will too much credit. The children of Adam all have the breath of God in their nostrils (Genesis 2:7), but as living souls, they are no match for God, nor does even God Himself recognize the sovereignty of man.

In the day of man, men appear to be in control, and hence, God allows them to act according to their own will. But the Day of Yahweh reverses this, for then God establishes His own will, and man has no choice but to cast aside his idols and submit to the will of God. The prophet’s question, “why should he (man) be esteemed?” means why should God respect man’s free will? If salvation were based on man's will, no one would be saved.