God’s Word for You
Isaiah 2:10-11 The dread of the Lord
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, December 10, 2024
10 Go into the rocks, and hide in the dust.
Escape from the dread of the LORD and from the glory of his majesty.
This verse is repeated two more times in this chapter (verses 19 and 21) as a kind of refrain. With irony, the prophet tells the people to go to the rocks to hide. There are many times where the Lord offers himself as the rock where his people may safely hide (Psalm 62:2, 71:3, 95:1), but here they are told to hide from him in the actual stones and boulders of Judah. Why? He brings punishment for their sins and their idolatry.
They are also told to hide in the dust. Dust was usually used for covering the head in repentance (Job 2:12; 2 Samuel 15:32; Revelation 18:19). So it is again with irony that the people of Israel are told to hide in the stuff rather than repent with it.
Would either a cleft in the rocks or a thin layer of dust be a very good hiding place for people in fear of the Lord? Adam wasn’t very successful hiding under the canopy of the trees in Eden (Genesis 3:8-10), and Jonah wasn’t very successful hiding below decks in a ship at sea (Jonah 1:5). The Lord has ways of beating the bushes that drives anyone out from a hiding place. “The Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished” (Deuteronomy 7:20). And in the end, John foresaw that “the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the thrones and from the wrath of the Lamb!’” (Revelation 6:15-16).
The “dread” of the Lord is the dread and terror of his punishment, because everything man does is stained, smeared, and ruined by sin. The mightiest acts of nations and kingdoms are nothing before him. Here the glory of his majesty is not something to delight man, but to terrify us, for his glory reveals just how sinful man is. The noblest deeds are no better than mud and filth. The most selfless act is exposed as the very zenith of selfishness. The most beautiful gesture is shown to be nothing but the contemptible nadir of human ugliness. God’s holiness cannot be approached by man (Psalm 96:9); cannot be fathomed by man (Job 5:9).
11 The proud eyes of mankind will be brought low, the arrogance of man will be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
How truly, how vividly Isaiah proclaims the law to man’s heart! Every Christmas season we hear many songs of praise and glory, but consider “The Little Drummer Boy” with its dear, sweet “pa-rum-pa-pum-pum” refrain. Do the words of the child, “I played my best for him” matter if they are spoken by an unrepentant heart? No. Cuteness, sweetness, so-called childish innocence is exposed by the word of God to be a lie of the devil. Without faith, there is nothing that stands up before God’s wrath and God’s holy law. Now, do not despair of the song: The boy does bring his song in faith; he comes to honor the Christ child. But do not think that his gift was accepted because of the merits of the drummer boy. The gift was accepted only on account of the merits of Christ himself.
This is the way it is with us all. “That day” is the day of salvation, beginning, yes, with Christ’s first coming and nativity, but especially culminating with that part of the Creed that teaches us that “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.” He did all this to make satisfaction for what you and I owed on account of our sins, both inherited and actual, to bring us under his holy, glorious, gentle, and eternal dominion. For no reason at all, for nothing whatsoever inside of us, Christ our Lord loves us. And because he loves us (for he is love, 1 John 4:8), he saved us. He set faith in our hearts to prepare us for the day of judgment. When he returns, we have nothing to fear. And because we have faith in him, the sinful stain of our sins is scoured away from all of our life’s works, and we stand holy and forgiven, with thanks (for this is what our good works are, nothing but thanks) for what he has done. He has saved us. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day—let those words be a reminder to anyone who would worship or venerate anyone but Christ alone.
Behold, he comes.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.