Will You Be Humbled or Exalted

Twice in Isaiah 2 do we see God’s commitment to humbling the proud:

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

Isaiah 2:11 ESV

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

Isaiah 2:17 ESV

I want to make three observations regarding how God humbles people. Two directly from these text and one from the surrounding context. First, God is committed to humbling the proud or haughty man. He does not say the might be humbled, but that they shall be brought low. “In that day” the pride of man will not stand in the presence of the King of Kings.

Second, everyone is a proud or haughty person except God. Both texts end with the claim that “the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” God will be supreme in that day and everything else will be brought low before him. There will be no room for competition. Those who thing they will be someone improtant in that day are being proud and the text is clear that their pride will not be able to stand up against the one who alone is to be exalted.

The final point is that the means by which God humbles the haughty and brings low the proud is by making himself know. Three times in the surround text we are told that people respond to “the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty” (Isa. 2:10, 19, 21). Isaiah himself fell on his face when confront with the presence of God (Isa. 6:4). We cannot truly behold the majesty of God without being humbled.

For those who have beheld “the splender of his majesty” or “the terror of the LORD,” the natural response is to want to hide (Isa. 2:10). In fact, we must hide. For some this will me to constantly seek to avoid God, to pretend he does not exist. For others, this will me trying to cover their own inadequecy by making a show of keeping the law. But for those who know the truth, they realize the only place to find safety from the “terror of the LORD” is in Christ. As Paul tells us, “God chose the low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that in the presence of God no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the LORD‘” (1 Cor. 1:28-31, emphasis added). Paul does not leave us without a boast however. Why am will have nothing to boast it

While God does not leave us any grounds to boast in our own abilities or efforts, he points us to confidence in God. If we are in Christ Jesus, we can boast…just not in ourselves. Our only boast in the LORD. The question we must ask ourselves is will we continue to try to make ourselves look God in the sight of God or will we boast in the splender of his majesty.