Latest / Marriage Life and More and Bible Study / Isaiah 2:9-12 - Hiding in the Dust - Rocks Won't Save You - 290

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Isaiah 2:9-12 - Hiding in the Dust - Rocks Won't Save You - 290 · Marriage Life and More and Bible Study

• 0:05
  Daniel Moore: So just to clarify, when you bowed down to idols, was the plan for God to bow down to you in return?
• 0:11
  Daniel Moore: And at what point did humbling yourselves turn into let's see how high we can lift our own egos?
• 0:18
  Daniel Moore: And when the day of the Lord shows up, do you think pride gets a hall pass?
• 0:23
  Daniel Moore: Well, welcome back to the podcast where Isaiah continues to mind everyone's business, including ours.
• 0:29
  Daniel Moore: Today we're in Isaiah 2, verses 9-12, a passage that confronts humanity's favorite pastime, elevating ourselves and then acting shocked when God isn't impressed.
• 0:41
  Daniel Moore: The Israelites have mastered the art of self-importance, bowing to idols, flexing their strength, and walking around like God was lucky to have them on the team.
• 0:50
  Daniel Moore: And then Isaiah reminds them and us that the day of the Lord has a very specific agenda.
• 0:56
  Daniel Moore: Everything proud gets brought low, and only the Lord gets lifted high.
• 1:01
  Daniel Moore: It's not exactly a feel-good message, but it is a freeing one because God isn't trying to crush us, he's trying to rescue us from exhausting job of playing God ourselves.
• 1:11
  Daniel Moore: So if you've ever felt personally attacked by Scripture, well congratulations, you're in the right place.
• 1:17
  Daniel Moore: So let's connect the gap and see why humility isn't God being harsh, it's God being merciful.
• 1:24
  Daniel Moore: Let's get to it.
• 1:26
  Daniel Moore: Welcome to Connecting the Gap.
• 1:34
  Daniel Moore: This is a podcast about marriage, Bible, and book studies, and we interview people that have a story.
• 1:38
  Daniel Moore: I'm Daniel Moore, your host.
• 1:40
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• 2:45
  Daniel Moore: Well, this week we are going to be getting back into our Isaiah study as we are now in the middle of Isaiah chapter 2.
• 2:52
  Daniel Moore: This week we're going to be looking at verses 9 through 12 in our study here, our verse-by-verse study of Isaiah here on Connecting the Gap.
• 3:01
  Daniel Moore: So as we get started here this week, we're going to go ahead and take a look at our scripture passage this week.
• 3:22
  Daniel Moore: And as we usually want to get out there, we are using the ESV version of the Bible as we read these scriptures.
• 3:28
  Daniel Moore: So this week, as I said, Isaiah chapter 2, verses 9 through 12, it says, So man is humbled, and each one is brought low.
• 3:36
  Daniel Moore: Do not forgive them.
• 3:38
  Daniel Moore: Enter into the rock and hide in the dust, from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty.
• 3:45
  Daniel Moore: 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.
• 3:54
  Daniel Moore: For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low.
• 4:03
  Daniel Moore: That's Isaiah chapter two, verses nine through twelve.
• 4:07
  Daniel Moore: As we start dissecting this section of Scripture this week, we'll start with verse nine.
• 4:15
  Daniel Moore: It says, So man is humbled and each one is brought low.
• 4:19
  Daniel Moore: Do not forgive them.
• 4:21
  Daniel Moore: Well here Isaiah continues his prophetic denouncement of Judah's pride and idolatry.
• 4:27
  Daniel Moore: The phrase man is humbled and each one is brought low reflects the result of their self-exaltation and rebellion against God.
• 4:36
  Daniel Moore: Human pride and idolatry ultimately lead to a humbling judgment.
• 4:42
  Daniel Moore: The Hebrew word used here for humbled is Shaha and brought low, which is Shafal, they emphasize a forced submission, a preview of divine chastisement.
• 4:57
  Daniel Moore: The shocking phrase at the end of the scripture, do not forgive them, that may sound a little unusual as we read through that, but it actually reflects the prophet's rhetorical passion for justice.
• 5:11
  Daniel Moore: Isaiah is highlighting that the people's sins are so serious and entrenched that they deserve judgment rather than immediate mercy.
• 5:21
  Daniel Moore: This echoes a common theme in the prophets where the severity of people's rebellion calls for urgent intervention from God.
• 5:28
  Daniel Moore: You'll notice as you look through the prophets, if you read their books, they seem to be a group of angry little men.
• 5:36
  Daniel Moore: If you start reading through all of those, they get very, very irritated and very angry with the people of Judah and the people of Israel, respective to whichever uh time frame that they were prophesying, because Israelites are stubborn, they don't want to listen, they're not humbling themselves before God, they're following their own hearts, their own desires, and they're doing anything and everything that they want to do.
• 6:01
  Daniel Moore: So here in this verse, as we was mentioning there with the Hebrew words shahal and shefal, when you look at their being humbled and brought low, the reason it's saying that's forged is we know that we can be uh a jerk all we want to be.
• 6:17
  Daniel Moore: We can be a know-it-all, we can, you know, go around flaunting ourselves and trying to build our own selves up with our selfish desires.
• 6:26
  Daniel Moore: But when it comes to judgment before God, if we don't humble ourselves, God will humble us for ourselves.
• 6:34
  Daniel Moore: And I'm sure a lot of you have probably been in that situation before.
• 6:38
  Daniel Moore: I know there's times in my life that I've been strutting around sometimes, maybe being a little bit more cocky than I should be.
• 6:46
  Daniel Moore: And I've had a little bit of some humble pie sometimes, where something's happened or something's been said, or whatever it may be that I was humbled, whether if I wanted to be or not.
• 6:58
  Daniel Moore: And here in this verse in Isaiah, he's pretty much going down that train of thought with the scripture, um, and the fact that regardless of how the Israelites act or what they do, the things that they may think in their own minds, they might think they're winning the battle at this point.
• 7:16
  Daniel Moore: Um, in the in the scripture here, that they got it all under control, that whatever they want to do, they're going to do.
• 7:23
  Daniel Moore: But in the end, God is victorious.
• 7:26
  Daniel Moore: He's the winner in that battle against right and wrong in our lives.
• 7:31
  Daniel Moore: And so here in the scripture, you know, Isaiah was just completely angry with them.
• 7:37
  Daniel Moore: You know, he's still railing on them about the pride and the idolatry that we talked about last week, how the Israelites were forming their own idols out of wood, worshiping those, taking on the Canaanite rituals and uh the rituals of some of the other pagan lands that uh they had let saturate within their own communities.
• 7:58
  Daniel Moore: And Isaiah is just plumb up to the neck with this at this point, and he's very angry with them.
• 8:05
  Daniel Moore: So he's being very forceful in the way that he's talking here in these scriptures.
• 8:10
  Daniel Moore: According to the ESV study Bible, this judgment is not irreversible, but it reflects the weight and seriousness of Judah's idolatry and their distance from covenant faithfulness.
• 8:22
  Daniel Moore: The more that they dug deeper into worshiping the idols and becoming more like the world and the sinners, the people that were around them, and integrating their society into the site, the society of the lawless and the unrighteous, then they were actually creating a vast distance between them and God.
• 8:43
  Daniel Moore: And Isaiah was trying to wake them up to that so that they could see exactly what they were doing in the moment.
• 8:51
  Daniel Moore: As we move on to verse 10, it says, Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty.
• 9:01
  Daniel Moore: This verse here actually uses a little bit of some apocalyptic imagery to describe God's coming judgment.
• 9:09
  Daniel Moore: The people are advised to hide in the rock and in the dust, a reflection of both fear and futility.
• 9:17
  Daniel Moore: These are not places of safety, but of desperation.
• 9:21
  Daniel Moore: The terror majesty of the Lord brings such fear that people will seek refuge anywhere they can, even among the rocks and the dust of the earth.
• 9:31
  Daniel Moore: The terror of the Lord and splendor of his majesty, portion of that verse, reveals the overwhelming presence of God that exposes all human pride and sin.
• 9:41
  Daniel Moore: This verse is almost poetic in its calamity.
• 9:45
  Daniel Moore: It aligns with similar prophetic images in Revelation six, fifteen through seventeen, where people call on the mountains to fall on them to hide from the wrath of the Lamb.
• 9:55
  Daniel Moore: You know, the scripture in the Bible that says, Be sure your sins will find you out.
• 10:00
  Daniel Moore: There's nothing that we can hide from God.
• 10:02
  Daniel Moore: He sees everything that we involve our lives in on a regular basis.
• 10:07
  Daniel Moore: As we look a little closer here at Revelation chapter six, verse 15 through 17 in the ESV, it says, And the kings of the earth and the great ones, and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?
• 10:37
  Daniel Moore: Revelation six, fifteen through seventeen here presents a dramatic and sobering scene during the opening of the sixth seal in the book of Revelation.
• 10:47
  Daniel Moore: These verses are part of a vision that was given to the Apostle John, describing the end time judgments that unfold as Christ opens the seals of a scroll.
• 10:58
  Daniel Moore: The sixth seal brings cosmic disturbances, earthquakes, a darkened sun, a blood red moon, and falling stars symbolizing divine judgment and upheaval.
• 11:10
  Daniel Moore: In verse 15, we see universal fear.
• 11:14
  Daniel Moore: That verse lists a wide range of people, kings, great ones, generals, the rich, the powerful, and even slaves and free people.
• 11:24
  Daniel Moore: This shows that no one is exempt from God's judgment regardless of social status or power.
• 11:30
  Daniel Moore: All people from the highest to the lowest are struck with terror.
• 11:34
  Daniel Moore: And here in this passage in Isaiah, the same thing to an extent is being called out, that the people are calling for the rocks to fall upon them, and they'll be able to go and hide in the hills and in the mountains because they think that God will not see them there.
• 11:51
  Daniel Moore: But in all reality, they are being revealed because God knows where they are.
• 11:56
  Daniel Moore: In verse 16 here in Revelation, hiding from God's presence, that means these people call out to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, trying to hide from the face of God and the wrath of the Lamb or Jesus Christ.
• 12:08
  Daniel Moore: This is a powerful image of fear and desperation.
• 12:12
  Daniel Moore: So these two scriptures here, they echo the Old Testament language here that we see in Isaiah chapter 2, where people hide from the terror of the Lord.
• 12:21
  Daniel Moore: The mention of the Lamb is significant.
• 12:23
  Daniel Moore: It shows that the gentle Savior is also the righteous judge.
• 12:28
  Daniel Moore: As we look through the Bible, we can also see other instances of people trying to hide from God.
• 12:34
  Daniel Moore: Throughout the Bible, there are several notable instances where individuals or groups tried to hide, usually in response to guilt, fear, or disobedience.
• 12:44
  Daniel Moore: So here's a few examples of those that tried to do that.
• 12:48
  Daniel Moore: First of all, was Adam and Eve at the very beginning in Genesis chapter 3, verses 8 through 10.
• 12:53
  Daniel Moore: After they sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden when they heard the sound of God walking.
• 13:02
  Daniel Moore: And actually, this is the first recorded instance of humans trying to hide from God due to guilt and shame.
• 13:09
  Daniel Moore: After that, their son Cain in Genesis chapter 4, verse 9 through 14, after murdering his brother Abel, Cain tried to deny responsibility when God questioned him.
• 13:20
  Daniel Moore: Though he didn't physically hide, his evasive response and fear of being found out show an attempt to avoid accountability before God, which in essence, when these people try to hide in the mountains and under the rocks and in the valleys, anywhere that they think that they can hide from God, they are actually trying to hide from judgment and accountability for the sins that they have done towards God.
• 13:44
  Daniel Moore: The third one here is Jonah.
• 13:47
  Daniel Moore: It's a very popular story in the Old Testament.
• 13:49
  Daniel Moore: In Jonah chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, Jonah tried to flee from the presence of the Lord by boarding a ship to Tarshish after God commanded him to go to Nineveh.
• 13:59
  Daniel Moore: So this is another clear example of someone trying to escape God's call and presence, though ultimately he could not.
• 14:07
  Daniel Moore: So here are these three examples that we've just talked about here, and there's more examples like this in the Bible, they have a recurring theme.
• 14:16
  Daniel Moore: And that is that humans often try to hide from God when they are in sin or rebellion.
• 14:21
  Daniel Moore: But in all reality, it's ultimately futile.
• 14:24
  Daniel Moore: God's omnipresence and omniscience means that nothing is hidden from him.
• 14:29
  Daniel Moore: These stories that we've covered here serve as both warnings and invitations to turn to God in repentance rather than run from him in fear because it's not going to work.
• 14:41
  Daniel Moore: We can try to run all we want to and try to hide from God, but he knows exactly where we are at.
• 14:47
  Daniel Moore: And this is something that's actually even very common in today's society.
• 14:52
  Daniel Moore: You'll see people that get into a life of sin, and you may have done this on your own self.
• 14:58
  Daniel Moore: I know that I have done this at times in my life when I've not been close to God, and I've allowed Satan to come in and trip me up and send me on a path that I didn't really want to be on or didn't need to be on, but it was a choice that I made.
• 15:11
  Daniel Moore: And a lot of times, you know, when you're in that situation, when you come around a believer or you step into a church service, you know, anytime that you're in God's presence, the Holy Spirit, that conviction that just comes over you, it's almost hard to just stand there.
• 15:28
  Daniel Moore: You just want to go hide somewhere and hope that nobody sees you and calls you out for the sinful way that you're living.
• 15:35
  Daniel Moore: And so we can sit here and say, well, I would never try to go run to the mountains or I would never try to hide under the under the rocks.
• 15:41
  Daniel Moore: But in all reality, a lot of us do that today.
• 15:44
  Daniel Moore: And the different ways that we try to hide from God.
• 15:48
  Daniel Moore: If we are in our sin and letting that sinful nature lead and guide us in our daily life, then there are times that we probably want to hide when we're in the presence of God or in the presence of someone that can read our mail and call us out on that, because we don't want that sinful nature to be exposed.
• 16:08
  Daniel Moore: And so that's in essence, that's what the scripture was pretty much uh stimulating here when it was talking about uh the Israelites entering the rock and hiding the dust from the terror of the Lord.
• 16:23
  Daniel Moore: And commentator John Oswalt notes that Isaiah's vision of the future may involve real historical judgment, such as the Assyrian or Babylonian invasions, but it ultimately anticipates the day of the Lord.
• 16:35
  Daniel Moore: That's a time when God's glory is fully revealed and all false exaltations are brought low.
• 16:41
  Daniel Moore: So this scripture kind of has a double meaning.
• 16:44
  Daniel Moore: It has a meaning of the Israelites at that current time, if they were trying to hide from God, trying to hide from his presence and try to hide the sin that was in their life.
• 16:52
  Daniel Moore: But then also it also refers to a time even beyond us when all the calamities and all of the judgments and the things that happen that you read about in the in the book of Revelation, when those things are taking place, there's going to be a lot of people that's going to be trying to hide and stay out of view of God because they know that their sins are going to send them to a place that they don't want to go.
• 17:18
  Daniel Moore: So as we move on here to verse eleven of chapter two, it says 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.
• 17:34
  Daniel Moore: So this verse here crystallizes one of the central themes of Isaiah's prophecy.
• 17:40
  Daniel Moore: God will humble human pride and elevate his own glory.
• 17:44
  Daniel Moore: The repetition here reinforces certainty.
• 17:48
  Daniel Moore: Haughty looks and lofty pride both suggest an internal arrogance and external manifestation of human self-exaltation.
• 17:57
  Daniel Moore: In Isaiah's context, this referred not just to individuals, but to Judah as a nation.
• 18:04
  Daniel Moore: As a nation, they trusted in wealth, international alliances, idols, and military strength rather than God.
• 18:10
  Daniel Moore: You know, in some of the previous scriptures that we've been through, we've talked about the idolatry.
• 18:14
  Daniel Moore: We've talked about the alliances that they have taken up with these sinful nations, and we've talked about uh when they were wanting to go back and get all the horses, and you know, probably was getting some armory, just a lot of things that they were trying to get a hold of because they felt like that they could they was wanting to put more of their trust into their own military might, their own military strength, than they were God.
• 18:37
  Daniel Moore: And so here Isaiah is talking a little bit about this.
• 18:42
  Daniel Moore: In the scripture here, that day in prophetic literature typically points toward a definitive act of divine intervention, what is often called the day of the Lord.
• 18:54
  Daniel Moore: Now, whether it's in history, like the Babylonian exile, or if it's eschatologically or the final divine judgment, this is a moment when God's supremacy is undeniable.
• 19:07
  Daniel Moore: The pulpit commentary notes on this scripture that this truth was meant to shock Israel and refocus their loyalty.
• 19:15
  Daniel Moore: Human pride, the root of so much rebellion, will have no standing before God's display of perfection and holiness.
• 19:24
  Daniel Moore: Isaiah here was not pulling any punches.
• 19:27
  Daniel Moore: He was letting Judah know that regardless of what you thought about yourself, regardless of how high and mighty that they thought they were, that that was not going to work.
• 19:38
  Daniel Moore: God was going to to humble them and he was going to bring them low, and that in the end, God was going to be exalted above everything.
• 19:48
  Daniel Moore: So look at verse twelve here.
• 19:52
  Daniel Moore: And it shall be brought low.
• 20:02
  Daniel Moore: Well, here Isaiah confirms that God has appointed a day, a specific time set for judgment.
• 20:09
  Daniel Moore: The term the Lord of hosts, which this is also Yahweh Sabaoth, emphasizes God's might and authority as commander of heavenly armies.
• 20:19
  Daniel Moore: It introduces a formal announcement of divine warfare, not against foreign enemies first, but against pride itself, no matter where it is found.
• 20:29
  Daniel Moore: And in some of the previous scriptures that we've already covered so far here in Isaiah, we've actually talked about the Lord of hosts.
• 20:36
  Daniel Moore: And in this scripture here, it's basically again just uh re-solidifying the fact that the first thing God's going to take care of is the pride.
• 20:49
  Daniel Moore: And we know that the the biggest root of sin in our lives is usually always pride.
• 20:55
  Daniel Moore: Because if we embark off into that sinful nature and we start that journey of living that sinful life, then that means we're living for ourselves.
• 21:06
  Daniel Moore: At that point, we're not living for God anymore.
• 21:08
  Daniel Moore: And so we allow that pride to rise up inside of us and we decide that we're going to make our own choices and we're going to make our own path and we're going to go the way that we want to go.
• 21:18
  Daniel Moore: And we're not going to follow what it is that God would have for us to do.
• 21:22
  Daniel Moore: So, in essence, anytime God comes to us to try to humble us so that we would then receive salvation from Him and see the path that we're on in our life and realize that we're going down that wrong path, the first thing we usually have to take care of is our pride.
• 21:39
  Daniel Moore: And so here, this is what this scripture pretty much, in essence, is saying is that one of the first things, God's not going to be waging an actual war against anyone there in Judah, is going to be actually destroying that pride first.
• 21:53
  Daniel Moore: Because once he destroys that pride and that pride falls, then their hearts would be more open at that point to receive what God has for them.
• 22:03
  Daniel Moore: This verse here introduces a section that spans much of the rest of this chapter detailing God's judgment, not only on individuals, but also on entire systems and symbols of human pride.
• 22:16
  Daniel Moore: And during this time, some of the symbols of human pride that they had was towers, ships, idols, etc.
• 22:22
  Daniel Moore: As we've mentioned here in several verses over the last uh few weeks here since we started this series, uh we know that the Israelites were putting a lot of faith into the idols that they were carving, and they were starting to get wealth, and they were starting to put up towers and uh getting ships.
• 22:43
  Daniel Moore: There's just a lot of things that were taking place where they were trying to be self-sufficient and trying not to let God be a part of their everyday lives.
• 22:53
  Daniel Moore: Historically, here, Judah's leaders were aligning with foreign nations, trusting in wealth and armies.
• 22:59
  Daniel Moore: God likens this self-reliance to arrogance as it reflects a failure to trust in Him alone.
• 23:05
  Daniel Moore: John Calvin warned that when men elevate themselves by their own wisdom or strength, they compete with God's glory, provoking judgment.
• 23:15
  Daniel Moore: So as we look here this week is at Isaiah chapter 2, and we just went here through verses 9 through 12, these four verses offer a sobering portrait of how unchecked pride, idolatry, and self-reliance call forth divine judgment.
• 23:32
  Daniel Moore: It anticipates both historical acts of discipline and the final reckoning in the day of the Lord, when all humanity will recognize that the Lord alone is supreme.
• 23:44
  Daniel Moore: So to wrap up this episode for today, looking here at Isaiah chapter 2, as we said we've been going through verses 9 through 12, this is a part of a larger prophetic vision articulated by the prophet Isaiah during a time of significant social, political, and spiritual upheaval in Judah.
• 24:14
  Daniel Moore: This chapter begins with a proclamation of the last days when the mountain of the Lord's house or the temple of Jerusalem will be established as a place of peace and worship, drawing many nations.
• 24:25
  Daniel Moore: We talked a lot about that over the last week.
• 24:28
  Daniel Moore: However, verses nine through twelve that we studied today serves as a sobering reminder of the seriousness of humanity's sinfulness and the appending judgment of God.
• 24:38
  Daniel Moore: So as we look back through these four verses that we've looked at today, as we summarize these, as we looked at verse 9, that verse highlighted the humbling of humanity before God.
• 24:51
  Daniel Moore: The phrase, do not forgive them, as we stated, can be interpreted as a plea that reflects God's judgment upon sinful humanity.
• 24:58
  Daniel Moore: This urgent call suggests that there comes a time when God's patience may run out, resulting in judgment.
• 25:06
  Daniel Moore: And that's why we always say you always have to live ready every moment in your life.
• 25:12
  Daniel Moore: I know a lot of us we like to watch prophetic uh videos on YouTube or, you know, read prophetic articles, listen to prophetic radio programs, whatever it may be, because we're all trying to decide, you know, what when's God coming back?
• 25:27
  Daniel Moore: When's Jesus coming back to to get us all?
• 25:29
  Daniel Moore: We're trying to always put this timeline in place.
• 25:32
  Daniel Moore: And and in all reality, we should be living every day of our life ready.
• 25:38
  Daniel Moore: It does not matter when Jesus is coming back.
• 25:41
  Daniel Moore: We need to be living like he's coming back now, in this moment.
• 25:45
  Daniel Moore: If we sit there and just dwell on trying to put dates and times and math and you know trigonometry, all this stuff that we try to use to figure out when he's coming, um, it actually takes the focus off of our actual relationship with him and puts the focus more on what's going to happen in the future.
• 26:05
  Daniel Moore: The future's not here yet.
• 26:06
  Daniel Moore: We don't need to worry about that.
• 26:08
  Daniel Moore: We just need to take care of today.
• 26:10
  Daniel Moore: That way, when Jesus does come back, we're going to be ready.
• 26:13
  Daniel Moore: And whenever that judgment time is for us to stand before the throne of judgment, and we could know then that God's patience did not run out with us because we were humble before Him and we allowed Him to lead and guide us in our lives.
• 26:30
  Daniel Moore: As we moved on to verse 10, that verse invoked imagery of people seeking refuge among rocks and dust, signifying a desperate retreat from the divine judgment.
• 26:39
  Daniel Moore: The terror of the Lord and His Majesty emphasized the fear of God that will drive humanity to hide.
• 26:46
  Daniel Moore: No matter how hard we try, we cannot hide from God.
• 26:50
  Daniel Moore: In verse eleven, Isaiah then pronounced the eventual humbling of the proud.
• 26:55
  Daniel Moore: Pride and haughtiness, often found in those refusing to acknowledge God, are going to be notably contrasted with God's exaltation.
• 27:03
  Daniel Moore: That part there in that scripture, it underscores the theme that God's sovereignty will ultimately prevail, highlighting the futility of human pride.
• 27:13
  Daniel Moore: And as we finish there with verse twelve, concluding that passage, Isaiah stated that the day of the Lord is against all that is proud and lofty.
• 27:22
  Daniel Moore: This day signifies divine judgment and serves as a warning that anything that elevates itself above God will be brought low.
• 27:31
  Daniel Moore: So as we look at these scriptures for today, how can we apply those in our lives in the times that we are now living?
• 27:38
  Daniel Moore: Well, first of all, the big lesson here that we've been re-going over through this whole last 30 minutes is confronting human pride.
• 27:48
  Daniel Moore: In a contemporary context, the verses there speak directly to the pervasive pride and self-sufficiency in modern culture.
• 27:57
  Daniel Moore: People often rely on their achievements, their power and status rather than acknowledging their dependence on God.
• 28:05
  Daniel Moore: Whenever we do that, we put ourselves in the equation at that point as the rulers of our lives.
• 28:12
  Daniel Moore: Are there places that you can think of as you look at your life right now and the way that you're living, that maybe you have a lot of pride in certain areas that you need to get rid of.
• 28:24
  Daniel Moore: You know, as believers, we are called to recognize our humility before God.
• 28:29
  Daniel Moore: This challenges us to examine areas in our life where we may hold on to pride and encourages us to adopt a posture of humility.
• 28:37
  Daniel Moore: The only way that we can be servants the way that God has called us to be is for us to be humble.
• 28:43
  Daniel Moore: We have to be humble before God and humble before others in front of us in order for us to serve them.
• 28:50
  Daniel Moore: So that's one of the first things that we can take from today's lessons is to get rid of our pride.
• 28:57
  Daniel Moore: Secondly, there is an awareness of God's majesty.
• 29:01
  Daniel Moore: You know, when we're prideful, we dumb God down.
• 29:04
  Daniel Moore: We pretty much say, God, we don't need you.
• 29:07
  Daniel Moore: I can do this on my own.
• 29:09
  Daniel Moore: I'm going to be the leader of my own life.
• 29:11
  Daniel Moore: And when I need you, I will come find you.
• 29:14
  Daniel Moore: That's kind of the attitude that we have whenever we uh lose the awareness of the majesty of the God that created us.
• 29:20
  Daniel Moore: You know, the call to hide from the terror of God's judgment points us toward an appropriate fear and reverence for God's majesty.
• 29:27
  Daniel Moore: It prompts us to consider the seriousness of our lives before a holy God.
• 29:32
  Daniel Moore: If we're that scared that when we're in a sinful time in our life that we want to go hide from Him because we don't want Him to see that, shouldn't that be a wake-up call for us to help us realize that this pride in our life is destroying us from the inside out?
• 29:47
  Daniel Moore: In our churches and personal lives, we need to be creating a reverent attitude towards God that can be manifested through worship, prayer, and obedience.
• 29:57
  Daniel Moore: We should be encouraging the community to recognize God's majesty, that it can inspire awe and a deeper relationship with Him, something that we all should be striving for today in this life that we live.
• 30:10
  Daniel Moore: Thirdly, we can learn about the nature of divine judgment.
• 30:15
  Daniel Moore: You know, the biblical concept of divine judgment is often uncomfortable in today's society, yet it holds a place within the triune nature of God's righteousness and his justice.
• 30:25
  Daniel Moore: You know, whether if we like divine judgment or not, we're going to get it someday.
• 30:30
  Daniel Moore: We have no way to escape that.
• 30:32
  Daniel Moore: And this is just the exact nature of who God is.
• 30:35
  Daniel Moore: He is a just God.
• 30:36
  Daniel Moore: And when it comes down to the end of our lives, we are going to stand before him and give an account for everything that we've ever done in our lives.
• 30:45
  Daniel Moore: And these scriptures that we went through today kind of gives us a call to that to remind us that the sinful nature that we have, the pride that we have in our lives, is not going to be good for us on that day when that divine judgment comes down.
• 31:01
  Daniel Moore: We need to be sharing the hope of the gospel, which acknowledges judgment but also presents redemption through Christ.
• 31:08
  Daniel Moore: We need to be emphasizing as Christians God's mercy alongside his judgment, that it invites others to seek reconciliation rather than fear.
• 31:18
  Daniel Moore: And yes, there is a place to be teaching about hell and what that place means, but in all reality, God, the plan that he has for us in our life, really is full of mercy, full of grace.
• 31:40
  Daniel Moore: He died on that cross because he loves us so much.
• 31:43
  Daniel Moore: And we need to make sure that we love God not out of fear, but because of awe, the awe of him, of who he is, the majesty of him as our creator, to know that he loves us that much that he created us and put us on this earth.
• 31:59
  Daniel Moore: That's the reason that we should love and follow him.
• 32:02
  Daniel Moore: Not because we're scared and terrified into a relationship with him, that then isn't going to really mean much, except we're going to constantly look at him as a taskmaster waiting for us to mess up as we walk on eggshells.
• 32:14
  Daniel Moore: That's not what this Christian life is all about.
• 32:16
  Daniel Moore: The fourth thing we can learn is exalting the Lord alone.
• 32:20
  Daniel Moore: In this world, we have so many distractions, so many competing priorities.
• 32:25
  Daniel Moore: You know, here Isaiah's emphasis was that the Lord alone is going to be exalted.
• 32:30
  Daniel Moore: And that calls us to reorient our focus on God's sovereignty.
• 32:35
  Daniel Moore: You know, leaders in the church can develop initiatives that encourage congregations to prioritize glorifying God above everything, whether through outreach, worship, or acts of service.
• 32:45
  Daniel Moore: We need to be reminding the communities around us that ultimate fulfillment lies in glorifying Him.
• 32:51
  Daniel Moore: Take those idolatrous things out of our lives, those time suckers, those things that take away any opportunity that we could have to be looking at the things of Christ and uh to be studying scripture, worshiping him, whatever it may be.
• 33:06
  Daniel Moore: We need to take those things out of our lives and purify who we are in him in Christ and make sure that the Lord is exalted in our lives.
• 33:17
  Daniel Moore: And the fifth thing that we can take away from this lesson this week is hope and judgment.
• 33:23
  Daniel Moore: While divine judgment is a serious theme, it can also provide hope.
• 33:28
  Daniel Moore: It reminds believers of the justice that will ultimately be served against societal injustices and pride.
• 33:35
  Daniel Moore: We can use this as a platform for discussions on social justice in light of God's ultimate authority and can empower members to act in compassion, advocating for the marginalized while also creating an awareness of their own need for grace.
• 33:51
  Daniel Moore: We all need grace, we all need mercy from Christ.
• 33:55
  Daniel Moore: We were all born sinners on the same level.
• 33:58
  Daniel Moore: None of us are any higher than any others.
• 34:01
  Daniel Moore: As the scripture that we went through today on the people that were hiding, as we looked at Revelation, it named off all of those people that had titles.
• 34:12
  Daniel Moore: And it did not matter if they had a high title or if they were a low-nobody, they were all going to be hiding from Christ and from God if they did not have their hearts right and they did not have salvation in their hearts and give their lives to Him because God is no respecter of person.
• 34:30
  Daniel Moore: So to wrap up this week, this section of scripture here in Isaiah, you know, this serves as a powerful reminder of God's sovereignty and the futility of human pride.
• 34:40
  Daniel Moore: While it issues a stark warning regarding judgment, it also invites believers to respond in humility and reverence, pointing towards Christ who provides reconciliation and restores hope even amidst accountability.
• 34:54
  Daniel Moore: In preaching or teaching on this passage, we can emphasize both the challenge and the hope found in God's Word, encouraging hearts to turn towards Him in submission and faith.
• 35:07
  Daniel Moore: Well, that's gonna do it for this week's episode of Connecting the Gap.
• 35:11
  Daniel Moore: Next week, when we come back, we'll pick up here and we'll start with verse 13 as we continue our study in Isaiah, our verse-by-verse study here in the Bible.
• 35:21
  Daniel Moore: Well, as I said, that's gonna be all for this week.
• 35:23
  Daniel Moore: And as we go, we always want to remind you that God's word never fails us.
• 35:27
  Daniel Moore: God's word has stood the test of time, and through Jesus' death on the cross, he has connected the gap.
• 35:33
  Daniel Moore: This is an extension of Connecting the Gap Ministries, and we pray that you have a blessed week.