Lesson on Isaiah 2:10-11

In the last lesson, we discussed God's discipline of His people in order to purify them and prepare them for the future He has planned. We only touched on the resulting humility. In this lesson, we will discuss this humility in more detail.

Isaiah 2:10-11.(NIV)(NASB)(NKJV)(NCV)

After the Lord redeems the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, He gives Moses laws to structure their society. God meets with Moses on top of Mt. Sinai, while the people stay below, behind boundaries. He warns that if they even touch the mountain, transformed into holy ground because of God's presence, they will surely die (Exodus 19:1-25).

Yet this same holy God speaks intimately with Moses. A little later, Moses sets up a special tent outside the Israelite camp. There he meets with God and talks with Him. In fact, the Bible records, "The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend" (Exodus 33:11a). Yet this conversation doesn't take place with God in His full glory. Instead, God approaches Moses in a column of cloud (Exodus 33:9).

Despite the type of relationship that he shares with God, even Moses cannot survive God in all His glory. During one conversation, Moses actually asks the Lord to show His glory. The Lord responds that no one can see His full glory and live. God continues, "'There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen'" (Exodus 33:18-23).

This proclamation may sound like a contradiction at first. Earlier in the chapter, we read that Moses talks with the Lord face to face. But we must remember that those conversations take place with God's glory veiled. It's when His glory is totally unveiled that He says Moses cannot see His face. Moses, who speaks with God intimately, cannot survive the Almighty's glory - or as Isaiah phrases it, "the splendor of his majesty" (Isaiah 2:10). If just the sight of His glory would kill Moses, surely no one can survive it. It is for this very reason that Isaiah cries, "Go into the rocks,/hide in the ground/from dread of the LORD . . ." (v. 10).

Humility is the proper response to such glory and holiness. Isaiah understands this truth. He prophesies that the people of Judah will one day understand this truth, as well. In verse 11, he describes the entrance of humility in their lives.

In essence, humility is seeing the Lord for who He really is and seeing ourselves for who we really are. When we do those two things, we can't help but be humble. David writes in a song of worship:

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4).

The God who is mighty enough and creative enough to fashion the world, animals, our bodies, the stars and planets - his is the same God who cares for us. And because He cares for us, He will not allow our pride to stand. After all, pride ushered sin and all its misery into the world at the beginning. Only when the Lord has banished pride from our world will our world return to the paradise He wanted us to enjoy.

In the meantime, we struggle with our pride. But James and Peter both teach that humility is well worth its rewards. When we submit our wills to the Lord, He responds by helping us and lifting us up (James 4:6-10; 1 Peter 5:5-7).

For all its instruction on pride and humility, the Bible doesn't address how to humble ourselves. But I think we can find the key in Psalm 8, which we examined above. Look at who God is and what He has done. Can we form a world out of nothing? Could we design the human body with all its systems when no similar creature had ever existed before? Are we willing to suffer brutal physical torture, excruciating mental and emotional trauma, and spiritual attack for the sake of our enemies? God has done all this and more. The more we reflect on these truths, the more our humility and gratitude will grow, I believe. Furthermore, when we realize the plight of our sin and our own helplessness, and we simultaneously ask the Lord to help us, we exhibit humility. And God will respond by helping us in our battle against pride and all its ugly manifestations. "The LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (Isaiah 2:11).

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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.