Thursday, February 26, 2004
Lenten Fast
Photeini, the Samaritan Woman
6th Hour: Isaiah 2:11-22 1st Vespers: Genesis 2:4-19 2nd Vespers: Proverbs 3:1-18
Isaiah 2:11-22 (RSV), especially vs. 11, "The haughty looks of man
shall be brought low, and the pride of men shall be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted
in that day." In the past fifty years, God has corroborated the truth of this verse vividly and
repeatedly on the open stage of history. Recall the "Gotterdammerung" of the Third Reich, the
overnight collapse of the Berlin wall, the dissolution of the exhausted Soviet Union, and the swift
reversal of Iraq's territorial claims over Kuwait. Over and over God has demonstrated that He "is
king over the nations, God sitteth upon His holy throne" (Ps. 46:8 LXX).
Empires, impregnable walls of iron, human might, the threats and swagger of rulers, all have
been exposed as nothing before God, "Who setteth aside the devices of the peoples, and [Who]
bringeth to nought the plans of princes" (Ps. 32:10 LXX). It is notable that the Lord gave this
prophecy through Isaiah to His ancient People during a time of great national stability, wealth,
and power. Still, the Divine caution is applicable to every generation, "For the Lord of hosts has
a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high" (Is. 2:12).
In the opening verses of today's reading, Isaiah reveals God's view of exaltation and low estate:
"the pride of men shall be humbled....For the Lord of hosts has a day" (vss 11,12). From eternity
to eternity, through all of history, God reveals what we men should confess: "Be Thou exalted
above the heavens, O God and Thy glory above all the earth" (Ps. 56:7 LXX).
However, because of the ubiquity of our human sin, few men have escaped the delusions of
exaltation, superiority, and pride before God. But to say that "the Lord of hosts has a day" (vs.
12) declares the inevitable: "the haughtiness of man shall be humbled" (vs. 17). He Who is, He
Who truly exists, Who was and is forever, God the Lord, shall prevail over all that He has made.
All created beings shall be brought low before Him. That is the message of Isaiah the Prophet.
The Prophet carefully details how all that God has created, "all things visible and invisible," will
be restored to their proper and humble estate before God (vss.13-21). This leveling shall occur in
the visible, tangible order of nature and the physical world (vss. 13-14), to every civilization
raised up by man, and to all of men's prized cultural artifacts (vss. 14-17).
The same humbling will take place in the invisible, spiritual order of ideas, concepts, religions,
and philosophies (vss. 18). As the Scriptures witness: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent" (see Is. 29:14; 1 Cor. 1:19). Men's efforts to
save those cultural idols which we exalt and serve by placing them in "caves of the rocks" to
preserve them (vs. 19) are futile, for God shall arise, "to terrify the earth" (vs. 19).
In the Day of the Lord, He will expose the foolishness of men's sacred assumptions and
ideologies. Then, when men fall from their presumed exaltation, they will "cast forth their idols
of silver and the idols of gold...to the moles and to the bats" (vs. 20), and claw their way into the
clefts, bunkers, and "caverns of the rocks" in futile last efforts at self-preservation.
The words of the Prophet Isaiah are a chilling reminder to every child of God who has
"renounced Satan and all his service and all his pride." Therefore, let us read and mark well the
Prophet's warning and humble ourselves now before our God, for as the Lord Jesus has taught us,
"everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted"
(Lk. 18:14). Beloved of God, let us humble ourselves "from before the terror of the Lord [and]
turn away from man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?" (Is. 2:21, 22).
Remember, O Lord our infirmity, and destroy us not for our transgressions, but be merciful to
our humility, that we may flee from the darkness of sin and devoutly serve Thee.
