Utterly Pass Away (Isaiah 2:18)

 


Tuesday, December 3, 2024


Psalm 78:16-38

Isaiah 2:1-18

Mark 4:21-41


Observance: Francis Xavier, priest and missionary (d. 1552)


Utterly Pass Away (Isaiah 2:18)


As we search Isaiah for the type of kingly virtues that our King Jesus desires of us, we are presented with a pretty stark contrast in today’s passage. One group of people are ascending the lofty heights of the mountain of the house of the Lord. Another sits in the land blinded by pride. These two groups of people are then presented with “a day”: “For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty”. (Is 2:12)


This “day of the Lord” is a theme that runs through just about every prophet in the Old Testament. We can look at this to mean a couple of different things as it is a layered expression. The most obvious meaning would be the final day of everything, when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. Yet we can discover another layer; that it could also be speaking about the first advent of Christ, two thousand years ago.


Jesus came on a day: Christmas day. He lived the perfect life, and yet was executed on a cross. And then, three days later, he rose from the grave, teaching that his death and resurrection was in order to forgive the sins of his people.


So now, for us, we know that “the haughty looks of man” have been brought low; “the lofty pride of men” has been humbled; “the LORD alone” has been exalted. Christ’s resurrection was the day “against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up”.


The Lord desires that we exercise the virtue of humility, and Christ’s work on the cross and victory over the grave proves this virtue to be stronger than any prideful hubris of man. Should we desire the same humility within ourselves, then God has promised this of us in today’s passage: “and the idols shall utterly pass away.”


Have you ever found yourself carried away with hubris and pride? How does Jesus’ victory over hubris and pride inspire you to follow his way?


Lord, lead us out of the pride and riches of this world so that we may ascend to the heights of Christian virtue. Send us your Holy Spirit so that we may always walk in the light of the Lord.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knowing The Difference (2 Chronicles 12:8)

Image
  Wednesday, June 26, 2024 Psalms 137; 138 2 Chronicles 12 James 2:8-26 Knowing The Difference (2 Chronicles 12:8) Let’s be honest for a moment. It is all too easy to look around ourselves, at the world around us, to see how non-Christians are living their lives, and wonder if the grass over there might be greener. Our Lord’s commands often seem confusing, or burdensome, and if we were to pack it all in and go our own way, might not things be easier? Becoming lords of our own destiny is the ongoing temptation of the human race. From the fruit in the Garden of Eden, to today’s mantra of “be all you can be”, we have been trapped in this to-and-fro between the intentions of our Creator and the desires of our own hearts. And why not, thought Rehoboam? Why shouldn’t I look at the success of my own rule, and abandon the law of the Lord? Or perhaps he justified his apostasy not from his success, but from his failure to bring the northern kingdom back in lin...
Read more

The Lord Has Chosen You (2 Chronicles 29:11)

Image
  Monday, August 19, 2024 Psalms 110; 111 2 Chronicles 28:16-29:11 Romans 11:13-24 The Lord Has Chosen You (2 Chronicles 29:11) What a mess that King Hezekiah has inherited! His predecessor, Ahaz, had turned from the Lord, found failure, and doubled down on it. Not only does Hezekiah need to fix the physical Temple, he has to reform the entire religion! It sounds like it must have been a very big job. We read that Ahaz had put places on every street corner for demon worship; the rot had gone deep. Is not our own place and time eerily similar? Walk down any street you like and you will find altars to the gods of greed, money, vanity, and existential dread. To take our sword and our trowel to our own situation is not an enviable task. Yet this is the time and place in which God has placed us. It is not for us to complain about it; it is for us to rise to the occasion. Hezekiah chose some interesting words: “do not be negligent”. Usually we wo...
Read more

Marvellous? (Zechariah 8:6)

Image
  Wednesday, October 16, 2024 Psalm 105:1-22 Zechariah 7:1-8:8 1 Peter 1:18-2:3 Observance: Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, bishops and martyrs (d. 1555) Marvellous? (Zechariah 8:6) There are several phrases that, when we see them in the Bible, should make us sit up and pay attention. Anything to do with the “Day of the Lord” is one of them; another is when God speaks about when “they shall be my people and I shall be their God”. This second phrase, which, because of its frequency, risks becoming bland to our hearts, is so tremendously deep and rich in what it speaks of, is nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ. We remember way back in Genesis that God would walk through the Garden of Eden in the cool of the afternoon and speak with Adam and Eve about their day. One can imagine the scene: an enchanted place, a place with no evil, our first parents probably bouncing along, joyfully telling their loving Maker about all the wonderful things the...
Read more