Hiding In The Cracks
Opening Prayer
Lord, may I be single-hearted for You today. You have all of my love and adoration.
Read Isaiah 2:6–22
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
6 You, Lord, have abandoned your people,
the descendants of Jacob.
They are full of superstitions from the East;
they practice divination like the Philistines
and embrace pagan customs.
7 Their land is full of silver and gold;
there is no end to their treasures.
Their land is full of horses;
there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is full of idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their fingers have made.
9 So people will be brought low
and everyone humbled—
do not forgive them.
10 Go into the rocks, hide in the ground
from the fearful presence of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty!
11 The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled
and human pride brought low;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
12 The Lord Almighty has a day in store
for all the proud and lofty,
for all that is exalted
(and they will be humbled),
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,
and all the oaks of Bashan,
14 for all the towering mountains
and all the high hills,
15 for every lofty tower
and every fortified wall,
16 for every trading ship
and every stately vessel.
17 The arrogance of man will be brought low
and human pride humbled;
the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
18 and the idols will totally disappear.
19 People will flee to caves in the rocks
and to holes in the ground
from the fearful presence of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.
20 In that day people will throw away
to the moles and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made to worship.
21 They will flee to caverns in the rocks
and to the overhanging crags
from the fearful presence of the Lord
and the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to shake the earth.
22 Stop trusting in mere humans,
who have but a breath in their nostrils.
Why hold them in esteem?
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What is your city or hometown most proud of?Idolatry can seem an unlikely temptation. Worshiping an artifact that we have made ourselves—how very primitive! Yet the work of our hands—whether tapping on keyboards, gripping stylist scissors or wielding a surgeon’s scalpel—is something in which we invest long hours, weeks, years. Many of us measure our lives by our
achievements—that position, that project, that promotion. That is who we are—and it can be our idol.
Similarly, we celebrate (another word for worship) things our cities and towns represent and achieve. It might be a high tower (15) like the Burj Khalifa or the Shard. It might be a university, a historical legacy or an annual arts festival. It might simply be success in business—and the attendant living standards, house prices and status symbols (16) like a Mercedes on the driveway.
Isaiah describes a day when we will throw out all of these things—we will leave all we have “achieved” to the birds and vermin (20)—as we struggle to hide ourselves from the utterly terrifying glory of the Lord.
Instead of spending our lives worrying about what mere people think of us, says Isaiah, we should be far more concerned with what the Lord, the true Judge, makes of our achievements.
Apply
Think of your own most truly worthwhile and lasting achievement. Thank the Lord for it and give him credit for it.
Closing prayer
Lord, may my achievements never become my idol. Help me to focus on You.
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