12 For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning
Against everyone who is proud and lofty
And against everyone who is lifted up,
That he may be abased.
13 And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up,
Against all the oaks of Bashan,
14 Against all the lofty mountains,
Against all the hills that are lifted up,
15 Against every high tower,
Against every fortified wall,
16 Against all the ships of Tarshish
And against all the beautiful craft.
17 The pride of man will be humbled
And the loftiness of men will be abased;
And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,
18 But the idols will completely vanish.
19 Men will go into caves of the rocks
And into holes of the [f]ground
Before the terror of the Lord
And the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
20 In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats
Their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
Which they made for themselves to worship,
21 In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs
Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty,
When He arises to make the earth tremble.
22 [g]Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils;
For [h]why should he be esteemed?
Isaiah continues right along from where we left off, the proud and lofty being humbled. Yet it goes a bit further, and describes many works of men which will come to nothing. You might even ask, why is God so upset with the oaks and cedars, the mountains and hills. Why must they be pitted against God? I’m not so sure God does have a bone to pick with them, it is what man has made of them.
For many worshipped idols in the “high places”, on hills and mountains. Lebanon is many times mentioned for its famed cedars, such that one wonders if they were not cultivated intentionally. They took what God gave them, and used it for their own purposes. Not unlike the people of Babel, they were “making a name for themselves”.
At any rate, Isaiah continues on with the more obvious works of man, the ships and towers, the mighty walls, it was surely quite impressive. But we would likely look at such things and scoff, for we have much better technology today. So let’s put it into our terms. Against the battleships, and cruise ships, the skyscrapers, and even the Internet.
These are surely very impressive, and in many cases, quite useful. But what is any of it compared to God? One day it will all crumble into ruin, and even the Internet will be no more. It makes me think of AI (man’s creation) in comparison to the human mind (God’s created work), and there is still no comparison, and never will be.
So at the end, Isaiah rightly asks, “…why should he (man) be esteemed?” The point is not that man is nothing, but that the demands of our society should not take the place of God. I’ll be the first to admit that the regard of man has kept me from doing what I ought at times. No matter how much we deny it, our mind has a difficult time recognizing what David wrote, “What can man do to me?”
Jesus took it to the extreme, that we ought not to fear those who can take our earthly bodies, but only the One who holds our souls in His hands (Matt. 10:28). That is our challenge, to put aside anything on this earth that would get in the way of God’s plan. To be clear, God gives us many earthly gifts to accomplish His purposes. But if those get in the way? Then they’ve got to go! Put His priorities first, and let God take care of the rest (Matt. 6:33).