The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 11 Discussion

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Isa 2:15-22 When He Arises To Shake Terribly The Earth

Isa 2:15  And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
Isa 2:16  And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
Isa 2:17  And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Isa 2:18  And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
Isa 2:19  And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Isa 2:20  In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
Isa 2:21  To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
Isa 2:22  Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

This study concerns the fulfilling of this verse of scripture in each of our lives inwardly and its outward dispensational fulfillment.

2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

The reason this even is being brought about inwardly and outwardly, at the time of the end, is because of completion and the filling up of the idolatry of all of mankind in his total commitment to his worship of what scripture calls "the beast... the man of sin... the son of perdition" (Rev 13:4, 2Th 2:3), meaning our own selves, our own flesh and all that it wants. The preordained time for this "man of sin" to accomplish all of his rebellions, fulfill all of his lusts, and come to the peak of his pride and rebellion, has arrived, and now he must be destroyed.  Here is the Old Testament type of what is taking place in the verses of our study today, and this will be the theme of this entire prophecy:

Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they [Israel] shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

It has already been decided at what time God's people will come and possess the land of the promise. It will happen when "the inquities of the Amorites is fulflled". It may seem like that day will never come while we are in Egypt, while we wander for forty years in the wilderness, but the day finally arrives when "the iniquities of the Amorites [are] fulfilled", the sins of our old man inwardly, and the sins of this whole earth outwardly. But that day finally does arrive and then nothing can forestall the destruction of the kingdom of our old man, inwardly, or the destruction of the kingdoms of this world outwardly.

That which the scriptures call "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1Jo 2:6) that is what verse 20 is telling us when it informs us the idols under discussion are made by each of us for ourselves. When it comes to thinking and believing what we want to think and believe, we are one and all skilled artisans of idols of our own hearts (Eze 14:1-9).

For the full impact of what must come down upon the kingdom of this beast within us, and also outwardly and dispensationally upon "the beast" as the whole of mankind in the full bloom of the power of this rebellious flesh, dispensationally, in all men, we must include the warnings in the words of the verses we covered  last week.

It seems that "the first man, Adam" (1Co 15: 45), can do nothing to please God. He was "very good" (Gen 1:31) for something, but he was never intended to be fit to "inherit the kingdom of God".

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The first man Adam is very good at "corruption". That is what he is, and that is what he was made for, and he is "very good" at what he was made to do. But this is the preordained fate of "the first man Adam... the man of sin, the son of perdition... the beast":

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Corruption cannot inherit incorruption, and God is not on plan B. The Truth is that He never intended for flesh and blood to "inherit the kingdom of God". That was reserved for "the new man, [the] new earth... before the world began" (1Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2).

Let's take note of the extent of the wrath of God upon both the idols and the pride of the kingdom of our old man and the kingdoms of this world:

Isa 2:8  Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
Isa 2:9  And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
Isa 2:10  Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
Isa 2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 
Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Isa 2:13  And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
Isa 2:14  And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

Our 'land' is our lives, and our 'idols' are all those doctrines we believe and the lives we live based upon those doctrines.  Every part of our being, our weaknesses and our strengths, are all in total submission to our Godless, creature-centered doctrines, which give us what we want, and what we want, as individuals and as nations, is to serve ourselves and to worship ourselves and to have and do exactly what our flesh wants to have and wants to do.

We feel so secure in the strength of our own false doctrines and lies. Outwardly we, as a nation, say and teach our children that we each have free will, and we, as a nation, teach our children that evolution is true science, both of which have the effect of dethroning Christ in our lives and placing us at the center of our lives.  With such a doctrine we ourselves become God, and we become the captain of our own fate. But that "lofty... haughty", self-centered, creature-centered man is being "humbled" and is being "brought low". The whole world can and does reject God and His Word, but that does not change that which is still inevitable:

Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
Isa 2:13  And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
Isa 2:14  And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

Our verses for today's study continue to reveal to us the extent of God's wrath within and without upon the rebellious kingdom of our old man and upon the stubbornness of all of mankind:

Isa 2:15  And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,

We build towers and walls to protect us from our foes. Later in this same prophecy of Isaiah, we will read this concerning what God will do to those towers and walls:

Isa 30:25  And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

The high mountains and high hills of Isaiah 2:14 are the very same high mountains and high hills of Isaiah 30:25. They are no different than the "high tower, and... fenced wall". This is what they all represent:

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

All these symbols are the defenses of the kingdom of our old man, and whether it is high towers and fenced walls, or high mountains and high hills in the kingdom of our old man, this is and will be their fate:

Isa 2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 

Where else do we read of these waters of Isaiah 30:25 being upon every high mountain and high hill in the kingdom of our old man? Egypt typifies the kingdom of our old man. Here are a couple other scriptures which might help us to understand what we are being told:

Exo 7:19  And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.

Here is the New Testament version of this same event:

Rev 8:10  And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; 
Rev 8:11  And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

In the book of Revelation, the seven trumpet judgments reveal more thoroughly what is in the seven seals, and the seven last plagues reveal more completely what is within the seven trumpet judgments. The opening of the seals, the sounding of the trumpets and the pouring out of the vials are just the three steps which signify the process of the judgment which is being poured out upon the kingdom of our old man and upon the kingdoms of this world.

Notice how the waters of the third trump are the exact same waters as the waters in the third vial:

Rev 16:4  And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 
Rev 16:5  And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
Rev 16:6  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Rev 16:7  And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

What does this 'blood' signify? Christ tells us exactly what it signifes:

Mat 26:27  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29  But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

The kingdom of God is within us (Luk 17:20-21), and Lord willing, we are drinking it with Christ in His kingdom every day as we see and overcome the kingdom of our old man.

In scripture 'waters' signify two things. In their negative application they signify the false doctrines of the kingdom of our old man and those whom God sends to twist His words to ensnare the kingdom of our old man. In their positive application 'waters' represent and signify the Word of God to those who know the voice of the True Shepherd. These 'waters' are very life-giving words which we, as God's spokesmen, are pouring out upon that doomed kingdom of our rebellious, old, beastly man within, as well as this entire rebellious and doomed world in which we live. It is upon the grave of our old man and his kingdom, and upon the grave and the destruction of the kingdoms of this world, that the new man is born and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

God's wrath extends to ships and the pleasant pictures in the kingdom of our rebellious old man:

Isa 2:16  And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.

Tarshish was always associated with ships which carried much merchandise for King Solomon and for the city of Tyre with whose king, Hiram, King Solomon was allied. Tyre is an early type of Babylon, and the ships of Tarshish relate to Tyre in the same way as the merchant ships relate to Babylon in this prophecy:

Rev 18:15  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her [Babylon], shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

These 'ships' and their captains signify the many false prophets who bring the 'merchandise' of all of their false doctrines into Babylon. When Babylon is humbled and destroyed, then the ships of Tarshish will "fall down before [Christ]" because:

Isa 2:17  And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,  and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Notice how similar this verse is to verse 11 in last week's study:

Isa 2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 

This is what King David prophesied would be the fruit of the day of the Lord's wrath upon the kingdom of our old man within and upon the kingdoms of this world without:

Psa 72:10  The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
Psa 72:11  Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

Tarshish was the westernmost city of the ancient world, and Sheba and Seba were easternmost cities. The point being made is that "all kings shall fall down before [Christ] and His Christ, and will serve Him in the day of God's wrath." Later in this same prophecy we are given this detail about the character of the day of God's wrath:

Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. 

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

The principle of "no man shall spare his brother" is something we will hear many times as we continue to seek the mind of God in this prophecy of Isaiah. The Lord will use mankind's idol of his heart, the idol of having a will of his own, free from the will of God, to destroy him. Mankind will be made to destroy himself because God will answer him according to that supposed 'free will' idol of his heart.

Here are but two examples of what we will be seeing time and again in this prophecy:

Isa 3:5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

Isa 19:2  And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

And when mankind, thinking he is doing so of his own free will, has destroyed himself by fulfilling these verses, then this next verse will be the fruit of mankind doing what God has told him he would do in those verses:

Isa 2:18  And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

The main idol of mankind's heart is that he believes he is free to do as he wants, free of God's will for his life. That idol of his heart will be "utterly abolished", along with the "idols of the heart" of observing days, months, times and years, the immortality of the soul, its accompanying idol of eternal torment in literal hell fire, and the heart's idol of being raptured out of the day of the Lord's wrath upon the kingdom of our rebellious old man. All of these idols "He shall utterly abolish".

It is only at this point of having experienced the complete and total destruction of the inward kingdom of our old man that we will then "enter into the rock" as we read earlier in this same chapter.

Here is that earlier verse:

Isa 2:10  Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

Like Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, when we are finally made aware of the glory of His majesty, we are suddenly more than happy to relinquish all the idols of our hearts and ask "What would you have me do, Lord?" (Act 9:6).

This next verse repeats the thought of entering into the Rock, and hiding in the dust for the fear of the Lord and the glory of His majesty. But look at the detail that is added at the end of this verse:

Isa 2:19  And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 

The day of Christ's wrath will "shake terribly the earth". It will shake terribly our rebellious lives. This is the same thing we all must "read, hear, and keep" of the revelation of Jesus Christ:

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 
Rev 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? 

Again, this is the immediate fruit of the day of the Lord's wrath upon the kingdom of our rebellious, idolatrous old man:

Isa 2:20  In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

Twice at the end of this chapter we are told that we will be very pleased to cast all of our most prized idols to the moles and to the bats, and twice we are told we do so for the purpose of going into the cleft of the rocks, and then asking them to fall on us and hide us from the face of Christ and His Christ.

Notice again how similar this last verse is to verse 19:

Isa 2:21  To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

This is the second time now we are told "in that day... [Christ will] arise to shake terribly the earth". So we need to know for certain what is "that day" being spoken of here in verse 20 in this chapter and throughout this prophecy.

Putting these two verses together demonstrates the phrase "that day" is speaking specifically of the day of the Lord's wrath and fierce anger against the pride, the rebellion and all of the idols of the kingdom of our old man within us and the pride, rebellion and idols of the kingdoms of this world outwardly.

Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

So there we have it, "the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger". "The day of the Lord" is the same as the day of the Lord's wrath spoken of so many times throughout scripture, as these two verses typify:

Job 21:30  That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

What these verses tell us is that the phrases "the day of the Lord... the day of wrath [and] the day of... the... judgment of God" are all one and the same.

The concluding admonition is that we must fear God more than we fear men:

Isa 2:22  Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

"Wherein is [man, our old man] to be accounted of? The answer to that question is that our old man is not to be accounted of as anything more than the necessary evil he is. This is "wherein he is to be accounted of:

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Luk 12:4  And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
Luk 12:5  But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. 

This all sounds so very negative, because the mind of God dwells on the process of the destruction of the kingdom of our dying, proud, rebellious old man. However, when we are granted to know that the dying of our old man is the same as giving life to our new man, then it all becomes a message of glorious hope, and we begin to see and hear "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven" (Mat 13:11). Fearing God is to fear no man. That is not bad, that is very good!  And who among us does not want to "die daily" to the proud, rebellious and idolatrous kingdom of our old man? Who among us does not want to see the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ? The passing away of this world, within and without, should make us all say with the apostle:

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.