Todays readings.. Deuteronomy 30, Isaiah 2, Acts 28
“THE HAUGHTINESS OF MAN SHALL BE HUMBLED” May 13th
We have 3 most instructive chapters today. In Deuteronomy ch. 30 Moses’ continues his final message of encouragement to his people – that the Lord “will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart …” [v.5,6] Our attitude of heart is essential – to be “cut to the heart” as Peter’s hearers were on the day of Pentecost [Acts 2 v.37]
The experiences of the Israelites as they left the wilderness, in which all their parents had died, is instructive. Moses had brought them close to God, he told them “…the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”[v.14] And it is in our hands so that we can read and “do it” But how many do? Do they see this world as a wilderness? Paul like them, was in the final stages of his journey – in his mortal life – as we read today in the last chapter of Acts. Our world, as we know it now, is in its’ last stages!
Our reading in Isaiah ch. 2 offered us two contrasts – they are intensely challenging. The first is wonderful, it describes the time that is coming “in the latter days” when “out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations …” [v.2-4] How close are we to that day!? But before that ‘day’ “the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty … against all the lofty mountains …” [v.12,14] And we think of the lofty mountains in Nepal!
Verse 15 awes us with its’ potential application! “Against every high tower” and we think of how buildings and towers have been built to incredible heights in recent years! And when we come to Isaiah 30 v.25 we will read of “the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.”
Back in ch. 2 we see the time described when “people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendour of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.” [v.19] The opening verses we read described the “splendour of his majesty” and so ” the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day” [v.17]
Will you and I be there to see “the splendour of his majesty”? Isaiah invited his fellows (and surely this invitation is for us today) “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.“ Let us all make it clear to our Lord that we are walking in the light – today – and every day.
