Lesson on Isaiah 2:19-21

In the previous lesson, we discussed God's judgment of humanity's pride. In this lesson, we will understand how this judgment plays out. Fear of God's wrath will inspire people to throw away their idols.

Isaiah 2:19-21.(NIV)(NASB)(NKJV)(NCV)

Our next passage from Isaiah contains an interesting bit of irony. The literary term irony describes situations or scenes where what actually happens contradicts what we might expect to happen. The discrepancy may also exist between what the character thinks and what we, as readers, know. In any case, irony deals with situations where expectations and reality contradict each other.

Isaiah 2:20 contains the irony. Isaiah writes:

In that day men will throw away
to the rodents and bats
their idols of silver and idols of gold,
which they made to worship.

The people Isaiah describes here fashioned their idols with expectations of worshiping them. Yet, we see them actually tossing their gods of precious metal to the vermin. In the end, the outcome is much different than anything they first imagined.

This ironic twist occurs sandwiched between two verses with essentially the same message, that people will run to hide in the rocks out of fear. The verb translated "shake" in verses 19 and 21 occurs 15 times in the Old Testament but most frequently (six times) in Isaiah. The word is translated "dread" in Isaiah 8:12-13, "cause terror" in Isaiah 47:12, and "stand in awe" in Isaiah 29:23. Also, in other contexts in Deuteronomy, Joshua, Job, and the Psalms, this word depicts fear or dread. I think we can reasonably conclude that the shaking here isn't as much a physical shaking as an emotional one.