The Lord's day for the proud.
Any time of specific judgment or mercy is in the Scriptures called a "day of the Lord." The day of the Lord has come for the antediluvian world, for Sodom, for the Canaanites, for Babylon, for Israel. It is ever coming to nations, in the corruption or the calamity that follow on national sin. It will come as long as the world endures; that is, so long as God needs, by external judgments, to mark the evil of sin. The sin of all others that calls for a "day of the Lord" is pride, self-confidence, rebellious self-assertion; and this was precisely the sin of the times in which Isaiah wrote. Man is made for God; he was ruined when he broke relations with God, and in self-will separated himself from God. And there is no hope of restoration until pride is humbled. Therefore for this humbling of self God pleads, and to secure this God sends judgments. Henderson says, "These verses contain a specification of several of the most distinguished objects of nature and art, in order, metaphorically, to represent the different persons or orders of men elevated by the dignity of orifice, or rendered notable by their riches, or the elegance and luxury of their establishments, whom the judgments of God would, in a more remarkable manner, hurl into ruin." It has been also observed that the emphatic iteration of "lifted up" is noticeable as indicating that the prophet sees in that self-assertion the root-evil of his time, that which was most destructive of the fear of the Lord, and most surely brought down judgment on the offender.
I. ONE DAY GOD HUMBLES THE PROUD NATION. Illustrate from Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar exalted himself, and took all the glory to himself, and Belshazzar followed him in the same willfulness; but a day of darkness and terror came for Babylon, of which the handwriting on the wall gave awful warnings. Or take Jerusalem as representing the kingdom of Judah. Puffed up with self-confidence, willfully resisting the Divine lead, a day of vindication and judgment at last came; her enemies poured in like a flood; the holy city lay in ashes, and her people were either slain or captive. And it is not without good reason that we find modern illustration of God's day for nations in Napoleonic France. Napoleon claiming both to "propose and dispose," and overtaken by God's avenging day at Moscow and Waterloo.
II. GOD'S DAY HUMBLES THE PROUD INDIVIDUAL. That day comes in such forms as these.
1. A slip from integrity brings disgrace and ruin.
2. Masterfulness and arrogance bring hatred, which finds occasion to injure.
3. Riches take to themselves wings and flee away.
4. Mind becomes unsettled, as in the case of Nebuchadnezzar.
5. Sickness and bereavement come in his family. Sooner or later a day dawns in which the haughty, self-reliant, God-despising man is touched on his sorest, tenderest place. No man can ever be permitted to exalt himself against God and permanently prosper. Give instances from modern life of the downfall of pride, such as the closing years of Squire Beckford's life.
III. GOD'S HUMBLINGS, FOR NATIONS OR FOR MEN, MAY BE MELTINGS, OR THEY MAY HAVE TO BE CRUSHINGS. The result of them depends upon the way in which they are met and responded to. That which is designed to melt may harden; and a judgment that bruises only may be so abused, that it must be followed by a judgment that breaks. Israel would not be humbled by calamity after calamity graciously tempered, so it must be made overwhelming; and Samaria was taken, and the distinct life of Israel, as a nation, crushed out forever. It is a thought full of painful seriousness, that the quality and degree of our troubles depend on cur response to those God has sent, as chastenings, in earlier times. God's hand may be heavy on us, because we have so long resisted his pleadings and his humblings. Judgment is his strange work, mercy is his delight; but if we resist him, further and heavier judgments are demanded by very "mercy."—R.T.