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His Fearful Presence

 People will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. In that day people will throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem? (Isaiah 2:19-22)

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24)

For the ancient Jews, repetition emphasized. It’s been said that if God says something once, we should listen. If He says it twice or more, it may be a life-or-death situation. In today’s passage, the idea that people will flee to caves and holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty when He rises to shake the earth is repeated within four verses.

There’s no Biblical question about it. God will rise to shake the earth, and if the San Francisco of 1906 was a 7.8 on the Richter Scale, I suspect this will be a 9.9 or more. And man’s mistreatment of the environment may play a role in that judgment, but I have to wonder what people would say if I suggested that the best thing people could do to save the planet is to get right with God. Without that, all the environmental programs in the world won’t stop God’s justice from rolling down.

The other thing about that judgment is that it’s going to be real judgment. When people hide in the holes in the ground, they’re not going to hear God talking like Glenda the Good Witch, saying, “It’s OK, you can come out now.”

One of the things that impresses me most about this passage is the and  that connects the fearful presence of the Lord with the splendor of His majesty. There’s an impulse to separate them, as though fearful presence and splendor of majesty are two separate things. It’s rather like the folks who just want to get a selfie taken with the fluffy cow and gets trampled or gored by a buffalo or with the nice big kitty that turns out to be a lion. And – I confess, as a photographer, I’ve taken some chances I probably shouldn’t have. I’m blessed that none of them turned into nightmares.

Sometimes it is convenient, and even necessary, for us to divide God up, to look at individual attributes. But it’s a mistake when we leave them separated. God is love (I John 4:8), but love isn’t all warm and fuzzy. The same woman who snuggles an infant to her breast can be the woman who will take on a grizzly bear to protect that child or punish the child for doing something wrong.

What’s more, what you may see as the splendor of His majesty, another person may also see as His fearful presence.

Lord, open our eyes to the splendor of Your majesty and our hearts to Your fearful presence and help us to understand that they are one and the same.

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