Isaiah 2:19

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks

No escape from the judgments of God

They shall vainly seek to escape, as unarmed peasants or women fly into the nearest cave or hole when they hear the hoofs of some plundering tribe of Edom or Ishmael from the desert; but the judgment of Jehovah shall reach them, as the earthquake (then, as now, not uncommon in Judaea) would bring down the reck on him who sought refuge in it.

(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

For fear of the Lord

The fear of the Lord

1. It is some alleviation of a man’s misfortune, if he knows the worst of it. For the apprehension of evil is sometimes worse than the evil itself. But this rule holds good only in temporal evils.

2. In the present state of things, men can harden their hearts against all the threatenings and terrors of the Lord: and have so accustomed themselves to dispute and disbelieve everything which is supernatural, that the concerns of another world make but faint impressions upon them.

3. The great foundation, therefore, on which the substance of our religion is built, is the belief of that day when God shall call men to an account for all the works which they have done in this life, and shall deal with them according to the promises and threatenings of His own word.

4. The way not to be afraid of the wrath of God then, is to stand in awe of it now.

5. He hath declared that He hath an extraordinary indignation at proud men, i.e., such as have no regard for His laws, and that He will one day effectually humble them.

6. When we fear God as a merciful and gracious Father, we live easy in His family, and rejoice in His presence; but a guilty fear causes us to fly from

Him like our first parent, dreading Him as justly provoked to be angry with us, and ready to execute His threatened judgments upon us.

7. “The fear of the Lord,” says Solomon, “is the beginning of wisdom”; and I will venture to add, that it is the end of it too: for a man can never be denominated wise without this fear; whenever he lays it aside, he certainly plays the fool.

8. There is no man who, by daily reading and hearing of God’s Word, keeps the rule of his life in his eye, but must see that he has manifold reasons to be humbled for not acting up to it.

9. And as horrible fear, so shall shame and confusion of face be the portion of all those who will not now be restrained by a virtuous modesty from offending against God.

10. Let us, then, wisely make choice of these restraints in due season, and keep up their influence so strong in our minds, that no sinful temptation, even in the closest retirement and most secret corner, may ever be able to prevail against them. (W. Reading, M. A.)