"Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty! The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day." (Isaiah 2:10-11) We know that no one can hide from God but it's a common human reaction to want to hide sin or to want to hide from the consequences of sin. You'll recall that Adam and Eve hid from the Lord in the Garden of Eden after they had sinned against Him. When the Lord asked Adam why he hid from Him, Adam stated, "I was afraid." No one had ever sinned before and Adam did not know exactly what to expect; therefore we cannot be certain whether he felt sorry for his sin at that time or was simply terrified of the consequences. The hiding from the Lord that Isaiah speaks of in our text today does not necessarily indicate that people are sorry for their sins but that they are afraid to face the God against whom they have sinned.
"The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled), for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan, for all the towering mountains and all the high hills, for every lofty tower and every fortified wall, for every trading ship and every stately vessel. The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear." (Isaiah 2:12-18) Tall cedars and mighty oaks are often used to symbolize powerful human leaders. When the day of the Lord's judgment comes against those who have rejected Him, no president or prime minister or king will be able to save sinners from His wrath; they won't be able to save themselves from His wrath either. No government, no leader, no military, no economy will be a buffer between evildoers and the penalty that is about to fall upon them.
This next segment corresponds to a passage from the book of Revelation. "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." (Isaiah 2:19) "Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?'" (Revelation 6:15-17)
Those who are crying for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them are those who turned their faces away from the Lord all their lives. From the least to the greatest, all who scorn Him will answer His charges against them. The Bible is not saying that all the people who have ever been wealthy or who have ever held positions of power in the government will face His wrath; it's only those who eschewed the Lord in favor of idols (and idols can be power, wealth, and many other worldly things), who repeatedly rejected Him, and who lived in opposition to His holy laws and commandments.
Those of us who are the children of the Lord have no reason to dread the day of judgment. The day of judgment is not for us. It's not His children He's going to judge. Believers will appear before His throne for an accounting of our lives but that appearance at His throne has to do with eternal rewards, not with eternal punishment. (You may take a look at the Apostle Paul's discourse on the subject of rewards for believers in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.) The child of God does not need to be looking fearfully ahead toward a day of wrath. We are to be looking ahead in joyful eagerness for the day our Lord and Savior begins to reign over the world in righteousness and peace forever.
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