As we have been following along the attributes of God, I would not have predicted a trap and a snare to be among them. I mean, God is good, right? He is all about love and peace and harmony; honey on a biscuit. According to Isaiah 8:14, that is only partly true.
Let’s start at Isaiah 8:13. “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread. He will be a holy place.” Isaiah’s language is pretty clear. Regard God as holy and fear him. If you do, God will be a holy place. I don’t think any of us would contest that. But, what if you don’t regard him as holy? What if you do not fear him? Isaiah answers those questions in verse 14.
“He will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”
As I try to better understand this, I found it helpful to remember Isaiah was a prophet. He was foretelling a story of Jesus. More directly, he was warning God’s “followers.” Maybe you remember them as Pharisees. I cannot explain this better than David Osborne. In his book Accidental Pharisees, he says: “Don’t forget, the Pharisees of old saw themselves as God’s biggest fans. They praised him. They worshiped him. They spoke out in his defense. Yet when he showed up, they vehemently opposed him.” If God can be a stumbling block, a trap, and a snare, surely that is what it looks like.
The same is true for us. We can do all the right things, say the right stuff and show up at the right places. At some point in our journey, God is likely to show up in a way we don’t understand or He will do something we disagree with. Even worse, he may show up and we don’t recognize him for who he is, just like the Pharisees. I see now that Isaiah’s warning is very much for me.
Osborne, Larry. Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride, Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith (p. 27). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.