Fearfully Majestic

What do you think of when you hear the word “majesty”?

I think of the line “for purple mountain majesties” from America the Beautiful written by Katherine Lee Bates. Thank you to my friend, Luke Eskelund, who posted this picture while traveling in Norway last week! Now that is a majestic scene!

I also think eagles soaring high above us on thermals are majestic.

Have you come up with anything else paired with “majestic”? Can you think of anything scary associated with majestic images? Of course my son could…majestic mountains can have avalanches, and eagles are quite frightening to mice and rabbits! Thank you for helping me to think outside the box, my dear.

Luke posted this picture the day after I read Isaiah 2. Look at these three verses.

Crawl into caves in the rocks. Hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty (verse 10).

They will hide in caves in the rocks from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty (verse 19).

They will try to escape the terror of the lord and the glory of his majesty (verse 21).

These verses are talking about the day of judgment, when the proud and mighty will be humbled. I really don’t think “majesty” here is referring to impressive beauty. Another definition could be “royal power”. I think that still falls far short of the fearful awe that many will experience on that day.

Have we weakened our image of God so that we no longer fear Him? Yes, He is loving, merciful and kind. But He is also holy, righteous, and just. He holds us to a standard that we can never reach, but because Jesus Christ died in our place and paid the price for our freedom, we are forgiven. We forget that we are “as frail as breath” (verse 22), yet He is eternal. We forget that we only deserve death, but He gives us eternal life if we will accept it. Our pride blinds us to our true condition, and prevents us from seeing God as His is.

We need to come again to a place where we fear Him, and not just nicely respect Him.

Serve the Lord with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities–for his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in Him! ~Psalm 2:11-12

God opposes the proud but favors the humble. ~1 Peter 5:5

Pride or humility…which road will you choose?