Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem? – Isaiah 2:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 1, 2013): Isaiah 2

Alexander Pope wrote “An Essay on Criticism” in 1709, although the work was not published publicly until 1711. The essay is basically a critique on the way that writers and critics were to behave in Pope’s day. The poem supports the literary ideals that Pope believed needed to be held in common by writers and critics alike. But the poem also contains several lines that have become part of the common idiom of our English language - including the line “To err is Humane, to Forgive, Divine.” Pope’s inclusion of the line “To err is Humane” seems to place some breathing room into the subject matter being addressed by the poem. Pope’s expectations seems to be that there is no literary project that cannot be improved on. Pope’s reality is the secure knowledge that critics will never be without subject matter on which they can ruminate. There will be holes in every literary work.

It is something that I am reminded of even as I write these words. There is nothing that can be written that is perfect. Nothing. Any work that depends on the cleverness of humans is inherently flawed. It has to be. It is part of what it means to be a human work.

Isaiah’s thought is that if every human is flawed, and if everything that flows from man is flawed, then why do we bother being impressed by people? For Isaiah, it does not seem to be make any sense. And yet Isaiah also knew the truth of his situation. People seem to be continually impressed by other people. And not only are we impressed by people, we follow their decisions. Isaiah recognized that the true error of the Northern Kingdom was that they had traded wisdom God for the understanding of man. And that is a bad trade by anyone’s definition.

Pope is right, to err is part of what it means to be human. And forgiveness might be the most godly action possible for the human race. But for Isaiah forgiveness was simply not enough. What Judah needed to learn was to not lift up people in the first place – not to trust in the understanding of people who at some point are bound to be in error. The only one worthy or their trust is the one who never stands in error. Isaiah wanted nothing more than for Judah to truly understand that their trust belongs solely to God. Or as Charles Spurgeon put it – “We cannot spend our lives in seeking the smiles of men, for pleasing God is the one object we pursue. Our hands, and our heads, and our hearts, and all that we have and are, find full occupation for the Lord, and therefore we must ‘Cease from man.’“

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 3