Isaiah

 Isaiah Chapter 30

• Isaiah 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
• 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!

Why is it the tendency of mankind to trust in everything but the Lord? The Lord is the greatest, the most powerful, the most faithful yet, we tend to trust in everything else. The Lord knows that other things pass away. He knows that other spiritual leaders other than Him are not faithful. He knows that others will fail us. He warns that trusting in anything but Him will result in failure.

The children of Israel had everything. To them was given the promise of Abraham. The promise of eternal salvation, the promise of a savior and the promise of being called the children of God were given to Israel. The Messiah was to come through Abraham's seed by way of Isaac and then Jacob. Yet they rebelled against the Holy One of Israel. Instead of God's Spirit they trusted in Egypt for help.

Seems like they had a history of trusting in Egypt.

In Genesis 12 Abraham went down into Egypt to escape a famine in the land where he lived. He ran into trouble when Pharaoh almost took his wife. God delivered him from that episode.

When another famine arises in the days of Isaac, God instructs him not to go into the land of Egypt. This is in Genesis 26. Isaac also almost gets into trouble concerning his wife similar to what Abraham went through, although it was not in Egypt but another place.

Yet later God uses Egypt to sustain the children of Israel during famine but Egypt later turns against them and brings the children of Israel into severe slavery. He later has to deliver them by the hand of Moses. He didn't want his people in Egypt or trusting in Egypt.

I read something today that I never heard before so I can't guarantee it to be absolute truth and that was that the sons of Jacob didn't leave Egypt after the famine was over and go back to the land promised to them through Abraham. Instead they stayed and after a few years another king arised that didn't know who Joseph was and later made them slaves. Strange I sometimes wonder why they stayed so long.

Other nations in that day worshipped other gods. They were deep into idolatry. God did not want Israel to worship other gods. In fact God wanted Israel to be a light to other nations to turn them to the true God. Instead of them being tempted to serve the gods of other nations, they should have been strong in the Lord so God could use them to win others to righteousness.

• Isaiah 30:3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
• 4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

Hanes supposedly was a city in Egypt.

• Isaiah 30:5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

The Egyptians were friendly at first but soon despised them and felt that they were no profit. Another king rose up that didn't know Joseph. Some say it was an Assyrian king.

This is what happens when we trust in other things besides our Lord. Anyone or anything besides the Lord may not be always true and faithful. If we are wrapped up in any thing other than God it is dangerous. Things have a way of passing away. Even people and our best friends are not always with us. What is good today may not be good tomorrow. God stays the same and never changes. He is everlasting. If our faith and treasure is with Him though and we lose all in this life, we have in reality lost nothing.

A few years ago someone wrote me an e-mail message stating, "How does it feel to be on the losing side?" I guess he was referring to politics and the fact that he felt that the American people were backing the president and were voting for Democrats. He said something about the religious right losing. He must have assumed that I was part of the religious right and a Republican. I do lean toward the right and prefer the Republican party even though I don't like party politics.

In reality my hopes and desires were not wrapped up in who was in political power. In fact I personally don't believe in having political parties. I think they divide and label people. If my hopes were wrapped up in who the president is and who is in power in Congress, then I would be setting myself up for depression and gloom because nothing stays the same for long. I didn't feel like his e-mail message even remotely applied to me for my hope and desires are in the Lord, not in political power. That way I am never on the losing side. Never. God doesn't change when our standards change. He doesn't change and lose power when one president takes office and another leaves. He is still in control, He is still in power and He is still God. To trust in Him is to be always on the winning side.

Israel had the best, they had access to the greatest. Egypt in comparison was like trusting in serpent to deliver them from trouble.

• Isaiah 30:6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
• 7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

The Lord is warning that trusting in Egypt was vain and would profit nothing. They could not save them from Assyria or Babylon.

• Isaiah 30:8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
• 9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
• 10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
• 11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

They did not want to hear the truth and preferred to hear good things. Mankind has not changed. How many of us would rather hear speeches that make us happy, that make us feel good about ourselves, that make us feel like we are okay and all is right with the world. We don't want to hear words that say, "You have sinned and need to repent." We don't like the messages of repentance and judgment unless of course that message is directed at someone else or some other nation. It is time to search our own hearts and judge ourselves. We don't have to sin, we don't have to walk in darkness. Jesus came to bring us out, to shed a path of light and to cover us with His righteousness.

• Isaiah 30:12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
• 13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
• 14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.

God sent them a warning that if they despised His word and rejected Him, they would fall and be broken. This message is still the same to us today. God made a way that we can escape hell and judgment. He made a way that we can inherit eternal life along with Israel or any nation who believes. Yet the majority of mankind rejects that message and scoff at the Word of God. The bible predicts this happening in the latter days. It tells that many shall boldly reject and mock God and His word. They have even gone so far as to find another reason for the existence of man and reject the creation altogether.

They laugh and scorn us who believe in God and the creation. Many have been scoffed at on the Internet. We have been ridiculed for believing in the creation, Some have been called hate-mongers  for speaking out against abortion, and have even been accused of things that never even enter our minds. Jesus said that would happen. We cannot possibly be accepted by the world accepted by God too. The two do not mix and we have to make a choice which side we want to be on. To trust in Egypt (the world) instead of God may bring us temporary acceptance and popularity but that will fade. The devil does not like us. He is not our friend. Those that trust in the temporal things instead of God are ready for a fall. The only real lasting hope is in God. This life and all the material things in this life are only temporary. God is eternal. We need to trust in the eternal things that will never pass away.

• Isaiah 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Look at what God promised them if they would yield to His Spirit. Rest, salvation, peace, quietness, confidence and strength.

• Isaiah 30:16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
• 17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.

This is the sad part. They said no. They preferred to trust in their horses but those that went after them were swifter.

• Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

In the middle of judgment God gives hope here showing that Israel has an eternal place and will be restored and blessed in latter days. The last part of that verse shows us that all who wait on the Lord will be part of the inheritance promised to Israel. We know now that this comes through faith in Jesus Christ whom God sent to redeem not only Israel but all who believe in Him.

• Isaiah 30:19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
• 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
• 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

It is so glorious when we get that attitude and learn from God, "This is the way, walk in it. All we have to do is hear the word of God and believe. In the latter days Israel shall believe in the one their ancestors rejected and what joyful day that will be.

• Isaiah 30:22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.

One big sin that got Israel in trouble more than anything else was idolatry. There comes a day when they will cast them away.

• Isaiah 30:23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
• 24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
• 25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
• 26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
• 27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
• 28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
• 29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
• 30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
• 31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

An Assyrian king replaced the Pharaohs of Egypt after the death of Joseph and may have been why the attitude of the Egyptians changed from living at peace with Israel to fear that they might join the enemies of Egypt and turn against them. The Assyrian also is a picture of the latter day antichrist or man of sin who tries to wipe Israel off the map and attempt to rule the world. There have been many forerunners of this man of sin. This prophecy in Isaiah shows us that in the end the Lord will win and Israel shall be saved.

• Isaiah 30:32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
• 33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Many times in Isaiah we see the prediction of judgment and then see the time of restoration. Restoration and peace comes when we turn to the Lord in repentance and sorrow. His Spirit renews our hearts. When we genuinely repent and turn to God, healing, restoration and salvation comes to us.

The rod of God smites the Assyrian and defeats the enemies of Israel in the past and again in the end times.

Israel as a nation will one day turn back to God in repentance. They will discover their true Messiah, the very one their forefathers rejected as I wrote before. This will be the greatest time in the history of the whole earth. They will no more weep or be in sorrow. The enemies of God will be destroyed. There will be salvation, joy, and deliverance for all that love God. Idolatry, evil, and sin will pass away. Peace will at last be upon the earth.

This promise is to all that believe. Jesus Christ is the savior to all who believe not just the children of Israel. The promise was given through Israel but all nations who accept this promise can be saved. DC

• In Genesis. 18:18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

Isaiah 31

Isaiah Index