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Isaiah 30:18-33

When God inflicts ‘’wounds’’ on His people, it is only ever because He has their deep healing in mind. He is causing them to come to Him and be enveloped in His love (26b). It is a sad fact that sometimes we have to be hurt in order to be cured.

As we saw yesterday, there is a change of tone and atmosphere at verse 18. In (19-22), Isaiah describes the blessings the people of Judah will experience after the prophesied exile. They will ‘’weep’’ no more (19; see 25:8). God will answer their heart cries for help (19). He will guide them with His voice (21). They will now listen to Him and throw away their idols (22). This twenty second verse is a powerful picture of repentance. You will see that it is more than just feeling sorry. It involves radical action to put distance between you and sin (see also 31:6, 7 and Matthew 5:29, 30). ‘’You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, ‘’Good riddance!’’ ‘’ The Message. Is there some messy thing that you ought to discard today?

Isaiah goes on to say that the people will once more receive the covenant blessings Moses promised (23-26; see Leviticus 26:3-13). In (26) he says that the sun and moon will shine brighter: ‘’…moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.’’ The Message. It’s not clear whether the prophet is speaking figuratively at this point, or whether he is referring to the new Jerusalem to come at the end of world history (21). Both meanings are possible.

Finally, this chapter depicts God coming to judge the nations, and especially Assyria (27-33). Even as God’s judgment is being carried out, His people are rejoicing (29, 32). ‘’Oh yes, at GOD’s thunder Assyria will cower under the clubbing. Every blow GOD lands on them with his club is in time to the music of drums and pipes…’’ The Message. They are not full of pride and gloating, but they are glad to see evil overcome and the righteous vindicated. Who would not be?

We do not all share the same destiny. Those who turn to God will be saved; but those who reject Him will be destroyed. ‘’Topheth’’ (33) was a valley outside Jerusalem where children were sacrificed by fire to the pagan god Molech (2 Kings 23:10). The king of Assyria was going to meet his own fiery end.

Prayer: Lord I constantly need to hear your voice behind me, saying, ‘’This is the way; walk in it.’’ Let me know your guidance today. Keep me from every wrong turning.

Isaiah 30:12-18.

Today’s passage starts with a ‘’Therefore’’ (12). I have heard it said that whenever you find a ‘’Therefore’’ in the Bible ‘’you need to look back and see what it’s there for!’’ Looking at what immediately precedes these words (8-10) , you have to say that the rejection of God’s ‘hard-centred truths’ in preference for softer, gooey, sweet and mushy lies is going to land a person in big trouble! If we will not have God’s way we will end up having our own, and then find it’s not what we wanted after all. I have heard it said that people don’t ‘backslide’ from the Christian faith in a single moment, but they tend to gradually, and perhaps almost imperceptibly, drift away from their moorings over a long period. Tom Hale has pointed out that spiritual decay often goes unnoticed for a long time. The ‘cracks’ and ‘bulges’ are ignored, and then suddenly there is a great collapse. The people of Judah rejected Isaiah’s prophetic ‘’message’’ (12). Instead of walking in the way of God’s truth, they chose to ‘oppress’ the poor and needy, and they preferred to believe ‘deceitful’ words which bolstered them with false confidence. Therefore they were heading for disaster (12-14): ‘’This perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses – Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, Smashed beyond recognition or repair…’’ The Message. Isaiah saw that the wall would be destroyed so utterly that none of its fragments would be big enough to even use as a scoop (14).

But it did not have to be this way (15-17). As we have seen often, this is the central call of Isaiah’s entire prophecy: to a quiet, calm, peaceful trust in God: ‘’Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me- The very thing you’ve been unwilling to do.’’ The Message. Instead they trusted in their ‘’horses’’ (16). But their enemies were going to pursue them. Even one enemy would make a thousand run away (see Lev.26:8; Deut.32:30). Isaiah could see that, sadly and tragically, in the end there would be nothing left of Judah but a lonely ‘’flagstaff’’ on top of a hill (17).

Then, suddenly, as so often happens in Isaiah, the tone changes; the tempo becomes more upbeat (18). Judgment is coming, but God doesn’t take pleasure in judging His people. He ‘’longs to be gracious’’. But sometimes we have to ‘’wait’’ for His grace and mercy to be manifested. In this case the punishment for sin had to come first. ‘’GOD takes the time to do everything right – everything.’’ The Message. ‘’ The people had to come to the end of themselves.

‘’As long as the people tried to help themselves, sending ambassadors to Egypt, and seeking an alliance against the invader, God could do nothing for them; He could only wait until they returned to simple reliance upon Himself… At first they said No. They were opposed to the idea of simple trust in God. It seemed impossible to believe that if they simply rested on Him He would do better for them than their most strenuous exertions could do for themselves. And all the time God was waiting till every expedient failed, and they were reduced to such a condition that He could step in and save them…all the while God has been waiting…till like a spent struggler in the water, you ceased from your mad efforts and cast yourself back upon his strong everlasting love…The soul that waits for God will always find the God for whom he waits.’’ F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.280

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to cease struggling and start clinging.

 Isaiah 30: 1- 11

This chapter shows the possibility of making plans without reference to God, and of trusting in that which is not God. Leaders in particular should take good note. But there is a warning sign erected for all believers. Let’s be wary about where we place our confidence. There came a time when the leaders of Jerusalem, under King Hezekiah, sought to make an alliance with Egypt, in order to defend their territory against Assyria (2 Kings 18:19-21). Isaiah foresaw the disastrous consequences of such a move and gave fair warning. In (4), he indicates that Egyptian envoys were already in the cities of ‘’Zoan’’ and ‘’Hanes’’ (in northern Egypt), waiting to meet with their counterparts from Judah. The repeated call of God through Isaiah (and through all Scripture) is to trust in Him; no-one else and nothing else. ‘’Going off to Egypt without so much as asking me…Well, some protection Pharaoh will be! Some hideout, Egypt!…Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end up looking stupid – All show, no substance, an embarrassing farce.’’ The Message. It is imperative that leaders of God’s people should seek the Lord to know His mind, and not just go off at their own whim. When we get any sense that something is not of God, let’s not be ‘’obstinate’’ (1; see also 8-11). If a warning light shows on the ‘dashboard’ don’t ignore it or you will pay a heavy bill. We do well to spend much time in heaven’s ‘consulting rooms’ (2a, 3). Let’s get our advice; our counsel from on high. Today, we can be like the people of Judah were back then (8-11), ignoring the ‘hard teachings of the Bible; cherry-picking God’s promises and largely ignoring His commands. ‘’Tell us what makes us feel better.’’ The Message.

(Compare verses 2 and 3 with chapter 25:4. The Lord would always be to them what they were looking for elsewhere, if only they would run to Him.)

Already envoys from Judah were carrying gifts to the Egyptians in order to buy their protection (6). It seems they were travelling secretly through the Negev, a barren desert wasteland to the south of Judah. But again Isaiah states that there will be no help found in Egypt. When will the church realise that the help of ‘Egypt’ is ‘’utterly useless’’? God uses the nickname: ‘’Rahab the Do-Nothing.’’ (7). Rahab was a mythical sea monster. It was also a symbolic name for Egypt. ‘’Thinking you can buy protection from that hollow farce of a nation? Egypt is all show, no substance, My name for her is Toothless Dragon.’’ The Message.

‘’Egypt was as helpful as a shadow (30:1-5), a wall about to fall down (30:12-13), or a broken clay vessel (30:14). The Egyptians were only men, not God (31:1-3). Are you trusting things that cannot help you while the Lord waits for you to come to Him for help (30:15, 18)? Those who wait on the Lord for help will experience blessings, such as answered prayer (30:18-19), God’s guidance (30:20-21), cleansing (30:22), fruitfulness (30:23-26), victory (30:27-33; 31:4-9) and a song (30:29). The horses of Egypt can never take the place of the chariots of God (Ps.20:7-8).Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, pp.469, 470

Prayer: Lord it is my sincere ambition to hear your voice and do your will. I never want to fight You or be trusting in anyone else. Help me Lord God for I know I need you. Thank you for hearing me.

Isaiah 29:13-24

We are undeniably living in troubling times. We are used to seeing and hearing bad news, disseminated by the mass media. But recently it has come cascading out of our televisions and radio sets on a daily basis, flooding our living rooms with stories of appalling evil being carried out just a short plane ride away. It is deeply unsettling. I believe a lot of people feel this. So it’s good to be able to affirm that a day is coming when evil will finally be overthrown. A part of today’s passage seems to anticipate this (20, 21): ‘’The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in GOD, the down-and-outs shouting praise to the Holy of Israel. For there’ll be no more gangs on the street. Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species. Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean will never be heard of again. Gone the people who corrupted the courts, gone the people who cheated the poor, gone the people who victimized the innocent.’’ The Message.

Verse 21 relates to the perversion of justice in Isaiah’s day. It also strikes me that this was Jesus’ experience. He was crucified on false charges. His execution was the greatest miscarriage of justice in history. This leads me on to the further thought that we may not know why we suffer, but we do know that Jesus has suffered more than anyone, and he continues to suffer with us. Furthermore, He has suffered more than anyone. In the face of the enormous problem of mankind’s sufferings, one well-known preacher said that were it not for the cross of Christ he would find it difficult to believe in God. In this passage God expressed anger about a people who could go to ‘church’ on a Saturday (the Sabbath 13), and live badly for the rest of the week (20, 21). It didn’t add up, and it wasn’t true worship. It was a sham, a façade, a cover-up. ‘’These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren’t in it. Because they act like they’re worshiping me but don’t mean it, I’m going to step in and shock them awake…’’ (13, 14a) The Message. God’s judgment will fall on all false worship. True worship leads to holiness of life, and ultimately this is going to come about (22-24). Following the exile the Jews did re-establish a godly community in Jerusalem. But first there would have to be a purging. (Ultimately, of course, these final verses in the chapter look forward to the Messianic age when there will be perfect holiness.)

The spiritual blindness we were considering yesterday (9, 10) is linked with lifeless formalism in worship (13; see verse 18, however, for the good end to the story. A day will come when the deaf will hear and the blind see.). But for now, the people of Jerusalem worshiped God with their lips but not with their lives. There was a ‘credibility gap’ between their talk and their walk. (See Jesus’s use of verse 13 in Mark 7:6, 7). Because of their blindness and hypocrisy, judgment was going to come to the people of the city. Their human ‘’wisdom’’ and ‘’intelligence’’ would ‘’vanish’’ when faced with the ‘’wonder upon wonder’’ of God’s judgments (see 1 Corinthians 1:19, 20). They thought they were wiser than God. They made their plans, and formed their political alliances and thought God didn’t know. Although they engaged in public worship they were practical atheists. In fact, they were like clay pots questioning the very existence of the Potter who made them (15, 16). ‘’You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, ‘’He didn’t write a word of me’’? Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, ‘’She had nothing to do with this’’?’’ The Message. It is good that the chapter does not conclude at this point. We have a God who deals in turnarounds.

Prayer: I ask that my lips and my life will move together down the same road of godly living. Keep me from mouthing empty platitudes in your presence dear Lord.

Isaiah 29:1-10

Destruction (1-4): Jerusalem is called ‘’Ariel’’ which means ‘’altar hearth’’ in the Hebrew language. This great city, with its prestigious past (1a) as David’s capital, and which was the site of God’s altar, would be turned into a hearth of burning embers. We cannot live forever off the spiritual capital of the past. Although armies such as those of Assyria and Babylon would besiege the city, it would actually be the Sovereign Lord working through them (2, 3). No amount of religion can save people from God’s judgment (1b). He wants something that affects the heart, and not mere rituals (13).

Deliverance (5-8): This speaks of a sudden and surprising divine intervention: ‘’Because, surprise, as if out of nowhere, a visit from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.’’(5b, 6a) The Message. In God’s good time, those who seek to destroy Jerusalem will themselves be destroyed. The attacking forces will ‘wake up’, as if from a dream, and discover that instead of being the attackers, they have become the ones under attack. Hold on to this truth today that God can turn bad situations around dramatically, and when He moves He regularly does so speedily. ‘’They will wake up and discover their dreams of success have become nightmares of defeat. God knows how and when to deliver His people.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.469.

Dullness (9-12): But although the far off future looked bright, the present reality facing Isaiah was bleak. The people of Jerusalem were spiritually blind. In a spiritual sense, they were in a drunken stupor; they were asleep (9, 10). They were unable to see or read or hear what Isaiah was trying to say. Even the leaders, who were able to read, couldn’t read what Isaiah had written. It was ‘’sealed’’ – closed off from their spiritual eyes (11): ‘’What you’ve been shown here is somewhat like a letter in a sealed envelope. If you give it to someone and tell her, ‘’Read this,’’ she’ll say, ‘’I can’t. The envelope is sealed.’ And if you give it to someone who can’t read and tell him, ‘’Read this,’’ he’ll say, ‘’I can’t read.’’ The Message.

‘’God’s people were like drunken sleeping blind men trying to read a sealed book! They had no understanding of spiritual things nor did they worship God in the Spirit (Matt.15:8-9).’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.469.

As we will go on to see tomorrow, this blindness is associated with a dead formalism in worship (13). Tom Hale says some sobering words about this which we will do well to take to heart: ‘’The spiritual condition of many churches today is similar to that of Jerusalem in Isaiah’s time: people today engage in lifeless worship; they are not able to see God or to understand his word. When we close our hearts to God, He makes our eyes blind and our ears dull. As a result, our worship becomes mechanical and lifeless. But if we seek God with all our heart, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13); and He will open up our spiritual eyes and ears and enable us to know His will and to worship Him aright.’’ The Applied Old Testament Commentary, p.1028.

Prayer: Help us Father God, to worship you in spirit and in truth. I want to be the kind of worshipper that you are seeking.