Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my ninety fourth episode. In this episode I want to examine Isaiah chapter 30. This chapter is another commentary on the wayward behavior of the people in Jerusalem. In the last couple chapters we’ve seen Isaiah warn them against drunkenness, spiritual blindness, and now he’s going to warn them against depending on Egypt instead of depending on God. The people had their own political aspirations and designs on power. They were unwilling to humble themselves and accept instruction from God. Instead they thought their alliance with Egypt would deliver them from their troubles without requiring them to depart from their own agenda. So they decided to throw in with Egypt instead of obeying God.
The first part of this chapter shows us the difficult consequences of violating God’s plan in favor of our own plan. The second part of this chapter shows us that because of God’s unlimited grace, He still loves us even when we act like stubborn, ignorant children. Out of His infinite power and wisdom He’s able to take our attempts at violating His plan and use them to bring about His own purpose of love and goodness. You can think of Christ crucified as the ultimate example of this. Out of their frustration many people have asked: If God exists then why doesn’t He just show Himself to us? You have to ask yourself just exactly what would we do if He did. They say history repeats itself and past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. The first time God came to us, we nailed him to a cross. There has only ever been one perfect person – and humanity crucified Him. Yet God was able to turn this darkest moment into the greatest news the world has ever heard. Out of the darkness of man Christ has given us the light of the gospel. The sacrifice that saves all who go to Him. Perhaps God has been getting us ready to be reunited with Him once and forever. Perhaps He’s been getting you ready. This is what He did with the people of Jerusalem – even when they wanted nothing to do with Him. Let’s read verses 1 & 2:
Isa 30:1 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
Isa 30:2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
So this prophecy is happening at the time when Assyria is on the warpath against Israel and Judah. Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and captured its people. The southern kingdom of Judah understood that it wouldn’t be long before Assyria targeted them as well. God had already promised them that He was going to protect them from Assyria. But the leadership in Judah decided to trust in Egypt for protection instead of trusting in God. They sent envoys to Egypt in an effort to purchase protection. This journey was especially ironic because God’s people were returning to their original oppressor – Egypt – the same nation God saved them from in the Exodus. These diplomatic efforts were a mistake because Egypt turned out to be a worthless ally whose interest in Judah only extended to keeping them as a buffer zone between themselves and Assyria. The Egyptians didn’t care to protect Judah beyond what was necessary to benefit themselves.
It’s important to note that this passage is not an indictment against seeking help. It’s actually quite wise to seek help outside of yourself when you face a hard problem. The difference is whether or not you look to God throughout the process. If your aim is to do the wrong thing and you seek help to do the wrong thing more efficiently – you can bet that’s not going to turn out well for you. The Bible says that such things always lead to shame and disgrace. If the people in Jerusalem had listened to God, they would have seen that Egyptian assistance was inconsistent with God’s righteous plan for them. So when Isaiah says that they’ve added sin to sin, he means that their first sin was rejecting God’s counsel, and the sin they added to that was trusting Egypt in God’s place. To reject God’s plan is to reject God Himself and so to come under His judgment. Once you’ve abandoned your practical trust in God – one sin leads to another. Let’s read verses 3-5:
Isa 30:3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
Isa 30:4 For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,
Isa 30:5 everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”
God was trying to tell Judah that Egypt was nothing but a shadow. From a worldly perspective Egypt looked like a super-power, but from God’s perspective Egypt had no substance. After hearing Judah’s plea, Pharaoh sends his own ambassadors back to Judah. Pharaoh’s officials report that Judah has nothing to give Egypt. It’s always dangerous to trust people who look at you this way. If your relationships are built on self-benefit or what can you do for me now, then it’s only a matter of time before your relationships fail. Real love is self-sacrificial. Real love is grateful for the good things and makes every effort to endure the bad things. Let’s read verses 6 & 7:
Isa 30:6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.
Isa 30:7 Egypt’s help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”
Despite the red flags and the warnings from Isaiah, Judah’s leadership made the decision to send treasure and payments to Egypt. In the eyes of the Judean embassy, Egypt appeared as formidable as a monster inhabiting the Nile. They wanted help from a proven killer against a feared potential killer. The purchase was very expensive and the journey was very difficult. Isaiah felt sorry for the pack animals that were made to bring it all across the desert. Isaiah knew that it was going to be a worthless trip and wasted money. It didn’t matter how powerful Egypt looked – all they did was sit idly by while Assyria troubled Judah. This is why Isaiah called them Rahab. Rahab is a name but it’s also the Hebrew word for pride. The disappointing outcome of the alliance revealed the stupidity of Judah’s plan. Let’s read verses 8-11:
Isa 30:8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.
Isa 30:9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;
Isa 30:10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,
Isa 30:11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
God can see the faithlessness of His people. He tells Isaiah to document the instruction He’s given regarding the alliance with Egypt. God wants Judah to see that everything unfolded exactly the way God said it would. This is another example of God’s effort to win the trust of a rebellious people. Furthermore, God knew that Isaiah’s documentation would benefit future generations to come. He also made sure that Isaiah recorded Judah’s rejection of God’s message and His messengers. The people of Judah wanted to hear from the prophets but they didn’t want to hear the truth from them. They wanted religion but they had no interest in relationship. The people wanted God’s messengers to tell them exactly what they wanted to hear – they preferred illusions and fables over the true and living God. They didn’t want to hear anything about the Holy One of Israel.
This problem was not exclusive to these people. Paul warned us about it in 2 Timothy 4:3 & 4:
2Ti 4:3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
2Ti 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
Today, we have to be careful to avoid making God a reflection of ourselves. Instead we must do our best to allow Him to shape us into a reflection of Himself. Declaring oneself as the ultimate authority and arbiter of truth is the work of totalitarians. Throughout history every time a person or a nation has done this it has led to catastrophic failure and mass death. Every time. If we make ourselves out to be our own gods, this type of failure is inevitable because the darkness that causes this failure lives inside of each human heart. One of the chief reasons why western civilization has worked so well is that it has presupposed that all human beings are corruptible – and has taken this corruption into account when structuring the government. There is no escaping the corruption until the day we pass on into eternity with the One who is light without darkness. So the best we can do is be aware of the monster inside of us and take it into account so that it doesn’t lull us into the deep sleep of delusions. Let’s read verses 12-14:
Isa 30:12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,
Isa 30:13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
Isa 30:14 and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
Judah chose to trust in themselves and in Egypt instead of trusting in God. This allowed their corruption to build and fester until it would break through like a failing wall. The collapse would come suddenly and in an instant – leaving the nation shattered like a clay pot – thoroughly incapable of doing the tasks it was built to do. This is what happens to every nation who turns away from God and gives themselves over to unconstrained corruption. Individuals begin to do whatever it takes to garner power – including lying and deceiving their neighbors. Trust breaks down among the population and entire groups of people shut themselves off from hearing each other. Institutions begin to fail because they can’t function under the leadership of individuals who’ve traded their principles for power.
No one knows which way is up and so the entire country can be looking at the same screen but seeing two different realities. No one claims to know how to get back to normal and yet deep down everyone knows what to do. A renewed commitment to the truth and a renewed obedience to God would straighten it all out. Ah, but the cost is steep. You have to surrender yourself and admit that you aren’t your own god. You have to hand over the very power that you may have constructed your entire life around. It’s not an easy thing to do but the alternative is worse. And we don’t need the Bible to tell us that – just look at the bloodshed of the 20th century. Let’s read verses 15-17:
Isa 30:15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
Isa 30:16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
Isa 30:17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.
Isaiah drills the message home with these verses. If the people of Jerusalem return to God, then they shall be saved and they shall have peace. The secret to their strength lies in their quietness and their trust of the Holy One of Israel. But they wouldn’t do it. Their choice to refuse God’s salvation came with a commitment to military action – military action that God Himself would frustrate. Isaiah lays so much emphasis on trusting God’s promise that it bears the question: What does it mean to trust God? What does that look like?
Trusting God means rest. When we trust God we can pursue the things that make us better without constantly worrying that we aren’t good enough. When we trust God we can slow down and do things more intentionally and carefully instead of frantically and recklessly. Trusting God means quietness. We can live peaceful lives knowing that the grand narrative – the final outcome – doesn’t depend on us fighting every single battle that comes our way. Trusting God means confidence. You never have to be captured by fear and despair because you know that God will come through in the end because He loves you. Rest, quietness, and confidence. You put all these things together and you have an individual who is uniquely developed to be durable enough to tolerate the suffering and evil of this world.
And the vicious irony is that that’s all Jerusalem wanted anyway. They wanted some way of dealing with their troubles. But their faithlessness caused them to take it into their own hands and they ended up becoming the opposite of what they needed to be. Instead of resting in God’s promise they fled on their own horses – just like God said they would do back in Leviticus chapter 26. God said if you stay with Me then five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. But if you turn from Me in rebellion then I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. They could have been all that they needed to be had they trusted in God’s promise but instead they chose to bear their challenges alone. Despite the stiff-necked nature of His people God still has their best interest at heart. Let’s read verse 18:
Isa 30:18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.
This verse gives us an amazing insight into the love of God. So often we wonder why God isn’t showing up and why God is waiting to take action. Isaiah tells us that it’s so He can be gracious to us. God knows exactly how to wake you up and how to bring you back to Him. He’s doing everything in the perfect order and the perfect timing. He shows us mercy so that He will be exalted. The one who receives mercy has their guilt revealed, and the one who gives mercy is exalted as loving and generous. And when you think about mercy and justice it seems like they are opposites and that they cannot coexist. Imagine a criminal who stands guilty before a judge – he either gets mercy or he gets justice. But God, somehow in His grandeur, has been able to unite justice and mercy on the cross. Christ crucified is God’s justice for all the sins of man and He took it upon Himself so to extend mercy to us. The cross is the only place where we find mercy and justice perfectly reconciled.
This verse also says blessed are all those who wait for God. It’s important that we understand this does not mean passive waiting for God. The best way we can understand this idea is by looking at its opposite. Think about the base condition of humanity. We desire instant gratification and so when we do not get what we want right away we become tempted to seize it by wrong methods. When we suffer abject poverty our desperation causes us to do things we are not proud of. When we are hurt or betrayed our hearts seem to automatically land on revenge. One of Satan’s most powerful lies is convincing you that you don’t have to wait for God and you can just take it. That’s the natural position of humanity and anything better than that requires faith and must be learned across time. Let’s read verses 19-21:
Isa 30:19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.
Isa 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.
Isa 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Sometimes it feels like God is far away from us. But these verses are promising that if we wait on God and if we patiently trust Him, then He will pour out His grace at the cry of our hearts. It’s no picnic eating the bread of adversity and drinking the water of affliction. But these things have purpose as well. When Judah was prosperous and comfortable, they stopped hearing God. It was only after they were lit up with suffering that they were able to hear Him again. I think humility and gratitude would have saved them from having to endure that process. But prosperity is often accompanied by power and power is a fast track to pride.
Notice in verse 20 and 21 how Isaiah is telling them that they will have eyes to see their Teacher and ears to hear His words. Isaiah is looking ahead to the day of the internalized law of the new covenant. He’s looking ahead to the internal guidance of the Holy Spirit. Listen to Jeremiah 31:33-34:
Jer 31:33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Having God’s law written on our hearts is why certain things are considered wrong cross-culturally. And you could say well everybody has different preferences and certain groups of people regularly do things we consider to be sinful. Fair enough – there is a lot of debate to be had over what is the right way forward. But one thing you can’t debate is the universal nature of punishment. Everywhere in the world punishments tend to be similar: imprisonment, torture, deprivation, and death. Pretty much all people groups agree on the undesirable nature of these things – which is why humanity has used them as punishments. Because every person understands pain and misery, every person also understands how to love their neighbor. God’s law is written on our hearts. Let’s read verse 22:
Isa 30:22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
God is promising a day when all of these idols and foreign entanglements are replaced by wholehearted loyalty to the Lord. He’s saying the people will dispose of idols as unclean things. This is what happens when the collective understanding of a society gets updated. One of the most dramatic examples that I’ve seen is the use of cigarettes. Go back 60 years and smoking cigarettes was nearly ubiquitous – okay you could find it almost everywhere. Many of the hottest stars were pictured with cigarettes and smoking was the thing to do. But as we started to see the terrible consequences of cigarette smoke on our health, kids were taught to stay away from it. Today the clear majority of kids in this generation do not smoke cigarettes. Some of them have replaced it with vaping – but we’re finding out that carries its own consequences. Another example is asbestos. Once considered a staple of building materials, asbestos is now synonymous with cancers like mesothelioma. So as God brings us into new understanding our actions and behaviors are transformed. Let’s read verses 23-26:
Isa 30:23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,
Isa 30:24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
Isa 30:25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Isa 30:26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
Here Isaiah is portraying the anticipated new order that will establish the messianic kingdom. This is a world so new and so different that Isaiah resorted to a poetic description of it here. It is a glorious reality full of blessings. This passage frames it out in a way that would make sense to a nation of farmers like Judah. They couldn’t imagine a better future than to have produce that was rich and plenteous. It was a naturally dry land and so the idea of abundant rivers and streams was a wonderful promise. But even better than all of these material blessings was the promise of God’s loving care. The promise of God Himself healing them from the broken condition of the world. Let’s read verses 27-29:
Isa 30:27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
Isa 30:28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
Isa 30:29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
Here Isaiah is looking ahead to the incoming judgment of God. It seems far away and long delayed – but it’s coming. Assyria and every other earthly power are no match. But the people who trust in God have nothing to fear. In fact, Isaiah pictures them rejoicing in God’s judgment. Finally there is justice for the evil and the wicked. Listen to 1 John 4:17:
1Jn 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
As people who belong to God we will be able to rejoice in His judgment because we will finally be able to see things from His perspective. We’ll understand that His judgment is perfect and that God makes no mistakes. We will see that God’s judgment is at the same time our own salvation. Let’s finish with verses 30-33:
Isa 30:30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.
Isa 30:31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod.
Isa 30:32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.
Isa 30:33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
So at the beginning of this chapter we saw the disappointing outcome of Judah depending on Egypt to fight for them. We close this chapter with a celebration of God Himself intervening for His people. This prophecy has a near-view and a distant-view. The near-view describes how God will send the angel of the Lord down onto the Assyrian army as they sit encamped outside the walls of Jerusalem. 185,000 Assyrian soldiers would be destroyed overnight and Judah would be saved from what looked to be certain destruction. This was God carrying out the promise that Judah should have trusted in from the beginning.
The distant view of this prophecy gives us a look at hell. When verse 33 says a burning place it’s referring to Topheth. Topheth was a location in the Hinnom Valley just outside of Jerusalem’s walls. It served as Jerusalem’s garbage dump and so it was a disgusting combination of trash and smoldering fires. It’s also the location where Judeans burned their children in sacrifice to pagan gods. Here we see it being used to represent the place where God’s enemies will be destroyed forever – the Assyrian tyrant and every other tyrant in history. It turns out that God spared the Assyrian king on the night that He destroyed the Assyrian army. But when the king returned home he was murdered by his own sons while he worshiped in the temple of Nisroch his god.
The take away of this chapter is that there is great danger in turning away from God in order to get what we think we want. As we walk through life we have to manage the difficulty of not being able to see into the future. God knows our best outcome and He knows how to get us there. Having faith in His process is the first step in letting go of the anxiety that comes with a frantic life. We need to be productive and take action – but we need to do so from an educated position and with careful attention. There are far more ways to make mistakes than there are to proceed properly. But with the power and wisdom of God the good news is that we can do it. We can bring about a better tomorrow for ourselves and for our loved ones. And the best news of all is that even if we do make mistakes – we can have peace in knowing that our God will not. We can rest in understanding that He will work all things out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
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