Who should Israel trust, God or foreign alliances? Who do we trust? Let’s look at Isaiah 30.
What did God warn Israel about trusting in a treaty with Egypt?
This is the Lord's message for his rebellious people: “You follow your own plans instead of mine; you make treaties without asking me, and you keep on sinning. You trust Egypt for protection. So you refuse my advice and send messengers to Egypt to beg their king for help. You will be disappointed, completely disgraced for trusting Egypt. The king's power reaches from the city of Zoan as far south as Hanes. But Egypt can't protect you, and to trust that nation is useless and foolish.” (Isa 30:1-5 CEV)
Does the phrase “Rahab [pride] who sits still” describe Egypt here as “do nothing pride?”
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. Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.” (Isa 30:6-7 ESV)
Were people in ancient Israel very similar to many moderns, wanting to hear only smooth things, illusions?
Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the future, forever and ever. They are a rebellious people, deceptive children, children who do not want to obey the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy the truth to us. Tell us flattering things. Prophesy illusions. Get out of the way! Leave the pathway. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa 30:8-11 HCSB)
How suddenly would the collapse of the nation in rebellion against God be?
Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: “Because you reject this message, and put your trust in oppression and enjoy it, and since you rely on it, therefore, for you this sin will become like a breach in a high wall that is about to collapse, bulging out, and whose crash comes suddenly—in an instant. Its breaking will be like when potters’ vessels are broken, shattered so ruthlessly that among its fragments not even a broken sliver will be found for taking fire from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.” (Isaiah 30:12-14 ISV)
What would have guaranteed the salvation of the nation?
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. 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. 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. (Isa 30:15-17 KJV)
Will Jerusalem eventually return to God and be blessed?
Therefore Yahweh waits with longing to be gracious to you, And therefore He is on high to have compassion on you. For Yahweh is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who wait for Him. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. The Lord has given you bread of distress and water of oppression; He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. And your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with your silver, and your molten images plated with your gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing and say to them, “Be gone!” (Isa 30:18-22 LSB)
What will the day look like when God heals the people of Jerusalem?
Then He will give you rain for your seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plentiful; on that day your livestock will graze in a wide pasture. Also the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned feed, which has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the wound He has inflicted. (Isa 30:23-26 NASB)
Will the people of Jerusalem have gladness on the day of judgment?
See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray. And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. (Isa 30:27-29 NIV)
How glorious will the judgment of the Lord be in that day? Is Tophet in the Valley of Hinnom, which as the town’s rubbish dump, pictured hell?
The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard, And show the descent of His arm, With the indignation of His anger And the flame of a devouring fire, With scattering, tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord Assyria will be beaten down, As He strikes with the rod. And in every place where the staff of punishment passes, Which the Lord lays on him, It will be with tambourines and harps; And in battles of brandishing He will fight with it. For Tophet was established of old, Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood; The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, Kindles it. (Isa 30:30-33 NKJV)
Did Jesus echo this chapter as He grieved over Jerusalem?
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. (Mat 23:37 NLT)
Who should Israel trust, God or foreign alliances? Who do we trust? You decide!
