OUR PRIORITY - LISTEN Isaiah 30
G.K.Chesterton wrote,
“If the church marries the spirit of the age, she will soon become a widow.”
Historical Background
This chapter from Isaiah’s prophesy, was written in the southern kingdom of Judah before 700 BC. There was much political unrest in the Middle East during this time. Ahaz, king of Judah was threatened by an alliance between the northern kingdom, Israel, and Syria (called Aram). In return for the protection of the most powerful country in the area, Assyria, Judah under Ahaz became a vassal state. The Assyrians mounted a massive onslaught against Israel, and eventually conquered its capital, Samaria in 732 BC, taking many of the inhabitants into exile. This history is told in 2 Kings chapters 16 - 18. The Assyrian style of warfare depended on the use of massive armies. They were the first to use large siege machines. Their greatest weapon, however, was the use of psychological techniques, instilling fear into their enemies. Captives were skinned alive, bodies were impaled on stakes and severed heads were piled in heaps. They were a terrifying enemy.
When Hezekiah, son of Ahaz became king (729 BC) he determined to obey God and forcibly removed all the altars and ‘high places’ that had links with foreign deities. Being a vassal state of Assyria required at least formal recognition of their Gods so this itself was a token of defiance. Later they refused to pay protection money due to Assyria. Invasion of Judah seemed imminent and undoubtedly the people of Judah were very scared. What should they do?
Isaiah 30 v. 1-26
Please do read through Isaiah 30, which describes their reactions. The first half of the chapter is depressing as they plan their own ways of escape, leaving God out of the problem except doubtless in a formal role. This is in spite of the fact that Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” This is strangely encouraging as it shows clearly that good men of God can still go wrong, leaving God out of the picture, yet come to their senses in time and receive God’s help. The reason that this is possible is clearly taught in the pivotal verse 19,
“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are you who wait for him.”
The wording in the Hebrew is interesting as the word for ‘longs’ in the first clause has the same root as that for ‘wait’ at the end. It is saying that God is waiting and longing for us to wait and long for him. The almighty God of the universe is waiting to care for his people whatever their problems. Even the might of the Assyrian army is no trouble to Him with His resources.
God can be gracious at any time. The Book of Common Prayer says, ‘his nature is always to have mercy.’ So why do we not see it all the time? Why do we seem to be left all alone to face our various problems? This is the real question that Isaiah is going to answer for us.
Why does God make us wait?
The first half of this chapter analyses the reasons he waited before intervening on behalf of his people, Judah and we can learn from this why he keeps us and our churches waiting before he acts. There were two major problems.
Their Faith was wrongly directed.
Read again verses 1 to 7. Ahaz their former king had made an alliance with Assyria against Syria and Israel but now they long to be free. Little Judah correctly realises that on their own they could not expect to overthrow the might of the Assyrian armies. They have to decide whether they are going to go down the same route and become a vassal state of Egypt in order to overcome Assyria or rely on God. Doubtless some would have said that ‘relying on God’ was just empty verbiage and it looks as if Hezekiah thought so too - at first. He seems to be putting his confidence in political policies and not in the promises of God. This passage is here to ask us where our confidence is placed. Christians can live just like Ahaz, giving lip service to God but in reality compromising with the world and relying on worldly solutions and not on the Almighty Lord God of the Universe.
When Hezekiah toyed with this way of thinking God was very angry. How could His people return to put their faith voluntarily in Egypt, the very country from which the Lord had freed them just over 400 years before? In Egypt they had been slaves, yet like homing pigeons God’s people keep wanting to return to that awful state – and they still do! Ezekiel, when in Babylonian exile, clearly understood what Egypt represented and wrote about this in Ezekiel chapter 29.
“Egypt will no longer be a source of confidence for the people of Israel but will be a reminder of their sin in turning to her for help. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.” Ezek 29 v. 16
Hezekiah was being tempted to rely on man made plans. Verse 1 says,
“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my spirit, heaping sin upon sin.”
They were violating that special close covenant between God and His people, and to do that risks being doomed! Envoys were making the difficult journey down to Egypt carrying bribes with them. It is not so easy facing the troubles of this world as these envoys faced the lions and snakes on their journey if god is not with you.
When they get to Egypt what do they find? All they have bought so expensively was an utterly useless ally.
“To Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.” v. 16
Rahab was the name of a mythical animal, like a Leviathon, that had no substance. The Lord is willing to use such sarcastic mockery to denounce the idiocy of relying on something so useless. How could God’s people behave with such indecent haste to look for help in such a place? Yet today there are many churches that that still look to Egypt and not to God. They rely on the world’s wisdom, the latest psychological techniques, and hope to achieve God’s ends. Why do God’s people behave so foolishly?
2. They had rejected God’s Revelation v 8 - 14
“Faith comes from hearing the message” (Rom 10 v. 17), from hearing the Word of God. This has always been God’s method. When His revelation is rejected then faith will be misplaced. Isaiah was told by God to record his message so that it could be passed on to others, including us.
“Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, for in the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.” v. 8
Here the root cause of their problem is disclosed. They do not want to listen to God’s words, they even find some of them distasteful. Like spoilt children they prefer comfortable lies to the truth that reveals God to them.
“These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.” ” v. 9 – 11
How true this is today. Many churches no longer emphasise the teaching of God’s word. They find it distasteful to their modern way of thinking. Even church leaders set themselves up in opposition to the teaching of the Bible. Some church congregations prefer to be entertained by clever oratory or antics rather than hear the Word of God. How topical yet how devastating is verse 11.
“Leave this way, get off this path, stop confronting us with the Holy One of God.”
In the early nineteenth century William Wilberforce, the famous politician who was prominent in the abolition of the slave trade, spoke about the church people of his day. What he said for his time must be even more relevant for today’s church!
“Their opinions on the subject of religion are not formed from perusal of the Word of God. The Bible lies on the shelf unopened, and they would be wholly ignorant of its contents except for what they hear occasionally at church, or for the faint traces which their memories may still retain of their earliest infancy.”
In the next verse God confronts his people with a coming judgement. So often Christians feel that because we are God’s people and Jesus Christ has bought the victory over Satan everything is all right. This cannot be true. A study of the messages to the seven churches at the beginning of the book of Revelation should remind us all that no one, not even an apparently successful church, is immune from God’s wrath. If God’s people reject His revelation then they only have false hopes, oppression and deceits to rely on, mythical Rahabs, the Do Nothings! People see their worldly wisdom as being a secure wall around them and their churches. God sees it as sin, which will rapidly crumble to nothing.
“Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.” v. 13
This is why God is waiting, because his people have drifted into apostasy and yet he still longs for them to return to a simple trust in Him. They rejected God’s Word largely because it forbade them from doing some of the things they wanted to do. They probably thought that their duty was to do all they could to stand up for God and his people – their way. No, No, No, exclaims the prophet of God. God requires his people simply to trust his promises, to depend on the love he has promised. He wants them to place all their confidence on God’s gracious commitment to them. By rejecting that revelation they repudiate that relationship. They really are in trouble now, all they have to go to is their own limited power and Egypt!
Can there be a greater tragedy than an obstinate refusal to let God be our God? This ultimately brings God’s judgement and blocks the very grace that God longs to pour out on his people.
This essential point is beautifully summarised in verse 15.
“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
The two items that the men of Judah are longing for and are hoping to obtain by a liaison with Egypt are ‘salvation ‘ and ‘strength’. Here God claims that these are his specialities. He will give both in return for a genuine turning back to living under his sovereignty (repentance) and trust in him. He wants them to change direction, cease relying on their independent efforts and trust the word of God. In their stubbornness they determined to go their own way and “would have none of it”.
In Isaiah 36 – 37 we read that the Assyrian troops did invade Judah and besieged Jerusalem (701 BC). The rest of the country was overrun and Hezekiah was left like a solitary “flagstaff on a mountain top, like a banner on a hill” (v. 17). He had no worldly support and seemed destined to be defeated. But Hezekiah remembered his Lord and cried to him in desperation. The details are given us in 2 Kings 18 – 19. Then follows a remarkable story of salvation that God undertook when his people trusted him.
Why do we so often have to wait, like the people of Judah, before we experience the salvation and deliverance that God has promised? Although he is a God of graciousness, he is waiting for us to trust him. All too often we misplace our trust and like Ahaz rely on answers of the world.
All too often in our busy routines of life we forget our dependence on God. Thomas Hooker was one of the earliest settlers in New England. In 1636 he struck out inland with 100 people and arrived in Connecticut. He wrote later,
“They who had been lively Christians in the fire of persecution, would soon become cold in the midst of universal peace, except some few, whom God by sharp trials would keep in a faithful, watchful, humble and praying frame.”
What does God want for us?
The second half of the chapter steadily unravels the answer to this question. It starts with verse 19,
“O people of Jerusalem, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry to him for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.”
The first response of God is remarkable – he will provide his people with teachers.
“Your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.” v. 20
What sort of response is that, some may ask? God’s people will understand this. They long to be taught what God wants. They delight in hearing his words. If a person does not care to know God’s word to them then they must beware because it could mean that they are not yet God’s people. Does a fiancé ignore the letters of his loved one? It is no hardship for those committed to living for the Lord to hear frequent reminders about which direction we should go in. Christians love the word of God and we refer all decisions to it.
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ ” v. 21
We are always tempted to trust in man made idols, in God substitutes. When we return to God we, like the people of Judah, will want to discard these blasphemous substitutes and never want to see them again.
When the relationship with the creator of the universe is right, He will bless his people. However he will not act in blessing his people until we repent, and then rely on Him. Then there will be real blessings with bumper harvests and a feeling of widespread contentment. The enemies and their war machine will be destroyed and refreshment pictured as water on the mountaintops, will be everywhere. The Lord will then care for our hurts and he will heal us.
When will we see this blessing?
It is highly significant that God doesn’t answer this question clearly here. God did intervene dramatically and send the Assyrian invaders back to their country but it did not bring all the benefits prophesied in verses 23 to 26. Yet God has promised that there will be a life of bliss for those who love him and live by faith in him. However the answer to this problem is given at the end of the book of Isaiah. He is referring to heaven.
“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. . . .
But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy . . . (Isaiah 65 v. 17)
There will also be a time of awful eternal judgement for those who reject this God of grace and patience.
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” Isaiah 66 v. 2
“For with fire and with his sword he will execute judgement upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord.” Isaiah 66 v. 16
God has not changed and his gospel is essentially the same as it was in Old Testament times. The Son of God has now fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies, he visited this earth and has made himself the ultimate sacrifice that enables us to be acceptable to God; but the terms of the covenant are the same.
“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30 v. 18
So it is that God wants all his people to live by faith in the Lord. Bishop J C Ryle once wrote,
“A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives or whether he dies, whether he has health or whether he has sickness, whether he is rich or whether he is poor, whether he pleases man or gives offence, whether he is thought wise or whether he is thought foolish, whether he gets blame or whether he gets praise, whether he gets honour or whether he gets ridicule, for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing . . . and that one thing is to please God and to advance God’s glory.”
BVP after D Jackman.
Aug 2000
