Isaiah 30
Read Isaiah 30:1-5
1 ‘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;
2 who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.
3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.
4 Though they have officials in Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
5 everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage, but only shame and disgrace.’
In 727BC Hoshea king of Israel (in the north) hoped that Egypt would help him as he rebelled against Assyria. Not a good idea: Egypt itself was weak and as a result Assyria conquered the whole of Israel.
Hezekiah, king of Judah, also allied with Egypt temporarily. When Sennacherib king of Assyria defeated Egypt and turned his attention to Judah, Hezekiah finally saw sense and trusted the Lord who saved them (2 Kings 18-19).
Later, Judah was temporarily taken over by Egypt and Jehoiakim was installed as a puppet-king. But that didn’t last long, they soon fell to the Babylonians.
Read verse 6
6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation,
Notice that this prophecy is directed to ‘the envoys’, hoping to buy Egyptian alliance with their treasures; but even the road they have chosen to take is full of dangers.
This prophecy may relate to 2 Kings 25:22-26 when leaders who had been left in Judah by the Babylonians to manage ‘their’ land fled to Egypt. Again, not a good idea – Egypt had already been taken by Babylon.
Read 7-11
7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.
8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.
9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
10 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.
11 Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!’
Jeremiah was in Jerusalem at this time and he too was prophesying: ‘O remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today’ (Jeremiah 42:19). And yes – it was written on a scroll, in detail! – for more read Jeremiah 41-44.
Read 12-14
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says: ‘Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.’
In a previous study people were told about the ‘high wall’ or ‘mighty rock’ – the Lord – that they could shelter behind. But the wall of deceit they had chosen to shelter behind (verses 2 and 3) – Egypt – ‘cracked and bulging’ would soon collapse on them.
Pottery was valuable, so broken pieces would have been used whenever possible, but even the broken pieces of the wall they depended on would be worthless.
Read 15-18
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.
16 You said, “No, we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.” Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.’
18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
And this is the Lord’s message still ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength'. He is a God of love who offers salvation to all, even to those who ‘would have none of it’. ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous’ (1 Peter 3:18)
Read 19-22
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.
21 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.’
22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, ‘Away with you!’
A prophecy which came true when the people of Israel returned from captivity and idols were abandoned. But it is also looking forward to a time when people have put their trust in Jesus, and who now listen to the prompting of his Holy Spirit: ‘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’.
Read 23-26
23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.
25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
Here the prophecy looks even further ahead to ‘the day of great slaughter’, when the redeemed will inherit a new heaven and a new earth, a new land that ‘will be rich and plentiful’.
Read 27-33
27 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.
28 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.
29 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.
30 The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.
31 The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his rod he will strike them down.
32 Every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing club will be to the music of tambourines and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.
33 Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulphur, sets it ablaze.
Now the prophecy mixes the end times with the end of Assyria. During all the death and destruction, the Lord’s people will hear his voice and rejoice in ‘the Rock of Israel’.
Topheth was a valley near Jerusalem where child sacrifice had been practiced. Later it became a rubbish dump, often with fires – so it became synonymous with Hell itself.
Isaiah 31
Read 1-3
1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord.
2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against that wicked nation, against those who help evildoers.
3 But the Egyptians are mere mortals and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the Lord stretches out his hand, those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together.
When Sennacherib, king of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem, many wanted to send to Egypt for help. Even Sennacherib was scathing of that idea ‘Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. ’ (2 Kings 18:21). Mind you, he was also scathing of their trust in the Lord (2 Kings 18:22) but that was his downfall. Hezekiah did ‘look to the Holy One of Israel’ and did seek ‘help from the Lord’. 2 Kings 19 details what happened next, including what Isaiah prophesied at the time.
Read 4-5
4 This is what the Lord says to me: ‘As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey – and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamour – so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.
5 Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will “pass over” it and will rescue it.’
The Lord is the ‘Lion of Judah’ and is not frightened by an army of shepherds. He is as scathing of the Assyrians as they were of him.
Read 6-7
6 Return, you Israelites, to the One you have so greatly revolted against. 7 For in that day every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold your sinful hands have made.
Throughout their history, the people of Israel had continually, superstitiously, turned to man-made gods. Like modern-day Christians crossing their fingers or touching wood! Trusting to ‘luck’ rather than the Lord. It was only after their return from exile to Babylon that this worthless habit ended.
Read 8-9
8 ‘Assyria will fall by no human sword; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.
They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labour.
9 Their stronghold will fall because of terror; at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,’ declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.
2 Kings 19:35-36 describes how this prophecy came true: ‘35 That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning – there were all the dead bodies! 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there’ where he was murdered by his own sons.
Later an alliance of Medes and Babylonians destroyed Nineveh and soon the Assyrian empire was no more.
Isaiah 32
Read 1-4
1 See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.
2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4 The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.
Hopefully I don’t need to tell you who this is referring to! Try Matthew 11:5.
Read 5-8
5 No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
6 For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: they practise ungodliness and spread error concerning the Lord;
the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water.
7 Scoundrels use wicked methods, they make up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
8 But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.
The religious leaders were failing their people. Even in Jesus day he was scathing of the teachers of the law and pharisees – see Matthew 23. But where the leaders lead, others will soon follow.
But it is not only the men the Lord is talking to: the women of Jerusalem are also singled out.
Read 9-14
9 You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say!
10 In little more than a year you who feel secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest of fruit will not come.
11 Tremble, you complacent women; shudder, you daughters who feel secure!
Strip off your fine clothes and wrap yourselves in rags.
12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines 13 and for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers – yes, mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.
14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland for ever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
Isaiah returns to his earlier theme in verses 8-9 of the previous chapter. They may feel secure once the Assyrians had left, but the Babylonians who replaced them were a bigger threat. Again they will suffer the effects of a siege before they too are taken into bondage in exile.
Read 15-19
15 till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.
16 The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert, his righteousness live in the fertile field.
17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence for ever. 18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling-places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is levelled completely,
20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.
This may be a picture of their eventual miraculous return under Cyrus the Great, but at the same time it is truly a vision of Heaven itself.
