Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 30:1
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
1. Woe to the rebellious children ] See on Isa 1:2; Isa 1:4 and Isa 1:23; cf. Isa 30:9. The “sons” are “rebellious” inasmuch as they have taken this step without consulting Jehovah, their Father.
that take counsel ] Rather, that carry out a plan.
that cover with a covering ] R.V. gives in the margin two translations, between which it is difficult to choose: either that weave a web or that pour out a drink-offering. The latter is perhaps preferable, although the noun does not occur elsewhere with the sense of “libation” (see Isa 25:7, Isa 28:20, “covering”). The allusion would be to drink-offerings accompanying the conclusion of a treaty (comp. = libation with ( = covenant).
not of ( with) my spirit ] i.e. not in accordance with the spirit of prophecy speaking through Isaiah.
that they may add sin to sin ] the sin of concealment to the original sin of dallying with secular alliances.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 5. The futile alliance with Egypt denounced. Comp. Isa 29:15, Isa 31:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wo, – (see the note at Isa 18:1).
To the rebellious children – To those whom he had nourished as children, and who had rebelled against him (see the note at Isa 1:23).
That take counsel, but not of me – They look to Egypt, and depend on a human arm.
And that cover with a covering – The idea here, according to our translation, is, that they seek protection or a covering from the impending calamity. Lowth renders this, Who ratify covenants; supposing that the reference is to the fact that in ancient times compacts were formed by offering sacrifices, and by pouring out libations. The Hebrew, according to Lowth, means, who pour out a libation. So the Septuagint renders it, sunthekas – And thou hast made covenants. The Syriac renders it, Who pour out libations. The Hebrew word nasak properly conveys the idea of pouring out, and is applied:
(1) to the act of pouring out wine as a drink offering, or as a libation to God Gen 35:14; Exo 30:9; 1Ch 11:18; Hos 9:4;
(2) to the act of pouring out oil, that is, to anointing kings and rulers Psa 2:6; Dan 11:8;
(3) to the act of pouring out melted metals, that is, to cast them Isa 40:19; Isa 44:10.
The word also may have a meaning kindred to sakak and denote to cover, as in Isa 25:7. Various derivatives from the word are rendered to cover withal Num 4:7; the covering Isa 28:20; the web, that is, that which is woven for a covering Jdg 16:13-14. The idea, however, which best suits the connection here is probably that suggested by Lowth, in accordance with the Septuagint, and the Syriac, and adopted by Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and others, to make a libation; that is, to ratify a covenant, or compact.
But not of my Spirit – It was not such as was suggested by his Spirit, and not such as he would approve.
That they may add sin to sin – They add to the sin of rebellion against God that of forming an alliance. Sins do not usually stand alone. When one is committed, it is often necessary to commit others in order to carry out and complete the plan which that contemplated.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 30:1-3
Woe to the rebellious children
A foolish mission
In chapter 30 the negotiations with Egypt are represented as having reached a further stage: an embassy, despatched for the purpose of concluding a treaty, is already on its way to the court of the Pharaohs.
Isaiah takes the opportunity of reiterating his sense of the fruitlessness of the mission, and derides the folly of those who expect from it any substantial result. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The only Counsellor
These words contain a most important lesson for all such as have anything to do with managing the affairs of nations: and it would be well for the world if its rulers would give heed to that lesson, and keep guard against the sins on account of which the prophet here denounces woe against the rulers of Judah. They entered into an alliance with Pharaoh, with the view of gaining assistance from him which might enable them to cope with Sennacherib in the field. This is just what a statesman, who plumed himself on his wisdom in these days, would do. Yet it is for doing this very thing that the prophet Isaiah in the text denounces woe against them. Their conduct therefore must have been sinful. Let us try to discover in what their sin lay.
1. They were making use of human means to ward off the danger which threatened them. Not that thins in itself is altogether wrong in Gods eyes. On the contrary, we are so placed here on earth, in the midst of so many wants and necessities, and so helpless by ourselves, that we are compelled to be forever making use of human and earthly means. Only, we ought to make use of these means with the conviction that they are merely instruments in the hands of Him who can alone endow them with the power of being of use to us. This is what the rulers of Judah forgot and entirely lost sight of. They trusted in Pharaoh. We are all apt to take counsel of ourselves, of our own understandings, our own wishes, our own convenience, our passions, our interest, our sloth, our purses, our appetites. Or we take counsel of our friends, of our neighbours, of such men as are esteemed to be quick and far-sighted, of every person, and of every thing, except of God. His counsel is the last we seek. Therefore does the prophets woe fall upon us also. And why is it that we are so loth to take counsel of God? Our unwillingness can only proceed from an evil heart of unbelief; from that unbelief which loses sight of the Ruler and Lawgiver of the world, and which is prone to worship whatever dazzles the senses and flatters our carnal nature.
2. But there was another feature in the conduct of the princes of Judah which deepened their sin. They were not merely putting their trust in an arm of flesh,–they who had been so strongly forbidden to trust in such vanities, and who had the living God to trust in such vanities, and who had the living God to trust in: but the arm they were trusting to was the arm of Egypt. Egypt had from the first been the deadly enemy of the Israelites, and of their God. Egypt was the source from which all manner of idolatrous abominations had flowed in upon them: out of Egypt they had been called; and they were no longer to hold any intercourse with it. Therefore the prophet goes on to cry, Woe to those who walk to go down into Egypt, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt: and he declares that, because they do so, the strength of Pharaoh shall be their shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt their confusion. Nor will it be otherwise with us. If we are guilty of their sin we shall not escape their woe. And alas! how often in moments of fear, of distress,–when some danger starts up suddenly in our path, when the enemy seems to be hard at hand, and just ready to overwhelm us,–do we feel tempted to go down into Egypt, in the hope of strengtheningourselves with the strength of Pharaoh, and of sheltering ourselves with the shadow of Egypt! Satan at such moments is always close at our ear, whispering to us, that, if we will but take counsel of him, and do as he bids us, he will help us out of our difficulty. It should be borne in mind that, every time we sin we weaken our souls, we cripple our good feelings, we blunt our conscience, we drive away the Spirit of God from our hearts. Therefore, instead of our being better able to meet the next temptation, the odds against us are increased. (J. C. Hare, M. A.)
The Jews dependence on Egypt
The advantages which the Jews promised themselves from their alliance with Egypt were these–
1. The Egyptians abounded in chariots and horses, which the Jews were destitute of. For Palestine, being a country full of steep hills and narrow difficult ways, was in many places impassable by horses, and therefore their beasts of burden were camels, asses, and mules, which are not apt to start, but tread sure in dangerous ways. These served them very commodiously in times of peace. But when they were invaded by armies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who had troops of horse, and multitudes of chariots, they wanted the like forces to oppose them; and such the Egyptians could very well supply them with.
2. Besides, the Assyrians and Chaldeans were at that time the most formidable Powers of the East, ambitious of universal monarchy, and threatening to subdue Egypt as well as other rich kingdoms. On which account the Egyptians were jealous of them, and therefore were most easily prevailed upon, and more cheaply engaged to assist the Jews, or any other people in their wars against them. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Gods prohibition of alliance with Egypt
The reasons why God prohibited His people to confederate with the Egyptians, are these–
1. He had delivered their forefathers out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, stretched out from Heaven, and unassisted by any human means. He had manifested Himself to be far above all their gods, in that He triumphed over them in the ten plagues, and drowned their king and army in the Red Sea. Notwithstanding all which sufficient convictions, the Egyptians still persisted in their gross idolatry; which might justly provoke God to forbid His people any dealing with them.
2. Their applying to Egypt for aid against their enemies, was derogatory to the honour of God, who having anciently demonstrated His ability to save His people, and having promised still to vouchsafe them His protection in proportion to their obedience, these idolaters might be apt to conclude that His former power was now decayed, and that their gods had gained the ascendant over Him, since they were called in to the protection of His people.
3. An Egyptian had proved fatal to Israel in their happiest state; I mean the daughter of an Egyptian king, who was one of the wives of King Solomon, and helped with other strange women to entice him to idolatry. The immediate consequence of which, by the just judgment of God, was the division of the twelve tribes into two kingdoms, who often waged unnatural wars one with another.
4. God had, in general, forbidden His people to make confederacies with any of the nations round about them, lest they should defile themselves with their idolatrous principles and abominable practices; or lest they should put their trust in man and make flesh their arm, and their heart depart from the Lord. (W. Reading, M. A.)
Cover with a covering
Perhaps, weave a web, hatch a scheme. (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)
R.V. marg gives two translations between which it is difficult to choose. The latter is perhaps preferable, although the noun does not occur elsewhere in the sense of libation. The allusion would be to drink offerings accompanying the conclusion of a treaty. (J. Skinner, D. D.)
Adding sin to sin
The sin of forsaking God, and trusting in the arm of flesh, to their sin of drunkenness (Isa 28:8), and their other sins. (W. Day, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXX
The Jews reproved for their reliance on Egypt, 1-7.
Threatened for their obstinate adherence to this alliance,
8-17.
Images the most elegant and lofty, by which the intense
gloriousness of Messiah’s reign at the period when all Israel
shall be added to the Church is beautifully set forth, 18-26.
Dreadful fall of Sennacherib’s army, an event most manifestly
typical of the terrible and sudden overthrow of Antichrist; as,
unless this typical reference be admitted, no possible
connexion can be imagined between the stupendous events which
took place in Hezekiah’s reign, and the very remote and
inconceivably more glorious displays of Divine vengeance and
mercy in the days of the Messiah, 27-33.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXX
Verse 1. And that cover with a covering – “Who ratify covenants”] Heb. “Who pour out a libation.” Sacrifice and libation were ceremonies constantly used, in ancient times by most nations in the ratifying of covenants: a libation therefore is used for a covenant, as in Greek the word , for the same reason, stands for both. This seems to be the most easy explication of the Hebrew phrase, and it has the authority of the Septuagint, .
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The rebellious children; the Jews, who call themselves Gods children, though they are rebellious ones, as was said, Isa 1:2.
That take counsel; that consult together, and resolve to do what follows, Isa 30:2.
Not of me; not following nor asking my advice, which they had command and encouragement from me to do.
That cover with a covering; that seek protection.
Not of my Spirit; not such as by my Spirit, speaking in my word, I have directed and required them to do; but such as I have severely forbidden to them; for the contrary affirmative is frequently implied in the negative; of which I have formerly given many instances.
That they may add sin to sin; that unto those sins, by which they have deserved and procured my judgments upon them, they may add distrust of my power and mercy to save them, and confidence in an arm of flesh, which also is rebellion against my express command to the contrary.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. take counselrather, asIsa 30:4; Isa 30:6imply, “execute counsels.”
cover . . . coveringthatis, wrap themselves in reliances disloyal towards Jehovah. “Cover”thus answers to “seek to hide deeply their counsel from theLord” (Isa 29:15). Butthe Hebrew is literally, “who pour out libations”;as it was by these that leagues were made (Exo 24:8;Zec 9:11), translate, “whomake a league.”
not ofnot suggested byMy Spirit” (Num 27:21;Jos 9:14).
that they may addTheconsequence is here spoken of as their intention, soreckless were they of sinning: one sin entails the commission ofanother (De 29:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,…. The Jews, who were, by national adoption, and by outward profession of religion, the “children” of God, but were apostates from him, had turned their backs upon him, deviated from his law, and departed from his worship and ordinances; and therefore a woe is pronounced against them, or they are called upon to consider of their evil ways, and return, that iniquity might not be their ruin:
that take counsel, but not of me; they met and consulted together about their safety, when in danger, but did not ask counsel of the Lord; they did not consult his word, nor his prophets, nor by Urim and Thummim, as in case of war they should more especially:
and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit; they sought for a cover, a shelter, a protection from the enemy, but not from the Spirit of the Lord, in his word and prophets, who would have directed them to a more suitable and sufficient one. Kimchi understands this of their covert and secret counsels, which they laid deep, as they fancied, and sought to hide. The Targum of the former clause and this is,
“that take counsel, but not of my word; that consult a consultation, but do not ask of my prophets:”
that they may add sin to sin; the sins of consulting others, and of putting confidence in a creature, to their other sins of rebellion and apostasy: so wicked men, who are enemies in their minds, by wicked works, to God, and commit acts of hostility against him, and are in danger thereby of eternal ruin, do not consult the word and ministers of the Gospel, but flesh and blood, carnal sense and reason, and seek to cover themselves with the rags of their own righteousness, and not with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, and garments of salvation, which the Spirit of God reveals and brings near; and so to their other sins they add that of trusting to their own righteousness, and not submitting to Christ’s.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The plan which, according to Isa 29:15, was already projected and prepared in the deepest secrecy, is now much further advanced. The negotiations by means of ambassadors have already been commenced; but the prophet condemns what he can no longer prevent. “Woe to the stubborn children, saith Jehovah, to drive plans, and not by my impulse, and to plait alliance, and not according to my Spirit, to heap sin upon sin: that go away to travel down to Egypt, without having asked my mouth, to fly to Pharaoh’s shelter, and to conceal themselves under the shadow of Egypt. And Pharaoh’s shelter becomes a shame to them, and the concealment under the shadow of Egypt a disgrace. For Judah’s princes have appeared in Zoan, and his ambassadors arrive in Hanes. They will all have to be ashamed of a people useless to them, that brings no help and no use, but shame, and also reproach.” Sor e rm is followed by infinitives with Lamed (cf., Isa 5:22; Isa 3:8): who are bent upon it in their obstinacy. Massekhah designates the alliance as a plait ( massekheth ). According to Cappellus and others, it designates it as formed with a libation ( , from ); but the former is certainly the more correct view, inasmuch as m assekhah (from nasakh , fundere ) signifies a cast, and hence it is more natural here to take nasakh as equivalent to sakhakh , plectere (Jerome: ordiremini telam ). The context leaves no doubt as to the meaning of the adverbial expressions and , viz., without its having proceeded from me, and without my Spirit being there. “Sin upon sin:” inasmuch as they carry out further and further to perfect realization the thought which was already a sinful one in itself. The prophet now follows for himself the ambassadors, who are already on the road to the country of the Nile valley. He sees them arrive in Zoan, and watches them as they proceed thence into Hanes. He foresees and foretells what a disgraceful opening of their eyes will attend the reward of this untheocratical beginning. On laoz b’ , see at Isa 10:31: oz is the infinitive constr. of uz ; m aoz , on the contrary, is a derivative of azaz , to be strong. The suffixes of (his princes) and (his ambassadors) are supposed by Hitzig, Ewald, and Knobel, who take a different view of what is said, to refer to the princes and ambassadors of Pharaoh. But this is by no means warranted on the ground that the prophet cannot so immediately transfer to Zoan and Hanes the ambassadors of Judah, who were still on their journey according to Isa 30:2. The prophet’s vision overleaps the existing stage of the desire for this alliance; he sees the great men of his nation already suing for the favour of Egypt, first of all in Zoan, and then still further in Hanes, and at once foretells the shameful termination of this self-desecration of the people of Jehovah. The lxx give for , , i.e., , and Knobel approves this reading; but it is a misunderstanding, which only happens to have fallen out a little better this time than the rendering given for in Isa 29:3. If c hinnam had been the original reading, it would hardly have entered any one’s mind to change it into c hanes . The latter was the name of a city on an island of the Nile in Central Egypt, the later Heracleopolis (Eg. Hnes ; Ehnes ), the Anysis of Herodotus (ii. 137). On Zoan, see at Isa 19:11. At that time the Tanitic dynasty was reigning, the dynasty preceding the Ethiopian. Tanis and Anysis were the two capitals. (= =( , a metaplastic hiphil of = , a different word from ) is incorrectly pointed for , like ( keri) for in Jos 21:10. signifies elsewhere, “to make stinking” (to calumniate, Pro 13:5), or “to come into ill odour” (1Sa 27:12); here, however, it means to be put to shame ( = ).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Foolish Confidence of Judah. | B. C. 720. |
1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. 5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. 6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. 7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
It was often the fault and folly of the people of the Jews that, when they were insulted by their neighbours on one side, they sought for succour from their neighbours on the other side, instead of looking up to God and putting their confidence in him. Against the Israelites they sought to the Syrians, 2Ch 16:2; 2Ch 16:3. Against the Syrians they sought to the Assyrians, 2 Kings xvi. 7. Against the Assyrians they here sought to the Egyptians, and Rabshakeh upbraided them with so doing, 2 Kings xviii. 21. Now observe here,
I. How this sin of theirs is described, and what there was in it that was provoking to God. When they saw themselves in danger and distress, 1. They would not consult God. They would do things of their own heads, and not advise with God, though they had a ready and certain way of doing it by Urim or prophets. They were so confident of the prudence of their own measures that they thought it needless to consult the oracle; nay, they were not willing to put it to that issue: “They take counsel among themselves, and one from another; but they do not ask counsel, much less will they take counsel, of me. They cover with a covering” (they think to secure themselves with one shelter or other, which may serve to cover them from the violence of the storm), “but not of my Spirit” (not such as God by his Spirit, in the mouth of his prophets, directed them to), “and therefore it will prove too short a covering, and a refuge of lies.” 2. They could not confide in God. They did not think it enough to have God on their side, nor were they at all solicitous to make him their friend, but they strengthened themselves in the strength of Pharaoh; they thought him a powerful ally, and doubted not but to be able to cope with the Assyrian while they had him for them. The shadow of Egypt (and it was but a shadow) was the covering in which they wrapped themselves.
II. What was the evil of this sin. 1. It bespoke them rebellious children; and a woe is here denounced against them under that character, v. 1. They were, in profession, God’s children; but, not trusting in him, they were justly stigmatized as rebellious; for, if we distrust God’s providence, we do in effect withdraw ourselves from our allegiance. 2. They added sin to sin. It was sin that brought them into distress; and then, instead of repenting, they trespassed yet more against the Lord, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. And those that had abused God’s mercies to them, making them the fuel of their lusts, abused their afflictions too, making them an excuse for their distrust of God; and so they make bad worse, and add sin to sin; and those that do so, as they make their own chain heavy, so it is just with God to make their plagues wonderful. Now that which aggravated their sin was, (1.) That they took so much pains to secure the Egyptians for their allies: They walk to go down to Egypt, travel up and down to find an advantageous road thither; but they have not asked at my mouth, never considered whether God would allow and approve of it or no. (2.) That they were at such a vast expense to do it, v. 6. They load the beasts of the south (horses fetched from Egypt, which lay south from Judea) with their riches, fancying, as it is common with people in a fright, that they were safer any where than where they were. Or they sent their riches thither as bribes to Pharaoh’s courtiers, to engage them in their interests, or as pay for their army. God would have helped them gratis; but, if they will have help from the Egyptians, they must pay dearly for it, and they seem willing to do so. The riches that are so spent will turn to a bad account. They carried their effects to Egypt through a land (so it may be read) of trouble and anguish, that vast howling wilderness which lay between Canaan and Egypt, whence come the lion and fiery serpent, Deut. viii. 15. They would venture through that dangerous wilderness, to bring what they had to Egypt. Or it may be meant of Egypt itself, which had been to Israel a house of bondage and therefore a land of trouble and anguish, and which abounded in ravenous and venomous creatures. See what dangers men run into that forsake God, and what dangers they will run into in pursuance of their carnal confidences and their expectations from the creature.
III. What would be the consequence of it. 1. The Egyptians would receive their ambassadors, would address them very respectfully, and be willing to treat with them (v. 4): His princes were at Zoan, at Pharaoh’s court there, and had their audience of the king, who encouraged them to depend upon his friendship and the succours he would send them. But, 2. They would not answer their expectation: They could not profit them, v. 5. For God says, They shall not profit them (v. 6), and every creature is that to us (and no more) which he makes it to be. The forces they were to furnish them with could not be raised in time; or, when they were raised, they were not fit for service, and they would not venture any of their veteran troops in the expedition; or the march was so long that they could not come up when they had occasion for them; or the Egyptians would not be cordial to Israel, but would secretly incline to the Assyrians, upon some account or other: The Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose, v. 7. They shall hinder and hurt, instead of helping. And therefore, 3. These people, that were now so fond of the Egyptians, would at length be ashamed of them, and of all their expectations from them and confidence in them (v. 3): “The strength of Pharaoh, which was your pride, shall be your shame; all your neighbours will upbraid you, and you will upbraid yourselves, with your folly in trusting to it. And the shadow of Egypt, that land shadowing with wings (ch. xviii. 1), which was your confidence, shall be your confusion; it will not only disappoint you, and be the matter of your shame, but it will weaken all your other supports, and be an occasion of mischief to you.” God afterwards threatens the ruin of Egypt for this very thing, because they had dealt treacherously with Israel and been a staff of a reed to them, Eze 29:6; Eze 29:7. The princes and ambassadors of Israel, who were so forward to court an alliance with them, when they come among them shall see so much of their weakness, or rather of their baseness, that they shall all be ashamed of a people that could not be a help or profit to them, but a shame and reproach, v. 5. Those that trust in God, in his power, providence, and promise, are never made ashamed of their hope; but those that put confidence in any creature will sooner or later find it a reproach to them. God is true, and may be trusted, but every man a liar, and must be suspected. The Creator is a rock of ages, the creature a broken reed. We cannot expect too little from man nor too much from God.
IV. The use and application of all this (v. 7): “Therefore have I cried concerning this matter, this project of theirs. I have published it, that all might take notice of it. I have pressed it as one in earnest. Their strength is to sit still, in a humble dependence upon God and his goodness and a quiet submission to his will, and not to wander about and put themselves to great trouble to seek help from this and the other creature.” If we sit still in a day of distress, hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord, and using only lawful regular methods for our own preservation, this will be the strength of our souls both for services and sufferings, and it will engage divine strength for us. We weaken ourselves, and provoke God to withdraw from us, when we make flesh our arm, for then our hearts depart from the Lord. When we have tired ourselves by seeking for help from creatures we shall find it the best way of recruiting ourselves to repose in the Creator. Here I am, let him do with me as he pleases.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 30
A WOE UPON JUDAH FOR HER FOLLY
Vs. 1-7: THE SINFUL AND DISASTROUS FOLLY OF RELIANCE ON EGYPT
1. Adding sin to sin, rebellious Judah has rejected the counsel of the Lord (Deu 17:16; Isa 8:19; Isa 28:15; Isa 29:15), and failed to inquire of the Holy Spirit, in her stubborn determination to forge an alliance (lit. “weave a web”) of security in the untrustworthy “shadow” of Egypt, (see notes on Isa 8:11-12; Isa 31:1; Jer 43:7).
2. Their trust in the strength of Egypt, rather than in the Lord their Maker, will soon assure their confusion, shame and disgrace, (vs. 3-5; Isa 20:5-6; Isa 36:6; Jer 42:18; Jer 42:22; Jer 43:7).
3. Passing through the Negev desert (largely given over to wild beasts, vipers and fiery flying serpents), the princes of Judah are already on their way to Egypt – their asses and camels loaded with treasures designed to secure a treaty of defense which would be worthless, (vs. 6-7).
4. Since Judah refuses to wait on the Lord (comp. vs. 15, 18), she need not expect his blessing.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Woe to the rebellious children. The Prophet exclaims against the Jews, because, when they were unable to bear the burden, when they were hard pressed by the Assyrians and other enemies, they fled to Egypt for help. This reproof might appear to be excessively severe, were we merely to consider that weak and miserable men, especially when they are unjustly oppressed, have a right to ask assistance even from wicked persons; for it is a principle implanted in us by nature, that all human beings should willingly, and of their own accord, endeavour to assist each other. But when we come to the very sources, we shall find that no ordinary or inconsiderable guilt had been contracted by the people.
First, it is no light offense, but wicked obstinacy, to disregard and even despise God’s government, and follow their own inclinations. But God had strictly forbidden them to enter into any alliance or league with the Egyptians. (Exo 13:17; Deu 17:16.) There were chiefly two causes of this prohibition. One was general, and related to alliances and leagues with other nations; for God did not wish that his people should be corrupted by the superstitions of the Gentiles. (Exo 23:32; Deu 7:2.) We are gradually infected, I know not how, by the vices of those with whom we have intercourse and familiarity; and as we are more prone by nature to copy vices than virtues, we easily become accustomed to corruptions, and, in short, the infection rapidly spreads from one person to another. This has happened to our own country, France, in consequence of having intercourse with many nations, which leads her too eagerly to imitate their vices, and has covered her with frightful pollution. This immoderate desire of forming alliances unlocked Asia to the Mahometans, and next laid Europe open to them; and though they still retain their moderation in eating and drinking, all that has been subdued by their arms has contracted nothing but filth and debasement. This is what we Frenchmen have also derived from our intercourse with other nations.
The second reason was special and peculiar to this nation; for, since the Lord had delivered the Jews out of Egypt, and commanded them to remember so remarkable a benefit, he forbade them to have any intercourse with the Egyptians. And if they had entered into an alliance with the Egyptians, the remembrance of that benefit might easily have been obliterated; for they would not have been at liberty to celebrate it in such a manner as had been commanded. (Exo 13:3.) It was excessively base to disregard the glory of God for the purpose of cultivating friendship with an irreligious and wicked nation. Since God intended also to testify to his people that he alone was more than sufficient to secure their safety, they ought to have valued that promise so highly as to exclude themselves willingly from other assistance. It was a very heinous crime to endeavour to gain the favour of heathen nations on all sides, and to deprive God of the honour due to him; for if they had been satisfied with having God’s protection alone, they would not have been in such haste to run down to Egypt. Their noisy eagerness convicted them of infidelity.
Yet I have no doubt that the Prophet directed his indignation against that sacrilege, because, by laboring earnestly to obtain the assistance of the nations around them, they withheld from God the praise of almighty power. Hence also the Spirit elsewhere compares that ardor to the extravagances of love, and even to licentious courses. (Jer 5:8.) Ezekiel shews that, by joining the Egyptians, they acted as if a woman, shamefully transgressing the bounds of decency, not only ran furiously after adulterers, but even desired to associate with horses and asses. (Eze 16:26.) And yet here he does not absolutely condemn all leagues that are made with idolaters, but has especially in view that prohibition by which the law forbade them to enter into alliance with the Egyptians. It is chiefly on account of the prohibition that he kindles into such rage; for it was not without pouring grievous contempt on God that they ran trembling into Egypt. For this reason he calls them סוררים, ( sōrĕrīm,) obstinate and rebellious. We have explained this word at the first chapter. (284) It denotes men of hardened wickedness, who knowingly and willingly revolt from God, or whose obstinacy renders them objects of disgust, so that no integrity or sincerity is left in them. At first he reproves that vice on this ground, that they neglected the word of God, and were devoted to their own counsels.
That they may cover the secret. The words לנסך מסכה, ( lĭnsōch măssēchāh,) are explained by some commentators to mean, “to pour out the pouring out.” Though this is not at variance with the Prophet’s meaning, yet it is more correctly, in my opinion, translated by others, “that they may cover a covering.” I have followed that version, because the words relate to counsels held secretly and by stealth, by which they cunningly endeavored to deceive the prophets, and, as it were, to escape from the eyes of God. Another rendering, “that they may hide themselves by a covering,” is absurd; for although it was for the sake of protection that they sought the Egyptians, yet he rather alludes to that craftiness of which I have spoken. Both expositions amount to the same thing. (285)
By three modes of expression he makes nearly the same statement; that they “cover their counsels,” that is, keep them apart from God; that they do not ask at “the mouth of the Lord;” and that they do not suffer themselves to be governed by “his Spirit.” They who are guided by their own views turn aside to cunning contrivances, that they may conceal their unbelief and rebellion; and because they have resolved not to obey the word of God, neither do they ask his Spirit. Hence arises that miserable and shameful result. Wretchedly and ruinously must those deliberations and purposes end, over which the Lord does not preside. There is no wisdom that is not obtained from “his mouth;” and if we “ask at his mouth,” that is, if we consult his word, we shall also be guided by his Spirit, from whom all prudence and wisdom proceeds.
Let it be observed that two things are here connected, the word and the Spirit of God, in opposition to fanatics, who aim at oracles and hidden revelations without the word; for they wish to come to God, while they neglect and forsake the word, and thus they do nothing else than attempt, as the saying is, to fly without wings. First of all, let it be held as a settled principle, that whatever we undertake or attempt, without the word of God, must be improper and wicked, because we ought to depend wholly on his mouth. And indeed, if we remember what feebleness of understanding, or rather, what lack of understanding, is found in all mankind, we shall acknowledge that they are excessively foolish who claim for themselves so much wisdom, that they do not even deign to ask at the mouth of God.
If it be objected, that the Scriptures do not contain everything, and that they do not give special answers on those points of which we are in doubt, I reply, that everything that relates to the guidance of our life is contained in them abundantly. If, therefore, we have resolved to allow ourselves to be directed by the word of God, and always seek in it the rule of life, God will never suffer us to remain in doubt, but in all transactions and difficulties will point out to us the conclusion. Sometimes, perhaps, we shall have to wait long, but at length the Lord will rescue and deliver us, if we are ready to obey him. Although, therefore, we are careful and diligent in the use of means, as they are called, yet we ought always to attend to this consideration, not to undertake anything but what we know to be pleasing and acceptable to God.
The Prophet condemns the presumption of those who attempt unlawful methods, and think that they will succeed in them, when they labor, right or wrong, to secure their safety, as if it could be done contrary to the will of God. It is certain that this proceeds from unbelief and distrust, because they do not think that God alone is able to protect them, unless they call in foreign though forbidden assistance. Hence come unlawful leagues, hence come tricks and cheating, by which men fully believe that their affairs will be letter conducted than if they acted towards each other with candour and fairness. There are innumerable instances of this unbelief in every department of human life; for men think that they will be undone, if they are satisfied with the blessing of God, and transact all their affairs with truth and uprightness. But we ought to consider that we are forsaken, rejected, and cursed by God, whenever we have recourse to forbidden methods and unlawful ways. In all our undertakings, deliberations, and attempts, therefore, we ought to be regulated by the will of God. We ought always to consider what he forbids or commands, so as to be fully disposed to obey his laws, and to submit ourselves to be guided by his Spirit, otherwise our rashness will succeed very ill.
That they may add sin to sin. The Prophet says this, because the Jews, by those useless defences which they supposed to fortify them strongly, did nothing else than stumble again on the same stone, and double their criminality, which already was very great. Our guilt is increased, and becomes far heavier, when we endeavor, by unlawful methods, to escape the wrath of God. But we ought especially to consider this expression as applicable to the Jews, because, after having brought the Assyrians into Judea, (for they had called them to their assistance against Israel and Syria,) they wished to drive them out by the help of the Egyptians. (2Kg 16:7.) The Jews were hard pressed by the Assyrians, and were justly punished for their unbelief, because they resorted to men, and not to God, for aid; and we see that this happened to many nations who called the Turk to their assistance. So far were the Jews from repenting of their conduct, and acknowledging that they had been justly punished, that they even added evil to evil, as if crime could be washed out by crime. On this account they are more severely threatened; for they who persevere in their wickedness, and rush with furious eagerness against God, and do not allow themselves to be brought back to the right path by any warnings or chastisements, deserve to be more sharply and heavily punished.
(284) See Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 1 p. 75.
FT541 The phrase לנסך מסכה ( lĭnsōch măssēchāh) has been variously explained. The Peshito makes it mean to pour out libations, probably with reference to some ancient mode of ratifying covenants, and the Septuagint accordingly translates it ἐποιήσατε συνθή᾿κας, ‘you made covenants.’ Cocceius applies it to the casting of molten images, ( ad fundendum fusile,) De Dieu to the molding of designs or plots. Kimchi and Calvin derive the words from the root to cover, and suppose the idea here expressed to be that of concealment. Ewald follows J. D. Michaelis in making the phrase mean to weave a web, which agrees well with the context, and is favored by the similar use of the same verb and noun in Isa 25:7. Knobel’s objection, that this figure is suited only to a case of treachery, has no force, as the act of seeking foreign aid was treasonable under the theocracy, and the design appears to have been formed and executed secretly. (Compare Isa 29:15, where the reference may be to the same transaction.)” — Alexander
FT542 See page 345
FT543 The allusion is to the concluding clause of Isa 30:5.” — Ed
FT544 “For the Egyptians shall help in vain.” — Eng. Ver.
FT545 See Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 1 p. 32
FT546 “ Disant qu’ils demandent d’estre flattez;” — “When he says that they ask to be flattered.”
FT547 נלוז ( nālōz) seems to denote perverseness or moral obliquity in general. It is rendered in a strong idiomatic form by Hitzig, ( verschmitztheit, craftiness,) and Ewald, ( querwege, crossway.) — Alexander. Luther’s term, ( muthwillen, wantonness,) conveys the same general idea. — Ed
FT548 See Commentary on John’s Gospel, vol. 1 p. 223 note 1.
FT549 “ Estans pleins de vent;” — “Being full of wind.”
FT550 Here the Author departs from his usual manner, by omitting all mention of the concluding and highly expressive clause of the verse. “For גבה, ( gĕbĕh,) the English version has ‘pit,’ Lowth, ‘cistern,’ and most other writers ‘well;’ but in Eze 47:11, it denotes a ‘marsh’ or ‘pool.’ Ewald supposes a particular allusion to the breaking of a poor man’s earthen pitcher, an idea which had been suggested long before by Gill: ‘as poor people are wont to do, to take fire from the hearth, and water out of a well in a piece of broken pitcher.’” — Alexander. All must admit, that when one cannot find a “sherd” fit for the meanest purpose, the vessel is broken in pieces. — Ed
FT551 Jarchi says, that in this passage שובה ( shūbāh) “signifies rest and quietness,” and adduces as a parallel passage one in which the word is commonly viewed as the imperative of שוב, ( shūb,) with He paragogic. “Give rest, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel.” (Num 10:36.) Breithaupt supports that interpretation, and derives the word from ישב, ( yāshăb,) “to sit, to rest.” — Ed
FT552 See Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 1 p. 29
FT553 “ תרן ( tōrĕn) is taken as the name of a tree by Augusti (Tannenbaum, the fir-tree) and Rosenmüller, (pinus, the pine-tree,) by Gesenius and Ewald as a signal or a signal-pole. In the only two cases where it occurs elsewhere, it has the specific meaning of a mast. The allusion may be simply to the similar appearance of a lofty and solitary tree, or the common idea may be that of a flag-staff, which might be found in either situation. The word ‘Beacon,’ here employed by Gataker and Barnes, is consistent neither with the Hebrew nor the English usage.” — Alexander
FT554 The latter quotation may appear to be inaccurate, for in the English version it runs thus, “I will correct thee in measure;” but Calvin adheres closely to the Hebrew original, which employs in both passages the word משפט ( mĭsphāt) “ judgment. ” — Ed
Ft555 “Thou shalt weep no more.” — Eng. Ver.
FT556 “Yet shall not thy teachers be removed.” — Eng. Ver.
FT557 “Though ye find yourselves reduced to extremities usual in long sieges, though ye be stinted to a short allowance of ‘bread and water,’ and are forced to undergo a great many other inconveniences, yet use not my prophets ill, make them not to run into corners to hide themselves from the violence of an impatient multitude; but be glad to see them among you, and let their examples encourage you to bear up handsomely under the short afflictions which shall then be upon you. This is the plain meaning of the words, without running to the whimsical expositions of some who by ‘Panis Angustiæ,’ as the Vulgate renders לחם צר ( lĕchĕm tzār,) make the prophet mean the compendious doctrine of the gospel, or Christ himself, or the eucharist, and like dreams.” — Samuel White
FT558 “Kimchi’s explanation of the word ( מורה, mōrĕh, or rather מורים, mōrīm,) as meaning the early rain, (which sense it has in Joe 2:23, and perhaps also in Psa 84:6,) has been retained only by Calvin and Lowth. The great majority of writers adhere not only to the sense of ‘teacher,’ but to the plural import of the form, ( מורים with 2 Sing. Affix.,) and understand the word as a designation or description of the prophets, with particular reference, as some suppose, to their reappearance after a period of severe persecution or oppression.” — Alexander
FT559 “The ephods of your molten images, — short cassocks, without sleeves, with which the heathens adorned their idols.” — Stock. Cicero tells a story about Dionysius, who found in the temple of Jupiter Olympius a golden cloak of great weight, with which the statue of Jupiter had been ornamented by Gelo out of the spoils of the Carthaginians, and, after making the witty observation that it was too heavy for summer and too cold for winter, carried it off, and threw around the statue a woolen mantle, which, he said, was adapted to every season of the year. (Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. iii.) — Ed
FT560 “ De his.” “ De ces miracles-là.”
FT561 “ Isaie parle de ceste faveur speciale.”
FT562 “ Qui puras nubes, et cœli numen adorant.”
FT563 “And the burden thereof (or, And the grievousness of flame) shall be heavy.” — Eng. Ver. “And heavy the column of flame.” — Stock. “And the burning is heavy: for so ought we to translate משאה, ( măssāāh,) in the same sense as in Jud 20:40, and in other passages, from נשא, ( nāsā,) ‘to lift up,’ because flame and smoke naturally ascend.” — Rosenmüller
(285) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE ORIGIN AND THE END OF SIN
Isa. 30:1-3. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me, &c.
The policy inculcated by the Divine Ruler on the Jewish nation was a policy of isolation. Now, this would be a self-destructive policy. But the circumstances of that nation were peculiar. It was not a missionary to the world, but it was a witness. When it formed alliances with surrounding nations, its witness became indistinct. It often dropped its testimony and adopted the idolatries against which its protest should have been uniform. This prophecy is against the alliance with Egypt. Assyria was about to invade that country. It was feared she would take Judea on the way. Now, the Lord was its defence; there was therefore no need to seek assistance from any other power whatsoever. It was a rebellious and unbelieving spirit that sought this alliance. The politicians sought a covering from the impending storm; but they did not seek it by divine counsel. They were adding another sin to the number against them. It would be shame and confusion at the end. Egypt would be unwilling or unable to help.
Human nature is ever the same. Here is a representation of the way in which sinners act, and of its consequences.
I. All sin proceeds from neglect and defiance of Gods counsel.
1. It is implied that God has counselled or may be consulted respecting human conduct. By the prophet He had declared against the alliance with Egypt. In the written word we have His will. It does not deal with our modern life and circumstances in detail. Impossible. But we have what is better; principles of action which we are to apply to circumstances. No one ever long in a moral difficulty, if he honestly apply these principles. Every act which is of the nature of evil is forbidden. Many sinful acts are forbidden by name. We have the example of the Son of God. We have the most inspiring motives: gratitude, love, hope, fear. A revolution of our nature in the direction of Gods holiness is demanded. The ministry of the word expounds and enforces these great principles. Men do not sin for want of counsel from God.
2. Our text charges men with acting on other counsel than the divine. The charge is twofold.
(1.) Neglect of the counsel they ought to have sought. Sincere desire to be right would apply to the Divine Word in relation to all the conduct of life. How many adopt and act upon the principle that it shall guide everything? Is not its authority discounted? When tempted to the questionable or sinful, but advantageous, how many, with steady clearness of moral vision, look straight at Gods counsel? As to the ministry of the Word, one part of the function of which is to keep mens moral perceptions clear, how many absent themselves from it entirely!
(2.) Seeking the counsel they ought not to have sought. They sought counsel of their own inclinations. It was a foregone conclusion. They wished to go down into Egypt. If they consulted, it was, as often happens, with those inclined in the same way. Men are secretly conscious of alienation from God, which instinctively dislikes His recommendations. Mans moral nature is unhinged; and he turns from God anywhither. The maxims of the world, the opinions of associates, considerations of worldly interest, conspire to the rejection of His counsel. Micaiah must be imprisoned if he prophesy evil, although it be true.
II. Sin is cumulative and growing.
That they may add sin to sin. Sin is rarely single (H.E.I., 45074509). A rope is twined from many threads. The Jewish people committed one sin by forsaking the counsel of God, another in trusting to the help of Egypt. Some substances have an affinity for each other. So have moral elements. Sins have a fearfully attractive and accumulative power. The youth wanders from the house of God. Conscience is stifled. Amusement is sought. Loose companions are cultivated. Restraint is gradually thrown off. Fraud is necessary. Fraud requires falsehood. One falsehood requires another. Sin is added to sin. Soon as a sin is committed it drops the seed of another, and so onward in terrible progression. Add grain of sand to grain until it becomes a mountain. Money is scraped together by care and labour, but sins rush to each other with mutual attraction. If you could have foreseen the growth of your own sins, surely you would have refrained. Count the sins of your life. They are added up in Gods book.
III. Every sin contains the germ of its own punishment.
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. Sin makes promises which it fails to perform. You are disappointed. This is part of the punishment. Punishment is often appropriate, growing out of the sin. Sometimes this is palpable, as in the case of sensual lusts. Oftener subtle. Punishment accumulates, as sin does. There is a treasuring up of wrath (H. E. I., 46034614). Will you continue to accumulate it? or will you pause, cease? You must repent. Do not hug your chains. You must cry for mercy. You must yield. You must repair to the cross.John Rawlinson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. FRIENDS THAT FETTER, CHAPTERS 3031
1. SHAME
TEXT: Isa. 30:1-14
1
Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of me; and that make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;
2
that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!
3
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4
For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes.
5
They shall all be ashamed because of a people that cannot profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach.
6
The burden of the beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7
For Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still.
8
Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.
9
For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of Jehovah;
10
that say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits,
11
get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
12
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon;
13
therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant.
14
And he shall break it as a potters vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces thereof a sherd wherewith to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.
QUERIES
a.
What was wrong with going down to Egypt for help?
b.
Why would the people not want right things prophesied to them?
PARAPHRASE
I hereby threaten you, you rebellious and stubborn children of mine, says the Lord. You make all your plans without once seeking counsel from Me. You conduct all your business affairs and make political alliances without taking My will into account at all. All you are doing is multiplying your sins against Me. Without seeking the counsel of My prophet you have gone down to Egypt to get aid and security. You think Pharaoh is your friend and is able to help you, but he is neither. In fact, in trusting Egypt and the Pharaoh, you will be disappointed, humiliated and disgraced. Even though Pharaohs princes and ambassadors are making political overtures and promises to you from Zoan and Hanes, you are involving yourself in useless and unprofitable agreements with them which will only bring shame and reproach upon you. This is My omniscient revelation concerning the Beast of the South: You take big risks going through a dangerous and troubled wilderness, populated by wild and fierce animals and poisonous serpents, carrying your nations riches by caravan loads in tribute to a government that has not the power to help you! Egypts promises of help are empty promises because, as much as she pledges to help, she is quite unable to do so. I tell you she is A Big-Mouth that is a Do-nothing. Now, you Isaiah, go write My revelation concerning Egypt for this people in permanent tablet and book form so that future generations may know of Israels unbelief and that My word is absolutely true. The people of this generation are rebels, liars and they refuse to listen to the proclamation of My word. They say to the prophets, Dont get any more revelations for us; dont preach your truths to us. If you want us to listen to you, give us what we want to hearpleasant words, illusions, intrigues. Get out of the way of our dealing with Egyptleave our path clear. Weve heard enough about the Holy One of Israel. Leave us alone!
This is what the Holy One of Israel replies to that! Because you hold My word in contempt and put your faith in force and intrigue and you are relying on this for your safety, you are going to reap the fruits of such perverseness. Calamity will come upon you explosively and suddenly like a damaged wall falls that has a top-heavy bulge from being breached. The Holy One of Israel is going to smash this nation to pieces like a fragile earthenware pot is shattered when it is broken. Gods shattering will be very thorough. Nothing usable will be left when he finishes with this nation.
COMMENTS
Isa. 30:1-7 FOLLY OF JUDAH: Hoy in Hebrew is sometimes translated woe but can also mean alas, ho!, and generally presages grief and threatening. In this case the idea of threat is prevalent. Jehovah is threatening Judah with grief as a result of her perverse folly. Judahs primary foolishness was in making plans and instituting programs without considering Gods advice. God advised His people through His written law and through revelations given through prophets and other messengers. But the people paid only lip-service attention to these. Judah conducted her commercial, social, national and international relations all without knowing or caring what Gods will was in any of these areas. She was just like her sister, Israel, a few years before (cf. Hos. 4:1-6; Hos. 5:4; Hos. 5:13; Hos. 8:1-5; Hos. 8:9-10; Hos. 10:3, etc.). Israel was like a silly dove, without sense, calling to Egypt and Assyria (Hos. 7:10-11). Now Judah plays the stupid fool calling to Egypt.
The Jews were a specially called society. Their social, political and cultural structure was uniquely structured. They were called to commit their total existence (political, social, cultural international) to the guidance and glorification of Jehovah. When they did not do so, they forfeited their reason for being. Actually, all human governments are ordained by God in order to serve and minister to His divine purposes in the earth (cf. Rom. 13:1-7). When they refuse to know and be guided by Gods will in their national and international relationships they also forfeit their reason for approval by God. So, we have here a revelation through Isaiah of divine principles for all, both citizens and leaders, concerned with human governments. Governments wishing to have Gods approval today must conduct their national affairs and international agreements according to peace with liberty, justice, compassion, truth, righteousness for all men for these are principles for which God ordains human government.
The second violation Judah made of her divine destiny was, having refused the guidance of God, turning to Egypt for help against her enemies. Judah was to find her help in Jehovah. Jehovah had given her plenty of evidence not only of His ability to help, but of His eagerness to help. Egypt would only volunteer to help Judah in order to later exploit Judah for Egypts profit. However, as willing as Egypt might be to help, she was powerless to do so! Egypt was a paper tiger.
Egypts greatness was millenniums old. The Great Pyramid (the greatest and most accurate structure the world has ever known) was built about 4750 B.C. (Abram was not even called by God to begin the Hebrew race until 2700 years later). Probably the most magnificent era of Egyptian culture and power was the 18th Dynasty (15871328 B.C.) when Moses and the Hebrew people were there as slaves. Having experienced first hand the imperial power and greatness of Egypt for so many years of her own history (Abraham, Joseph, Moses) Judah would think of Egypt as invincible.
But around 1100 B.C. (near the time of Saul and David), under a succession of Ramessides rulers, Egypt began a cultural and political decline. The self-indulgence and ineptitude of its rulers was mainly responsible for the decline. Ethiopians gained control of all Egypt. For several decades (715663 B.C.) Egypt was dominated by Ethiopian rule. These new rulers followed ancient political custom of agitating border-states (like Palestine) to revolt against their Mesopotamian overlords. Assyria, which controlled Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and all the territory to the Egyptian borders had her hands full squelching one revolt after another. In 720 B.C. the Assyrians appointed Akhimiti governor of Ashdod. In 711 Ashdod revolted against Assyria and deposed Akhimiti and made a Greek mercenary its ruler. Sargon, king of Assyria, dispatched an army to besiege Ashdod and overrun the city. Hezekiah was on the throne of Judaha good man but not the strongest ruler Judah ever had. He was inclined to listen to those who favored the Egyptian philosophy of revolting against Assyria. Isaiah warned Hezekiah and the nation then (Isa. 20:1 ff) that following Egyptian policies would be disastrous. Sargons annals indicate Judah was a party to the revolt of Ashdod. Sargon writes that the Greek ruler of Ashdod tried to persuade the rulers of Judah, Edom and Moab to join his revolt and also invoked the aid of Pharaoh king of Egypt, a prince who could not save them. The Assyrians were as accurate in their evaluation of Egyptian powerlessness as Isaiah was! The Greek ruler of Ashdod fled to Egypt when Sargon overran the citybut the Egyptians thought it politically expedient to deliver him up to the Assyrians. Judeans were fools to think they could trust the Egyptians to save them from the Assyrians!
Sargon died in 705 B.C. and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib. As usual, the death of one emperor and the coming to the throne of a new one touched off widespread political revolt among tributary nations. Merodach-baladan returned to Babylon from exile and reclaimed rights to the rule of that area. He also began a program of inciting other tribute-paying nations to revolt against Assyria. He sent an embassy to Hezekiah to prod him into joining the revolt. At the same time Egypt was also busy with her usual promises to help Judah throw off the Assyrian yoke. So our present chapter is a warning from the prophet of God that Judah is not to listen either to Merodach-baladan or the Egyptian king Shabaka, but to God.
But the princes of Judah had already made contacts. They had gone to Zoan, in the northeastern part of the Nile delta and to Hanes (which may have been the Heracleopolis Magna, fifty miles upstream from Cairo), to meet with Egyptian ambassadors and plot against Assyria. But they are simply tightening the Assyrian noose around their own necks as they discover in a few short years (Isaiah, chapters 3639). They are going to suffer humiliation and embarrassment when Egypt proves impotent to help them!
They will not heed the prophets warning. They are obsessed with dependence upon Egypt. They send ambassadors, messengers and caravans laden with Judahs treasures (Isa. 30:6) through wild, dangerous, beast-infested country to work out alliances with a decadent, pagan, powerless people. Their troubles and treasures will all be for nothing!
Isaiah calls into play both humor and sarcasm. His oracle (burden) concerns the behemoth (great beast) of the South (Egypt). But in Isa. 30:7, he calls Egypt Rahab that sitteth still. Rahav in Hebrew means, big mouth, or puffed uparrogant. The Hebrew word that is translated sitteth still is shavvath, or sabbath which means, of course, rest, inactivity, etc. So the pretended behemoth is really a big mouthed, do-nothing. Egypt is a paper tiger. Judah will seek her help in vain.
Isa. 30:8-14 FURY OF JEHOVAH: In this section the Lord expresses through the prophet His righteous wrath against a nation deliberately refusing to accept His guidance and deliverance. First, the Lord directs the prophet to make a permanent record of His revelation concerning Egypts helplessness and Judahs folly. Isaiah is to write this revelation on lukha, a tablet of stone or wood (probably wood), and then he is to write it in a sepher, a ledger, a book, in epistolary form. This emphasizes two things: the seriousness of the message and the need for its permanency. If Judah will not listen now, as Isaiah is giving the message orally, perhaps future generations will read of Jehovahs guidance, Judahs folly and Egypts failure, in written form, after the fact of its fulfillment, and repent of their attitude toward Jehovah. Written testimony of supernatural revelation, tested through centuries of attack and investigation are much more conducive to creating faith than experiencing the supernatural events as eyewitnesses (e.g., the difficulty of many of the Jews in believing in Jesus while He was alive, but turning to Him many years after the events of His life were recorded in the Gospels).
Second, Jehovah delivers through Isaiah the indictment He has against Judah. Judah is rebellious, deceitful, and unheeding. A grateful son is expected to be obedient to the Fathers guidance, but Judah is an ingrate and a stubborn rebel. She not only refuses to hear the word of God, she presumes to instruct Gods messengers what to say to her. They blatantly announce their refusal to want to hear right things and their desire to hear khalaq (smooth, flattering, slippery) things, and mehathaloth (lofty, illusory, deluding) things. It is almost incredible that a people who had vowed so emphatically under Moses, Samuel, David and other leaders, to adhere to the law of God, chose to set themselves so emphatically against His law. It is difficult to believe that a majority of the Hebrew people would instruct their prophets to flatter and delude them. Isaiah is not the only prophet to record such a perverse attitude (cf. Mic. 2:6-11; Jer. 6:10-19; Eze. 2:3-7; Eze. 3:4-11, etc.). But the prophet of God was not held responsible for their hearingonly for his preaching (cf. Eze. 2:5). In Isa. 30:11 the people are represented as commanding the prophets to give up walking in the way of Jehovah (the ancient paths, cf. Jer. 6:10-19). And the prophets are commanded to cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from their presence. The word translated cease is hasheveethu and is another form of the word shavvath used in Isa. 30:7. They want Isaiah to put the Holy One of Israel to rest. They want a do-nothing God. They are especially agitated at the repeated emphasis on the holiness of God. It is a constant stabbing at their consciences to hear of the Holy One of Israel.
But the Holy One of Israel is going to act. And He is going to act according to His holiness! Because they have held His word in contempt and trusted in asheq (fraud, violence, injustice, oppression) and in perverseness (ability to deceive, manipulate, despoil) He is going to bring them down. They had gone so far as to rely on these machinations. These evil ways became the base and structure of their whole existence! God is going to allow them to reap the fruit of their evil thinking and doing. A society of moral, conscionable beings cannot hold together on a base of such moral perversity. Human social structures, whether small (as a home) or large (as a nation) must be conducted on a modicum of trust, honesty, purity, truth, respect for authority, compassion. If such values are held in contempt and perverted that social structure will disintegrate of itself. It will become a raging jungle where all inhabitants prey on one another. When the rulers and political leaders of a nation despise and pervert these principles it becomes a breach in the wall and soon the whole wall is weakened and falls. The breach is unnoticed by many, at first, but it gradually does its weakening work until the wall falls suddenly and everyone wonders why, all of a sudden, the wall falls. Jehovah will also exercise direct judgment upon Judah and smash her into fragments like a broken potters vessel (cf. Jer. 19:1 ff). What a picture of the future of Judah!smashed and scattered into pieces, good for nothing!
QUIZ
1.
How did Judah copy her sister, Israel, in conducting her business?
2.
How did the Jews forfeit their reason for being a special nation?
3.
Why couldnt Egypt help Judah against Assyria?
4.
How intense was Judahs appeal to Egypt for help?
5.
How is Egypt characterized by God?
6.
What are the instructions of the people to Isaiah and other prophets of God about their messages?
7.
Upon what base were the people building their society?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXX.
(1) Woe to the rebellious children . . .The interjection perhaps expresses sorrow rather than indignation, Alas, for . . .! as in Isa. 1:4. The prophet hears that the intrigues of the palace have at last issued in favour of an alliance with Egypt, and that an embassy has been already sent.
That cover with a covering.Better, that weave a web. The word was fitly chosen then, as now, to describe the subtle intricacies of a double-dealing diplomacy. Some, however, render form a molten image, not as referring to actual idolatry, but to the trust in human plans which the prophet condemns.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THIRD WOE.
A few months later, when plans of stricter alliance with Egypt, conceived by the rulers at Jerusalem with the greatest secrecy, (see Isa 29:15,) were matured, this prophecy was uttered.
1. Woe to the rebellious children The woe to these rulers, so disobedient as darkly to cover that is, to keep secret intricate plans, and to mature them without consulting Jehovah, is equivalent to saying that such plans are an exasperating folly and failure. No help can come from sending ambassadors to Egypt, from taking refuge in her resources against Assyria. Every successive thought thereof is adding sin to sin.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Chapter 30 The Fourth Woe. Against Those Who Trust in Egypt Rather than in Yahweh ( Isa 30:1-7 ).
Having broken with Assyria and withheld tribute, as a result of the death of Sargon II of Assyria and the troubles that the new king Sennacherib was experiencing in cementing his kingship, Hezekiah and Judah now had to choose what they would do. Babylon’s rebellion had failed and she had been crushed by Sennacherib. She could no longer be counted on. Would they look to and depend on Egypt, who were making representations to them and to other allies, with all the compromises that that would involve, or would they look to and depend solely on Yahweh? Isaiah’s stress was on total dependence on Yahweh, but Hezekiah and his advisers favoured Egypt.
It was ironic that the people who had been delivered from Egypt’s bondage could not shake off their connections with Egypt. They had only to look at their history to realise which choice would be better for them. But they had a mistaken view of Egypt’s power and preferred the help that they could see. They overlooked the fact that in the end Egypt, if successful, might make even greater demands on them than Assyria. Such help did not come cheap.
We too must choose whether we will look back nostalgically to the past and also whether we will look at the things that are seen, or alternatively whether we will look at the things which are unseen, for the past is behind us and the things which are seen are temporal, while the things which are not seen are eternal (2Co 4:18).
Analysis.
Woe to the rebellious children,” says Yahweh, “Who take counsel, but not of me, and who cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they might add sin to sin” (Isa 30:1).
“Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt” (Isa 30:2).
‘Therefore will the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion (Isa 30:3).
‘For his princes are at Zoan, and his ambassadors have come to Hanes. They will all be ashamed of a people who cannot profit them, who are not a help or a profit, but a shame and also a reproach (Isa 30:4-5).
In ‘a’ the people take counsel anywhere but of Yahweh, and in the parallel their counsel is sought from Egypt. In ‘b’ they walk down to Egypt and look to the strength of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt, and in the parallel the strength of Pharaoh will be their shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt their confusion.
Isa 30:1-2
“Woe to the rebellious children,” says Yahweh,
“Who take counsel, but not of me,
And who cover with a covering, but not of my spirit,
That they might add sin to sin,
Who walk to go down into Egypt,
And have not asked at my mouth,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt.”
God now declares a woe on His people. The act of seeking to Egypt for help against Assyria rather than to God is here seen as rebellion against God. For the stark choice lay before them. Would they trust in Yahweh, seek, and walk in His guidance, and make their plans accordingly, or would they seek the guidance of Pharaoh, seen by Egyptians as the living Horus, son of Osiris, and be guided by Egypt, making their plans in alliance with them?
Note that their choice of Egypt is said to be because of their predilection for sin. They were like rebellious children, looking to anyone but their Father for advice. They were adding sin to sin. For the real truth was that seeking to Yahweh was too demanding. He then expected them to obey Him and walk in His ways. And that is why they looked elsewhere. It was history repeating itself. Thus did they add to their sins, their ‘falling short’ of God’s requirements. When a man says, ‘I no longer believe’, what he usually means is ‘there are things I want to do which my belief is preventing’.
So the reason that they had lost faith in Yahweh was not because they saw Him as inadequate or unable to cope, but because they had turned their eyes from Him because of His covenant demands. They had found the covenant too burdensome. The result was that they then had to look elsewhere, and that is when they rested their new faith in Egypt. They then walked in the wisdom of the world and not in the wisdom of God. Was not Egypt a mighty nation? Must their gods not be powerful? Look at their chariots and horsemen. And did they not have a reputation for wisdom? But it would never have happened if they had not first turned away from Yahweh.
To ‘cover with a covering’ meant taking as a form of protection. But the covering they took was not that of the Mighty Yahweh, it was not as guided by His Spirit, or as within His will, but it was the covering of the shadow of Egypt. They did not trust to the strength of Yahweh but to the strength of Pharaoh. They preferred what they could see to what they could not see (compare 2Co 4:18).
‘Walk to go down into Egypt’. That is, they made the deliberate choice. They chose the direction in which they would walk. When the option was given to them they had to choose what they would do. It was not that they were not faced with the options. Isaiah’s voice was loud and clear. They simply had to choose what they would do, listen to Isaiah and to Yahweh, or listen to Pharaoh’s messengers (Isa 18:2). They chose Pharaoh.
All of us face similar choices in our daily lives and walk. Which will it be for us? God’s way or man’s way?
Isa 30:3
‘Therefore will the strength of Pharaoh be your shame,
And the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.’
He stresses that they will live to regret their choice. They will find the strength of Pharaoh insufficient. It will leave them exposed. They will find the shadow of Egypt brings defeat and disaster. It will fill them with confusion. The corollary is that the only sensible path would be to trust Yahweh, Whose shadow would be sufficient, and Whose strength would guarantee deliverance.
Isa 30:4-5
‘For his princes are at Zoan,
And his ambassadors have come to Hanes.
They will all be ashamed of a people who cannot profit them,
Who are not a help or a profit, but a shame and also a reproach.’
The consultations will take place at Zoan in the northern Delta, the power base of Shabako, the Cushite king of Egypt, and at Hanes. Hanes is possibly a transliteration of the Egyptian Ha-nesu meaning ‘the king’s mansion’. The princes and ambassadors are probably those of Hezekiah. They have made their choice and now here they are. But it is a great mistake. In the end they will discover that Egypt cannot help them, will not profit them, and in the end will not be willing to back them sufficiently. Thus they will in the end shamed by them. For Egypt itself will fail in its promises and be a shame and a reproach to them. (Egypt always ensured that they did not commit themselves sufficiently to bring disaster on themselves. They knew that they could always retire beyond their strong borders. They were fair weather friends). Indeed the defeat of the Egyptian army by Assyria at Eltekeh will simply add to their shame and confusion.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 30:4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
Isa 30:4
Isa 19:11-13, “Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.”
Isa 30:4 “and his ambassadors came to Hanes” Comments – The name “Hanes” Hebrew ( ) (H2609) is used once in Old Testament.
Isa 30:8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isa 30:8
1Co 10:6, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.”
1Co 10:11, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
Isa 30:15 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.
Isa 30:15
Isa 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Mat 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecies of the Reign of Christ Isa 28:1 to Isa 35:10 is a collection of prophecies that describe the reign of Christ on earth.
Comments – Isa 29:22 to Isa 30:5 is an illustration of the sure hope that we have in Christ Jesus, and the despair of placing our hope in this world.
The Alliance with Egypt and the Rebellious People
v. 1. Woe to the rebellious children, v. 2. That walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, v. 3. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, v. 4. For his princes, v. 5. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, v. 6. The burden of the beasts of the South, v. 7. For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose, v. 8. Now go, write it before them in a table, v. 9. that this is a rebellious people, v. 10. which say to the seers, See not, v. 11. Get you out of the way, v. 12. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, v. 13. therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, v. 14. And He, EXPOSITION
Isa 30:1-7
THE ALLIANCE WITH EGYPT OPENLY REBUKED. In the preceding chapter (Isa 30:15) the design of the Jewish rulers to seek the alliance of Egypt was covertly glanced at and condemned; now it is openly declared and rebuked. The rulers are warned that no good can possibly come of it, even in a worldly sense. The Egyptians will give no aid, or at any rate no effectual aid. The sums expended in purchasing their friendship will be utterly thrown away.
Isa 30:1
Woe to the rebellious children (comp. Isa 1:23; Isa 65:2). The word translated “rebellious” is used in Deu 21:18, Deu 21:20 of the persistently disobedient son, who was to be brought before the elders and stoned to death. That take counsel; rather, that form plans, such as the plan now formed to call in the aid of Egypt. It must be borne in mind that, under the theocracy, there was an authorized mode of consulting God, and receiving an answer from him, in any political emergency. That cover with a covering. The exact metaphor employed is uncertain, Mr. Cheyne renders, “that weave a web;” Dr. Kay, “that pour out a molten image.” The meaning, however, in any case is, “that carry out a design,” the clause being a mere variant of the preceding one. That they may add sin to sin; i.e. “to add a fresh sin to all their former sins.”
Isa 30:2
That walk; or, are on their way (comp. Isa 31:1). Either the Jewish ambassadors have already started, or the anticipatory vision of the prophet sees them as if starting. In the history (2Ki 18:13-37; Isa 36:1-22) it is not expressly said that Hezekiah made application to Egypt for aid; but the reproaches of Rabshakeh (2Ki 18:21, 2Ki 18:24) would be pointless if he had not done so. Have not asked at my mouth. As they ought to have done (see Num 27:21; Jdg 1:1; Jdg 20:18; 1Sa 23:2; 1Ki 22:7, etc.). To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh. It is very uncertain who is the “Pharaoh” here intended. The supreme power over Egypt was probably, at the time, in the hands of Tirkakah (2Ki 19:9); but Lower Egypt seems to have been ruled by various princes, the chief of whom was Shabatok, and any one of these may have been regarded by Isaiah as a “Pharaoh.” To trust in the shadow of Egypt. Trust in the “shadow of God” was an expression very familiar to the Jews (see Psa 17:8; Psa 36:7; Psa 63:7; Psa 91:1; Isa 25:4; Isa 32:2). To “trust in the shadow of Egypt” was to put Egypt in the place of God.
Isa 30:4
His princes were at Zoan. “Zoan” is undoubtedly Tanis, which is now “San,” a heap of ruins in the Delta, where some interesting remains of the shepherd-kings have been discovered. It was a favorite capital of the monarchs of the nineteenth dynasty, and seems to have been the scene of the struggle between Moses and the Pharaoh of the Exodus (Psa 78:12, Psa 78:43). It then declined, but is said to have been the birthplace of the first king of the twenty-first dynasty. In the Ethiopian period it rose once more to some importance, and was at one time the capital of a principality. The “princes“ here spoken of are probably Hezekiah’s ambassadors. His ambassadors came to Hanes. “Hanes” has been generally identified with the modern Esnes, a village between Memphis and Thebes, which is thought to mark the site of Hera-cleopolis Magna. But it has been well remarked that the Jewish envoys would scarcely have proceeded so far. Mr. R.S. Peele suggests, instead of Esnes, Tahpenes, or Daphnae; but that name is somewhat remote from Hanes. Perhaps it would be best to acknowledge that “Hanes” cannot at present be identified. It was probably not very far from Tanis.
Isa 30:5
They were all ashamed; rather, all are ashamed. The reference is not to the ambassadors, who felt no shame in their embassy, and probably returned elated by the promises made them; but to the subsequent feelings of the Jewish nation, when it was discovered by sad experience that no reliance was to be placed on “the strength of Pharaoh.” A people that could not profit them. Mr. Cheyne compares, very pertinently, an inscription of Sargon’s, where he says of the people of Philistia, Judah, Edom, and Moab, that “they and their evil chiefs, to fight against me, unto Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a monarch who could not save them, their presents carried, and besought his alliance”. Egypt was, in fact, quite unable to cope with Assyria, and knew it. A shame, and also a reproach. A matter of which they would themselves be “ashamed,” and with which the Assyrians would “reproach” them (as they did, 2Ki 18:21, 2Ki 18:24).
Isa 30:6
Burden of the beasts of the south. Delitzsch thinks that the Egyptians are intended by the “beasts of the south”the expression pointing primarily to the hippopotamus, which was an apt emblem of the slow-moving Egyptians. But most commentators regard the “beasts” of this clause as equivalent to the “young asses and camels” mentioned towards the end of the verse. (On the sense of the word “burden,” see the introductory paragraph to Isa 13:1-22.) Into the land of trouble and anguish; rather, through a land. It is not Egypt that is spoken of, but the desert between Judaea and Egypt. The reminiscences of this desert were such that the Israelites always exaggerated its terrors and dangers (see Deu 8:15; Jer 2:6). From whence come the young and old lion; rather, the lioness and the lion. Lions can never have been numerous in the tract in question; but they may have haunted portions of it, when it was better watered than at present. The viper and fiery flying serpent. Snakes of various kinds have always been abundant in the desert between Judaea and Egypt. Seine of them were believed anciently to have wings (Herod; 2:75; 3:107); but the fact is doubted. Isaiah is not concerned with natural history, but with definitely marking out the locality through which the ambassadors would march. For this purpose it was best to describe it in terms drawn from the popular belief. Their riches their treasures. Ambassadors who came to request military aid, as a matter of course carried rich presents with them. Young asses camels. The ordinary beasts of burden employed in the passage of the desert (Gen 37:25; Gen 42:26; Herod; Gen 3:9, etc.).
Isa 30:7
Therefore have I cried concerning this. Their strength is to sit still. No modern critic accepts this interpretation. Most translate, “Wherefore I name it” (i.e. Egypt) “Rahab, that sits still;” or “Arrogance, that ‘sits still.” Rahab, “pride” or ‘arrogance,” would seem to have been an old name for Egypt (Job 26:12; Psa 87:4; Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9), not one given at this time by Isaiah. What he means to say is, “Proud as thou art, thou doest nothing to maintain thy pride, but art content with sitting still.” This he “cries” or “proclaims” concerning Egypt, as the most important thing for other nations to know about her.
Isa 30:8-17
A RENEWAL OF THREATENING. The denunciation of the Egyptian alliance had been made viva voce, in the courts of the temple or in some other place of public resort. As he ended, Isaiah received a Divine intimation that the prophecy was to be put on record, doubly, upon a tablet and in a book. At the same time, the “rebelliousness“ of the people was further pointed out, and fresh threats (verses 13, 14, and 17) were uttered against them.
Isa 30:8
Write it before them in a tablet; i.e.“ write the prophecy before them” (equivalent to “to be set up before them”) “on a tablet,” in the briefest possible form (comp. Isa 8:1). And note it in a book; i.e. “and also make a full notation of it in a book,” or parchment roll. The “tablet” was to be for the admonition of the living generation of men; the “book” was for future generations, to be a record of God’s omniscience and faithfulness “forever and ever.” That it may be for the time to come; rather, for an after-daynot for the immediate present only. For ever and ever. Modern critics observe that the phrase, la’ad ‘ad ‘olam, never occurs elsewhere, and suggest a change of the pointing, which would give the sense of “for a testimony forever.” Whether we accept the change or not, the meaning undoubtedly is that consigning the prophecy to a “book” would make an appeal to it possible in perpetuum. The perpetuity of the written Word is assumed as certain.
Isa 30:9
That this is a rebellious people; rather, for this is a rebellious people. The words to be written were those of the preceding prophecy. The reason for their being written is now given (comp. Deu 31:26, Deu 31:27). Lying children (comp. Isa 59:13). They professed devotion to God; but their acts contradicted their words.
Isa 30:10
Which say, etc. Not, of course, directly, in so many words. But indirectly they let it be understood that this was what they wished. Compare the advice given to Micaiah by Ahab’s messenger, who, no doubt, correctly interpreted the wishes of the monarch and his nobles (1Ki 22:13). Seers prophets. Not two classes of persons, but two names for the same class. The” parallelism” of Hebrew poetry leads to the constant employment of synonymous clauses. Right things; i.e. the truth in all its plainness. Smooth things; i.e. soft, pleasant announcements. Deceits; or, illusions.
Isa 30:11
Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. “The Holy One of Israel” was one of Isaiah’s most frequent names for the Almighty. He used it especially when rebuking Israel’s unholiness (Isa 1:4; Isa 5:24, etc.). The irreligious Jews were weary of this constant iteration, and wished to hear no more concerning this “Holy One,” whose very holiness was a reproach to them.
Isa 30:12
Because ye despise this word; rather, because ye reject this word (see 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 15:23, 1Sa 15:26; 2Ki 17:15, etc.). The “word” intended is probably the prophecy against trusting in Egypt (Isa 30:1-7). And trust in oppression; or, extortion. Oppressive measures employed to obtain the rich gifts which had to be sent into Egypt (Isa 30:6) are probably intended. Gratz and Cheyne change the reading from ‘oshek to ‘ikkesh (“perverseness”); but without any necessity. And perverseness; literally, crookedness; i.e. “tortuous policy” (Kay). And stay thereon; rather, lean or stay yourselves thereon.
Isa 30:13
This iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall. Your sin in rebelling against God, rejecting the warnings of his prophets, and trusting in your own devices shall bring you into the condition of a wall in which there is a “breach,” or rather, a “bulge,” which therefore totters to its fall, and is liable to dissolve in ruins at any moment. Swelling out in a high wall. The higher the wail, the greater the danger, and the more complete the destruction.
Isa 30:14
And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces. Isaiah is fond of mixed metaphors, and of superseding one metaphor by another. From comparing Judah’s fall and ruin to the shattering of a lofty wall, he suddenly turns to a comparison of it with the breaking to pieces of an earthen pitcher. Judah shall be so broken as when the pitcher is crushed into minute fragments, so that there is no piece large enough to convey a coal from one fire for the lighting of another, or to be of even the least use for drawing water from a well. A complete dissolution of the political fabric is foreshadowed, such as did not actually take effect till the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
Isa 30:15
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel. As the irreligious party wished to hear no more of “the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 30:11), Isaiah takes care to keep him constantly before their minds (comp. Isa 31:1). In returning and rest shall ye be saved; rather, should ye be saved, or might ye be saved. The conditions are put forward, not as now capable of being realized, but as those which might have been realized at an earlier date. The “returning” spoken of is an abandonment of the course hitherto pursued, which was reckless provocation of Assyria and trust in Egypt. The “rest” is staying upon Godrenunciation of trust on any arm of flesh, and simple reliance on the Divine aid, as sure to be sufficient when the need came. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength; rather, should be. The clause is a mere iteration in other words of the preceding one. Ye would not. They had practically rejected the policy of quiescence and patient waiting upon God, when they sent the embassy into Egypt.
Isa 30:16
Ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; rather, we will fly upon horses. The nobles had perhaps a manly eagerness to mount the Egyptian war-horses, and rush upon the enemy at full speed, in the hope of discomfiting them. Isaiah warns them that they will not really fig on the enemy, but flee before him. We will ride upon the swift. “The swift” (kal) seems to be a mere variant for “horse,” the parallelism being, as so frequently, “synonymous.” Therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. However swift the horses of the Judaeans, their enemies would be as well mounted and would pursue and overtake them.
Isa 30:17
One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one. A hyperbole common in Scripture (Deu 32:30; Jos 23:10; Le 26:8), and not confined to the sacred writers. Piankhi the Ethiopian boasts, in his great inscription, that, with Ammon’s help, “many should turn their backs upon a few, and one should rout a thousand”. At the rebuke of five. The “rebuke” of five (i.e. their war-shout) would put to flight the whole army. As a beacon; rather, as a flag-staffstripped and bare (comp. Isa 33:23; Eze 27:5). A tree stripped of its branches and left standing as a landmark seems to be intended. As an ensign. A military standard, such as was in common use among the Assyrians and Egyptians, as among the Greeks and Romans.
Isa 30:18-26
A RENEWAL OF PROMISE. The denunciations of the preceding passage (Isa 30:9-17) had been so terrible that, without some counterpoise of promise, they must have produced a general despair. This was not the Divine purpose. Judah’s probation still continued. Therefore it was necessary to let it be seen that the Divine long-suffering was not yet exhaustedthere were still conditions under which God would be gracious to his people. The conditions were “crying to the Lord” (Isa 30:19), and entire abolition of idolatry (Isa 30:22).
Isa 30:18
And therefore. “Because your sins require this chastisement” (Kay); “Because of the extremity of your need” (Cheyne). It is, perhaps, best to own that the motives of the Divine action are very commonly obscure; and, if seen clearly by the prophets, are certainly not clearly set forth, being inscrutable. While the motive, however, is obscure, the promise is plain and unmistakable, The Lord will wait, that he may be gracious unto you. God is not about at present to “make a full end;” he is bent on “waiting”his intent is “to be gracious.” He will be exalted, that he may have mercy. He will find some means of vindicating his honor and exalting himself, short of your destruction, in order that it may be open to him to give you a further chance of repentance, whereby you would obtain mercy. For the Lord is a God of judgment. God is essentially just; sin must receive punishment; but the punishment may be short of destruction. Justice does not exclude mercy. If men bear their punishment with patience, and wait for God, a brighter day will dawn on them in course of time.
Isa 30:19
For the people shall dwell in Zion; rather, a people shall continue. Jerusalem shall not now be made desolate, or deprived of its inhabitants. Whatever the number of captives taken, “a people shall remain.” Thou shalt weep no more. The reasons for weeping shall be removed. He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry. For God to be gracious to them, they must first “cry” to himmake an earnest, hearty appeal to him for mercy. Their “cry” will be answered as soon as heard, is as soon as uttered.
Isa 30:20
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity (so Mr. Cheyne). But most modern critics (Kay, Delitzsch, Vance Smith, etc.) regard the words as a promise of support through the siege, and omit the interpolated “though.” Translate, And the Lord will give yon bread of adversity, and water of affliction; i.e. scant rations, but sufficient; and thy teachers shall not, etc. Be removed into a corner; i.e. “have to hide themselves from persecution.” A persecution of Jehovah’s prophets had commenced in Judah during the reign of Joash (2Ch 24:19-22), and had probably continued with more or less severity ever since.
Isa 30:21
Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee. Kay says, “The teacher will go before his flock, marking out the way before them.” But in that case, the flock would hear the word before them. Delitzsch explains better, “They (the teachers), as the shepherds of the flock, would follow the people with friendly words of admonition.” Even in the East, shepherds sometimes follow their flocks (see Gen 32:17). When ye turn, i.e. when ye are about to turn.
Isa 30:22
Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver. Idolatry, greatly encouraged by Ahaz, had been strictly forbidden by Hezekiah at the beginning of his reign (2Ki 18:4); but the present passage, among others, shows how impossible it was for a king, with the best intentions, to effect the extirpation of idolatry, if his subjects were attached to it. Evidently the Jews had, in many cases, secretly maintained their idols and their idolatrous practices, despite the efforts of Hezekiah. But now, in their repentance, they would “defile” (i.e. destroy) both the outer “covering” of precious rectal, and the inner core of wood or stone, or base metallic substance. The ornament of thy molten images of gold; rather, the coating or overlaying. It was usual to overlay with gold or silver molten images of bronze or other inferior metal. Cast them away; literally, scatter; i.e. either grind them to powder (2Ki 23:6), or at any rate break them to bits, dud then disperse the fragments far and wide.
Isa 30:23
Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; rather, then shall he give rain for thy seed, wherewith thou sowest the ground. God, having forgiven his people, will once more renew the blessings of his ordinary providence, giving them “rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness” (Act 14:17). Bread of the increase of the earth; rather, bread, the produce of the ground; i.e. ordinary bread, not “bread from heaven,” like the manna in the wilderness. Fat and plenteous; literally, rich and fat. Thy cattle. To complete the general prosperity, there should be plentiful pasture for the flocks and herds.
Isa 30:24
The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground; rather, theft till or cultivate the ground. The Hebrew word is generic, and does not apply to “eating” (i.e. ploughing) only. Shall eat clean provender. Delitzsch says that b’lil khamitz is “a mash, composed of oats, barley, and vetches, made more savory with salt and sour vegetables.” Mr. Cheyne translates, “Shall eat mixed provender with salt.” The general idea is clearly that they shall have for their ordinary food that superior kind of provender which, according to existing practices, was reserved for rare occasions. Winnowed with the shovel. Anciently, winnowing was chiefly effected by tossing the grain into the air with shovels in a draughty place. The fan was scarcely in use so early as Isaiah’s time. He means by mizreh probably a second instrument for tossing the grain Delitzsch translates, “winnowing-fork.”
Isa 30:25
Rivers and streams of water; rather, rivulets, courses of water. Channels, along which water was conveyed for the purpose of irrigation, are intended (comp. Eze 47:1-12; Joe 3:18). No doubt there is a secondary allegorical meaning running through the whole description of Judah’s prosperity (Isa 30:23-26). In this allegorical intention the waters stand for the streams of God’s grace. In the day of the great slaughter. Equivalent to “the day of vengeance” (Isa 34:8) the day when God shall tread down his enemies. The prophet passes from the immediate effect of Judah’s repentance to a broader view of what shall happen when God’s kingdom is established upon the earth. When the towers fall; i.e. when there shall be a general “pulling down of strong holds,” and a “casting down of every high thing that exalts itself against God” (2Co 10:4, 2Co 10:5).
Isa 30:26
The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun. “The promise now rises higher and higher, and passes from earth to heaven” (Delitzsch). All nature will become more glorious in the “last times.” Moonlight will be as sunlight, and sunlight will be seven times brighter than it is now. Again, there may be an under allegorical sense. The light of truth will shine with greater brilliancy, so that all inch will be enlightened by it. “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa 11:9). As the light of seven days; i.e. as though the light of seven days were concentrated into one. In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach. At that period in the world’s history when God forgives the iniquities of his people, and condescends to reign over them as their actual King, either in this present world or in “anew heaven and anew earth” (Rev 21:1; comp. Isa 66:22), wherein shall “dwell righteousness” (2Pe 3:13). And healeth the stroke of their wound; rather, the wound of his stroke; i.e. the wound caused by the stroke wherewith he has smitten them.
Isa 30:27-33
A PROPHECY OF ASSYRIA‘S DESTRUCTION. Mr. Chcyne regards this passage as “a symbolic description of the judgment introduced by a theophany.” But is it not rather a poetical description of God’s judgment on Assyria, which may be, probably is, a type of his final judgment upon an iniquitous world? The mention of Assyria in Isa 30:31 seems to be decisive in favor of the prophecy being (primarily) of special application to the circumstances of the time.
Isa 30:27
The Name of the Lord cometh from far. “The Name of Jehovah” is scarcely distinguishable from Jehovah himself. Jehovah, who has long hid himself, and seemed to keep himself remote from worldly affairs, now is about to manifest his glory, and interpose in the doings of men in a wonderful way. Burning with his anger; rather, his anger burneth (comp. Isa 42:25). And the burden thereof is heavy; “and heavy is its grievousness.” His tongue as a devouring fire (comp. Exo 24:17; Deu 9:3; Isa 9:19; Isa 10:17; Isa 29:6; Isa 33:14).
Isa 30:28
His breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck. When the sacred writers are oppressed by the tremendous character of the revelations made to them, their metaphors are often labored and incongruous. Here, the mouth, in which there is a tongue of fire, sends forth a rush of breath, which is compared to an “overflowing stream, which reaches to the middle of the neck, “and sweeps those who try to cross it away (comp. Eze 47:5) To sift the nations with the sieve of vanity. More incongruity, to be excused by the writer’s theme being such as to transcend all language and all imagery. One of the Divine purposes, in all violent crashes and revolutions, is “to sift nations”to separate in each nation the good from the bad, the precious from the vile; and this is done with “the sieve of vanity,” i.e. the sieve which allows the good corn to pass through, separating from it, and keeping back, all that is vile and refuse (comp. Amo 9:9). There shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. Another entire change in the metaphor. The result of God’s interference shall be “to put a bridle in the jaws of the peoples,” whereby the hand of the Almighty will guide them to their destruction.
Isa 30:29
Ye shall have a song; literally, to you will [then] be a song. While the nations weep and lament, and are burnt up by God’s anger, and swept away by his “overflowing flood,” and guided to their destruction by his bridle in their jaws, Israel shall rejoice with singing. As in the night when a holy solemnity is kept. Perhaps a special reference is intended to the Passover-feast, which commenced with an evening or night celebration (Exo 12:6, Exo 12:8, Exo 12:42; Mat 26:30). Or perhaps “Isaiah is not referring to one feast more than another” (Cheyne), night-rituals belonging to all toasts, since the day commenced with the sunset. The Passover-song consisted of Psalm 113-118. And as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord. Joyful processions from the country districts to Jerusalem are alluded to. These were commonly headed by a piper or a band of pipers (Vitringa). They took place several times in the yearat each of the three great feasts, and irregularly when any district sent up its firstfruits to the temple treasury (Neh 10:35-37). To the Mighty One of Israel; literally, to the Rock of Israel; i.e. to Jehovah (comp. Isa 17:10; and see also Deu 32:4, Deu 32:15, Deu 32:18, Deu 32:30, Deu 32:31; Psa 18:2, Psa 18:31, Psa 18:46, etc.). The idea embodied in the metaphor is rather that of an unfailing refuge than of mere might and power.
Isa 30:30
The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard; literally, the majesty of his voice, Mr. Cheyne renders, “the peal of his voice.” Delitzsch understands fearful thundering, like that at Sinai (Exo 19:16; Exo 20:18), to be intended (comp. Psa 29:3-9). The lighting down of his arm; i.e. the blow causing the destruction, of Isa 30:31, of whatever kind that destruction might beblasting by lightning, plague, simoom, death by the visitation of God, as men slept, or any other sudden, sweeping catastrophe. With the indignation of his anger; rather, in fury of anger. With the flame of a devouring fire; rather, with a flame of devouring-fire. All the elements of storm are accumulated by the prophet, to express the terrible character of the coming judgment-lightning, and scattering (of crops?), tempestuous wind, and hail-stones.
Isa 30:31
For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down; rather, for at the voice of the Lord shall Assyria be dismayed (compare the first clause of Isa 30:30). Which smote with a rod; rather, with the rod will he (i.e. Jehovah) smite.
Isa 30:32
In every place where the grounded staff shall pass, etc.; rather, and it shall come to pass that every stroke (literally, passage) of the destined rod which Jehovah causes to rest upon him shall be with an accompaniment of drums and citherns. Each blow dealt to Assyria shall rejoice her enemies, and cause them to break out into songs of praise, accompanied by the music of various instruments (comp. Isa 30:29; and see also Exo 15:1-21). In battles of shaking; or, battles of swinging“those in which Jehovah swings his rod, and deals (repeated) blows to his enemies” (Cheyne). Will he fight with it; rather, will he fight against her; i.e. against Assyria.
Isa 30:33
For Tophet is ordained of old; rather, for a Tophet has been long since prepared. A “Tophet” is a place of burning, probably derived from the Aryan root tap or taph, found in Greek , Latin tepidus, Sanskrit tap, Persian taphtan. The name was specially attached to a particular spot in the Valley of Hinnom, where sacrifices were offered to Moloch (2Ki 23:10; Jer 7:31; Jer 19:6, Jer 19:11, etc.); but Isaiah seems to use it generically, as if there were many Tophets. For the king it is prepared; literally, it also is prepared for the kingin the Hebrew “for the melech,” which is the same word as “Moloch,” who was looked upon by his worshippers as “the king” . Isaiah means to say, “As the Tophet of the Vale of Hinnom is prepared for a king (Moloch), so this new Tophet is prepared for another king (the King of Assyria).” He hath made it deep and largea vast burning-place for a vast multitude (2Ki 19:35), with the fire and the wood ready, only awaiting the breath of Jehovah to kindle it. As the bodies of great malefactors were burnt (Jos 7:25), and not buried, so the prophet consigns to a great burning the hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian corpses, of which it would soon be necessary to dispose in some way.
HOMILETICS
Isa 30:1-7
A godless policy issues in disaster, however seemingly wise.
In the sight of man there was no more prudent course for the Jews to take than to ally themselves with Egypt. Egypt was the only power in their neighborhood that could possibly make head against Assyria. Egypt had a standing army, trained warriors, an ancient military system, numerous chariots and horses, ample siege material, and abundant appliances of war. She was at the time closely connected with Ethiopia, and could bring into the field the forces of two great nations. Had she been thoroughly awake to her own interests, she would have strained every nerve to make an effective league of the small nations and tribes lying between her and Assyria Proper, in order to check the advance of that ambitious and dangerous power. Hezekiah and his advisers might naturally see in Egypt, not only their only possible protector, but one to whose protection they might look with confidence and hope. There was one thing only to be set against all this. The Egyptians were a nation of idolaters, and God had expressly warned the Jews, by the mouth of Isaiah, against relying on them (Isa 20:2-6). Thus reliance on Egypt was a godless policyinvolved taking up a position of hostility to God; ceasing to ask his counsel (verse 1), turning a deaf ear to any warnings that might be addressed to them by God’s prophets (Isa 29:10-14). And God made it of none effect. God blinded Tirhakah to his true interests, and made him act in the most foolish way possiblefirst encourage Hezekiah to revolt, and then desert him in the hour of need and peril. Some such result follows always on the adoption of a godless policy. The expectations of those who engage in it are disappointed; there is a failure somewhere: “God arises, and his enemies are scattered;” their clever schemes break down and come to naught.
Isa 30:8
The written Word endures forever.
There is always a permanency about written, that does not belong to uttered, speech. “Liters scripts manet,” said one Roman poet; “Exegi monumentum osre perennius,” said another, when he had completed a book of his odes. It was to secure continuance to human utterances that the act of writing was invented at the first; and it was probably long employed for no other purpose. The permanency, however, that attaches to ordinary writings is a limited permanency. They are not intended to “endure forever.” For the most part they are on a frail and perishable material, which cannot be expected to last a century, and there is no expectation of their being copied and so prolonged in existence. But it is otherwise with the Divine Word. The Divine Word is enshrined in writing, that it may continue as long as the world continues. It is too precious to be lost. When the material on which it is written shows signs of decay, there always have been, and there always will be, pious persons, who will take care that the words are reproduced exactly on some fresh material, and so handed on unchanged. Since the invention of printing, it has become practically impossible that any work held in esteem by any considerable number of persons should perish. The written Word could only pass away by all interest in i[ being lost among all sections of human-kind. Against such a miserable result the promise of God to be with his Church “always, even unto the end of the world” (Mat 28:20), furnishes an absolute security. Hence we may be sure that “the Word of the Lord will endure forever” (1Pe 1:25).
Isa 30:10, Isa 30:11
Smooth things wore acceptable to man than the truth.
In connection with this subject there would seem to be three things to be specially set forth.
I. THE FACT OF THE PREFERENCE. Man has no natural aversion to truth. On the contrary, truth is congenial to his nature and acceptable to his intellect. Scientific truth, historic truth, is readily received when offered to him, and, if not very eagerly desired or very carefully sought out, is at any rate, when put before him, generally to some extent appreciated. The truth that is disliked is moral truth. Even when set before him in an abstract form, moral teaching frets him, vexes him; and moralists have been always unpopular from the days of Socrates to those of Samuel Johnson. Especially disliked are the teachers who do not stop at abstract morality, but point their moral teaching by applying it to the life and conduct of those to whom they address themselves. On the other hand, there is no surer way of pleasing men than by flattering them, provided it is done skillfully and with a delicate hand. We like to have our conduct praised, our characters admired, our example held up as a model to be imitated. We detest being found fault with, criticized, told that we have done wrong. We do not perhaps ask men to “prophesy unto us smooth things,” but we make it very plain to all with whom we come into contact that “smooth things” alone are agreeable to us.
II. THE GROUND OF THE PREFERENCE. Moral truth is disliked because it is felt as a reproach. We are conscious to ourselves of our own moral imperfection; and every exhibition of a high moral standard, every inculcation of high moral principles, seems to us a reflection on our own shortcomings, not far short of actual personal censure. The smooth voice of flattery pleases us, partly, through its contrast with the rough tones of the unwelcome moralist, but further through its persuading us that we really have some of the good qualities which the flatterer imputes, and thus calling into play our self-respect and self-esteem. Moral warnings awaken fear for the future; flattery awakens hope. Moral warnings disturb; flattery soothes. Even when we perceive that the flatterer is cozening us, we let ourselves be cozened; our vanity is pleased at being tickled, and asks for nothing but a prolongation of the pleasurable excitement.
III. THE ILL RESULTS THAT FLOW FROM THE PREFERENCE. Character, which would naturally improve under the bracing discipline of a stern and strict inculcation of moral truth, continually deteriorates, if flattery takes the place of honest plain-speaking. Men believe themselves better than they are, and take less pains to become better. They grow vain and self-satisfied, thinking themselves in need of nothing, when truly they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17). Spiritual teachers should beware of encouraging men’s self-indulgent desire for spiritual ease; and, while careful not to “quench the smoking flax,” or “break the bruised reed,” should constantly sound in the ears of all denunciations of vice, warnings, rebukes, admonishments. In no other way can they be either faithful to their calling or truly serviceable to their fellow-men.
Isa 30:19-22
Turning to God.
It is the intention of God’s chastisements, and their natural, though perhaps scarcely their ordinary, result, to stir the soul to penitence, and produce a turning of the heart to God. When the spirit of the man is truly touched, the steps on the path of repentance are commonly
I. THE UTTERANCE OF A CRY. “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Act 2:37). “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Act 16:30). “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Act 9:6). “Lord, save us, we perish!” (Mat 8:25). Some bitter cry or other is wrung from the lips of the awakened sinner, who feels his own weakness and guilt, despairs of saving himself, and makes appeal to him who is alone “mighty to save,” in tones of earnest entreaty and extreme longing for help. The “cry” is answered as soon as heard (Isa 30:19). By external teaching, or an inward secret voice, men are warned what they must do as the next step on the path which leads to life. This is
II. THE FORSAKING OF THEIR SINS. Be it impurity, be it lying, be it idolatry, that has separated between the sinner and God, he must at once set himself to cast it off, and rid himself of it. “Ye shall defile the covering of thy graven images” (Isa 30:22). “Put away the evil of your doings: cease to do evil” (Isa 1:16). It is sin, and sin only, that separates us from God. If we would be at one with him, sin must be put away. All, however, is not completed yet. Those who truly turn to God will not be content with a negative goodness; they will follow up the forsaking of their sing by
III. THE EARNEST ENDEAVOR TO LEAD A LIFE OF ACTIVE WELL–DOING. “Cease to do evil; learn to do well,” says the prophet (Isa 1:16). It is not enough to “put off the old man;” we must “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph 4:24). For every weed that we pluck from our hearts, we must put in a flower; for every vice that we uproot, we must plant a virtue. God wills that we should “add to our faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2Pe 1:5-7). We must endeavor, by “patient continuance in well-doing,” at once to improve our own characters, to help the brethren, and to rebuke, if we cannot convince, the gainsayer.
Isa 30:23-26
The glories of Christ’s kingdom shown in figure.
Isaiah gives us several descriptions of Christ’s kingdom, all of them more or less allegorical (see Isa 4:2-6; Isa 11:1-9; Isa 35:1-10; Isa 60:1-22). In the present description all is allegory. The blessings of the kingdom are
I. RICH AND ABUNDANT HARVESTS, by which would seem to be signified a great conversion of the nations by the preaching of the gospel (comp. Mat 9:1-38 :87, 38; Joh 4:35), together with the display of a great zeal to do abundant good works (Mat 7:16-20).
II. FREQUENT RAIN; i.e. an abundant shedding upon the earth of the dew of God’s blessing; a continued pouring down from him of refreshing, invigorating, healthful, life-giving influences. By these the rich harvests would be produced, the pastures made luxuriant, and God’s creatures upon the earth, both men and animals, rendered happy.
III. CONDUITS EVERYWHERE, TO CONVEY THE LIFE–GIVING FLUID FAR AND WIDE. These appear to represent appointed means of graceartificially constructed channels whereby the heavenly influences are ordinarily communicated to the faithful. They flow everywhere, not only in the valleys and plains, but also upon the mountains and high hillsthe remotest and most inaccessible parts of the kingdom.
IV. FLOODS OF LIGHT EVERYWHERE AND AT ALL TIMES; i.e. general illumination and enlightenmentthe spread of spiritual knowledge and true wisdom through all parts of the Church and all ranks of Christians; the disappearance of spiritual darkness, of ignorance, folly, and blinded consciences. This appears to be mentioned as the crowning glory of all, beyond which description cannot go, and with which therefore the allegorical sketch comes to an end.
Isa 30:29, Isa 30:32
The punishments of nations for deliverance, rather than for vengeance.
God “hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth” (Eze 18:32). His justice compels him to punish the wicked, and sometimes requires the destruction even of a nation; but the main object of the Almighty in all such destructions is not to take vengeance on the oppressor, but to deliver the oppressed. Assyria, and the nations leagued with her, had now by their wickedness, their pride, their blasphemy, their cruelty, their idolatry, their impurity, provoked him, as scarcely ever had he been provoked before. He was about to inflict a signal punishment, the fame of which would spread far and wide. But it was not on the punishment itself, or on the sufferings of those affected by it, that his own eye was fixed. It was on the consequences which would follow to his own people. They would “have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept;” they would have “gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord.” The result to them would be the removal of a constant and terrible fear; a feeling of satisfaction and safety; a sense of relief which would for a time be jubilant, and show itself in music and song, perhaps in shouting and dancing. The punishment of the Assyrians would be to them deliverancea deliverance which, it might be hoped, would convert the heart of the nation to God.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 30:1-7
The embassy to Egypt.
The embassy to Egypt has been sent, and the prophet’s object is to show that the policy of it is false, as all policy must be false which does not rest upon religion.
I. The POLICY CHARACTERIZED. It is that of “unruly sons,” and they “carry out a purpose which is not from Jehovah.” So in Hosea we read, “They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not” (Hos 8:4). They “weave a net” or “plait alliances” without his Spirit, and add sin to sin. They go down into Egypt without having inquired of Jehovah’s mouth, and flee to the fortress of Pharaoh, to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt.
1. The Divine leading and inspiration make men humble, while self-will and self-reliance are stubborn, obstinate.
2. Where the first step has been wrong, every subsequent step aggravates the error.
3. The root of a mistaken policy is a false reliance, dependence on an “arm of flesh.” There is a true and a false self-reliance: that which forgets God is ignorant and impious that which recognizes him as the Source of all true intelligence is genuine. To the external observer the difference between acting from the self-center and the God-center, between “going in one’s own strength” and “going in the strength of the Lord of hosts,” may not be perceptible. It must be known in the feeling of the actor, and in the results of his action.
II. THE RESULTS OF THE POLICY. The fortress of Pharaoh will become a shame to them, and the refuge in Egypt’s shadow confusion. “Shame and confusion of face;” great Scripture words, most expressive of the results of false principles, false policy, obstinate error.
1. It is the very bitterness of ill success to feel that it is the harvest of our own faults; while misfortune is sweetened at its bitterest by the consciousness of having followed the light to the best of one’s ability. The prophet follows in imagination this mistaken embassy into the heart of Egypt. They will come to Zoan (or Tanis), and to Hanes (or Heracleopolis), but will be abashed to find that in the expected saviors and helpers no salvation is to be found.
2. That bitterness is aggravated by the sense of the great toil and suffering which has only led to failure. How different the journey from Egypt and that to Egypt! Then men were led through “that great and terrible wilderness,” full of the fiery serpents and scorpions and lions, the land of drought, and there were fed with manna (Deu 8:15; Jer 2:6). And now, after encountering all these dangers, they are to find, after all, that there is no help in Egypt, though they have carried thither rich presents on asses and on camels. Emphatic is the prophet, “Yea, the Egyptians; in vain, and empty is their help, therefore I proclaim concerning it, Rahab, they are utter indolence.” There is a play on the name here, which cannot well be rendered in English. But Egypt may stand as a type of the “world,” the absence of true principle, or the principle of policy as opposed to reliance on God. And then the lesson will be the inherent weakness of all worldly policy, as compared with simple trust in God and obedience to his dictates.J.
Isa 30:8-18
A testimony forever.
The prophet pauses. Perhaps he hears an inner voice bidding him to write down a few words, such as the last significant Rahab. As in Isa 8:1, the inscription is to be on a large tablet, set up in a conspicuous place, so that he who runs may read. Then he is to inscribe the prophecy more fully on a scroll. Litera scripta manet. The oracle, the oral utterance, transferred to parchment, becomes a , a “possession forever.” The perpetuity of his protest and warning must be secured. The word rendered” inscribe” is more literally rendered “carve.” Every earnest man has surely something worth thus carving, inscribing, engraving, somewhere, on some materialtablet, book, or “fleshy table of the heart;” the condensation of a life-experience, the sum of life-truths, the whole self-revelation, which is at the same time God’s revelation to his soul of what is substantial and eternal.
I. THE NEED FOR SUCH INSCRIPTION. The people refuse to listen to any but flattering prophecies. They are disobedient and untruthful at heart. They refuse to listen to the prophet’s message; then they must be made to look upon it in a permanent form. None are so blind as those who will not see, unless it be those who will not let others see. Light, more light, is our constant need: what shall be said of those who would stay the hand that is drawing up the blinds from the windows of the soul? What more precious than insight? How should we cherish the man who sees deeper into the heart of things, or gathers up the scattered fragments of truth into one inspiring unity of representation; the mind gifted with the power to shed luminous effects upon what were otherwise gloomy in life’s outlook! How all-precious is that purer eloquence, not of ephemeral and party passion, but of the truth which is of no party nor time! How shall these elements of indispensable worth be preserved? Can we trust them to the popular memory and heart? Alas! no, or not entirely. In the hour of excitement and passion all will be forgotten. “You shall not prophesy unto us right things,” has been, in effect, the cry of the multitude again and again at such hours. The Jewish prophets themselves felt these things keenly. “Don’t preach!” is, in effect, the cry by which they are met. Or, “Preach to us of wine and strong drink”any doctrine of indulgence, is the demand (Mic 2:6, Mic 2:11; of. Amo 2:12). If the prophet sternly resisted this temper of the people, and told the homely truth that God had forsaken them because they had forsaken him, a shower of stones was likely to be the dreadful answer, as in the case of the martyr Zechariah (2Ch 24:20, 2Ch 24:21). Greedy is the appetite for “smooth things” and “illusions,” and never wanting a supply of such flattering prophets who will run, though Jehovah has not sent them, and utter what he has not said (Jer 23:21). There is a demand for those who will make flexible what he has made inflexible, mark out a deviating path from that which he has traced straight and plain. Nay, some would be glad to efface the thought of God from their minds, because thus they would efface the sense of responsibility, “Abolish out of our sight the Holy One of Israel.” For then there will be free course for all license. From all this we see the need of religious literature. Libraries may be burned; a few manuscripts worth more to mankind than gold and silver will be preserved. The truth in Isaiah has been preserved for us by the art of writing, has come down to us in the form of Scripture. Let us thank God for art as the handmaid of religion. At every epoch in the history of the world, religions life is threatened with decay or degeneration; but it will renew itself from the sacred “records of the past.”
II. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE TESTIMONY.
1. Simple faith in the Eternal opposed to worldly policy. We must, in order to apprehend the nature of the “testimony forever,” strip away the temporary references, and regard Rahab and Israel as types of permanent phases of character (Cheyne). What does “Rahab” stand for? “Perverseness and crookedness” (or oppression). Crookedness and frowardness mean what we mean by “unprincipled conduct” (comp. Pro 2:15; Pro 4:24). To trust in shrewdness and policythis is worldliness. It is one of the many ways in which man’s wit would contend with eternal wisdom. And punishment must surely attend upon this sin, according to the laws of the Divine kingdom. Various is the imagery under which Scripture represents the connection between evil in the mind and the resultfirst in sin, then in destruction. The strong will be as tow, and burn unquenchably; the foolish will conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble, or will be burned as thorns (Isa 1:31; Isa 33:11, Isa 33:12). Here guilt is compared in its result to the cracking or bulging of a wall, which suddenly crashes down in ruin; to a pitcher dashed violently to the ground, and broken into a multitude of fragments, so that it can never be of the slightest use again. But the vessels of God’s fashioning shall endure. Let us be content to be what God would make of us; self-devices that would contravene his purpose will be “ground to powder.”
2. The condition of deliverance, returning. From what? Is it the general sense of conversionthe absolute turning once for all, in choice and conduct, from moral evil? Or is it rather, more specifically, the relinquishment of the search for worldly aids? “Self-chosen ways,” “self-confident works,” seem certainly to be meant. Would they but lay aside this restless eagerness and over-anxious care for safety, and simply fall upon the Almighty arms! Such lessons can never be obsolete. Trust in God does not imply supineness, but it should still excessive and feverish fears. Behind all our plans and proposals, he is thinking and acting; if they are unsound, they must come to naught; if sound, they will be furthered. “Take heed and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted.” The worldly mind will lean on worldly supportswift horses of Egypt or the like, only to find themselves outmatched upon their own chosen ground. “One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one.” Mere numbers give no strength. Strength is in being able to stand alone, if need be. To find one’s self suddenly deserted, “as a mast on the top of a mountain, a signal on a hill,” is often the fate of those whose only policy is to side with numbers and with power.
3. The compassion of Jehovah. Human needs call forth Divine deeds. We are to think of God as One who longs to manifest and exert himself for the good of his creatures; as One who is hindered by human pride, impatience, petulance; as One who therefore waits for his opportunity and fit season to be gracious; as One who is ever true to himself, constant to his covenant, keeping favor for his people and wrath for his foes. How happy, then, those who in turn “long for Jehovah!”whose eyes are directed to the “hills whence cometh help!” who watch his pleasure as the servant that of his master, the handmaiden that of her mistress! “To possess God there must be that in us which God can possess. Still to aspire after the Highest is our wisdom; to cease from aspiration is to fall into weakness.”J.
Isa 30:19-26
The blessedness of Zion.
Throughout the book the idea of temporal blends with that of spiritual weal. The images are drawn from the state of temporal happiness and prosperity. Yet Zion and Jerusalem may be regarded as symbolical of the Church in general.
I. JOY IN GOD. There will be “no more weeping.” Tears are significant of the lot of humanity; and in the poetry of the Old Testament we hear, as Lord Bacon says, “as many hearse-like airs as carols,” and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has labored more in depicting the sorrows of David than the felicities of Solomon. It is because the gospel meets the mood of tears in us that its assurances fall so sweetly on the heart. Burns the poet said, “After all that has been said on the other side of the question, man is by no means a happy creature. I do not speak of the selected few, favored by partial Heaven, whose souls are tuned to gladness, and riches, and honors, and prudence, and wisdom; I speak of the neglected many, whose nerves, whose sinews, whose days, are sold to the minion of fortune.” It is this way of thinkingit is these melancholy truths, that make religion so precious to the poor miserable children of men. If it is a mere phantom, existing only in the heated imagination of enthusiasm, “what truth on earth so precious as the lie?” What is needed is “the expulsive power of a new affection in the sense of the nearness of Godthe sense that he does hear and that he does answer out of the vastness and the void.” And he will so answer, if he be sought for with “all the heart” (Jer 29:12-14).
II. THE BLESSING OF TEACHERS. On the one hand, here is physical want”bread of adversity, and water of affliction.” On the other hand, a perpetual supply of spiritual food and spiritual consolation. The best of the people felt that it was the saddest thing that could be sufferedto have no more “signs” from God, to be destitute of the prophet, and of the man of superior insight (Psa 74:9). The famine of “not hearing the Word of Jehovah” (Amo 8:11) is bitterer than hunger or thirst. The effect may be traced to a definite causethe sin of the people or of the teachers themselves (Isa 43:27). The one might be unworthy to listen to, the other to deliver, the truth of God (Isa 43:27). There is no calling more glorious, none which leads to a more lustrous immortality (Dan 12:3), than that of the religious teacher, none which is of greater service in the promotion of the kingdom of God. If so great be the blessing of the ministry of the truth, it flows from the goodness of God that, in the happy times to come, teachers shall never be absent from the people.
III. THE BLESSING OF INWARD ILLUMINATION. The “word behind them” may be the Bath-Kol, the daughter of the Voice, as the Jews say, or, according to a way of thinking more familiar to ourselves, the voice of conscience. “God is not a hidden God in the sense that his life is closed up within himself. His Word goes forth to the world, that it may come into being, and to the children of men that they may know it and find life in it (Psa 33:6; cf. Deu 4:12; 1Sa 3:4; 1Ki 19:11, sqq.). (On the Bath-Kol, see Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5; Joh 12:28.) The notion is that of invisible and unexpected agency. The admonitions of providence, of conscience, of the Holy Spirit, seem often to come behind usto recall us from the path on which we were going, from the course that would be fraught with danger. When in danger of straying to this side or to that, the voice will call us back. In this respect the Divine voice is like the daemonion of Socrates, which was a restraining influence.
IV. PURITY AND PROSPERITY. A symptom of a return to true religion will be the casting away of the relics and reminders of idolatrythe defiling in the Name of the holy God of that which to heathen eyes was holy. Josiah’s conduct was an example of this (2Ki 23:1-37.). The expression of abhorrence for the symbol expresses at the same time abhorrence for the thing symbolized. The repentance of the individual, the reformation of the nation, must be signalized by the “rending of the idol,” not merely from its high place, but from the heart itself. When the heart is brought into the fuller knowledge of God, it loves what he loves, and hates what he hates. The thought of what is “an abomination to Jehovah” (Deu 7:25) is reflected in an intense distaste in the soul.
2. This will be consistent with external prosperity. Rain will come down upon the sown seed. As the withholding of the rain followed upon national iniquity as the greatest curse (Zec 14:17, Zec 14:18), so the giving of the rain meant at once all physical blessing and all Divine favors (Zec 10:1, etc.). Breadrich and abundant produce of the landcattle teeming in the wide pastures;it is the happy picture of a golden age. Bread and watersimple elements of living; yet what poetry hangs upon their supply! and what woe, what tragedy and horror, upon the want of them!J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 30:15
Sources of strength.
“In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Because, “if God be for us, who can be against us?” When the winds are in our favor, all we have to do is to set our sails. When the tides are with us, we need not fret concerning the issues of the voyage. God is on the side of the just man, the true man, the pure man. The disciples of his Son are not likely to lose his favor and reward. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
I. THE DICTUM IS DIVINE. “Thus saith the Lord God.” There is direct and special emphasis given to this promise. And he calls himself “the Holy One of Israel.” So that the “holy people” need not fear, inasmuch as the Holy One cannot lie, cannot prosper anything opposed to holiness, cannot therefore let evil overcome goodness. What we have to look to is our state. We need not dream that quietness will help us if it be the indifference of sloth or the quiescence of an indulgent soul in evil. But if “holiness unto the Lord” be written on our hearts and lives, God, who is the Holy One, will surely prosper us.
II. THE DECLARATION IS DUAL. “Quietness and confidence.” Because there, is a quietness which comes from the paralysis of fear, or from the coma of fatalism. We are to have a confidence which keeps the soul alive, and fills it with intense ardor and devotion. Nature is intensely active, but all her ministrations, as in the light and the dew, are quiet. Fussiness and loudness are no true signs of energy. Nay, rather they bespeak a superficial and shallow nature. Confidence is the child of wisdom and courage. It is not the result of ignorance, or of under-estimating the power of our foes. It takes cognizance of them alltheir number and their variety and their ubiquity, but then, looking up to him who is mightier than them all, it says, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
III. THE STRENGTH IS WITHIN. What we need is not so much a lessening of the forces without us, but a strength in the inward man to overcome them. Take temptation. We are told that no temptation shall come but such as we are able to bear. We are not promised immunity from keen attacks. Everything depends upon the state of the soul. Temptation, to be successful, requires correspondency within. Sparks falling upon the ocean are not dangerous. Christ said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” Take trial. Sorrow, coming to the worldly heart, breaks it downit ends in the death of hope and energy and joy. Sorrow to the Christian is an angel of discipline. The soul is sustained by the presence within us of the Man of sorrows, who can make all grace abound. So even the martyr and the confessor have been able to rejoice; even Paul and Silas sang “songs in the night.” “As thy day thy strength shall be.” This, then, is proven true in human history, and must be accepted as a fact. Spiritual consciousness is worthy of as much honor and to be accepted with confidence, as the boasted facts of science. The promise, therefore, is comforting to every generation. “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 30:1-7
Going down into Egypt.
The prophet of Jehovah utters another “woe,” he denounces another sin; for the people of the Lord, in the day of their difficulty, have looked, not to their Divine Redeemer, but to that arm of flesh in which they should not have trusted, and by which they will be abandoned. We see
I. THEIR SIN. It is threefold.
1. Desertion of God. They take counsel, but not now of God, as in better days (Jos 7:6; Jdg 20:27; 1Sa 23:2; 1Sa 30:8); they made alliance, but not with the Divine consentnot “of my Spirit” (Isa 30:1); they did not ask “at God’s mouth” (Isa 30:2). Once they would not have dreamed of acting without encouragement from God; now they look elsewhere for sanction. This desertion of him who was their Lord, and who had so often proved himself their Deliverer, had its root in:
2. Distrust of God. They trusted in “the shadow of Egypt” (Isa 30:2), because they had come to distrust the “shadow of his wings” in whom David found his refuge until his calamity was overpast (Psa 57:1). It was the loss of their faith in God which made them cast about for another power which should befriend and deliver them. And this deplorable distrust was due to:
3. The spirit of materialism. They preferred the visible nation to the invisible God; the fleshly “power” to the Divine Spirit; the material army of Egypt, whose forces they could count and whose weapons they could handle, to the unseen One whose angels were beyond the range of vision, and whose instruments were unfashioned by human hands. This is the sin of mankind. Desertion of God, departure from his side and from his service; desertion springing from distrust, and this distrust rooted in a wretched and pitiful materialism.
II. THEIR PUNISHMENT.
1. Fruitless expenditure. (Isa 30:4-6.) They would take the trouble to secure princely ambassadors, and these would travel through inhospitable and perilous regions, laden with costly gifts, paying servile attention to the foreignerand all for nothing; an immensity of trouble and no profit whatever.
2. Bitter disappointment. (Isa 30:7.) The land from which they hoped so much would prove utterly useless; their expectations would end in nothing but chagrin;, their exasperation could only find expression in an opprobrious epithet, in a bitter epigram directed against Egypt.
3. Mortification. “The strength of Pharaoh shall be their shame,” etc. (Isa 30:3, Isa 30:5). The result of this attempted alliance would be political reproach; and the court and the nation would be ashamed of having taken a step that turned out so ill. These are the common penalties of sin: the waste of that which is precioustime, money, strength, reputation, energy, affection, etc.; disappointmentthe soul finding out that that in which it trusted cannot do what it hoped, that it leaves it still empty, still athirst, still poor; shamethe position in which it is dishonored of men, and has keenly to reproach itself for folly into which it need not have fallen, for sin which it might easily have shunned.
III. THEIR ALTERNATIVE. God was with them; one of his truest and most faithful prophets was at hand, accessible at any hour. Why not trust in the Almighty? Why not take counsel of the All-wise? The alternative to sin is always at hand. The gates of obedience are unfastened; the oracles of God are open; the paths of piety are such as every foot may tread.C.
Isa 30:8-14, Isa 30:17, Isa 30:18
Aspects of sin.
This severe denunciation by the prophet of the sins of the Jews may remind us of some of the darker and sadder aspects of sin itself.
I. THE PERMANENCY OF ITS RECORD. Isaiah was to record the guilt of “the rebellious children” in a book, that it might be there inscribed “for the time to come forever and ever.” And in the sacred volume there stand written, to be read for all time, the accusations which the Lord brought against Israel; the record of their national perversity remains after all these centuries have passed, and will remain for centuries to come. Apart from such instrumentality as was here employed, the sins we commit find a lasting record. They are printed in the faces and the forms of men, they are legible in their lives, they are apparent in their characters, they survive in their reputation, they live on forever m the ineffaceable influences which are left behind them and which are transmitted from age to age. The sins of the fathers may be read in the lowered and injured lives of the children unto the third and the fourth generation. We little think how and where and when our guilt is being recorded in one or other of the many books of God.
II. ITS OBDURACY. “Children that will not hear the Law of the Lord” (verse 9). Contumacy reaches its utmost length when it closes its ears against the Word of the all-wise and almighty God. It is by degrees that the heart becomes thus hardened. Diminished pleasure, inattention, avoidance, the closed ear of the soulby such stages as these man descends to the obduracy which is here rebuked.
III. ITS POWER OF IMPOSING ON ITSELF. (Verses 10, 11.) When sin is in full possession of the soul it makes men believe that to be false which they do not wish to be true, and that true which they do not like to consider false; it prevails on them to regard the rugged things to be wrong, and the smooth things to be sound; then it leads them to find a voice for this palatable and comforting doctrine; so that they encourage those to speak who will keep silence as to all Divine but disagreeable truth, and give utterance to pleasant and profitable perversions.
IV. THE APPARENT SUDDENNESS OF ITS PENALTY. (Verse 13.) The spendthrift is getting poorer every month for many years, but bankruptcy comes on him suddenly at last. The dishonest man is getting hopelessly involved for years, but his reputation is blasted in an hour. The fascinations of the cup are long gaining ascendency, but in some evil day the victim of this baleful vice is seen staggering in the streets. Passion may have been winning the mastery from youth upwards, but at a certain point it blazes forth, and the life-blood is shed. Penalty generally comes at last with seeming suddenness, like the breaking wall that has long bent but comes down in a moment.
V. THE COMPLETENESS OF ITS PENALTY. (Verse 14.)
VI. ITS APPROPRIATENESS. (Verse 16.) The punishment of Judah’s sin should have a marked correspondence with the guilt itself. This is constant. Sins of the flesh make their mark upon the body; sins of the mind leave their stain upon the spirit; folly in the home will end in domestic sorrow; he that withholds from others starves himself; he that oppresses others does violence to his own soul, etc. There will always be found a fitness in the penalty to the sin for which a man is suffering. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;” he that soweth the wind, shall reap the whirlwind (Gal 6:7; Hos 8:7).C.
Isa 30:15
Quiet strength.
These beautiful words suggest
I. THE FIRST DUTY OF THE ERRING. Judah had forsaken God to find a refuge in another power; the first duty of the nation, therefore, was “to return” unto the Lord, and to find its rest and its salvation in him. This is now and ever the immediate duty of all wanderers from God; both of those who have never been reconciled to him through Jesus Christ, and of those who, like the Jews on this occasion, have temporarily forsaken his service. The way of return is that of penitent confession (Rom 10:10), of trust in the Divine promise (Act 10:43), of surrender to the Divine will (Act 9:6).
II. THE STRENGTH OF QUIET ACTIVITY. “In quietness shall be your strength.” It is a common fallacy that noise and strength are closely allied. On the contrary, it is the quiet and even the silent things which are the strong ones. The thunder startles or appalls, but it effects nothing; gunpowder deafens the ear, but it enriches no one; tempestuous rhetoric excites to momentary force of feeling, but it adds nothing to character. It is the silent forces of gravitation and electricity acting for ages without being known to exist; it is the soft sunshine and the still rains of heaven; it is the quiet words of the calm teacher finding their way to the mind and working conviction and conversion there;it is in these things, and in things like these, that real power resides. The quiet strength of a gentle mother’s purity and love, of a faithful father’s warning, of an honored teacher’s counsel and example, of an earnest Church’s testimony and work;these are the God-given agencies by which the world is to be won to righteousness and truth. Noisy, spasmodic, irregular outbursts may be auxiliaries, but they are only that.
III. THE POWER OF FAITH. “In confidence shall be your strength.” Sometimes we have simply to wait for God, and the best thing we can do is to “be still” and wait; our activity would only be harmful (see Exo 14:13). So it was on this historical occasion (see Isa 37:1-38.). So was it often with our Lord’s disciples. So is it now, when in duty or in danger we have done all that we can do;. then we wait for Godour expectation is in him only (Psa 39:7; Psa 62:5).C.
Isa 30:18
God’s waiting and ours.
I. GOD‘S WAITING FOR US. “Will the Lord wait.” We may look at:
1. The occasions of his waiting. He waits “that he may be gracious.”
(1) That he may show his grace in forgiveness; in “having mercy upon as,” or in making us to feel that we are the subjects of his mercy.
(2) That he may show his grace in interposition, delivering from danger, relieving from distress, saving in sickness.
(3) That he may show his grace in final and complete redemption (Rom 8:23)the taking his children away from the struggle and sorrow of earth to the rest and joy of heaven.
2. The reason of his waiting. It is because “the Lord is a God of judgment,” or of rectitude.
(1) He cannot forgive us till we return in spirit to him and accept his rule, until we obey his supreme command (Joh 6:29).
(2) He cannot interpose until his intervention is fitted to purify and sanctify us.
(3) He cannot call us home until the privilege and discipline of time have prepared us for the scenes and spheres of eternity.
II. OUR WAITING FOR GOD. “Blessed are all they that wait for him.”
1. Blessed is the patient inquirer; for he who seeks the truth and waits till light shines in upon his soul will surely find his goal.
2. Blessed is the patient worker; for he who sows the good seed of the kingdom and waits for God to give the increase will “doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
3. Blessed is the patient sufferer; for he who “waits for the morning” through the night of pain, or loneliness, or poverty, or any other ill, will find that the glory which is to be revealed will make the sufferings of the present time incomparably small (Rom 8:18). Now God waits for us, and we for him. A few steps more and his largest promises and our highest hopes will be all fulfilled.C.
Isa 30:19-26
The people of God in their prosperity.
These verses are primarily applicable, and they are more or less true as they are applied, to the return of the Jews from captivity, and their residence in their own land. But they find a larger fulfillment in the condition of the Church of Christ in its last days. Possibly they anticipate the felicities of the heavenly future. We refer them to the Church in its prosperity, and conclude
I. THAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD ARE THOSE THAT HAVE KNOWN A TIME OF TROUBLE. Dark days have passed over their heads; there has been “the breach of his people, and the stroke of his wound” (Isa 30:26). God once made them to “eat the bread of adversity,” etc. (Isa 30:20). They have passed through grave spiritual anxieties; they have felt the burden of unforgiven sin; they have sighed for the sense of God’s favor; they have known the miseries of separation from God, and the weariness of a life unbrightened with sacred joy.
II. THAT IN THEIR DISTRESS THEY MADE EFFECTUAL APPEAL TO GOD. (Isa 30:19.) God is never deaf to the cry of sorrow; but to the appeal of the penitent spirit, longing to return unto him, his ear is peculiarly alive; he will be “very gracious” at the voice of that cry”when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.” No loudest sounds will drown the sigh of the contrite spirit, no multiplied activities will prevent the heavenly Father from giving it his immediate regard.
III. THAT THE DAY OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE IS ONE OF VERY BLESSED ILLUMINATION. In the day of its prosperity there should be abundance of light for the Christian Church. Its teachers should not have to hide in obscurity, but should be visible and accessible to all (Isa 30:20); and there should be times when the light of Divine truth would be not only clear, but brilliant and powerful, making other clays to seem dark by comparison (Isa 30:26; see 2Co 3:9, 2Co 3:10). Compared with the condition of heathen lauds, or even with the state of Israel under Samuel or David, or even with many Christian countries now, how blessed the state in which the gospel of the grace of God shall be made known in its freedom and its fullness in every town and hamlet, and in every cottage home!
IV. THAT THIS DAY OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE WILL BE ONE OF KIND AND FAITHFUL WATCHFULNESS. (Isa 30:21.) The vision is one of high, but not heavenly, blessedness; of advanced, but not absolute excellency. The citizens of the holy kingdom will be found walking in the King’s highway, but there will remain a tendency to “turn-to the right hand or to the left,” to go off into by-paths of error, or mistake, or unwisdom, if not of actual transgression. In this case there will be the faithful monitor, the Christian teacher, who will be ready with the timely intervention, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” This readiness to intervene at the moment of digression ought to characterize our own times; it should be the holy habit, the careful acquirement, of the Christian pastor. On the other hand, a readiness to be admonished is one of the graces of a godly character.
V. THAT THE TIME OF TRUE PROSPERITY WILL BE MARKED BY THE DECISIVE INTOLERANCE OF EVIL. (Isa 30:22.) They that name the Name of Christ will not only “depart from all iniquity,” but they will reprobate it; they will thrust it away; they will not like even to allude to shameful things (Eph 5:3)these will be hateful, intolerable to them. We may measure our nearness to God by the degree of our abhorrence of evil (Heb 1:13; Rom 12:9).
VI. THAT THE TIME OF CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE WILL BE ONE OF ABOUNDING JOY. (Isa 30:23-25.) This language is clearly figurative; it is the utterance of exultation. Everything contributes to joyous prosperitythe timely rain, the large increase of seed, the rich pastures, abundance of food for cattle as well as for man, unfailing “brooks that make the meadows green.” The land will laugh with exuberance, the nation will exult in overflowing wealth. In the days of unfettered liberty and universal privilege the Christian Church will delight itself in God; its songs of peace and of hope will arise from every valley; its life will be touched and lighted with the sunshine of a holy gladness. The light of God’s countenance will rest upon it, and it will rejoice greatly in his salvation.C.
Isa 30:27-33
Judgment and joy.
This forcible, energetic language, in which darkest shadow and brightest sunshine very strikingly intermingle, may remind us
I. THAT GOD DOES COME IN TERRIBLE JUDGMENTS TO THE CHILDREN OF MEN.
1. Sometimes to men collectivelyto societies, to cities, to nations.
2. At other times to individual men. In the special ordering or in the permission of his Divine providence he sends the overwhelming loss and consequently reduced or even impoverished estate, or the wasting and consuming sickness, or the undermining and final destruction of influence, or the shattering of power, or sudden, perhaps violent, death. God lets such things overtake the guilty, that the pictorial and poetical language of the text is applicable. It is as if his “anger bused,” as if his “lips were full of indignation;” his judgments come down as an overflowing stream, they cast forth the guilty like a winnowing-shovel; his glorious voice is heard, his arm descends in righteous retribution.
II. THAT THE JUDGMENT OF GOD IS ACCOMPANIED WITH THE JOY OF MAN. “Ye shall have a song, as in the night and gladness of heart” (Isa 30:29); “in every place where the grounded staff shall pass it shall be with tabrets and harps” (Isa 30:32). Here and elsewhere the judgments of God are made the occasion of human thankfulness and joy. It is clear:
1. That in such joy there should be no element of vindictiveness. It would be positively unchristian to find a source of satisfaction in the bodily or mental suffering of men because they have injured us (Rom 12:19, Rom 12:20). Christian magnanimity should rise to the height of earnestly desiring that its foes may be won to truth, wisdom, and eternal life.
2. That there may be in such joy the element of righteous satisfaction; not, indeed, that men suffer, but that their sin receives its appropriate mark of Divine disapproval; that the integrity of the Divine rule is vindicated; that God’s presence and his holiness are seen to be near and not afar off. This is the spirit of the psalmist (Psa 97:1).
3. That there may be also the element of human sympathy. Often at such times we have great gladness of heart, because, when he that once “smote with a rod” is himself “beaten down” (Isa 30:31), those who were smitten by the oppressor walk in liberty and security. The humiliation of the wrong-doer is the exaltation of the righteousis the enfranchisement of the holy and the wise.
4. That there will also be the element of holy expectation. When Sennacherib has God’s bridle in his jaws and is caused to wander far from his chosen path, Jerusalem is safe and Jehovah’s service is secure. When the enemies of religion are scattered, there is a goodly prospect of opened sanctuaries, of multiplied privileges, of increase of piety and virtue on every hand. When the persecutor perishes the minister of truth rejoices greatly, and there is music in the house of the Lord because there is every reason to hope that the Churches, having rest, will “walk in the fear of God and be multiplied“ (Act 9:31).
1. It is well, in the time of danger or distress, to ask for Divine deliverance.
2. It is better to ask for Divine strength to be enabled to overcome the evil from which we suffer by the good which we do (Rom 12:21).C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 30:1
Adding sin to sin.
This prophetic warning seems to have been spoken when the embassy to seek offensive and defensive alliance with Egypt had actually started on its way. The sin of neglecting to seek direction from God in the time of national anxiety was now added to by the sin of openly seeking help from man. There was a constant disposition on the part of the Jews of the later monarchy to seek their safety in national alliances. When imperiled by the Israelites, they sought help from the Syrians. When threatened by the Syrians, they made treaties with the Assyrians. When the Assyrians became their enemies, they tried to strengthen themselves with the support of hesitating, inactive Egypt. First men lose their faith in God; then they neglect to seek or obey him; and then they turn to mere human helpers. So sin follows on sin. Illustrating this from life and experience, with precise applications to each audience, it may be shown that
I. SIN IS ADDED TO SIN IN THE NATURAL ORDER OF EVENTS. It is but the simple fact of life that a sin never goes alone. It always has its companions and its followers. It must, if for this one reason onlyevery sin is a disturbance of order by man’s self-will; that self-will is sure to go on sinning in the effort to get the order right. The child who finds order disturbed by some wrong act, goes on to tell lies in its vain effort to get the order straight again.
II. SIN IS ADDED TO SIN BY THE INFLUENCE OF HABIT. There is a strange tendency in us all to do a second time what we have done once. This has not been sufficiently noticed, though it is the basis on which criminals are often detected. A sin done once, we are actually disposed to do again; and there seems to be even a bodily bias towards tiffs formation of habits. Parents and teachers have to watch for it, that they may check and correct it.
III. SIN IS ADDED TO SIN BY THE ENTICEMENTS OF SATAN. For an act of sin is giving Satan the advantage over us, putting ourselves into his power. And the increase of that power depends on leading us to do evil again. He will not let us stop and think. We must go on, as the gambler does, until we are enslaved and ruined.
IV. SIN IS ADDED TO SIN AS A BEGINNING OF PUNISHMENT. A man is usually “heady and high-minded” at the successful result of his first wrong; so, in order that he may be smitten and humbled, God lets him go on from sin to sin, until shame whips him awake, so that he may see his iniquity. The way round to right has often to be by the mire of sin added to sin. There is a gracious sense in which God lets willful men alone awhile, as he left these Jewish leaders who advocated the Egyptian alliance, that they might convince themselves of their own wickedness and folly.R.T.
Isa 30:2
Trusting others than Jehovah.
“Relying upon human aid, involving a distrust of the Divine promises, was a crying sin of the ancient Church, not at one time only, but throughout her history.” It is quite as truly the crying sin of the modern Church, and of the Christian individual. In every time of pressure and need we first fly to some form of human help. It is either the expression of “first simplicity,” or else of “cultured sanctity,” to act on the words, “Our help is in the Lord our God.”
I. THE DELUSIONS ON WHICH OUR TRUSTING OTHERS REST. Some of these take shape, and we can recognize them. Others lie down in men’s souls, doing their mischievous work, but never getting put into propositions, which can be fairly dealt with. They are such as the following:
1. God is far away, and his help is not anything really practical.
2. God does not heed; he is so largely concerned in the great affairs of the universe that it is only an imagination that he can take interest in an individual life.
3. God is so long about his work; and impatient man cannot bear waitingif he is in any trouble, he wants it dealt with at once. Compare the King of Israel, in the famine-time, saying pettishly to Elisha, “What should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
4. God makes such hard terms. He always wants repentance and submission, and letting our own hands hang down; he crushes human energy and enterprise. The very statement of these cherished delusions of men suggests their correctives. Surely to all who cherish them the great Father is an unknown God.
II. THE FORMS WHICH OUR TRUSTING OTHERS MAY TAKE. The Jewish nation leaned on the help of another nation in her extremity. We, in our individual life and experience, are in danger of some form of sacerdotalism; we pin our faith to some sect-leader, some scientific teacher, some admired statesman, some popular preacher, some assertive priest. Thousands of people find individual responsibility in religion too heavy a burden for them to bear, and do not grasp the truth that God is with them in the bearing, and that it is their dignity to stand under the yoke only with God. Sacerdotalism is just the “man-trust” which prophets denounce. In public life and association the tendency is to lean on, and worship material strength. We seek the help of riches for the carrying out of all our religions schemes. We fly to men rather than to God.
III. HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE ALIKE PROVE THE PRACTICAL FOLLY, AS WELL AS THE INGRATITUDE AND REBELLIOUSNESS, OF THUS FORSAKING GOD. Our trusts prove, like Egypt, only shebheth, inactive, do-nothings (see Isa 30:7). Egypt promised much, but failed utterly in the day of trial.R.T.
Isa 30:15
Quietness and confidence.
These terms are related. Quietness is the result of confidence. Confidence is the secret of quietness. The quietness thought of by the prophet was the abandonment of the disquieting and distracting search for earthly aids, as in the case of seeking help from Egypt; the confidence he commends is that patient waiting on God and waiting for God, which are the necessary expressions of our faith in him.
I. A GREAT ATTAINMENT. So great, so nearly impossible for men while on the earth, that, despairingly, men have thought of it as only reached in the grave whither man hastens. Byron says, “I found in the Certosa Cemetery such a beautiful inscription; in Italian the words are absolute music: ‘Luigi Martini implora eterna quiete.’ On the restless, tossing, changing earth who can be quiet?” “The word is like an angry sea. The vessel of our life is rocked and dashed hither and thither, as blast after blast assails it, and wave after wave comes rolling on. Think what that power must be which comes into a human life in such a condition as this, and gives ‘quietness’a quietness so deep that none can make trouble.” Quietness never comes by the smoothing of circumstances. They never are smoothed for more than a very “little while.” And fears of the clouds that are gathering disturb even the “little while.” Quietness only comes by soul-mastery over circumstances. Hearts must win peace, and then only can they make peace.
II. THE MEANS BY WHICH QUIETNESS MAY BE REACHED. Through confidence; heart-confidenceheart-confidence in God. “We must keep our spirits calm and sedate by a continual dependence upon God and his power and his goodness; we must retire into ourselves with a holy quietness, suppressing all turbulent and tumultuous passions, and keeping the peace in our own minds. And we must rely upon God with a holy confidence that he can do what he will, and will do what is best for his people. And this will be our strength; it will inspire us with such a holy fortitude as will carry us with ease and courage through all the difficulties we may meet with” (Matthew Henry). In this matter the principle holds that our own endeavor must go along with God’s bestowments. “Work out your own salvation for it is God that worketh in you.” Some of us make no effort to get outside the whirl of life. How can we expect God to give us quietness?
III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE USE OF SUCH MEANS. Found in God’s gracious ways of giving his people heart-peace, and then peace in circumstances, when they have fully trusted in him.R.T.
Isa 30:16
The peril of the willful.
“We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.” We willthere is man’s sin. That is not a fit position for dependent man ever to take. “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare.” “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” From some points of view these strong-willed men may be regarded as the noble-men of earth. They have a purpose in life, which holds in and guides, as with bit and bridle, all the forces of their being. They are the great men in our mills and warehouses; the foremost as statesmen, and in carrying out great social and national enterprises. They seem to have a power of control over all the circumstances surrounding them, and a power of recoil from the greatest disappointments and disasters. Yet this disposition lays men open to peculiar dangers. Strong will is liable to become self-willto refuse the ordinance of God; to refuse the help of God; to refuse to wait for God. It stands up in fancied majesty and says, “I will.” “Whatever God may say or do, I will. I will be rich, I will be successful, I will be great.” When a man in such a spirit says, “I will,” he is on the very pit-edge, and on the pit-edge blindfolded.
I. WILFULNESS IS REBELLIOUSNESS. Because man is God’s servant, pledged to carry out his Master’s will, and not his own will. Man is God’s child, and in duty bound to fulfill his Father’s commands. Disobedience is rebellion.
II. WILFULNESS IS WEAKNESS. Because man is entirely dependent on the God whose will he refuses, for the means of accomplishing what he determines to do. His willfulness is as weak as a child’s who has no money, no power, but depends entirely on his parents.
III. WILFULNESS IS FOOLISHNESS. For it is a setting of ourselves against the Almighty God, as if he would allow us to shift and rearrange his plans. Man’s willfulness may make a noise, and bring him into trouble; but it is only a child’s attempt to hold back the flowing of the great river of God. A little time of vain trying, and then the child is swept away by the flood, which still rolls on.
IV. WILFULNESS IS PERIL. It will be a marvel, almost a miracle, if such a man do not “fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.”R.T.
Isa 30:20
Adversity as Divine bread.
“The bread of adversity, and the water of affliction.” We can only think of God by the help of our associations with man. Therefore, in the revelation which he has given us in a book, God is spoken of as if he had the form of a man (anthropomorphism), and as if he had the feelings of a man (anthropopathism). We, indeed, know no other moral beings beside man, and probably our senses would allow of the apprehension of no other. We are not allowed to create material images representing God, but we are allowed to think of God through the figures of the human being. Answering to this is the truth that we can only know our soul through our body; we have to think of it as a kind of spiritual body. So it needs care, clothing, feed, etc; eves as the body. This is the line on which it can best be shown that adversity is Divine bread for the soul, which must be nourished by appropriate food. Working out this thought, two points may be more especially treated.
I. BREAD IS THE STAPLE FOOD FOR THE BODY. It is in itself sufficient to sustain life; it contains all the necessary elements for the renewal of vitality. So is adversity the staple food for the soul; for it contains all the necessary elements for the renewal of character. Since we are sinners, wayward, and willful, the prosperities of life are but like luxuries; and adversity is our staple food, which nourishes humility, penitence, godly fear, and trust. The expression is used of King Manasseh, the willful, who, in prison, was fed with the bread and water of affliction, and thereby nourished unto penitence, forsaking of sin, and hearty return to the God of his fathers. If we pray, “Feed me with food convenient for me,” we must clearly see that the answer may include “adversity and affliction.”
II. BREAD IS A GENERAL TERM EMBRACING ALL NECESSARY FOOD. And necessary food for the body includes some things that are unpleasant to the taste. Sometimes even medicine is breadthe very best of bread for us under the circumstances. And so our soul-conditions and our soul-culture may make necessary things that are very trying to feeling. “No affliction for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them who are exercised thereby.”R.T.
Isa 30:21
Sins of will and sins of frailty.
“When ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” This is an evident recognition of the infirmities and wanderings of those who do, of set purpose of heart, mean to serve God. The verse is a gracious assurance that, in such times of frailty, God’s people shall have due warning and correction. We may take as types of the two kinds of sinsins of will and sins of frailtythe two persons who were present to the mind of Christ when he spoke as in Joh 12:10; and these two persons will illustrate the classes who were in the mind of Isaiah when he gave the warning of the textthe boldly willful who persisted in the policy of seeking aid from Egypt, and the frail’ ones whose faith faltered under the pressure of the anxiety of the times and the delay of the Divine intervention. They were swayed to this side or to that, but, nevertheless, tried hard to keep steadily, Piglet on.
I. JUDAS, TYPE OF THOSE WHO ARE HEART–WRONG, INSINCERE, RULED BY CONSIDERATIONS OF SELF–INTEREST. There are no minute details given of the process of Judas’s apostasy. There was, indeed, nothing unusual about it. The covetous spirit made him connect himself with Christ chiefly for personal ends. The essential thing in any one who unites with Christ is surrender of self and self-will, and this surrender Judas never made. The point, however, to be specially dwelt on here is that his great sin was a matter of will, plan, resolve, determination. He did not drift into it; he was not enticed into it; he was not taken at unawares: he schemed it; he willed it; the guilt of it fully rested on him. Whenever men sin with their wills and openly, they must come under the crushings of Divine judgment. Sins of will are rebellions that must be mastered. The distinction between sins of will and. sins of frailty may be further shown in King Saul and King David.
II. PETER, TYPE OF THE SINCERE BUT FAULTY AND FRAIL. Compare David. Peter was hasty, impulsive, uncertain, sometimes even weak. “The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.” lie swayed now to this side, and now to that, and needed just such warnings as are provided in the above text. The Apostle John urges on those who are sincere Christians, that if they “say they have no sin, they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them.” And these, which at first are “goings aside,” “frailties,” will soon grow to become” willfulnesses, “if they are not checked and corrected. Therefore may we rejoice in God, and assure our hearts in his promise that the voice shall call us back when our feet incline to wander to the right or the left.R.T.
Isa 30:29
The joy-song of the delivered,
Reference is to the deliverance of Hezekiah and Judah from the yoke of the Assyrians and the fear of their overwhelming attack. Illustrating the pleasure Eastern people feel in “night-songs,” Roberts says, “Music is considered far more enchanting at night than at any other period; it gives cheerfulness in darkness, and pleasure to the heart.” Nothing is more common than for adults to sing themselves to sleep; thus, as they recline, they beat a tabret and chant the praises of their gods till, through heaviness, they can scarcely articulate a word. In passing through a village or town at midnight may be heard people at their nightly song, to grace the festive scene, to beguile away their time, to charm their fears, or to procure refreshing sleep,”
I. GOD GIVES SONGS IN THE NIGHT OF OUR FEARS, A striking illustration is found in the times of Jehoshaphat (2Ch 20:1-37.). A time of exceeding peril and fear came through an invasion of Moabites and Ammonites; the matter was committed to God in prayer; deliverance was assured, and we read that the singers went out before the army, to praise the beauty of holiness, and say, “Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever.” They were to sing their songs of trust while yet the deliverance tarried. Singing songs when we are well out of fears is easy work; singing songs even while struggling with our fears is the beautiful triumph of faith.
II. GOD GIVES SONGS IN THE NIGHT OF WEEPING. Weeping represents troubles being borne, not troubles only feared. Smiles can break through tears. God gives heart-rest that can give forth a song, even to the sons and daughters of pain and grief.
III. GOD GIVES SONGS IN THE NIGHT OF WEARY PILGRIMAGE. For oftentimes “waiting work,” and the work of keeping steadily on, is very trying and hard. Many a man knows the painful depression of “patient continuance in well-doing.” This is typified in the long, dreary journey of Israelites from distant parts of the country to the feasts at Jerusalem. Weary work, indeed, in those slow-travelling days. It is said that each band of pilgrims on its way to Jerusalem was headed by a person who played the flute. Nothing cheers a journey like a song. See the power of music on a soldier’s march. Then
“Sing on your heavenward way, IV. GOD GIVES SONGS IN THE NIGHT OF DEATH. Songs in the soul, when lips are sealed in weakness. How often those who watch beside dying saints see the lips moving, and catch faint sounds of the old trustful hymns learned in childhood! Familiar texts and well-loved hymns are the wings that bear many a soul through the long dark valley into the holy realms of light and love and song.R.T.
Isa 30:33
The mission of Tophet.
“Fire, being the most destructive of all the elements, is chosen by the sacred writers to symbolize the agency by which God punishes or destroys the wicked. We are not to assume from prophetical figures that material fire is the precise agent to be used. It was not the agency employed in the destruction of Sennacherib, who is the king mentioned in the text. He was killed by his two sons, whilst worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god (Isa 37:38). Tophet properly begins just where the Valley of Hinnom bends round to the east, having the cliffs of Zion on the north, the Hill of Evil Counsel on the south. It terminates at Beer Ayub, where it joins the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The cliffs on the south side especially abound in ancient tombs. Here the dead caresses of beasts, and every offal and abomination, were cast, and left to be either devoured by that worm that never died, or consumed by that fire that was never quenched. Hinnom was condemned to this infamous service, perhaps, because in it, when Israel fell into idolatry, they offered their children in sacrifice to Baal.” Tophet came to represent the place of punishment, especially that kind of punishment which is destructive rather than remedial.
I. DIVINE PUNISHMENTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL ARE REMEDIAL. We are not able to fit together the fatherly relation and the hopeless destruction of any of his sons. Much of our difficulty in dealing with the conditions of the future life arises from our failing to distinguish between the individual and the corporate life of men. Nations, sects, classes, families even, can be destroyed. Their corporate life may once for all cease. God’s judgments may reach them in this form for the sake of, and for the duo impression of, the individual. We understand the destruction of an army or of a city, but not the destruction of a man.
II. DIVINE PUNISHMENTS OF THE NATION OR THE CLASS MAY BE DESTRUCTIVE. Tophet here is the figure for the destruction of the army of Sennacherib, and of him as king, not as man. Tophet tells of material destructions, and such only can concern man in human and earthly relations. Sodom and Gomorrah may be burned up in the fires of God, destroyed from off the face of the earth; But we know nothing of the standing of individual Sodomites before God. The Canaanite race was to be swept from the earth, but we are sure the Judge of all the earth will do right by each Canaanite. God’s temporal destructions for corporate sins are part of the world’s education, but are no basis for belief in any everlasting material punishments for individuals.R.T.
Isa 30:1-2. Woe to the rebellious children, &c. These two verses contain the proposition of the discourse, exhibiting the carnal counsel of the Ephraimites condemned by God, which makes the basis of this prophetical declamation. The Ephraimites are addressed as refractory children, more strongly to mark their impiety. See Deu 21:18; Deu 21:23. Hos 4:16 and Jer 2:18. To cover with a covering, but not of God’s Spirit, is to seek help to themselves from the persuasion of false prophets, in opposition to the convictions and denunciations of true prophets, teaching them that their purposes are very displeasing to God.
III.THE THIRD WOE
Isaiah 30
1. THE SIN OF THOSE WHO SEEK HELP FROM EGYPT, NOT FROM JEHOVAH
Isa 30:1-5
1Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord,
That take counsel, but not of me; That they may add sin to sin:
2That walk to go down into Egypt,
And have not asked at my mouth; 3Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame,
And the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4For his princes 2were at Zoan,
And his ambassadors 3came to Hanes.
5They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them,
Nor be an help nor profit, TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 30:1. If we take in a causative sense = making apostasy, which view is justified by the form of the word, (which is after the Pilel conjugation), and by its use elsewhere, (Lam 3:11), we can then join with it as the infinitive of nearer specification. This infinitive then expresses wherein and how far they are (Isa 1:23; Isa 65:2).
Isa 30:2. The Kal. from which many derive , does not occur. We find only Hiphil , Isa 10:31; Exo 9:19; Jer 4:6; Jer 6:1. The context too appears to me not to require by any means the signification confugere and refugium, as this meaning is contained in the following clause, and a repetition of the same thought cannot be expected. I prefer, therefore, to take in the signification to be strong and , as it is. often used = munimentum, defence, protection (Isa 17:10; Isa 25:4; Isa 27:5, et saepe). is confugere; it is found united with Jdg 9:15; Psa 36:8; Psa 57:2.
Isa 30:3. = ) Isa 4:6; Isa 25:1; Isa 28:15; Isa 28:17), is . .
Isa 30:5. is a mongrel form arising from , the former of which itself proceeding from a confusion of the two roots and , signifies pudorem produxit, to produce shame, to be ashamed, to come to disgrace, while denotes foetorem protulit, both together therefore signify to produce stinking disgrace, or disgraceful stench, to make a stinking, disgraceful figure, therefore, ignominiously to come to shame. All (Ewald, 286, e) are disgraced on account of a people that does not profit them (the senders of the embassy), is not for help, nor for profit. This strikes us as tautological. It is probably occasioned by the effort clearly apparent in this sentence to multiply the L and O sounds, and especially the combination of the two.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The subject treated by the Prophet in these chapters is unfolded more and more fully, so as to be perfectly clear. What he had hitherto only hinted at, he now declares in plain terms: the alliance with Egypt is the sin against which he contends with all the force of his spirit. This alliance is no longer a subject of deliberation. It has already taken shape. An embassy to conclude this league is already on the way. The Prophet therefore utters another (the third) woe against the apostate people, because they form such purposes without the Lord, only to heap sin upon sin (Isa 30:1). They have gone down to Egypt without consulting the Lord, in order to find there increase of power, and protection (Isa 30:2). But power and protection shall be changed into disgrace (Isa 30:3). It was possible to try to invalidate this threatening of the Prophet by a denial of the facts. But he leaves no room for such contradiction. For, says he, the Jewish princes are already in Zoan, and will come to Hanes (Isa 30:4). Therefore, he repeats with emphasis his threatening: Israel will be ashamed of the Egyptian nation which can bring to the people of God no advantage, but only disgrace.
2. Woe toa reproach.
Isa 30:1-5. comp. on Isa 29:1. is = to execute a counsel (2Sa 17:23). as Hos 8:4. We had 25:7; Isa 28:20 (comp. Jdg 16:13-14) in the signification woven or plaited covering; but in this chapter, Isa 30:22, (comp. Isa 42:17) the word has the signification what is molten, cast. That signifies here (Isa 30:1) to form an alliance, is placed out of doubt by the context. But it is questionable whether tire expression originally denotes to weave a web, or . The latter is to me the more probable, not although, but because from to pour, to cast, denotes a molten image. For it seems to me that the Prophet intends a double sense by the expression: libationem effundere and idolum fusile fundere. He hints therewith at the idolatrous character of such a league, which is a transgression of the first [second] commandment. This agrees very well with , an expression which, both in sense and construction, is connected with as we are to regard as dependent on the preposition . The clause that they may add sin to sin does not express the conscious, subjective design, but only affirms that the objective fact is of such a character as to warrant the conclusion as to the conscious design (comp. Amo 2:7; Jer 44:8 et saepe). comp. on Isa 29:1. Isa 30:2 (apposition to Isa 30:1) marks the going away, the terminus a quo,the terminus ad quern. In we must not press the notion of time, but only the notion of the word, i. e., the Prophet does not set forth that they are now going away (praesens), but states the simple fact of their going away. If we so understand the word, every appearance of a contradiction with Isa 30:4 disappears. besides only Jos 9:14 comp. Gen 24:57. Isa 30:4 contains a proof which is introduced by . It appears to me that the Prophet supposes the attempt on the part of his hearers still to deny this league with Egypt which had been laid to their charge. He therefore says: Everything stated in verses 13 is true, for the ambassadors have been already in Zoan, and are now on the way to Hanes. is therefore the proper perfect; the imperfect (comp. Gen 28:12) stands for the designation of a fact yet incomplete, still in progress, i.e., the ambassadors are only about to reach Hanes. The accusative is accus, loci. How Isaiah could so speak is easily seen, if we do not forget that he was the Prophet of Jehovah, and that the Spirit of the Lord, whom the others excluded in their consultations (ver.1), assisted the Prophet. Men told him nothing at all of the embassy; assuredly the ambassadors themselves sent him no message, nor was a message sent by them communicated to him. But yet he knows that the ambassadors have actually arrived in Egypt. His mentioning the cities Zoan and Hanes is not to be pressed, i.e., he does not mean to mark precisely the exact points between which the ambassadors now are. He has other reasons for naming these cities. I do not comprehend how Delitzsch can say, the Tanitic dynasty then bore rule, which preceded the Ethiopian: Tanis and Anysis were the two royal seats. For after the middle of the 8th century B. C., the Ethiopian (the 25th) dynasty already bore rule (Duncker,Geschichte des Alterth. I p. 598). Hezekiah cannot therefore have formed an alliance with the predecessor of the Ethiopian dynasty. Delitzsch seems here to rely too much on Herodotus, II., 137 init., where a king Anysis of Anysis, i.e., Hanes, is named as predecessor of the Ethiopian Sabakos. Moreover, Ewalds assumption resting on Herodotus, II. 141, that the Egyptian king, with whom Sennacherib had to do, was the Ethiopian Sethon, priest of Hephaestos, who was at the same time ruler of lower and middle Egypt with Tanis for his royal seat, is refuted by Assyrian monuments. For, although the first inscriptions that mention the name Tirhaka (Assyrian Tar–ku–u), belong to the time after Sennacherib, yet the monuments of Sennacherib expressly name his Egyptian opponent king of Meroe (Schrader,die Keilinsehriften und das A. T., p. 203), which could not possibly be said of a Tanitic king. When Isaiah here mentions Zoan (situated in the Delta of the Nile, southwest of Pelusium), he is probably led to do so, because this city, since the end of the second millennium before Christ, had been the capital of the kingdom. For till the expulsion of Hyksos, Memphis, then Thebes, had been the capital; then, from the epoch mentioned, Zoan, (comp. Dunker,Geschichte des Alterth, I. p. 598). Isaiah had already (Isa 29:11) mentioned Hanes (Egyptian Hns, Ehnes, afterwards Herakleopolis, situated in the neighborhood of lake Moeris), because it had been last after Tanis the royal seat of a native dynasty (comp. Herodotus, II, 137). If then Zoan and Hanes are the cities which had last been royal seats, and if they were known as such to the Prophet, there is really no reason with Hitzig, Knobel and others to adopt the reading , which lies at the basis of the Alexandrine version, but has in it only a very uncertain support. It is likewise unnecessary, and does not correspond to the context to refer the suffix in to the Egyptian king as having vainly summoned the warrior caste by his messengers (Herodotus, II. 141). It is most natural to refer the suffix in to the same subject to which the suffix in belongs. If the Prophet wished the suffix in to have a different reference from that in , he must have made this known in a way not to be misunderstood.
Footnotes:
[1]make an alliance.
[2]have been.
[3]come.
CONTENTS
This Chapter, like the former, contains reproofs mingled with promises. The graciousness of God to his church is tenderly set forth and there is much of Christ in this sweet scripture.
Reader! remark amidst all the rebellions of Israel, how the Lord still calls them children. And though chastisement must and will follow their disobedience, yet, the very chastisement proves the Lord’s design to recover them. And the method the Lord takes to accomplish his purpose, manifests his gracious intention. For, do they seek strength from foreign alliances? then shall those alliances be the rod to their own punishment. Do they seek to Pharaoh instead of the Lord? and trust in the reeds of Egypt, when the Rock of ages would have supported them? then shall shame and a reproach be the consequence. Reader! it surely distinguisheth a divine hand, when our confidences prove our ruin!
True Imperialism
Isa 30:2
Many of the changes that time brings are on the surface of life. There is a certain stability at the heart of things. The great laws of life change not. The selfsame sunlight that put an end to Jacob’s conflict with the angel gilds our joys and guides our toils Today. So is it with these human hearts of ours. So is it with the great common sentiments and necessities. Motives that swayed men’s lives when the world was young can be traced in modern life. Life changes its costume more easily than it changes its character. When we say that history repeats itself, we do not mean that there are occasional coincidences; we mean rather that the best and the worst in human life have a tendency to perpetuate themselves, and that through all the ages the human heart beats to the same tune, cherishes some of the same nobilities and the same follies, and shows itself capable of much that is fine and much that is contemptible.
So we may go back through very many centuries and find in a bit of ancient history that which is repeating itself in the life of Today. The national question among the Jews of Hezekiah’s day was, How can we shake off the Assyrian yoke? And the popular solution of the problem was, Enter into an alliance with Egypt. True, Egypt was a land of many idols, but it was also a land of many horses and chariots, and full coffers. And there have always been those in the world who, when they have wanted chariots, have not been over particular where they borrowed them. There have always been those who would fraternize with an idolater provided he was a rich idolater. Egypt was powerful with that kind of power that the world and the devil can fully appreciate. There is a might that calls to the world in the clang of iron and the thunder of horsemen and the clink of gold, and many there be that trust in it. There is a might that lifts not up its voice in the clamour of the world, but that pleads its rights and its power in the silences of thought, in the quiet inner place where conscience dwells, in the depths of all true feeling, and on the lonely heights of the ideal and would to God that you and I had more faith in it.
I. The choice between these two is ever before us. Since the days of Hezekiah, kingdoms have risen to greatness and sunk into oblivion. The great centres of power and industry, of learning and dominion, have shifted steadily westward. Places that once pulsated with industrial activity and political influence have now little more than an archaeological significance. But the heart of the West Today is as the heart of the East in many a dim yesterday, and the thing against which the Jewish Prophet protested is the thing against which some one must protest still even trust in the shadow of Egypt. Recall for a moment the stately and spiritual interest of a song that Israel sang in the days of a purer and more reverent national life: ‘He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust Surely He shall deliver thee.’ Then the shadow of Egypt fell on the people. They transferred their allegiance, not deliberately, but none the less really, from the unseen to the seen. The great changes of life, and especially those for the worse, are often undeliberate.
II. The difference between the nation and the individual is mainly a quantitative one. If the national confidence is in the shadow of Egypt, it is because the individual confidence is there. The shadow of an earthly ideal, an unspiritual interpretation of life, a material estimate of success, has fallen on our separate souls. No wonder that men miss the divinity of history, and leave God out of their widest reckonings and their corporate counsels, when they fail to find them in their toil for bread, and, reversing the word of Scripture, say, ‘We walk by sight and not by faith’.
III. The first debt that we owe to our country must be paid to our God. The highest service that any man can render to the Fatherland is the service of faith. To dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty; to lay up treasure in heaven; to be reverent and prayerful and unselfish; to lean on God amid the simple toils and necessities and pains of one’s daily life; to manifest the heroism that passes unrecognized among men because it is heroism, and, therefore, clothed in humility; to be less worldly than you are often tempted to be; to believe in the deathless divinity of conscience, duty, and love this is the higher patriotism, into whose hands at last the honour and the peace of any people must be placed for safe keeping.
P. Ainsworth, The Pilgrim Church, p. 227.
References. XXX. 7. E. A. Draper, The Gift of Strength, p. 46. W. Baxendale, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxix. 1891, p. 278. J. Vaughan, Sermons Preached in Christ Church, Brighton (7th Series), p. 23. XXX. 10. J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, p. 164.
The Secret of Strength
Isa 30:15
Hezekiah was double-minded; he had faith in God, yet he was not free from confidence in the arm of flesh. The Prophet was inspired to dissuade him from relying upon an earthly helper, and to assure him that in returning and in rest he should be saved. Apply this message to our own day.
I. The Need for this Counsel. This is manifest when we consider
a. The dangers with which Christians are often threatened from without. Adverse circumstances, sore temptations, fierce assaults of the foe, are likely to disturb and to dismay.
b. The weakness of which we are conscious within. Where shall we look for help and deliverance? Who are we that we should withstand such force, and baffle such craft?
II. In Time of Danger and Alarm it is not Easy to Maintain a Quiet Heart. The advice is especially hard to follow in days of religious excitement or unsettlement, in days of social restlessness and of political change. In fact, this counsel is most difficult to accept just when it is most urgently needed.
III. The Nature and Bearing of this Counsel. The exhortation is to
a. Quietness. A quiet mind is acknowledged to be a great blessing; it is only to be enjoyed by those who live in, and who breathe a serene atmosphere of devotion and fellowship with God.
b. Confidence. This must be placed in Him who deserves and requires it. Faith in an overruling Providence; faith in a gracious and almighty Saviour; this is the posture of the soul which is here commended.
IV. The Blessings which Follow.
a. Strength. This is a paradox, but it is a truth. Not the noisy, blustering, restless nature, is strong; but the nature which waits calmly and patiently on God.
b. Safety. Whatever be the ill that overhangs the soul, whoever be the foe that assails it, there is one Deliverer, and He is Divine; there is one security, and that is quiet faith in Him.
References. XXX. 15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. lii. No. 2985. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 155. J. T. Bramston, Sermons to Boys, p. 8. R. T. Davidson, In Quietness and Confidence, Sermon, 1885. H. M. Hilton, Church Times, vol. xl. 1898, p. 91.
Waiting
Isa 30:18
We have here two companion pictures.
I. The Lord waiting to bless. In the word ‘wait’ there lies, first, the idea of longing and yearning. All true love is a longing to make the beloved happy. Second, along with this longing to bless there is something that regulates the flow of the Divine love, ‘Therefore doth the Lord wait’. A man must be prepared for the gift, and then, and not till then, will God bestow it Third, there is often a wise and loving delay that a man may feel his dependence upon God. Instances Martha and Mary, and death of Lazarus: ‘Lord, if thou hadst been here’. Peter in prison, and at last moment, when hope is almost dead, deliverance comes. The Syrophenician woman The Lord waiteth that He might be gracious.
II. The men waiting to be blessed. Our attitude has to have in it the same elements that God’s has First, earnest desire; second, patient dependence.
A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. II. p. 126.
References. XXX. 18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1766. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 159. A. Murray, Waiting on God, p. 97. T. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 161. XXX. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv. No. 1419. XXX. 19-21. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part i. p. 46. XXX. 20. Morgan Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 245. XXX. 21. T. Yates, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxviii. 1905, p. 404. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. No. 1672. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 382. XXX. 26. J. K. Popham, Sermons, pp. 263, 272. XXX. 29. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p. 274. XXX. 32. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. ii. p. 93. XXXI. 5. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 161. XXXI. 6. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 225. XXXI. 9. Ibid. p. 168. XXXII. 1. J. Vickery, Ideals of Life, p. 3. W. J. Woods, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvii. 1890, p. 60. A. G. Blenkin, ibid. vol. liv. 1898, p. 298. XXXII. 1, 2. W. C. E. Newbolt, ibid. vol. xlv. 1894, p. 8. XXXII. 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1243; vol. xlix. No. 2856; vol. liii. No. 3031. A. Mursell, Hush and Hurry, p. 80. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 38. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 176; see also Sermons Preached in Manchester (3rd Series), p. 135. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 241. R. W. Dale, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. 1895, p. 212. J. H. Jowett, ibid. vol. lv. 1899, p. 83. T. L. Cuyler, ibid. vol. lviii. 1900, p. 14. Jonathan Edwards, Works, vol. ii. p. 929. J. Boston, ibid. vol. ix. p. 220. E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. v. p. 98. Simeon, Works, vol. viii. p. 45. Blunt, Posthumous Sermons, vol. i. p. 23. C. Bradley, Practical Sermons, vol. i. p. 45. J. Keble, Sermons for the Saints’ Days, p. 286. XXXII. 3. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. p. 104. XXXII. 8. W. S. Rainsford, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xl. 1891, p. 60. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. pp. 111, 122. XXXII. 13. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 222. XXXII. 14, 15. G. Matheson, Voices of the Spirit, p. 64. XXXII. 17. J. Fraser, Parochial and Other Sermons, p. 321. J. H. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxi. 1902, p. 380.
Isa 30
1. Woe to the rebellious children [not to be read in a harsh tone, but rather as if it were, “alas, for the rebellious children:” into such vocatives does God put the expression of his pity], saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me [they go to the wrong spring for water, and find it poison]; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit [with tow that can be burned up], that they may add sin to sin [in quick and pestilent evolution]:
2. That walk to go down into Egypt [that place of fascination], and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! [Even to this does beauteous, highminded Hezekiah come: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”]
3. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4. For his princes were at Zoan [where Pharaoh had his court, and Moses wrought; one of the oldest cities in Egypt], and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. [For they could not understand their language, and thought their very eloquence was mockery. You want a burden from the Lord, an oracle from on high? You shall have one; and this is the heading thereof.]
6. The burden of the beasts of the south [that is your oracle: take it; make the most of it]: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent [all emblems of Egypt], they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them [they shall sow the wind and reap the whirlwind: God is not mocked].
7. For the Egyptians shall help in vain [help in nothingness; shall draw water with a sieve, and put money into bags with holes in them], and to no purpose [for the night will find them no farther on than the morning: all time fights against the wrongdoer]: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still [the great mouth is to be silenced].
8. Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book [for here the prophet feels that he is not talking to a locality, but to a world; not to a day, but to all duration and time: set it down, chronicle it], that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever [how poetry itself gives out when it would measure duration!]:
9. That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord [but any other law that lays no burden upon them, imposes no discipline upon them, does not tone their flaccid lives to tension with a view to the utterance of music]:
10. Which say to the seers, See not [shut your eyes]; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things [straight, direct things], speak unto us smooth things [inanimate things, round, polished nothings], prophesy deceits [flatter us, cover our tongues, like your own, with butter and oil]:
11. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. [Holiness is always hateful to wickedness: get rid of holiness, and then we shall have all hell to play in.]
12. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel [the very name which you yourselves have uttered], because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. [First the bursting plaster, then the bulging wall, then the crash, and then the chaos.]
14. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces [he shall not be content with that]; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd [a small piece of earthenware, or porcelain] to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. [Men shall not only be broken, they shall be pulverised: so grindeth God’s mills!]
15. 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
16. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses [Ye babes! you long for horses as children long for toys: you shall have horses, innumerable horses; but they shall not be to charge with, they shall be to flee away upon]; therefore shall ye flee [your honour shall be turned to discredit: the swiftness of your horse shall in very deed be its value, for you shall have but one purpose, and that is to run away]: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift [there shall be horses enough].
17. One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon [a pine; a solitary ill-grown tuft] upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign [a poor little fluttering flag showing itself on the background of the sky] on a hill.
18. And therefore will the Lord wait [in silence], that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted [away, far into the heavens, and where all is silent], that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment [that is, a God of righteousness]: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem [love must repeat its favourite names: Zion was Jerusalem, Jerusalem was Zion, for all the purposes of this prophecy: unite the words, and say, “Dwell in Zion Jerusalem]: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
20. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity [that is, the bread of scantiness], and the water of affliction [that is, not water enough to cool your parched tongues], yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee [mysterious, ghostly word], saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
22. Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold [there shall be a way found for the spoiling of precious metals: God will discover a way by which silver shall be turned into pewter and gold into common mud that no man will touch]: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.
23. Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
24. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat dean provender [the very finest mash that can be used for cattle food; not inferior barley, but winnowed grain], which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. [Not only shall the higher cattle eat this food, but the young asses, the very tie plus ultra of abundance.]
25. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. [Fountains shall be upon the hills; there shall be rivers and pools in high places; all levels shall be altered: God hath undertaken to provide plentifully.]
26. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27. Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28. And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity [that is, with the sieve of nothingness]: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. [They like the devil: unto the devil they shall fly as on swift steeds; the bridle shall pull them towards their loved perdition: a strong delusion shall be sent upon them to believe a lie.]
29. Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.
30. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard [full of health, and music, and jubilance, and gospel], and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. [He shall disclose all his attributes in one tremendous apocalypse.]
31. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. [The battles of swinging: the Lord’s arm shall swing to and fro, and every time he swings it he will destroy the adversary.]
33. For Tophet [the valley of Hinnom, outside Jerusalem] is ordained of old [was meant to be a receptacle for refuse]; yea, for the king [of Asher, the proud king of Assyria] it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood [there shall be no want of fuel when the Lord shall burn his enemies]; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. [O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord!]
The Source of Strength
There is a strange expression in the seventh verse, namely, “Their strength is to sit still.” Innumerable sermons of very wise counsel and tender comfort have been preached from these words, and will probably be preached from them until the end of time. The sermons have been excellent in inspiration and most beneficent in purpose, and have no doubt tended to cool irregular passion, and irrational energy that would insist upon doing something when there was really nothing to be done. Men have been exhorted to sit still, to take nothing into their own hands, to allow the divine will to operate according to the mystery of its own purpose and issue; and all such exhortations can be justified by many passages of Scripture, and can be confirmed by many volumes of experience. Unfortunately, the sermons have no connection whatever with this text. Most people would care nothing for that, because many people hear neither the text nor the discourse, but only little portions of each, which they almost instantly forget. Provided the sermon itself is full of comfort, what need is there to inquire whether it has any vital connection with the subject. There is no comfort in this text; there is no exhortation to patience and self-control in this mocking word. This is a political sarcasm what we might term in modern language a political squib. There is no religion in a passage out of which rivers of religion have been extracted! Sometimes a policy is summed up in an epigram, or in an easily-quotable sentence; and it can be used as a war-cry or as an election-cry; it can be adapted to political uses of many sorts. Thus it was said of the Bourbons that “they forgot nothing, and remembered nothing.” It was said of an illustrious statesman in Europe that his policy was “blood and iron.” In relation to many persons we are recommended to use “masterly inactivity” to be appearing capable of doing miracles, and yet to take infinite care not to attempt the peformance of one of them. This is precisely the spirit of the text The peoples to whom the words were addressed were mocked, and the paraphrase which the spirit of the text would justify is this: They have great mouths, but say nothing; the hippopotamus cannot make his voice heard; the ox-mouth is closed: their energy is inaction; when they are about to come forward to do wonders they shrink back and do nothing. It is a taunt an exclamation wholly ironical, thrown in the face of a detested enemy, or an absconding friend, or one who has great appearance of energy, and yet is unable to move the tiniest of his fingers. It is always important to be perfectly sure of the meaning of the text. Having exhausted the grammatical meaning, it is open to preachers and teachers to accommodate their text to other uses: but the fact of accommodation should be broadly set forth, lest the divine oracles be perverted, and men come under the condemnation of that which we have seen in the twenty-ninth chapter, namely, of turning things upside down. It is perfectly true that our strength is often to sit still. It is a truth which we have confirmed ourselves in many an instance after we have done everything by doing nothing. To have attained this pitch of discipline is to have advanced very far in the course of Christian education. Who does not like to be doing something? Impatience cries, Issue a manifesto; make a deliverance; publish a contradiction; be up and doing. It is a poor exhortation; it is a fool’s philosophy. Many a time we should be most eloquent if we were most silent. There is an expressive silence. We might have been further on the road if we had not made so many circuitous excursions. As for the taunts of men, they are worth exactly what they are felt to be worth by the man who receives them. They break themselves in pieces when they are dashed against righteousness, but if they excite shame and inflict humiliation, then they are well-deserved.
Take another instance of a remarkable expression, which is found in the tenth verse: “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” Is there any deeper moral degradation? Yet that this is perfectly possible is a fact which nearly every man can testify. What did the speakers want? They wanted what is desired by every age, namely, to be entertained. It is entertainment that is often frittering away the noblest courage and finest faculty of the Church. We go to church to be entertained, not to be instructed. It would be with infinite difficulty that any instructive minister could make bread enough to live upon. That is the mournful report which I have to make concerning the age in which I live. There may be parts of the service which are instructive, and they are tolerated that the entertainment may be enjoyed: entertain us with ritual, with music, with stories, with something that will give us intellectual excitement and even a degree of intellectual delight: but do not prophesy, do not teach, do not become rigorously moral: let the day of judgment alone; if we have to go to hell let us go down a bank covered with velvet moss. The people, as we have often had occasion to say, make the pulpit. When the pew insists upon being smoothed down, the pulpit will ultimately yield to the base temptation. It is an unquestionable fact that some ministries have been abandoned because the judgments of God have been proclaimed against sin. It is a fact that can hardly be explained that some parents will never allow their children to hear any other thing than that God is love. They are perfectly right if they will give a right definition to the term “love,” which is one of the principal terms in the proposition. Is it right to tell a child or a man that love is all sentiment, all weakness, all pity, all tears? It is love that burns; it is love that judges; it is love that damns. No other love would be worth having: it would be a mere trick of the heart; it would indeed, when really analysed and penetrated to the core, be but exquisite religious selfishness. A religion that is not based on righteousness is a painted bubble, a floating, transient, empty cloud. Every man must examine himself with regard to the truthfulness of this charge, that men call upon the prophets to prophesy smooth things. We must take out of the discourse all hooks, all nails, all instruments that scourge and test the quality; we must watch a white line of milk flowing through a meadow of emerald; then we shall suppose that we have passed through a happy experience. The ministry should be like the Bible which it attempts to expound, now a Sinai, now a Golgotha; now a storm that makes the horizon red, and now a chrism of dew that cools the earth, that loads the flowers with a burden of silver. The word of the Lord must be spoken in its entireness by the faithful teacher.
To show that what has been said upon the seventh verse is justified by the larger Scripture we have only to refer to verse fifteen “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” There we have the truth which we thought we detected in the seventh verse. We have observed that when Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus Christ, the Saviour replied, “It is written, of Satan it is written again.” We must have the two Scriptures. We could escape a great deal of trouble by omitting the “again.” We must make the equipoise complete. There is an analogy, a proportion, a harmony, a combination of elements and thoughts, and we must bring all into one view before we can pronounce upon the purpose and doctrine of Scripture. Here is the solemn, noble word, “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:” not in sullenness, not in that pedantic and personal withdrawment which means I will take no part and have no lot in your movement, and you must do as well without me as you can; I will stand within scanning distance, and watch your failure. Not that; such is the spirit of perdition: but quietness, the spirit which says, I would like to speak, but I may not, I will not, for God means me to be silent. “He that believeth shall not make haste,” shall not be in a flurry, shall be guiltless of those spasms and paroxysms which attend the expression of furious and unregulated and unchastened energy. Let God’s will be done: I stand, I wait; when the cloud leads, when the fire advances, when the voice comes, it will be enough for me to reply. That is the attitude of filial piety, that the sacred posture of men who have delivered up their lives into the hands of God. What can we do by our excitement, by our energy? In what does our activity end? In vanity, in nothingness, in a flutter which only disturbs the wind, but does not hasten the revolution of a star. The Lord reigneth. To be quiet is to be confident; to be confident is to be quiet; to love God is to leave everything with him: blessed are they who have reached that high estate of love and trust and homage.
A great promise is made in the twentieth verse:
“And though the Lord gave you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers.” ( Isa 30:20 )
Following upon this gift of teaching and teacher
“Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it” ( Isa 30:21 ).
We find great promises in the chapter, wondrous assurances that we know nothing yet about light and glory and grace and heaven
“Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” ( Isa 30:26 ).
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
XVI
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 8
Isaiah 28-33
“This section, Isaiah 28-33, is called “The Book of Zion,” or “The Book of Woes.” The time of this prophecy is the reign of Hezekiah. In the preceding section the prophet contemplated the judgments which were to come in the course of the ages, upon the nations of the world, but in this section he is brought back to his own time and people.
Quite a long time has elapsed since the prophet first foretold the destruction of Samaria (Isa 7:17 ; Isa 8:4-8 ), but the crisis is now close at hand. The northern invaders who have been held back by the divine order so long, are now ready to be let loose, and the “crown of Ephraim’s pride” is about to be buried to the ground. At this solemn period a most important work must be accomplished in Judah, if Jerusalem is to be saved from Assyria. This must be a religious and moral preparation for a divine intervention, which was necessary for her salvation. This indeed had been begun by Hezekiah but it would not prove permanent unless followed up by a steady culture and patient discipline. This was now the task of Isaiah, the prophet. In order to do this he must alarm the “sinners of Zion,” reprove the infidel, stir up the worldly and careless to repentance, assure the men of Judah, who trusted in their political schemes of alliance with Egypt, that God would bring their schemes to nought, all this without unduly disheartening the poor and the meek. On the other hand, the faithful disciples were to be cheered. They were to be told that their hope was in the stone which Jehovah had laid in Zion; that Jehovah himself would defend Jerusalem; that the Holy City should be as & tabernacle whose stakes should be secure, and all this without fostering a reliance upon external privileges. This was no mean task, but the prophet rose to the demand of the hour. The prophetic word went forth, giving warning to the rebellious, confirming and establishing the true hearts, and putting all on probation.
The word which determines the natural divisions of this section is “Woe,” which occurs at Isa 28:1 ; Isa 29:1 ; Isa 29:15 ; Isa 30:1 ; Isa 31:1 and Isa 33:1 . The divisions are as follows:
1. Woe unto Samaria (Isa 28 )
2. Woe unto Ariel [Jerusalem] (Isa 29:1-14 )
3. Woe unto the worldly-wise (Isa 29:15-24 )
4. Woe unto the rebellious (Isa 30 )
5. Woe unto them that go down to Egypt (Isaiah 31-32)
6. Woe unto the destroyer (Isa 33 )
This outline does not coincide with Dr. Sampey’s, but it has the merit of following the author’s divisions rather than the chapter divisions.
In Isa 28:1-6 we have the woe unto Samaria, “the crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim.” This is a solemn warning to Samaria of her speedy downfall. Then the prophet turns to Judah and pronounces the woe upon Jerusalem because she has followed the example of Samaria. This he gives in a series of pictures: In Isa 28:7-8 we have the drunken priests and prophets, revelling in their self-indulgence and failing in their visions and judgments. In Isa 28:9-10 we hear them mocking Isaiah in his message, saying, “His words are but repetitions, suited to sucking babes.” “For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little.” Then in Isa 28:11-13 the prophet retorts that God would speak to them by men of strange lips, the Assyrians, because he had offered them rest and they would not hear. So now the words of Jehovah would be to them, “precept upon precept,” etc., that they might be broken, snared, and taken. In Isa 28:14-22 there is a severe arraignment of the rulers of Jerusalem, who had made, or were about to make, secret arrangements with Egypt which, as they thought, would secure Judah against injury at the hands of the Assyrians. This the prophet calls a covenant with death and an agreement with Sheol, and instructs them that their boasted arrangements would fail completely in the time of trial; that Egypt, their refuge would be a refuge of lies and Assyria, the overflowing scourge, would pass through the land and carry all before it; that only those resting on the precious cornerstone would be secure; that in the time of this vexation of the land, their bed which they made would not suffice, for the decree of destruction had already gone forth. In Isa 28:23-29 is a parable to comfort believers, to the end that God’s wisdom in dispensing judgment and mercy may be inferred from the skill which he gives to the husbandman. But this he left to their spiritual insight to discover.
Two passages of this chapter are quoted in the New Testament:
1.Isa 28:11 is quoted by Paul in 1Co 14:21 to show that the gifts of the baptism of the Spirit, just as the work and message of the prophet, were for a sign.
2.Isa 28:16 is quoted in several places in the New Testament and applied to Christ, as the stone of stumbling for the Jews in all ages.
Isa 28:20 may be used in accordance with the context here to show how futile it is for a man to turn away from God’s plan, in the matters of salvation, to the devices of men. When the testing time comes, the bed is found to be too short and the covering too narrow.
In Isa 29:1-4 we have the prophet’s address to Ariel (Jerusalem) in which he predicts her siege by a terrible army and her great humiliation during that siege. In Isa 29:5-8 is the vivid description of this vast host coming up against Jerusalem, but just as the enemy expects to capture her, the host of them is scattered. As it is with one who dreams, so shall it be with this multitude of besiegers. In Isa 29:9-12 is a description of Israel’s awful judicial blindness visited upon them by Jehovah because of their sins. All prophecy is to them as a sealed book. In their blindness they cannot read the message. What a picture of the effects of sin! This reminds us of the picture of Jerusalem which was drawn by Christ. The natural man cannot understand divine revelation. The educated and the uneducated are alike helpless. Over against this stands the contrast of Isa 29:18 . In Isa 29:13-14 we have the cause stated. They are in this state because of the condition of their hearts. With the lips they honored God, but their hearts were not with him. How significant is the application of this truth to all our worship and service! In Isa 29:17-21 is the prophecy that this condition shall not always pertain to them. The day will come when this condition shall be reversed. The deaf shall hear the words out of the book and the blind shall see. To many this was fulfilled in the days of Christ, but we look ahead of us for the full fruitage of this great promise. In Isa 29:22-24 is the climax of the vision in which the marvels of God’s grace upon the sons of Jacob are exhibited. God speed the day of its realization!
The prophetic description here (Isa 29:1-8 ) fits well the historical events of Sennacherib’s siege and the poem, “The Destruction of Sennacherib” by Byron is the best poetic description of this event. Two passages from this chapter are quoted in the New Testament:
1.Isa 29:10 is quoted by Paul in Rom 11:8 where it is used to show the judicial hardening of Israel which lasted to Paul’s day and will continue till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
2.Isa 29:13 is quoted by our Lord in Mat 15:8-9 to upbraid the Jews for their hypocrisy and following the commandments of men, showing that the conditions which existed in Isaiah’s time existed also in Christ’s time.
Isa 30 consists of an exposure of the alliance with Egypt. In Isa 30:1-5 we have the plain prediction that the alliance with Egypt, then forming, would be of no assistance to Judah. The prophet in Isa 30:6-17 states the oracle with great power, showing the sin and evil effects of trusting in Egypt rather than in Jehovah. In Isa 30:18-26 there is set forth the hope of the future success of God’s people when he shall be gracious to them and confer upon them marvelous prosperity. In Isa 30:27-33 we have another vision of the supernatural overthrow of the Assyrians.
In Isa 30:33 we have the image of a funeral pyre on which the king of Assyria is to be consumed. Topheth was a place in the valley of Hinnom, that was desecrated by idolatrous human sacrifices (Jer 7:31 ; 2Ki 23:10 ). This was fulfilled, not by the death of Sennacherib in Judah, but by the destruction of his army there, and his own death at home twenty years later (881 B.C).
Chapter 31 is a brief summary of what has been so frequently set forth about Samaria, Jerusalem, and Assyria. The points are as follows: (1) Those who trust in the Egyptian alliance shall fall; ‘(2) Jerusalem shall be protected by divine love; (3) the Assyrian shall be driven away in terror. In verses 4-5 Jehovah represents himself as a lion and a mother bird, a picture of his power and tenderness.
By all scholars Isa 32 is accounted messianic. It must be considered as a whole in order to understand its parts. It tells us under what king justice shall be rendered in human government, and what influences shall bring about an appreciation of this justice in the hearts of the people, and what shall be the effects of the righteousness rendered by this government and appreciated by these people under this divine influence.
The righteous King is our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Governor of this world. “A king shall reign in righteousness.” We have never yet on this earth been blessed with a perfect human government. We do not know experimentally what a genuinely good government is, whose ruler rules according to principles of exact righteousness and uses his office for the benefit of the governed, and to subserve the ends of justice; nor have we ever seen a people whose hearts would properly appreciate that kind of a government, who really desire it or who are willing to work for it and willing to submit to it. The conditions call for a righteous King and righteous subjects. Granted these two and the effect is righteousness, peace, and confidence forever.
We may conceive in our minds of an ideal king whose scepter is a righteous scepter, who loves righteousness and hates iniquity, who holds an even balance when he administers justice, who has no respect to men’s persons, who is a terror to evildoers and as the shadow of a high rock in a weary land to the oppressed. We may conceive of such a ruler, but in earthly governments, we have never known him. We may conceive of a people in their hearts desiring such a government, voting for it, supporting it, on demand sacrificing whatever they have to its maintenance, and then joyfully resting under its benign influence. What a sweet picture to the contemplative mind! Such a king, such a people, and peace and quiet throughout the land, perfect confidence, no doors locked at night, no hired policemen, no standing armies, no dread of burglars or assassins, no distrust in business, engagements, perfect confidence! It is a charming conception. God’s Word declares that this conception shall be realized on this earth; that “a king shall reign in righteousness, and all of the rulers shall rule in judgment.”
The influence that prepares the people for that kind of a government is here distinctly set forth. It is said that “thorns and briers shall come up on the land of my people until the spirit be poured out from on high.” Without the influence of God’s Spirit the people themselves are not prepared for a righteous administration of affairs. They have what they want. If they wish to promote the wicked they promote them. If they wish to be placed in bondage to the covetous they yield their necks to the yoke. The people are not prepared for good government. And what things disqualify them for living and working for such a government? We get at the disqualifications by ascertaining from this chapter what the blessings are which the Spirit confers by way of preparation.
The first blessing specified is that under the influence of the Spirit they shall see clearly: “the eyes of them that see shall not be dim.” This refers to the moral perceptions. Where there are no clear perceptions of right or wrong, where the vision is clouded, everything else will be wrong. If the moral sense of the people be distorted in vision, it will see light as if it were darkness, and darkness as if it were light; it will call a churl a liberal man, and a liberal man a churl; it will label things contrary to their essence and nature. If the eye be not single our very light is darkness, and how great is that darkness! So that we have as the first effect of the Spirit poured out on the people, that they shall see clearly.
It is now painful and humiliating, distressingly so, to get any ten or twelve men or women together and submit for their consideration a question involving morals, and see how variously they look at it. They do not see clearly. And particularly they do not see clearly with reference to the outcome of things. They look at immediate results. They look at present effects. They judge of things by what may immediately follow their performance. They do not project their vision far enough, and they are unable to do it on account of their moral blindness. So the prophet in the middle of this chapter calls on the women to hear his discussion. We do well to recall the words of the apostle Peter concerning the Christian graces, the fruits of the Spirit:
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” 2Pe 1:8-9 .
Yes, he that lacketh these things is dim-eyed. His vision will be blurred. He cannot see things afar off. First of all, therefore the outpoured Spirit enlightens the eye, the moral eye. It makes us see things as they are in the sight of God. If a man is a miser, a covetous man, a churl, we see him to be that way. He appears so to us. He does not seem to be a liberal man. Oh, when the Spirit is poured out then no longer will the liberal man be called a churl and the churl a liberal man. There are examples that may be known and read of all men in every community, of those whose hearts are as hard as a millstone, hearts that have never been melted, never known any mercy, never felt one heartthrob of joy in ministering to the necessities of the distressed, and yet the community stands off and bows before them, and calls them the liberal men of the community. When the Spirit of God is poured out, clearness of vision will be given, and men will see a soul just as easily as they can see a body and the soul that is black will look black, the soul that is shriveled and miserly will look so, and the soul that is slimy and obscene and foul will appear to be so. That is the first effect. Now if people have not that vision, how can they love a righteous king? How can they love a righteous government? How can they desire evenhanded justice? How can they wish to be rid of favoritism, nepotism, and every other form of mischief in government, seeing their eyes are dim and their vision distorted? Clear vision distorted! Clear vision, that is first. They shall see clearly.
The second effect of the out-poured Spirit is, “The ears of them that hear shall hearken.” They shall hear distinctly and see clearly. To hear distinctly! You know there is such a thing as hearing and not hearing, “having ears to hear and hearing not,” what is called in the Bible an “uncircumcised ear.” An ear that does not hearken to what? To the divine voices, to the voice of wisdom speaking on the streets, speaking in places of business, speaking in places of pleasure, speaking in the family circle, speaking in the church and in the Sunday school, the voice of God. The whole earth is filled with the voices of God. As the psalmist says: There is no speech nor language; Where their voice is not heard. There line is gone out through all the earth; And their words to the end of the world. Psa 19:3-4 .
But if the people have not a hearing ear what matters it about a voice? “Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear and your soul shall live,” exhorts the prophet. The giving heed to the monitions of God’s Spirit, to the declarations of his Word, the submitting to the voice of God as the end of controversy, we must have that, to see clearly, to hear distinctly. The right kind of a conscience will hear the faintest whisper of God. God will not have to speak aloud. God will not have to send storms and earthquakes and pestilence and famine and blasting and mildew and other judgments to secure attention. If they have the hearing ear, though God speaks in the stillness of the night, that ear hears his whisper, and like a little Samuel rising up from his bed, saying, “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth.”
Oh, for the ear that will hearken to God’s Word, to righteousness. The evil-minded may devise a most mischievous falsehood, a shameful, sensational scandal, without the shadow of foundation in fact, and then with tongue set on fire of hell whisper his story of malice and, behold, the whole earth hears it. They have the ear set for hearing such things. But the good deed has no sound, seems to create no air waves, attains to no publicity. No wonder Paul said, “Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things.” But they do not hear them. To get an audience, to come within the range of the ear of the world, speech must have a different character.
The third effect of the Spirit is “the heart of the rash [the hasty] shall understand.” That means to choose wisely. And what a blundering world this is, as to the choices made! All the time going to the forks of the road, so many times taking the wrong road, so many times preferring the worse to better things, so many times electing that which will bring shame instead of that which will bring honor. Every day there are put out before men and women multitudes of things from which to make a selection. Which will you take? And just see how they do take the poisons, how they take the rubbish, and the degraded, and that which tends downward, and that which debases. Oh, for choice God-guided! And that must come to the people. The hasty! Yes, when Spirit-guided the hasty need never apologize, thus: “I beg your pardon. I was inconsiderate. I acted unthoughtedly. I was indiscreet in that.” If we had the clear vision, if we had the hearing ear, then could we decide quickly on a moral question, and decide right. Even the heart of the hasty would be able to understand.
The fourth blessing is to speak plainly. What does the record say? “The tongue of the stammerer shall speak plainly.” Now, it is a somewhat ludicrous conception, and yet it does present the truth in a very striking manner. In a time or urgency, where one needs an utterance at once, and clean-cut, how a sharp question confounds a stammering man! It throws him into a fit of agitation. He tries to say something and stammers and stutters, and every kind of an answer seems hanging on the end of his tongue, and he cannot say anything. So there are moral stammerers. Ask him, “How do you stand on this question?” and he begins to stammer at once. It distresses one to listen. We feel like crying out: “Oh, speak plainly! Tell where you are. Don’t stutter all over a world of morals. Do gay one plain, straight-out word.” We are cursed with moral stuttering.
The church is cursed with it. Try some time to find out the attitude of even God’s people on a perfectly plain question of morals, or of doctrine, or of practical righteousness, and hear them begin to answer, “Well, I don’t know. Some people think it is this, and some people think it is that.” And thus they go limping around, stuttering over it. Do we not know that if the Spirit of God was poured out to give us clear moral vision, so that we could see things as they are, and the hearkening ear, so that God’s whisper would be louder to us than the devil’s thunder do not we know that if we had that wiseness of heart to choose as quick as lightning between good and evil, that there would not be any stuttering speech? A man would speak right up and Bay: “Here is where I stand; let there be no mistake about it.”
We have found the effects of the outpoured Spirit to be clear vision, acute hearing, wise choice, and plain talk. But work follows qualification. The outpoured Spirit exhorts: “Sow beside all waters.” The “sowing beside the waters” refers to that planting of rice and wheat in the overflowed waters, as in the overflow of the Nile. They go out in boats when the water covers the whole surface of the country, and they sow it down “cast your bread upon the waters,” i.e., your bread seed. And then they bring the cattle, and drive them up and down, tramping the seed down in the slime so that when the waters recede it has been plowed under by the feet of the stock.
“Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, driving thither the feet of the ox and of the ass.” That simply means covering it under. “Cast your bread upon the waters.” A distant blessing then that cornea from the outpouring of the Spirit in this ideal government set forth in this prophecy will be that every piece of land fertile enough to grow grain will be sowed down with grain. “Sow beside all waters,” that is, cast your seed on every spot of earth that can sprout the seed and make it bear a crop.
To bring the thought a little more closely: Where we have a righteous king, and a people who are endowed with clear vision, hearing distinctly, choosing wisely, and speaking plainly, these people will occupy every foot of ground which God commands them to occupy. They will let no spot of earth remain without a crop, if it can bear a crop.
But look at society as it stands, even Christian societies! You say, “Here is water out here. God has sent the overflow laden with rich soil in solution, which the receding waves deposit. Come, let us sow seed by that water.” “No, no; I have my little pond here at home. I must sow in this home pond, this and this only. I will not sow out yonder. Let the waves come and deposit the fertile soil, and the earth wait expectantly for seed to be deposited in its glowing bosom, ready of itself to make it send up the ripening grain that shall bless the earth with bread, all in vain. I won’t sow out there.”
What a miserable Christian! What an infinitesimal soul that man has! God brings soil for bread seed, and says, “Go forth, bearing precious seed; go forth casting your bread seed upon the waters; sow beside all waters,” and the delinquent church says, “I cannot hear that; I cannot hear that now. We have heathen at home the Greeks are at our door. I don’t believe in sowing in waters that are far off.” No, and he doesn’t believe in sowing in them at home. That is nearer the truth. He does not believe in any sowing at all. The root -of the matter is not in him. The spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t reign in his soul; for where the spirit is poured out from on high, and they have the vision of clearness, and the hearkening ear, the wise choice, and the unstammering tongue, they will not stop to consider the clouds. They will not stop to ask whether this or that shall prosper. They will not stop to talk about the narrow circumference of their own field, but they will say, “Lord God, let me send out thy word wherever hearts are hungering and souls are in bondage; wherever the devil throws his black pall of midnight and superstition over the hearts and souls of the people. Oh, God, let me by thy grace send them light to shine in the darkness! Oh, let me hold up my light higher and throw its radiance farther.” That is the spirit of the Christian. “Sow beside all waters.”
A final fruit of the spirit is: The liberal deviseth liberal things, and in liberal things shall he continue. “Ye did run well for a season,” says Paul. What hindered you? Why did you stop? What warranted it? Has God’s plan been modified? Have Christ’s desires abated? Is heaven full? Is the ground of salvation all pre-empted? Are the corridors of deliverance crowded so that there is no room for another one? Is Jesus Christ satisfied? Has he seen all of the travail of his soul that he wanted to see? No. There is room yet; the desire of God for human salvation is unabated; the needs of the lost are increased; the hell that threatens them is nearer to them. Oh, it is near. The damnation is not lingering. It is coming stealthily as the footfall of a tiger, or the spread of a pestilence, but coming nearer and deadlier than before, and we say, “Let us call a halt in liberal things.”
“Thorns and briers shall come up on the land of my people until the spirit be poured out from on high.” But if the spirit be poured out from on high, and we see clearly, and hear distinctly and choose wisely and speak plainly and sow beside all waters and devise liberal things and continue in liberal things, then that is heaven on earth. The kingdom of heaven has come. Christ is reigning whenever that has come to pass. And the nearer we approach it the nearer we are to heaven. Louder than the big guns of our battleships, louder than the voice of many waters, louder than mighty thunder should be the acclaim of God’s people, saying, “Hosanna to the Iambi Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and let the earth rejoice.”
Isa 33 is a woe against the Assyrian invaders. The prophet, after the great messianic ecstasy in the preceding chapter, comes back to his own times again to take another start. At first he deals with the local situation picturing the invading army of Assyrians, the desolation of the land by them and the awful distress in Jerusalem. Then follows the prediction of the miraculous deliverance of the city and the destruction of the enemy, upon which sinners are made to tremble and the inhabitants of Zion rejoice in quiet confidence by reason of Jehovah’s protecting presence. There are several messianic gleams in this chapter, as “the king in his beauty,” “Zion, . . . Jerusalem . . . a quiet habitation, . . . a place of broad rivers and streams,” where there is no sickness and the “iniquity of the people is forgiven”
The historical background for this prophecy is the invasion of Sennacherib’s host, the desolation of the land, and the threat of Jerusalem, all of which is described in 2Ki 18:13-19 ; 2Ki 18:37 . The essential items of this history are as follows: Sennacherib received at Lachish the stipulated tribute from Hezekiah, but then he demanded the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem. He captured many cities and had broken up all travel. Hezekiah’s ambassadors came home weeping. Then Sennacherib sent an army against Jerusalem to enforce his demands, but Rabshakeh, though skilful in speech, failed to get the keys to Jerusalem. He returned to Sennacherib whose army was visited by Jehovah and destroyed. Sennacherib returned to his own land and was smitten while worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god.
In Isa 33:1-6 we have the woe pronounced against the destroyer, showing his destruction, at which he would cease dealing treacherously. Then follows a prayer by the prophet to Jehovah in which he exalts Jehovah as the God of their salvation and the destroyer of the enemy. In this exaltation of Jehovah the prophet gets a glimpse of glorified Zion, filled with righteousness and justice, a city of stability and abounding in salvation, wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah. Thus be gives the general outlines of the things which are to follow. In Isa 33:7-12 we have the particulars of what the prophet has just stated in general, viz: the shouting of the enemy without, the weeping of Hezekiah’s ambassadors, the waste and desertion of the highways, Sennacherib’s disregard of his covenant and his spoiling of the cities, the languishing of the land, specifying the destructive work of the Assyrian army, at which point he presents Jehovah as rousing himself, delivering his people and disposing of the enemy, as thorns cast into the fire.
In Isa 33:13-16 is a description of the effects of this intervention of Jehovah, upon the sinners and the citizens of Zion in which the prophet again leaps upon the messianic heights to show us the characteristics of a true citizen of the New Jerusalem, whose everlasting dwelling place is with Jehovah.
In Isa 33:17-24 the prophet assures us that, in that glorious state, we shall see the King in his beauty, we shall behold a universal kingdom, whose inhabitants shall muse on the days of terror and their triumphs over their many adversaries. Then he invites them to look upon Zion and contemplate her security, her king, her broad streams, her feasts and her inhabitants, who are never sick, but are in the joy of the fellowship of their majestic Lord, who reigns forever and ever.
The characteristics here given by the prophet of a true citizen of Zion are very similar to those given by the psalmist in Psa 15 . This true citizen is herein described as righteous, upright in speech, hating oppression, rejecting bribes, stopping his ear to murderous suggestions, and closing his eyes to sinful sights, a blessed ideal yet to be realized. How different now! We are vexed in our righteous souls to behold the unrighteousness, the prevarication, the oppression, the graft, the murders and sinful sights in the present order of things. But this must give way to the principles of the majestic and beautiful king who will reign forever in justice and righteousness.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the section, Isaiah 28-33, called in our outline and what the date?
2. What is the difference in the character of this and the preceding section?
3. What arethe conditions under which this prophecy was delivered, what Isaiah’s task and how did he meet it?
4. What is the key word which marks the natural divisions of this section and what the divisions thus marked?
5. Give a brief synopsis of Isa 28 , showing its interpretation.
6. What are two passages of this chapter are quoted in the New Testament, what use made of them in each case and what use may be made of verse 20 as touching the plan of salvation?
7. Give a brief synopsis of Isa 29 , showing its interpretation.
8. What is the fulfilment of Isa 29:1-8 and what the best poetic description of the destruction of Sennacherib’s army?
9. What two passages quoted from this chapter in the New Testament, and what use made of them there?
10. Give a brief statement of Isa 30 with the important points of interpretation.
11. What is the meaning of Isa 30:33 ?
12. What is the nature of Isa 31 and what the points contained therein?
13. What is the nature of Isa 32 , what in genera] its contents, how does the ideal set forth correspond with present conditions and what the ideal state herein contemplated?
14. What is the influence that prepares for this ideal and what its importance?
15. What is the first blessing of the Spirit herein specified?
16. What is the general condition now respecting moral and spiritual vision and the lesson of Peter on this point?
17. What is the second effect of the outpoured Spirit and what the importance of it? Illustrate.
18. What is the third blessing of the Spirit and what its importance? Illustrate.
19. What is the fourth blessing of the Spirit and what its importance? Illustrate.
20. What is the fifth blessing of the Spirit? Explain and illustrate.
21. What is the sixth blessing of the Spirit and what its importance?
22. What is the nature and contents of Isa 33 ?
23. What is the historical setting of this chapter?
24. Show the progress of this prophecy from the local conditions to the broader mesaianic phases of the kingdom.
25. What are the characteristics, here given by the prophet, of a true citizen of Zion?
Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Ver. 1. Woe to the rebellious children. ] Vae filiis desertoribus, vel apostatis, so he boldly calleth the politicians of his time, the counsellors of state, Shebna and others, who gave good Hezekiah ill counsel to send to Egypt for help a when Sennacherib invaded him. Well might St Paul say, “Esaias is very bold.” Rom 10:20 Consurgens enim, proceres inquit, quid hoc rei est quod occeptatis? male omnina factum! vae vobls, vae reipublicae toti! Such another bold court preacher was Elias, Amos, John Baptist, Chrysostom, Latimer, Dearing, &c. See Latimer’s letter to King Henry VIII after the proclamation for abolishing English books, Acts and Mon., fol. 1591, where we may see and marvel at his great boldness and stoutness, saith Mr Foxe, who, as yet being no bishop, so freely and plainly, without all fear of death, adventuring his own life to discharge his conscience so boldly, to so mighty a prince, in such a dangerous case, against the king’s law and proclamation, set out in such a terrible time, dared take upon him to write and to admonish that which no counsellor dared once speak unto him in defenee of Christ’s gospel, &c.
That take council, but not of me.
That cover with a covering.
That they may add sin to sin, a Est species quaedam aliunde quam a Deo auxilium petere.
b Et ordiremini telam.
Isaiah Chapter 30
There is a topic here which has been scantily noticed hitherto, on which the Spirit of God enlarges much. Inasmuch as it comes before us in this chapter, a few words may well be said on it – the moral condition of Israel, as proved and brought home to them by the revelation of God. For what we have all throughout this section is not merely deliverance, nor this in His grace only, during a time of ruin, but also the righteous Lord proving that He loves righteousness. There was a cause for the proof that the condition of Israel was morally unbearable to God. Blindness was there, religious and finally judicial blindness. This condition is traced by the Spirit in a variety of ways. We will look briefly at what we have before us here.
The first feature of their evil which draws out the indignation of God is that His people should go down into Egypt; that a people blessed of God and possessing promises of still better blessings than they ever tasted, with which they are yet to be blessed by God’s own grace in the last days – the best possible blessings for a people upon earth – that such a people should go down into Egypt for help, was not only debasing to themselves, but also peculiarly dishonouring to God. Hence the Holy Ghost now, having shown us their deliverance, goes back and indicates from what they were delivered. God brings out one character of evil after another, and shows that the necessary issue of it was destruction. Yet He brings them out of all their distresses, and at length blesses them fully as His own people. It is peculiarly comforting to read of the ways of God, how He is not only a deliverer from dangers, from outward enemies, from Satan, but also from every form of sin. He does not in any wise gloss over moral evil, for chapter after chapter brings it out, though, as the effect of its judgement, Israel seemed ready to be swallowed up. But as the dark side thus appears so on the other God is seen interfering in grace, plucking their feet out of the net, setting the dispersed in their own land, and securing the triumph of His own grace as well as righteousness. For this cause, “Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah that take counsel but not of me, and that make leagues, but not by my Spirit, that they may heap sin upon sin” (v. 1). It is a solemn thing to read such words as these, and still more so to think how applicable they may be to ourselves. Even as children of God, the proneness of our hearts is to act according to our own judgements; for the flesh in the Christian is not a whit better than in any other man. Whenever there is a listening to ourselves, we may be sure the same character of evil is at work that the Spirit of Jehovah was rebuking in Israel.
What for Israel was going down into Egypt is to us the taking counsel not of God but of natural wisdom in any difficulty. It was the same fleshly wisdom which Israel sought and of this Egypt is the symbol in the ancient world. No country in the early history of men was so distinguished for the wisdom of nature as Egypt. In later days Greece and Rome sprang up, but that was long after the time to which this vision applied as an historical fact. They were at first little more than a number of contentious hordes. No such wisdom was found anywhere to the same extent as in Egypt. The great Assyrian who invaded Israel was characterized not so much by wisdom as by vast resources and appliances in the way of strength. Egypt depended mainly on good counsel, as if there were no living God – on the counsel of man sharpened by long experience, for it was one of the oldest powers that attained eminence. Accordingly, as they had been versed in the statecraft of the ancient world, they had an immense reputation for their familiarity with means of dealing in national difficulties, peace, plenty, etc.
Israel, when threatened by the Assyrian, sought the help of Egypt: I am speaking now of the literal fact when this prophecy first applied. Though it did bear on the days of Isaiah, yet the character of the prophecy shows that it cannot be limited to that time: only a very small part of it was accomplished then. But between the two terms of Israel’s past and future unfaithfulness in turning to the wisdom of the world in their troubles, there is a serious lesson for us in the pressure of any trial that concerns the testimony of God. The tendency is immense to meet a worldly trial in a worldly way. That you cannot meet the world’s efforts against you by spiritual means is what one is apt to think; so there is the danger of recourse to earthly means for the purpose of escape. What is this but the same thing that we find here? And yet who that feels for the children of God and for the truth, but knows the danger of this? Be sure, if we do not feel the danger, it is because we are ourselves under the world’s influence. The feeling of the danger, the dread of our own spirits, the fear lest we should meet flesh by flesh, is what God uses to make us look to Himself. God will never put His seal on self-dependence; on the contrary, the great lesson the whole life of Christ teaches is the very reverse. He lived for the Father; so “he that eateth Him shall live for Him.” It is in dependence upon another, even Christ, as our object that the joy and strength and wisdom of the Christian are found. This we gather before the difficulty comes. Then “I can do all things through Him Who strengtheneth me” (Phi 4:13 ).
Where we often fail is through acting from impulse. If we think to plan, instead of praying in real subjection to God, we need to fear for ourselves. What is rendered in 1Ti 2:1 “intercession,” and in 1Ti 4:5 “prayer,” means such intercourse with God as admits of confiding appeal to Him. We can thus freely and personally speak to Him about all things, now that through the one Mediator we know Him as a Saviour-God, Who has first spoken to us in grace, and given us the access we have into this grace wherein we stand. Is it not, then, an outrage on the God Who has thus opened His ear to us if we look to fleshly means? And yet who does not know that this is the very thing to which perhaps, more than any other, the wise and prudent are prone?
In this way it seems that the moral lesson of this chapter is to be seen – it is taking counsel, but not of Jehovah. Hence God caused the land of Egypt to become the means of deeply aggravating their evil. “Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering (or, as some prefer, that make leagues), but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be a shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt a confusion. For his princes are at Zoan, and his ambassadors are come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed of a people [that] cannot profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach” (vv. 1-5). His princes mean those of God’s people, as the next chapter proves decisively. The prophet’s irony thus expresses itself.
“The burden of the beasts of the south. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence [come] the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people [that] shall not profit. For Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab (or, Arrogance) that sitteth still” (vv. 6, 7). Not man’s pride, but God’s guidance avails for His people.
If we examine the New Testament for our guidance in these difficulties, we shall find just the same truth. If the apostle is speaking merely about the ordinary trials of each day, we have the same lesson in other words. Thus he tells us we are to let our moderation be known unto all men, the Lord being at hand; that instead of being careful or anxious about anything (not that we are to be careless, but not to be careful in the sense of anxiety), our requests should be made known unto God with thanksgiving.
Our strength, it is said, is in quiet confidence. Christians have a right to expect God to appear for us; He has entitled us to count on it. We may be perfectly sure, it matters not what the circumstances are; even supposing there has been something to judge in ourselves, if one tell it out to God, will not He listen? He cannot deny Himself. He must deny him that slights the name of Christ (2Ti 2:12 , 2Ti 2:13 ). Where He now puts to shame, it is in our self-will; so far from His putting shame on such being a proof that He does not love them, it is precisely the proof that He does. But at the same time, let men venture to go beyond what God sees good for the discipline of His child, He soon takes up the rod; and there can be nothing more terrible than when the adversary exceeds the chastening that is just, gratifying his hatred toward them. For God will rise up in His indignation, and deal with them according to His own majesty; even the grace of the gospel does not set aside that. For instance, see 2Ti 4:14 . If persons bearing the Lord’s name are carried away by their fleshly zeal, and fight against the truth of God or those charged with the proclamation of that truth, God may use them for dealing with faults in His people. God knows how to bring down His people where their looks are high because of anything in themselves, or that grace has conferred upon them. But when the limit of right rebuke is exceeded, woe be to those that fight against them, covering their own vindictiveness or envy under God’s name! It is evident that the very grace of the gospel makes it to be so much the more conspicuous; for it sounds so much the more tremendous that God should thus deal in the midst of all that speaks so loudly of His love.
The Gospels also bring out, in the words of our Lord Himself, the wickedness of fighting against what God is doing even by poor weak disciples. This is the great lesson for us; we are not to consult our own heart or have recourse to the strength of man. When we flee to the various resources of the flesh, we slip out of our proper Christian path. Whereas the strength of God has indeed shone in that foundation-pattern in which all the blessing of grace to sinners is contained; and it always takes this form for a Christian, and that is, death and resurrection. There may very likely be a great pressure of trial; there may soon appear a sinking down under it; but as surely as there is the semblance of death, there will be the reality of resurrection by-and-by. Let no one be disheartened. The cross is the right mould for the blessing of the children of God. When we were brought to Him, was it not after the same sort? We knew what it was to have the horrors of the conviction of sin; but God was going to bring us for the first time into a place of special blessing.
It has always been so with His own. We find it in the case of Abraham, and in proportion to the greatness of blessing is the force of sorrow that precedes it. Isaac was given when Abraham was a hundred years old, and Sarah as good as dead. There was death, as it were, and he had to wait for a son. Even after the birth and growth of the child of promise, he had to surrender him, to offer up his only son to God. Directly that the singleness and truth of his heart was proved, and that the sacrifice was in principle offered up, the angel of Jehovah arrests his hand. How much sweeter now, when Isaac was, as it were, the child of resurrection! And so it is with all our blessings, it matters not what they may be. There must be the breaking down of our feelings, the mortification of self in a practical way, if we are to know what God is in blessing: our blessings are cast in the mould of death and resurrection.
The way by which come all our blessings, is in Him Who is dead and risen. To be blessed practically we must morally go through the same process. There comes the frustration of all natural hopes, the blasting of all the objects we desire. When God visits us in His faithfulness with trial, the first thing man seeks is to escape. Israel goes down into Egypt, instead of looking up in the confidence that God is the giver of wisdom and of power. They go down to the land of human wisdom and ability. Were there no God, were they not His people, it would have been intelligible; but as it is, what folly! Yet is it the folly of our own hearts. Are we not conscious of it? Beware lest it be, because we are so accustomed to forget it, that we do not realise the humbling truth. We need to consider it more deeply to profit by this lesson. Their strength is quiet confidence instead of hurrying down into Egypt. “Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever. For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children [that] will not hear the law of Jehovah; that say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us” (vv. 8-11). Those that wait not on Him for His power must feel the power of His enemies and theirs.
“For ever and ever” (v. 8) it was to be graven in a book that they were “children that will not hear the law of Jehovah” (v. 9). That was even the last of all; rebellion could be forgiven lying children could be made ashamed of their lies. “Prophesy not unto us right things” (v. 10), that is, things according to God. We are not to suppose that they actually said these words. We often read in the Gospels that Jesus answered in many cases where not a single question was put to Him. Why does the Spirit of God say Jesus answered, when He was not asked? Because He knew the thoughts of their hearts. He answered not what they said, for they said nothing; but what He knew they would say if they dared, what He knew was at work within.
So here, Israel may not say it in so many words, but it is what God saw and knew to be the truth of what they were feeling and doing. They did not like the truth which brought before them their rebellion and lies; they endeavoured to get out of the way and reach of the truth. God was in none of their thoughts. Why not use the best resources of men, now that God did not work miracles for them? Whereas, in truth, God had called out Israel for this – to be the manifestation of a people whose strength was in Jehovah; to be the witness of how blessed it is thus nationally to trust the living God in all their public dealings and in their domestic life. All was to be regulated by the law of Jehovah (which is the technical term for the Old Testament). They were to be the practical exemplification of the blessedness of a people and land in such a case.
To go down into Egypt was to give up God for man: if they had asked counsel, they well knew God would never send them down to Egypt, out of which He had brought them. But they did not seek counsel, they act before they ask, and may have then prayed about it. But what is it to pray for God to bless what we are doing in self-will? Let us ask Him what He would have us to do before we act. It may be that God would have us to do nothing, or possibly give us counsel through one of His children. For God does not intend us to be so many independent lines that never unite, though they may closely approach. He works by Christ’s members; He purposes to make us feel that we are members one of another; but whatever may be the value of any one’s counsel, each must be responsible to God. The danger is of putting another in the place of God. Men do not value a man more for this, because when we are self-willed and our counsellor is firm for good, the speedy consequence will be that he who stood in the place of God one day may seem to stand almost in the place of the devil the next. This is the flesh – apt to deify the creature one day, and to demonize it the next.
What we have to seek then is to look up to God; and this is just why the first word is here, “returning and rest.” But there was more besides. In the chapter before, the point was the word of God, which the flesh treated as a sealed book; but God must be waited on as well as His word. He never intended scripture to be taken apart from Himself; over and above the Bible is God Himself. Not that God can ever be against His word, but He is the only power of entering into the application of it. For the Bible is not only for me to look down into: I must look up to God. I am not intended to read it merely as a book of true stories or good sermons, still less of enigmas to solve by wit or learning, but as the voice of the living God to my soul. When one reads it in true subjection to Him, the relation and attitude of the soul is totally changed; you are delivered from the danger of bending the word of God to your own mind and will. Whereas, when the word leads you out in prayer to God, then it is neither the word without prayer, nor prayer without the word; both of which habits are exceedingly dangerous, one leading to rationalism, as the other does to fanaticism. Hence, says the apostle, “I commend you to God and to the word of his grace” (Act 20:32 ). We need to wait upon God that we may gather profit from His word, and ever to lean on Him for His grace that we may with simplicity and faithfulness carry it out in the Spirit.
Here Israel had failed, as we see in Isa 29 . So now in Isa 30 they flee down to the nearest neighbour that could help by human prudence, slighting God’s wisdom and the grace which entitled them to cast themselves on Him for it. Were they not a people that should dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations? “Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye reject this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of a potter’s vessel that is broken in pieces without sparing; and there shall not be found in the pieces of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth or to take water out of the cistern” (vv. 12-14).
Such was Egypt. The flesh is habitually fraudulent and perverse. But God judges it in His own. It is ever restless and pretends to something. It may look imposing, but it is ready to crumble from top to bottom, and is doomed of God. “For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; but ye would not. And ye said, No, for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift [Egypt’s resources of common sense]; 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 a hill” (vv. 15-17). God would make them a signal example, and show that the resources they trusted were only so many nets in which they were to be snared. Had they sought to flee? They should flee in terror. Had they sought help to swiftly escape? Swift should be the vengeance of their foes. God constantly makes the earthly object of trust to be the rod for the fool’s back.
What is the answer of the Lord when He comes to this? Nothing can be stronger than His condemnation. But if He deals sternly with His faulty people here, is it not always for blessing in the end? If God exposes His children, pulls them down from the seat of pride, brings them into trouble from those they prefer to Himself in some extremity, it is the real action of His great grace. To return to Him even with broken bones is blessed. How magnificent is the burst of the prophet! “And therefore will Jehovah wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he lift himself up [not to cut off Israel, but] that he may have mercy upon you; for Jehovah [is] a God of judgement: blessed [are] all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; as he heareth it, he will answer thee. And the Lord will give you the bread of adversity, and the water of oppression; yet shall not thy teachers be hidden any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. And when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left, thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it” (vv. 18-21). He had let all this trouble fall upon His people; He had Himself waited and been exalted; and why? That He might be gracious. The enemy might prove his malice, and they their weak and guilty preference of flesh to Himself; and He allowed it all to take place that He might have nothing to do but to take them out of the pit into which they had fallen, and bless them as they had never been blessed before, at length without hindrance to the outflow of all His love. He waits for them, and though He seem to tarry, it is to enrich them with a still greater blessing. They should be morally restored, too, and take vengeance on what had seduced their hearts in previous times. “And ye shall defile the silver covering of thy graven images, and the gold overlaying of thy molten images; thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; Out! shalt thou say unto it” (v. 22).
Outward happiness follows here below, and inward blessing and glory from above. For Jehovah asserts the rights of His grace, when His people, all wrong, have been chastened in adversity, and returned to Him in heart.
“And he will give the rain of thy seed, with which thou shalt sow the ground; and bread, the produce of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures; and the oxen and the young asses that till the ground shall eat salted provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, brooks, water-courses, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (vv. 23-26).
Such is the deliverance which God will work for Israel; but what about the Assyrian? Israel are blessed, but not yet the Assyrian judged; Israel had been wrong, but the Assyrian had been merciless. God had dealt with Israel; now He must deal with their foes, as we are told in Isa 10:12 . “When the Lord hath performed His whole work on mount Zion,” then will He bring down the Assyrian. “Behold, the name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning [with] his anger, and a grievous conflagration: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire; and his breath as an overflowing stream, that reacheth even unto the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity; and a bridle that causeth to err [shall be] in the jaws of the peoples” (vv. 27, 28). The foe will not know that it is God Who is guiding them to the Holy Land, but think they are going to have the land and the people an easy prey: God, on the contrary, is going to meet them there, and avenge His people. “Ye shall have a song as in the night a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as of one going with a pipe to come unto the mountain of Jehovah, to the Rock of Israel” (v. 29). This is even more than there had been when Egypt was judged; Israel could then eat the lamb but with bitter herbs. Not so in the day which is coming; it is not that part of the passover that this is referred to, but the song of their holy festival. “And Jehovah will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with indignation of anger, and a flame of devouring fire, [with] a crashing and tempest and hailstones” (v. 30).
It is not a mere providential judgement – God from a distance acting and merely raising up one people to destroy another. The intervention of God shall be manifested, an unmistakable display of divine judgement. “For through the voice of Jehovah shall the Assyrian be broken in pieces, he will smite with a rod. And every stroke of the appointed staff, which Jehovah shall lay upon him, shall be with tabrets and harps; and in battles of shaking will he fight with them” (vv. 31, 32). It is the staff of God’s correction, which shall deal to the bitter end with the Assyrian. For. Israel such joy and gladness shall follow as never had been tasted heretofore. So manifestly is God espousing their cause, that it will be with the loftiest music of praise and every sign of confidence in God. Has this ever, since Isaiah, been accomplished in Palestine? Was it heard there even at the time of Sennacherib? Israel was already in captivity, and Judah was soon swept away by the king of Babylon. Here we have triumph, peace, blessing, and glory. The mighty power of God will have destroyed their enemies for ever. There must then be a fuller accomplishment than the prophecy has yet received.
But it is not to be a mere devastation. “For Topheth [is] prepared of old; for the king also it is prepared; he hath made [it] deep [and] large: the pile thereof fire and much wood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it” (v. 33). Tophet is ordained: this shows clearly when and how it will be. Tophet is the figure of the judgement on God’s part that is coming. It should be “for the king also,” not “yea, for the king.” That little change has done much mischief in confounding two important personages. Nobody need deny that the word translated “yea” may be rightly so in certain cases; but the natural meaning of it is either “and” or “also,” and the latter is just what is required here. His declaration is, that Tophet is ordained not for “the Assyrian” only, but also for “the king.” The king and the Assyrian are so totally different and opposed that it was needful to reveal the same doom for both. The mistranslation was because our translators did not know the difference, but fancied the king and the Assyrian to be one and the same.
“The king” is that false Messiah who will be found with the Jews in the last days. Received in his own name, he will be accepted as the true Anointed, but he is the devil’s Messiah. And the consequence is that God’s fire or Tophet is prepared for him. The point here is that God will prepare the same fire for both of them; not only for the hostile Assyrian, but for the leader of Judah’s wickedness, “the king.” For him the fire of Tophet is prepared as well as for his enemy, the Assyrian. God in this marvellous manner, and not waiting for the day of eternity, will cast him directly into hell, even before the devil himself. Lest we might think that he is the only one, it is said, “for the king also”; for this personage, who is to reign over the apostate Jews, will also be singled out of God to be dealt with in the same way. Figurative expressions may be used, but they are figures of a terrible reality which Christendom has long forgotten. The more urgent is the need that the believer should wake up to his fuller confession of the truth, in a day when men sink down in a self-complacent dream of an onward progress for the earth, the ritualist being as besotted as the rationalist. “Behold, the Judge standeth before the door.”
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 30:1-5
1Woe to the rebellious children, declares the LORD,
Who execute a plan, but not Mine,
And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit,
In order to add sin to sin;
2Who proceed down to Egypt
Without consulting Me,
To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh
And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
3Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame
And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.
4For their princes are at Zoan
And their ambassadors arrive at Hanes.
5Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,
Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.
Isa 30:1 Woe See note at Isa 18:1.
rebellious children This title implies two truths.
1. they are children (i.e., descendants of Abraham, heir of the promises, cf Rom 9:4-5)
2. they act rebelliously (BDB 710, KB 770, Qal ACTIVE PARTICIPLE). At Isa 1:23, it is translated rebels, also note at Isa 65:2. The basic meaning of the root is stubborn (cf. Hos 4:16). In Psa 78:8 this word and a synonym (BDB 598) are parallel (cf. Deu 1:26; Deu 1:43; Deu 9:7; Deu 9:23-24; Deu 21:18; Deu 21:20; Deu 31:27). This attitude has characterized God’s people from ancient times. It is part of the curse of the Fall!
Notice that Isaiah makes very specific what they have done to be titled rebellious children.
1. they have devised their own plan to protect themselves against Assyria (cf. Isa 29:15)
2. they made a political alliance (see note below) with Egypt (cf. Isa 20:5; Isa 31:3; Isa 36:9), but ignored YHWH’s Spirit (His presence, promises, and protection, cf. Isa 28:14-22; Isa 29:15-16)
NASB, NRSVmake an alliance
NASB marginpour out a drink offering
NKJVdevise plans
TEVsign treaties
NJBmake alliances
REBweave schemes
LXXmake agreement
PESHITTAoffer wine offerings
This Hebrew root has several meanings.
1. , VERB, BDB 650 I in Qal stem
a. pour out, metaphorically, Isa 29:10
b. pour out, literally, Isa 30:1; Hos 9:4
c. cast metal idols, Isa 40:19; Isa 44:10
2. , VERB, BDB 651 II means weave, Isa 25:7, REB
Although a libation (Deu 32:38) was not part of known alliance procedures, it may have been because of the religious nature of ancient agreements (cf. Isa 57:6).
Without consulting Me These Judeans apparently consulted the occult (cf. Isa 8:19), but not YHWH’s prophet (lit. without asking my mouth, cf. Exo 4:16; Jos 9:14).
Isa 30:2 refuge. . .shelter in the shadow of These reflect two terms (BDB 731, KB 797 and BDB 340, KB 337, both Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTS) usually used of YHWH, but here they are used to describe Egypt.
SPECIAL TOPIC: SHADOW AS METAPHOR FOR PROTECTION AND CARE
Isa 30:3 There is no hope in Egypt (cf. Isa 30:3; Isa 30:5; Isa 30:7; Isa 20:5-6; Isa 36:6). Amazingly Judah left her covenant God for the protection of a previous task master! Judah will do it again in Jeremiah’s day (cf. Jer 2:13; Jer 42:18-22)!
Isa 30:4 their princes The MT has his, which is followed by most English translations. NASB may assert that these princes refer to Pharaoh’s leaders (cf. Isa 19:11), but in context it refers to Hezekiah’s representatives seeking a political/military alliance with Egypt.
Zoan. . .Hanes These were two cities that were recently freed by the Twenty-fifty Dynasty. They were used to show the power of the Egyptian army.
The two cities mentioned are connected to the delta region of the Nile.
1. Zoan is also known as Tanis or Avaris (cf. Num 13:22; Psa 78:12; Psa 78:43; Isa 19:11).
2. Hanes is unknown (LXX omits), but possibly connected to Tahpanhes (cf. Jer 2:16; Jer 43:7-9; Jer 44:1; Jer 46:14), a nearby fortress. Some scholars relate this name to Heracleopolis Magna because it was a regional capital during the Nubian Dynasty.
Isa 30:5
NASB, NKJVashamed
NRSVshame
TEVregret
NJBdisappointed
All of these English translations chose the Qere option (i.e., marginal reading) of the Masoretic scholars (, BDB 101, KB 116, Hiphil PERFECT, the NOUN [BDB 102] is used later in this verse). The MT text (Kethib) has cause to stink (, BDB 92, KB 107, Hiphil PERFECT; the VERB is used in Isa 50:2 and the NOUN in Isa 34:3).
Woe. The third of the six woes.
rebellious = stubborn, or backsliding.
children = sons.
take counsel = carry out a purpose. cover with a covering: or, pour out a libation; and so, make an alliance.
My Spirit = Me. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
Chapter 30
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to their sin ( Isa 30:1 ):
Now these people, the judgment was coming. They knew that Assyria was marching. But rather than turning to God for counsel and for help, they were sending ambassadors down to Egypt to make a mutual defense pact with Egypt so that they could hire the Egyptians to come and to help defend them against the Assyrians. But the prophet said it’s stupid to call on Egypt for help, because Assyria’s going to wipe out Egypt. But Assyria’s not going to wipe out you. Now your strength is just to stand still and do nothing but trust in the Lord. And woe unto those that are seeking counsel but not from God. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly” ( Psa 1:1 ).
People today are seeking counsel, but not from God. They are many of them going to ungodly psychiatrists who are filled with humanism and Freudism. And they are giving you the garbage and charging you a hundred dollars an hour for garbage. That’s ridiculous! Woe unto those that take counsel but not from God. That seek to find a covering but not from the Spirit.
That go down to Egypt, and have not asked from God; [they seek] to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and they trust in the shadow of Egypt! ( Isa 30:2 )
But there’s no real substance to Egypt. It’s a shadow. It’s going to decline. It’s going to fall.
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and your trust in the shadow of Egypt will only bring you confusion. For the princes were there at Zoan, and the ambassadors they came to Hanes [the major cities of Egypt in that day]. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be able to help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. The burden of the beasts of the south: To the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Your strength is just to sit still ( Isa 30:3-7 ).
Now this is what the prophet Isaiah kept telling Hezekiah, “Don’t worry about it. God’s going to defend you. You don’t have to worry about the Assyrians and their invasion, because God is going to take care of you. You’re not going to have to fight the battle. God is going to fight for you. Now just trust in the Lord.” And here he is saying, “Your strength is just to sit still and trust in God.”
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever ( Isa 30:8 ):
Write it down for them so that when God does, you can take the book out and say, “Look, this is what I told you. See? There it is.”
That this is a rebellious people, they are lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Don’t prophesy to us right things, but speak smooth things, prophesy deceitfully ( Isa 30:9-10 ):
Only tell me good things about me. Don’t tell me the truth. I don’t want to hear that. They say to the prophets,
Get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and you’re resting on it: Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare ( Isa 30:11-14 ):
God’s going to crack all of these pots.
This takes you out to the book of Revelation where it talks about the reign of Jesus Christ, who as with an iron, will pop the clay vessels and shatter them to pieces. Those that have exalted themselves, He’ll pop them.
so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit ( Isa 30:14 ).
There won’t be enough left to even take water out.
For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved ( Isa 30:15 );
Don’t go to Egypt. Just return and rest in the Lord and there you’ll be safe.
in quietness and confidence shall be your strength: but you won’t listen [you will not hear]. For you said, No; we will flee upon horses ( Isa 30:15-16 );
“We’ll get away from the Assyrians. We’ll get on horses and we’ll flee.” But he said, “Those who are chasing you will have faster horses than you do.”
And a thousand will flee from one man; at the rebuke of five you will flee: till you are left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain. And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him ( Isa 30:17-18 ).
Now some of the more wealthy people were escaping to Egypt when they saw this Assyrian invasion coming. Get on their horses, head to Egypt, escape from. But Egypt fell to Assyria. However, Jerusalem stood. Those that stayed there in quietness and confidence trusting the Lord. The Lord wiped out the Assyrian army. The children of Israel didn’t have to fight them. God delivered them. And we’ll get to that as we move along here in Isaiah. God’s judgment upon the Assyrians as He wiped out 185,000 in one night of the first line fighting troops. But here the prophet is telling them all along, “Quiet and confidence shall be your strength. Don’t run. They’ll chase you. They’ll be faster than you are. They’ll overtake you. But those that will wait upon God will be delivered.”
For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left ( Isa 30:19-21 ).
How glorious to be led of the Spirit and having God say, “This is the way, walk in it.” What is the way? The way of waiting upon God and trusting in Him.
You shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound ( Isa 30:22-26 ).
Sounds like the sun will go into a supernova.
Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire ( Isa 30:27 ):
Again, we’re getting into the day of His indignation, getting into the day of the great wrath, and this moon shall be as light as the sun and the sunlight seven times increased. It reminds us of the book of Revelation, chapter 16, as the Lord is pouring out the vials of His wrath upon the earth. In the fourth vial He gives power unto the sun to scorch men who dwell upon the earth. And men will be scorched by the sun during that time. And so the sun increased in its brightness to a seven-times intensity so that the moon reflecting the sun at night under a full moon, it would be as bright on the earth as it is usually during the daytime. And it does sound like the sun will go into a supernova state. And there are a lot of interesting implications to the sun going into a supernova state of the effect that it would have upon the earth and so forth. Of course, it would be devastating to the earth if the sun went into a supernova state.
The astronomers believe that when stars are about to die that they go into the supernova state. And supernova is a phenomena that we observe in the universe. We’ve observed many stars as they are about to die. They go into this tremendous intensity of light and they call them the supernovas because it gets so bright and they begin to emit so much radiation and all. And the astronomers have watched these stars in supernovas. If the sun should go into supernova, it would just about do in the earth. But it sure sounds like it here. The sun being seven times brighter, the moon being as bright as the sun and the sun becoming seven times brighter. Sounds like a supernova. But it speaks about “the name of the Lord comes from far, burning in his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation.”
In Revelation it says for the cup at the time of the sun giving power. The sun to scorch men who dwell upon the earth, it says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth for the cup of His indignation overflow and is pouring out the cup of the wrath upon the earth” ( Rev 14:10 ). And so here His indignation, “the tongue as a devouring fire.”
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel. And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, and the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, the tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod ( Isa 30:28-31 ).
Now we’re coming back to the local situation. God’s going to wipe out the Assyrian. However, the Assyrian here could also be a type of the antichrist who will be destroyed by the sword that goes forth out of the mouth of Christ when He returns.
And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet [interesting scripture, Tophet] is ordained of old ( Isa 30:32-33 );
Tophet is hell. It is actually the Gehenna of the New Testament. And Hades is hell; Gehenna is another place. “Tophet is ordained of old.” Jesus said that Tophet was prepared by God for the devil and his angels. It has been ordained of old, a place that God has ordained. The word means the place of a burning fire. In the New Testament it is described as the place that burns with fire, the lake of fire. And Tophet is ordained of old.
yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it ( Isa 30:33 ).
David said, “Where can I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there. Yea, if I descend into hell, lo, Thou art there.” Here very graphically it describes this place known as Tophet; in the Greek, Gehenna. The final place of the wicked dead. Hell is not a place of eternal punishment. Hades. Death and hell are going to give up their dead which are in them. Revelation, chapter 20, when he sees the great white throne judgment of God, “and death and hell delivereth up their dead. And those whose names are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake that burns with fire” ( Rev 20:13 , Rev 20:15 ). Gehenna, Tophet, this is the second death.
So hell will come to an end. When it gives up its dead to stand before God at the judgment bar. And then they will be cast into Gehenna. Now of Gehenna, the scripture declares, “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth from the ages through the ages” ( Rev 14:11 ). “Aionios posto aionios” in the Greek, the strongest term there is for expressing eternity–from the ages through the ages.
Jesus said of Gehenna, “Where the worm dies not, neither is the fire quenched” ( Mar 9:44 ). Now there are those who say, “Well, hell is not a place of eternal punishment.” We get, “Oh, but the Bible says.” “No, the Bible does say that,” and they can show you scriptures where hell is not a place of eternal punishment. Death and hell would give up the dead that are in them, Hades. But when you talk about Gehenna, you’re talking about something else; Tophet, it’s been ordained of old. And according to the scriptures, the smoke of the torment will ascend forever and ever. Jesus said, “Where the worm dies not, neither is the fire quenched.”
You can read into that whatever you want. You can read out of that whatever you want. I personally just leave it alone. I have no intention of being there. And whether they are consumed and their smoke ascends forever and ever. But Jesus said, “Where the worm dies not.” So to me the strong indications are that it will be an eternal separation from God and whether or not conscious, that’s something that’s in God’s hands. I don’t worry about that. I don’t mess with that. It’s out of my territory. That’s in God’s hands. And God will do what is right and what is fair.
But my great concern is with that new model that He’s preparing for me. The new building of God that is eternal in the heavens. That’s where I can get excited and really get into the glorious future that I have with Him. My eternal future with the Lord, that’s the thing that can really get me excited.
Go ahead and read your next five chapters. You’ll have a little while to read them. Some very interesting things. We get to the destruction of the Assyrian army that he has been predicting and chapter 33. And then chapter 35, the glorious light at the end of the tunnel after the earth goes through the Great Tribulation of chapter 34, coming into chapter 35, glorious Kingdom Age. I can hardly wait.
Shall we stand.
May the Lord be with you and bless you and keep you in His love and grace. May the Lord watch over you and may you be filled with His Spirit and walk in the strength and the power of the Spirit of God as He anoints you day by day. May you be enabled by Him, and may you enter into that fullness that He has for you. Walking with the Lord. Loving the Lord. Listening to the Lord. Alert unto the Lord in these last days when the world around you is walking in its drunken stupor. May your mind and heart be clear, sensitive to God and to the things of the Spirit. In Jesus’ name. “
Isa 30:1-7
Isa 30:1-7
No one knows exactly when Isaiah wrote this chapter; but it was evidently shortly before Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah in 701 B.C. Barnes dated it at “the same time as the previous chapter, which was dated by Dummelow “on the very eve of Sennacherib’s invasion. Jamieson and other scholars move the date about a decade earlier, “probably in the summer of 714 B.C. ] It is not at all necessary to know the exact date. That the era just prior to the Sennacherib invasion is the correct placement of this whole division is proved by the repeated references to the sudden end of the Assyrian threat, “between evening and morning,” “without human hand,” etc.
Barnes described the political situation in Jerusalem about the time of this chapter thus:
“It is evident that the chapter pertains to the times of Hezekiah when the Jews were alarmed by the looming invasion of Sennacherib. It was known that Sennacherib intended to make war on Egypt, and it was apparent that he could easily take Judah on the same campaign. In such circumstances, it was natural that the people should propose an alliance with Egypt, and seek to unite their forces with Egypt to repel the common danger. Instead of looking to God, who had promised to protect his people, and who had warned the people that both Egypt and her ally Ethiopia would fall to Assyria, Hezekiah pursued that sinful alliance with Egypt.
This chapter may be divided in several ways; but we shall follow the practical paragraphing proposed by Dummelow: (1) warning against the Egyptian alliance (Isa 30:1-7); (2) the perversity of Judah (Isa 30:8-11); (3) the resulting disaster for Judah (Isa 30:12-17); (4) the glory for the righteous remnant (Isa 30:18-26); (5) Jehovah will destroy the Assyrians (Isa 30:27-33).
Isa 30:1-7
WARNINGS AGAINST A PROFITLESS ALLIANCE WITH EGYPT
“Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, that take counsel, but not of me; and that make a league; but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed because of people that cannot profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. The burden of the beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness, and the lion, the viper, and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. But Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose, therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still.”
In the first two verses here, there appears to be on God’s part a certain amazement that rebellious Israel should prove to be so incredibly stupid as to follow the pattern of behavior they had chosen. Israel had already been shamefully defeated by the strategy of the Gibeonites (Jos 9:14) on the occasion when they forgot or refused to consult the will of God regarding what they should have done; and here they actually decided to team up with a people who had traditionally been their worst enemies, and without seeking to know the will of God on such a matter! Furthermore, God had already prophesied the defeat of both Egypt and her ally Ethiopia, a prophecy that Israel did not even believe. The god of this world had indeed blinded their eyes!
Strengthening themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and taking refuge in the shadow of Egypt, in the light of all that Israel was supposed to know, appear incredible, even to us. Under God’s law, rebellious children were to be put to death (Deu 21:18-20); and the charge here in the very first verse amounts to God’s declaration that Israel deserved death.
Moreover, when God prophesied the placement of a king over Israel (Deu 17:14-17), he specifically commanded that, (1) the king should not go back to Egypt for the purpose of procuring horses, and that (2) “Henceforth ye shall return no more that way.” And yet, despite all that, right here in this chapter, the princes of Judah are (1) again going right back through that terrible wilderness on their way to Egypt, and (2) boasting about the horses they shall ride (Isa 30:16)!
Our margin gives an alternate reading for “make a league” (Isa 30:1), “pour out a drink offering.” Loth tells us that this is literally what the Hebrew text says. “Sacrifice and libation were ceremonies constantly used in ancient times by most nations in the ratifying of covenants … and the word stands for both. The Septuagint (LXX) translation agrees with American Standard Version. The significance of this is that “the league” mentioned here involved Israel’s tacit recognition of Egypt’s pagan gods and the offering of a sacrifice to such gods, the very same gods that God had so disastrously defeated in the events leading up to the Exodus!
The mention of the princes and ambassadors having already arrived at Zoan and Hanes shows the extent of Hezekiah’s involvement in this sinful scheme to team-up with Egypt. “Both Zoan and Hanes were the seats of reigning princes at the time of Hezekiah, therefore delegations were sent to both. Recent research on “Hanes,” however has questioned this, “`Hanes’ may be merely a Hebrew translation of a word that means `mansion of the king.’ Another explanation supposes that `Hanes’ might have been the headquarters of Egypt’s ally, Ethiopia. None of these explanations has been proved.
“The burden of the beasts of the South …” (Isa 30:6). This is a reference to, “The beasts of the ambassadors, burdened with the riches of Judah, presents for Egypt traveling southwards. As Lowth pointed out, “`Burden’ must be understood here in the ordinary sense of `a load.'”
“Therefore have I called her Rahab …” (Isa 30:7). “This is not the same name as that in Joshua 2; it is spelled differently. James Moffatt’s Translation of the Bible (1929) rendered it “Dragon Do Nothing!” Leupold, as quoted by Hailey, translated it, “A Big Mouth that is a Do-nothing. Payne stated that “Rahab was a mythical primeval monster defeated by the pagan god Baal, in Canaanite religious beliefs.”[11] At any rate, it was God’s warning through Isaiah that Egypt was not fit to be a panner with Israel.
Isa 30:1-7 FOLLY OF JUDAH: Hoy in Hebrew is sometimes translated woe but can also mean alas, ho!, and generally presages grief and threatening. In this case the idea of threat is prevalent. Jehovah is threatening Judah with grief as a result of her perverse folly. Judahs primary foolishness was in making plans and instituting programs without considering Gods advice. God advised His people through His written law and through revelations given through prophets and other messengers. But the people paid only lip-service attention to these. Judah conducted her commercial, social, national and international relations all without knowing or caring what Gods will was in any of these areas. She was just like her sister, Israel, a few years before (cf. Hos 4:1-6; Hos 5:4; Hos 5:13; Hos 8:1-5; Hos 8:9-10; Hos 10:3, etc.). Israel was like a silly dove, without sense, calling to Egypt and Assyria (Hos 7:10-11). Now Judah plays the stupid fool calling to Egypt.
The Jews were a specially called society. Their social, political and cultural structure was uniquely structured. They were called to commit their total existence (political, social, cultural international) to the guidance and glorification of Jehovah. When they did not do so, they forfeited their reason for being. Actually, all human governments are ordained by God in order to serve and minister to His divine purposes in the earth (cf. Rom 13:1-7). When they refuse to know and be guided by Gods will in their national and international relationships they also forfeit their reason for approval by God. So, we have here a revelation through Isaiah of divine principles for all, both citizens and leaders, concerned with human governments. Governments wishing to have Gods approval today must conduct their national affairs and international agreements according to peace with liberty, justice, compassion, truth, righteousness for all men for these are principles for which God ordains human government.
The second violation Judah made of her divine destiny was, having refused the guidance of God, turning to Egypt for help against her enemies. Judah was to find her help in Jehovah. Jehovah had given her plenty of evidence not only of His ability to help, but of His eagerness to help. Egypt would only volunteer to help Judah in order to later exploit Judah for Egypts profit. However, as willing as Egypt might be to help, she was powerless to do so! Egypt was a paper tiger.
Egypts greatness was millenniums old. The Great Pyramid (the greatest and most accurate structure the world has ever known) was built about 4750 B.C. (Abram was not even called by God to begin the Hebrew race until 2700 years later). Probably the most magnificent era of Egyptian culture and power was the 18th Dynasty (1587-1328 B.C.) when Moses and the Hebrew people were there as slaves. Having experienced first hand the imperial power and greatness of Egypt for so many years of her own history (Abraham, Joseph, Moses) Judah would think of Egypt as invincible.
But around 1100 B.C. (near the time of Saul and David), under a succession of Ramessides rulers, Egypt began a cultural and political decline. The self-indulgence and ineptitude of its rulers was mainly responsible for the decline. Ethiopians gained control of all Egypt. For several decades (715-663 B.C.) Egypt was dominated by Ethiopian rule. These new rulers followed ancient political custom of agitating border-states (like Palestine) to revolt against their Mesopotamian overlords. Assyria, which controlled Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and all the territory to the Egyptian borders had her hands full squelching one revolt after another. In 720 B.C. the Assyrians appointed Akhimiti governor of Ashdod. In 711 Ashdod revolted against Assyria and deposed Akhimiti and made a Greek mercenary its ruler. Sargon, king of Assyria, dispatched an army to besiege Ashdod and overrun the city. Hezekiah was on the throne of Judah-a good man but not the strongest ruler Judah ever had. He was inclined to listen to those who favored the Egyptian philosophy of revolting against Assyria. Isaiah warned Hezekiah and the nation then (Isa 20:1 ff) that following Egyptian policies would be disastrous. Sargons annals indicate Judah was a party to the revolt of Ashdod. Sargon writes that the Greek ruler of Ashdod tried to persuade the rulers of Judah, Edom and Moab to join his revolt and also invoked the aid of Pharaoh king of Egypt, a prince who could not save them. The Assyrians were as accurate in their evaluation of Egyptian powerlessness as Isaiah was! The Greek ruler of Ashdod fled to Egypt when Sargon overran the city-but the Egyptians thought it politically expedient to deliver him up to the Assyrians. Judeans were fools to think they could trust the Egyptians to save them from the Assyrians!
Sargon died in 705 B.C. and was succeeded by his son Sennacherib. As usual, the death of one emperor and the coming to the throne of a new one touched off widespread political revolt among tributary nations. Merodach-baladan returned to Babylon from exile and reclaimed rights to the rule of that area. He also began a program of inciting other tribute-paying nations to revolt against Assyria. He sent an embassy to Hezekiah to prod him into joining the revolt. At the same time Egypt was also busy with her usual promises to help Judah throw off the Assyrian yoke. So our present chapter is a warning from the prophet of God that Judah is not to listen either to Merodach-baladan or the Egyptian king Shabaka, but to God.
But the princes of Judah had already made contacts. They had gone to Zoan, in the northeastern part of the Nile delta and to Hanes (which may have been the Heracleopolis Magna, fifty miles upstream from Cairo), to meet with Egyptian ambassadors and plot against Assyria. But they are simply tightening the Assyrian noose around their own necks as they discover in a few short years (Isaiah, chapters 36-39). They are going to suffer humiliation and embarrassment when Egypt proves impotent to help them!
They will not heed the prophets warning. They are obsessed with dependence upon Egypt. They send ambassadors, messengers and caravans laden with Judahs treasures (Isa 30:6) through wild, dangerous, beast-infested country to work out alliances with a decadent, pagan, powerless people. Their troubles and treasures will all be for nothing!
Isaiah calls into play both humor and sarcasm. His oracle (burden) concerns the behemoth (great beast) of the South (Egypt). But in Isa 30:7, he calls Egypt Rahab that sitteth still. Rahav in Hebrew means, big mouth, or puffed up-arrogant. The Hebrew word that is translated sitteth still is shavvath, or sabbath which means, of course, rest, inactivity, etc. So the pretended behemoth is really a big mouthed, do-nothing. Egypt is a paper tiger. Judah will seek her help in vain.
This chapter contains two distinct messages. In the first, the prophet denounces an alliance with Egypt (verses Isa 30:1-26), and in the second foretells the destruction of Assyria (verses Isa 30:27-33).
In the matter of the Egyptian alliance the prophet denounces the secret treaty, declares the shame and uselessness of it. He is instructed to write what shall be a testimony against the people. This he does by first describing the rebellious attitude which they have adopted, then by declaring how Jehovah will break in pieces the things in which they trust, and, finally, by indicating what their true attitude should have been, and declaring their refusal to adopt it and their consequent discomfiture. Yet the intention of Jehovah is gracious, and He waits for them until they are restored to the spirit of willingness, and are ready to sweep out idolatry. In answer to this, they are brought back to prosperity, which is described in its relation to the new glory of the land.
The destruction of Assyria is announced by a description of Jehovah coming in judgment. This will be the occasion for His people to sing a song of rejoicing and deliverance, which will result in completely and relentlessly sweeping away the oppressing nation. This prophecy of the destruction of Assyria at this point was intended to show the people of God how unnecessary it was for them to turn to Egypt for help.
Fatal Reliance on Human Aid
Isa 30:1-17
Toward the close of the 8th century, b.c. Jerusalem sent ambassadors to seek help from Egypt against Assyria, in distinct defiance of Gods repeated warnings. Isaiah denounced this as adding sin to sin. Even though their princes reached Zoan and Hanes, capital cities, and succeeded in their object, it would not help them. The beasts of burden might traverse the deserts with presents and bribes, but all would be in vain. These truths, however, were unpalatable, and the politicians endeavored to silence the prophet, Isa 30:9-11. All sin recoils on the sinner. At first his efforts seem to protect him, but soon the wall begins to bulge, then it totters, finally it falls. The true policy, urged by Isaiah in Isa 30:15, would be to renounce these efforts for Egyptian help and return to rest in the loving care of God. In returning and rest they would be saved! Oh, that we were more quiet and calm in the face of danger, hushing our fears, stilling our throbbing hearts, and leaning back on the everlasting arms! God cannot fail you, ye fearful saints.
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER THIRTY
JUDAH’S FAILURE – GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
ONCE more the Spirit of prophecy directs our attention to the internal condition of Judah in Isaiah’s day when, threatened by the Assyrian under Sennacherib, they appealed to Egypt, that land from which they had once been delivered, for help. This, in the eyes of GOD, was a grievous sin, indicating their lack of confidence in Himself and their hope of securing help from the very power which had once enslaved them and from whose bondage they had been redeemed; first by blood, the blood of the passover lamb, and then by the omnipotent power of GOD who brought them triumphantly through the Red Sea, scattering its waters on either side and thus gathered them to Himself in the wilderness and eventually settled them in the land of promise.
To go down now to Egypt for help meant that they had forgotten GOD’s dealings with them in the past and that they no longer dared to depend on Him for their present deliverance. In the opening verses we have the fourth woe of this series.
“Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach” (verses 1-5).
The invasion of the Assyrian was but one of the evidences of GOD’s displeasure with His people because of their waywardness. Instead of turning to the One they had sinned against, confessing their iniquities and judging themselves for their idolatry and their unreality, even in connection with the temple worship, they turned to their old enemy, hoping for assistance against the invader. It seemed, doubtless, to the leaders among them the path of wisdom thus to make a friend of Egypt in order that they might be strengthened against Assyria, but it was a mere human expedient and therefore doomed to failure. They hoped by such an alliance to ward off
the impending danger.
How much wiser they would have been had they taken the place of repentance toward GOD and sought counsel, not of worldly-minded leaders, but of GOD Himself who was at this time speaking to them through Isaiah and other prophets. May we not see in their attitude a lesson for ourselves today? How apt we are in times of stress to depend upon some human expedient instead of relying on the living GOD.
It is always an evidence of declension when Christians look to the world for help rather than turning to the Lord Himself, whose chastening hand may be upon them because of unjudged sin. He always stands ready to meet His people in grace, and we are told that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9).
But we are ever prone to forget this and to try to find a way out of our difficulties by human means instead of reliance upon the omnipotent GOD. Just as Judah involved themselves in deeper trouble by their folly in turning to Egypt, so do we always make conditions worse when, instead of looking to GOD, we endeavor by fleshly means to extricate ourselves from the difficult circumstances into which our own failures have plunged us.
“The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still” (verses 6, 7).
Egypt is depicted here as a land of ravenous beasts such as are found in African jungles. Yet to this land, Judah sent their ambassadors, bearing rich treasure loaded upon camels and asses with which they hoped to procure the favor of the Egyptian ruler. To them it seemed the only way out, and they doubtless congratulated themselves on their astuteness and political strategy in attempting to make a close ally of a former enemy.
But their course was obnoxious to God because it involved utter forgetfulness of Himself.
Though they did not realize it, their strength would have been manifested by quietly waiting upon GOD, sitting still even though the Assyrian came closer and closer to them, assured that if they but relied on the Holy One of Israel, in His own due time He would grant complete deliverance.
It is always difficult to wait for GOD to intervene. We have instance after instance in Scripture of those who only brought trouble upon themselves by precipitate action, feeling that something must be done in order to stave off disaster, whereas had they but left the matter in the hands of GOD, He would have risen up in ample time to fulfill His own purposes of grace.
We need to distinguish between waiting on GOD and waiting for GOD. It is one thing to go to Him in the hour of stress and implore His delivering power; it is another thing to rest quietly in a
sense of His infinite love and wisdom until He sees that the hour has struck to act on our behalf.
“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit” (verses 8-14).
It is clear from these words that GOD intended the record of Judah’s failure to be a salutary lesson to His people in future generations. For this purpose He would have all written in a book that it might be handed down from generation to generation. He knew well that even as in Isaiah’s time many in centuries yet to come would refuse to hear His voice and would seek to silence the messengers, turning away from the truth and going after false prophets, because like so many in Christendom today they had itching ears and preferred that which was pleasant and agreeable to that which called for self-judgment and repentance.
We need not suppose that the people of Judah said in so many words what is here recorded, but their attitude expressed what was in their hearts. Is not this just as true of vast numbers today? Outwardly they profess reverence for the Holy Scriptures and for the authority of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, but their lives make it evident that they are without any real faith, nor have they any love for GOD’s truth when it runs contrary to their own desires.
Such a course, on the part of any who profess the name of the Lord, can only bring down judgment upon those who thus turn away from the truth and follow after that which pleases the flesh and seems to the natural or the carnal mind far more satisfactory than dependence upon the Word of GOD.
Though Judah realized it not, they were like people standing beside a high wall whose foundations had been undermined and which was already bulging and about to fall upon them. Or, like a potter’s vessel which was soon to be broken into so many pieces that not one sherd could be found large enough to take up water or to be of any use whatever.
“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” (verses 15-17).
Beautiful, indeed, are the words of verse 15 – words that are ever true for the people of GOD, no
matter what they are called upon to suffer or endure. It is as we learn to wait upon GOD, returning to Him in confession of past failure and resting upon His assurance of present forgiveness and cleansing, that we find not only peace of conscience but peace of heart; salvation from whatever it may be that has caused unrest and fear.
As we look to the living GOD in simple faith, ceasing from all self-effort, refusing to look to the world for that help which GOD alone can give, we find strength to lift us above the trial. But the people of Judah refused to receive this message.
Willfully they turned away from the advice of the prophet, whom GOD had sent to call them back to Himself. They would not heed His Word, nor cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. How often has the Lord had to say to those whose unbelief grieved His heart, “I would, but ye would not.”
All preparations were made to flee upon horses at the approach of the enemy if help did not arrive in time, for they knew in their hearts that their dependence on Egypt might, after all, prove to be in vain. “Therefore,” said GOD, “shall ye flee,” and though they trusted in the swiftness of their steeds to enable them to evade capture, the enemy would be swifter than they and overtake and destroy them. When GOD brought them out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness, He told them that if they walked in obedience to His Word they need never fear their enemy for, in the day of battle, through the might of the Lord, one should chase a thousand, and two should put ten thousand to flight (Lev 26:8).
Now, however, because of their unbelief and disobedience, conditions would be reversed, and a thousand of Judah would flee from one Assyrian, and all of them before five of their ruthless enemies. What folly for men to put their confidence in flesh, only to prove, as so many have done, that the flesh profiteth nothing.
But once again, after having sought to reach their consciences, GOD, in remembrance of His covenant, declares that when His people have been chastened because of their sins He will bring them into blessing eventually, and so we read:
“And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a GOD of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (verses 18-21).
Clearly the prophecy here speaks of millennial blessing when, after all the centuries of the sufferings of Israel and Judah, they shall return to the Lord and find in Him that forgiveness which He is always ready to bestow upon the contrite and penitent heart.
In that day, the day of the Lord’s power, He will bring them into everlasting blessedness: the
sufferings of the past will seem but as an evil dream from which they have awakened, as they look up into the face of the Messiah they once despised and rejected, and find in Him an all-sufficient Saviour. No longer will they be led astray by the wisdom of man or by false visions, but led by the Lord Himself they will be guided in paths of righteousness.
Even when there might seem to be danger of turning away, either to the right hand or to the left, His own voice will direct them, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” All tears will then be wiped away and all their sufferings past forever.
Surely no one can think that these words have ever been fulfilled in the past. They point forward to that which will be Israel’s glorious portion in the day when their lessons have been learned and they become subject to the instruction of Him whose mandates they once refused to obey.
“Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters In the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound” (verses 22-26).
Idolatry had often been their ruin in times past, but in that coming day they will abhor themselves as they remember the folly of which they have been guilty, In forsaking the one true and living GOD for the worship of senseless images which could neither see nor hear, and were unable to deliver them from the dangers that beset them. Casting their idols to one side, they will find their joy in the Lord and He will feed them with the living bread and refresh them with the water of life.
No doubt verse 23 will have a literal fulfillment, for in Messiah’s day He will satisfy the poor with bread, but we are surely warranted in seeing in it a promise of great spiritual blessing, for GOD’s Word is as food to the heart of him who meditates upon it, strengthening him in the inner man that he may know the will of GOD and have the power to do it.
The streams of living water, too, which flow down from the hills and the mountains may well speak to us of that river of the water of life, the Holy Ghost’s testimony to the risen CHRIST, which will bring joy to the heart of the people of GOD, not only in the heavenly sphere, but also in the earthly side of the kingdom yet to be set up.
“Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: and his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them
to err. Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel. And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it” (verses 27-33).
These closing verses speak of mingled judgment and blessing. Judgment upon the nations who, throughout the centuries, have sorely afflicted Israel, and blessing upon the covenant people when they return to the Lord and all His promises of both temporal and spiritual prosperity are fulfilled toward them.
Undoubtedly, the judgments spoken of refer, in the first instance, to those which fell upon Sennacherib and his armies; but they surely go far beyond that, reaching down to the last days when another great Gentile power, as we have seen, will rise up in its God-defying might and seek to destroy Judah and take possession of Immanuel’s land.
In His indignation the Lord will pour out the vials of His wrath upon the Assyrian of that coming day so that his destruction will be complete and eternal. With him, too, will fall judgment upon every other enemy who has threatened the peace of the covenant nation.
The last verse is of a somewhat cryptic character, but with the help of other scriptures we need not have difficulty in understanding it. We should remember that no prophecy of Scripture is of its own interpretation, as we are told in 2Pe 1:20. “Private interpretation” there does not mean the effort of an individual to understand the Scriptures apart from the instruction of ecclesiastical authorities, as taught by the Roman Catholic Church, but the point is that all the prophecies of Scripture need to be considered as one whole, for they are all given by the same Spirit, and are intimately connected one with the other.
So here we read that Tophet is ordained of old, “yea, for the king it is prepared,” that is, “for the king also it is prepared.” The Assyrian we know, but who is the king here referred to? If we turn to Dan 11:36 we read of the willful “king” who will head up the apostate Jewish nation during the time of the great tribulation. He is clearly identical with the Man of Sin, the Lawless One of II Thessalonians 2, and also with the second beast who looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon, of Revelation 13. Both this sinister one and the “Beast” will be cast alive into a lake of fire, as we know from Rev 19:19, 20.
Some would identify the Assyrian with the Beast, and this may, perhaps, be correct, though to the present writer the two seem to be very distinct personages, the Beast being the little horn of Daniel 7 and the Assyrian, or king of the north, the little horn of Daniel 8. The doom of all of these enemies of GOD and His people will be everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
Tophet was of old the lowest part of the valley of the Son of Hinnom, that is, Gehenna, the place where the filth and refuse of the city of Jerusalem was consumed, together with the carcases of criminals and of beasts. In the days of Israel’s worst idolatry, it was there that the image of Moloch was set up, and to this vile god human sacrifices were offered, little children and young maidens being cast alive into the red-hot arms of the monstrous image that was itself a burning furnace, heated red hot. As the priests of Moloch beat their drums and chanted their idolatrous songs to drown out the cries of the burning victims, GOD looked down with abhorrence upon the terrible iniquity thus manifested, and so Tophet became the synonym for the lowest hell; and into that place of outer darkness will be cast the last enemies of GOD as the Day of the Lord is ushered in and man’s day comes to a close.
~ end of chapter 30 ~
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/
***
Isa 30:9-10
I. A chief part of the work of the pulpit is the plain and fervent teaching of daily-life morality. Despite the opinions of those who are ready to say that morality is not the Gospel, I say that there is no Gospel without morality, and that the morality of Christ, that is, a morality whose inspiration is the Spirit of Christ, is a very large part of the Gospel indeed. What of our Lord’s own teachings? Are they chiefly moral teachings or theological? It is needless to answer the question. What do we mean when we talk of being saved from sin? Just what the words say;-that sin shall be taken away; that is, that men shall obey God’s law instead of the devil’s; that is, that they shall live pure, virtuous, and moral lives.
II. And do not morals occupy a very foremost place in the welfare of mankind? What is it makes the world often so miserable? It is sin, that is immorality; and if we can do away with the sin and immorality, and bring in virtue and morality, then we shall do much to diminish the miseries of our fellow-men. And if it is important that morals should be taught for the welfare and happiness of mankind, who are to teach morals, if not the ministers of religion? If there were other teachers to do the work, we might well stand excused. But if we do not teach morals, they will not be taught at all; there are no authorised teachers except the ministers of religion; and it is for us to educate the public conscience, until men feel each moral distinction as a solemn fact, until the force of public opinion fall heavily upon him who violates the moral law, until a fairer morality takes its place among us.
III. But if this be one part of our work, and a very great part, why have we succeeded so ill? why is the general morality so low? It is because the people have said, “Speak unto us smooth things,” and we have yielded to their words. If you tell men the faults which are diseases in their characters, slowly but surely bringing them down to the grave, they cannot bear it, but keep the disease and dismiss the physician. Whether it hurts or not, the truth must be said, if men are to be saved from the error of their ways.
W. Page-Roberts, Reasonable Service, p. 28.
References: Isa 30:7.-Outline Sermons to Children, p. 89. Isa 30:11.-Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 229. Isa 30:14.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 357.
Isa 30:10
What was the utility of the Hebrew prophet, and what were the errors to which he was more particularly exposed?
I. It was the duty and the privilege of Israel to keep alive monotheism in the world. It was no less the duty of the prophetic school to preserve in the chosen nation itself the spirituality of religion. Both agents were in the same relative position-a hopeless minority. And both had but an imperfect success. Yet the nation and the institution served each an important purpose. Monotheism languished, but did not die. And though the prophets were not very successful in imbuing the nation generally with their own spirituality, yet they kept the flame alive. They served to show to the people the true ideal of spiritual, not ritualistic, Judaism, and thus supplied a corrective to priest-taught Judaism.
II. What was the great source of error in the prophet’s utterances? What was the great pressure that pushed, or tended to push, him aside from the path of duty? The text has told us: “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things.” The desire of man-king or peasant-to hear from the prophet, or the courtier, or the demagogue, not truth, but flattery,-it was that fatal longing which led them to put a pressure on the prophet which often crushed the truth within him.
III. Prophets exist no longer. But flattery exists still, and the appetite for it can be as strong in a people as ever it was in a king. If nations have not prophets to flatter them, they have those whom they trust as much. Far from attempting to correct their faults, the guides whom they trust are constantly labouring to impress on them that they are the most meritorious and the most ill-used nation in the world. Eyes blinded to present faults; eyes sharpened to past wrongs,-there is no treatment which will more completely and more rapidly demoralise the nation which is subjected to it. There will be no improvement where there is no consciousness of fault; and no forgiveness where the mind is invited, almost compelled, to a constant brooding over wrong. With the growth of such feelings no nation can thrive; and he who encourages them is not the saviour but the destroyer of his country.
J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, and Other Sermons, p. 114.
Isa 30:15
(Php 4:7)
The protecting power of peace.
I. “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Quietness is the opposite of excitement; confidence is the opposite of mistrust. The two pairs of qualities have their place in human things; they have their place also in the things of God. In both realms the maxim is true, that strength is in the one pair of qualities and weakness is in the other. (1) Quietness is strength. It is the quiet nature that works. It is the quiet spirit that influences. It is the quiet life that impresses and that assimilates excitement, talks and bustles and pushes. But excitement, if it in any sense stir’s the world, cannot move and cannot guide it. There is only one kind of excitement which has permanence. Its proper name is not excitement, but enthusiasm; and enthusiasm, being interpreted, is the having God in us; and where God is, there is quietness and there is strength. (2) Confidence is strength. This confidence must be, first, a confidence rightly directed; and, secondly, a confidence stoutly held. The confidence which Isaiah wrote of was, of course, set upon God. And being thus rightly directed, it was a confidence which knew no wavering as to its right to trust, and as to its acceptance with its object.
II. In the New Testament “quietness and confidence” become the peace of God. If you would be happy, if you would be holy, if you would lead a good life, if you would be an influence for good in your generation, you must “seek peace and ensue it.” The peace of God Himself must be your prayer, your effort, your ambition. We know where it is to be found-in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified; in Jesus Christ, and Him glorified.
C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, p. 496.
I. There are two kinds of character-the fervent and the contemplative; the enthusiastic and the peaceful-and each of them is admirable and each necessary for the progress and well-being of the world. But each of these is liable to a certain degeneracy which is very common; so that instead of fervour we find restlessness; instead of quietude, lethargy.
II. The fussy, flurried, restless character has no perspective about it, no silence, no sobriety, no self-control; it values no blessing which it has, because it is always yearning for some blessing which it has not; it enjoys no source of happiness in the present, because it is always fretting for some source of happiness in the future. It is the restlessness and discontent bred by a soul which has no sweet retirements of its own, and no rest in God, no anchor sure and steadfast on the rushing waves of life.
III. Now to both these common characters this text offers an antidote: to the self-satisfied, a confidence which is not conceit, a quietude which is that of a glassy sea, not that of a stagnant and corrupting pool; to the restless and anxious, a quietude and confidence which are nothing else than a calm faith and a happy trust in God.
F. W. Farrar, In the Days of Thy Youth, p. 72.
References: Isa 30:15.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 344. Isa 30:18.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 281; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1766; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 344; J. R. Wood, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 145; A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 126. Isa 30:19.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1419; D. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 113. Isa 30:20.-M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 245; C. Morris, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. iii., p. 229. Isa 30:21.-J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 382; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1672; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 1; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 376. Isa 30:29.-J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories, p. 138. Isa 30:32.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets, vol. i., p. 93. Isa 31:6.-J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 225.
CHAPTER 30
The Fourth Woe Against Alliance With Egypt
1. The alliance and its failure (Isa 30:1-7) 2. The written table against the rebellious people (Isa 30:8-14) 3. Jehovahs word of encouragement (Isa 30:15-17) 4. The nation blest and restored (Isa 30:18-21) 5. Idolatry ceases and the land restored (Isa 30:22-26) 6. The accomplishment by the coming of the Lord (Isa 30:27-33)While this chapter had a significance, like all these prophetic utterances, for the people in Isaiahs day, its complete revelation can only be grasped in the light of what is yet to come. The Jewish people have never yet possessed the blessings of Isa 30:18-20. These will come as a result of the second coming of Christ. See Isa 30:30.
am cir, 3291, bc cir, 713
the rebellious: Isa 30:9, Isa 1:2, Isa 63:10, Isa 65:2, Deu 9:7, Deu 9:24, Deu 29:19, Jer 4:17, Jer 5:23, Eze 2:3, Eze 3:9, Eze 3:26, Eze 3:27, Eze 12:2, Eze 12:3, Hos 7:13, Act 7:51, Act 7:52
that take: Isa 8:19, Isa 29:15, 1Ch 10:13, 1Ch 10:14, Hos 4:10-12
cover: Isa 4:5, *marg. Isa 28:15, Isa 28:20, Isa 32:2, Psa 61:4, Psa 91:1-4
add: Isa 1:5, Isa 5:18, Num 32:14, Hos 13:2, Rom 2:5, 2Ti 3:13
Reciprocal: Jos 9:14 – asked not Jdg 18:5 – Ask counsel 1Ki 12:28 – took counsel 2Ki 17:4 – king of Egypt 2Ch 10:8 – he forsook Psa 81:12 – they walked Pro 25:19 – General Isa 7:18 – fly Isa 10:3 – to whom Isa 20:6 – whither Isa 30:12 – Because Isa 31:1 – to them Isa 36:6 – General Isa 57:4 – are ye Isa 57:9 – thou wentest to the king Isa 59:6 – neither Jer 2:16 – Also the Jer 2:18 – what hast Jer 2:36 – thou also shalt Jer 12:13 – put Jer 17:5 – Cursed Jer 19:7 – I will make Jer 22:20 – and cry Jer 37:7 – Pharaoh’s Jer 42:19 – Go Jer 44:14 – which are Lam 4:17 – our eyes Lam 5:6 – to the Egyptians Eze 11:2 – General Eze 17:9 – Shall it Eze 17:15 – in Eze 24:3 – the rebellious Eze 29:16 – the confidence Hos 7:11 – they call Hos 11:6 – because Zep 3:2 – she trusted Zec 4:6 – Not Eph 2:2 – the children
Isa 30:1-5. Wo to the rebellious children The Jews, who called themselves Gods children, though they were rebellious ones, as was said Isa 1:2. That take counsel That consult together, and resolve what to do; but not of me Not following nor asking my advice, which I encouraged and commanded them to do. And cover with a covering Seek protection; but not of my Spirit Not such as by my Spirit, speaking in my word, I have directed and required them to seek; that they may add sin to sin That unto all their other sins, by which they have deserved and provoked my judgments, they may add distrust of my power and mercy, and put confidence in an arm of flesh. That walk to go down into Egypt That send ambassadors to Egypt for succour, which the Jews were prone to do upon all occasions, and did now upon the invasion of the king of Assyria, chap. 20:5, 6; and have not asked at my mouth Either by the priests or prophets, as they were commanded to do in weighty cases. The strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame Not only unprofitable, but mischievous to you. For his princes The princes of Judah; were at Zoan Sent thither by the king, or by their brethren. His ambassadors came to Hanes An eminent city of Egypt, called more largely Tahapanes. They were all ashamed Both the messengers and they who sent them; of a people that could not profit them For, though the Egyptians, in conjunction with the Ethiopians, did so far assist the Jews as to give a diversion to Sennacheribs forces; yet, being entirely routed, they became rather a burden than a help to the Jews, and are therefore (Isa 36:6) compared to a broken reed, which not only fails the hand that leans upon it, but pierces and wounds it.
Isa 30:1-2. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me. It was a law among all ancient nations to undertake nothing of importance without consulting the gods. In this instance it had been neglected by the embassy that went to Egypt.That cover with a covering, or literally, as in Montanus, that pour out a libation; for all the ancients ratified their covenants or treaties with sacrifices. They came back with eclat; they returned so elated, and boasting of an alliance with Egypt, that they went to feasting, and added sin to sin.
Isa 30:4. Zoan, called by the Greeks Tanis. Num 13:22.Hanes, called Tahapanes, where Jeremiah fled: Jer 43:7-9. It lay, says Jerome, towards the south, and was the last royal city in Egypt going to Ethiopia. Those cities are named here, because they had palaces. But where now are those cities, palaces, and princes? Foolish man; what is thy dust better than the beggars?
Isa 30:6. The burden of the beasts of the south. A fine satire on the frighted Hebrews, who fled with their riches into Egypt; whereas they ought to have believed their divinely inspired prophet, who says, Isa 30:15, in returning and rest shall ye be saved. They who believed, and rested, were saved, when the angel smote a hundred and eighty five thousand of the Assyrians.Fiery serpent. See note on Num 21:6.
Isa 30:20. Thine eyes shall see thy teachers. This is named as one of the first blessings of a nation. No man should be encouraged as a student in the ministry, unless he have a clear head, and a warm heart. In natural theology he should make a circle through the sciences, and cultivate that knowledge by daily observations. In divinity he should be mighty in the scriptures, and apt to teach. His liberal share of earthly science should be lost in the transports of redemption, and the salvation of souls. He should shine as a star in the right hand of Christ, and have an angels countenance before the people. The auditor will then lift up the ear while he speaks, the people will pray when he prays, will praise when he praises, weep when he weeps, and grace and heaven will remain on the souls of his hearers.
Isa 30:22. Ye shall defile the covering of thy graven images, as when Jehu made the temple of Baal in Samaria a draught-house. Then the Lord would give rain, and rivers and streams of water; yea, he would make the lights of heaven shine with sevenfold brightness on the land and people in whom he placed his chief delight.
Isa 30:30. The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard. As the voice addresses the ear, so the judgments of God speak to the nations. His fire or anger burns to fury, his thunders roar, his hailstones beat down his foes. By his voice shall the proud Assyrian be beaten down.
Isa 30:32. In every place where the grounded staff shall pass; le baton enfonc, the rod sinking into his flesh; which indicates a succession of defeats to his army, that would cause all the liberated nations to rejoice with tabrets and with harps.
Isa 30:33. Tophet is ordained of old. From toph, a drum, a name of contempt, from the tum-tums, which deafened the cries of the children when immolated to Moloch. Jer 5:22; Jer 19:6. The place of this infernal worship was in the valley of the son of Hinnom, near the lower walls of Jerusalem, and desecrated by king Josiah, as a burial place. 2Ki 23:10. Hence the compound word Gehenna, from Gi, or as the Gothic, gill, a valley, and hinnom, a man. Gehenna is figuratively understood to designate eternal torments. Mat 5:22. Mar 9:47. For the king, the blaspheming Sennacherib, who was slain in his temple, when vowing to immolate one of his sons to his god, the fire of Gehenna is prepared.
REFLECTIONS.
When the embassy returned to Jerusalem, after concluding a treaty offensive and defensive with the princes of Egypt, it was with great eclat, with pride and boasting of an alliance with the great and ancient nations. The rulers of Judah highly applauded the measure, and the success of the ambassadors.
Isaiah also congratulated them, but in other words. Was there no God, no oracle, in Israel, Exo 28:30; no prophet in Jerusalem, that you went to the princes of Zoan for counsel? Did you fear that the oracle would be against you, or that the seers would prophesy evil of you? Oh senators of Judah, you have lost your errand! God will disannul the covenant you have made with death, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. The overflowing scourge shall tread you down. The Assyrians shall overrun your country, and burn the gates of Egypt. They shall bring with them an infinitude of asses and camels to carry away the treasures of all their palaces. Happy was Judah in having one faithful minister, who dared to tell both the court and the nation the whole counsel of God.
But as the air is remarkably fresh, and as the plants perfume it with a grateful fragrance after a thunder-storm; so religion, and truth, and righteousness should flourish in the land, when those storms of tremendous invasion should subside; yea, the heavens should give a sevenfold light, and the earth bring forth its plenitude of encrease. Happy when the visitations of providence are rightly improved.
But the awful exit of those bloody invaders is the most terrific and appalling burden. The prophet sends their manes to the fire of Gehenna! Where else could they go? When the angel of the Lord, after a day of rebuke and blasphemy, slew a hundred and eighty five thousand, they had fallen asleep in their sins, and awoke in hell. If the indulgent delicacy of modern philosophy shall say, the words of the prophet are the emanations of a contracted and illiberal mind; for the Assyrians were ministers of the God of vengeance, and sent to execute his commands. Isa 10:5. Read onread on; hear the prophets full defence. Howbeit, he knoweth it not, neither doth his heart think so; for it is in his heart to destroy. He saith, I will cut off nations not a few. They had no idea of avenging the quarrel of heaven; but of murder, rapine, and the indulgence of every lawless passion. Do not all the Greek and Roman poets speak of the future punishments of the wicked as the prophets? Does not Virgil, in his sixth neid, send them all down to Plutos dark house? Apologies for crime are hostile to morality: better whisper in their ears the words of the Sibyl to neas, Easy is the descent into hell; day and night is open the gate of Plutos court; but how to recover ones steps, how to escape and ascend to the superior regions; here is the taskhere is the difficulty. See on Psa 9:17.
Isaiah 30. Denunciation of the Egyptian Alliance. The Blessed Future of Israel. The Destruction of Assyria.We should probably pass the same judgment on Isa 30:18-26 as on Isa 29:16-24. The two passages are closely related, and are not improbably by the same author. A post-exilic date seems on the whole more likely. There are no substantial reasons for rejecting the Isaianic authorship of Isa 30:27-33.
Isa 30:1-5. Woe to the unfilial rebels who negotiate alliance with Egypt, leaving God out of their counsels. intriguers who flout the prophetic spirit, piling one sin upon another. Egypt will prove no refuge, but a bitter disappointment. Though Pharaohs princes are in Tanis (Isa 19:11) and his envoys in Hanes, yet those who trust in their help will find that it is not forthcoming in their need.
Isa 30:1. Perhaps we should render weave a web (mg.), i.e. carry on an intrigue. The second margin, pour out a drink offering, would give a good sense, the allusion being to the libation at the making of an alliance.
Isa 30:4. Hanes: Heracleopolis Magna, the Egyptian Hanes, W. of the Nile, S. of the Fayyum, a city of great importance. It has been inferred from this verse that the prophecy refers to negotiations with Egypt in the time of Sargon rather than of Sennacherib, Zoan and Hanes marking the limits of the Pharaohs dominion.
30:1 Woe to the {a} rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that {b} cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
(a) Who contrary to their promise take not me for their protector and contrary to my commandment seek help from strangers.
(b) They seek shifts to cloak their doings and not godly means.
The folly of seeking help from Egypt 30:1-7
Yahweh pronounced woe on the Judahites who were acting like rebellious children (cf. Isa 1:2; Deu 21:18-21). They were carrying out a plan that was not the Lord’s. Specifically they were seeking an alliance with Egypt. Yahweh had forbidden alliances with Egypt (Exo 13:17; Deu 17:16). These Judahites added to the sin of acting without divine direction, the sin of seeking security from a source other than the Lord Himself.
BOOK 3
ORATIONS ON THE EGYPTIAN INTRIGUES AND ORACLES ON FOREIGN NATIONS
705-702 B.C.
Isaiah:
29About 703
30A little later
31A little later
32:1-8Later
32:9-20Date uncertain
—————–
14:28-21736-702
23About 703
WE now enter the prophecies of Isaiahs old age, those which he published after 705, when his ministry had lasted for at least thirty-five years. They cover the years between 705, the date of Sennacheribs accession to the Assyrian throne, and 701, when his army suddenly disappeared from before Jerusalem.
They fall into three groups:-
1. Chapters 29-32., dealing with Jewish politics while Sennacherib is still far from Palestine, 704-702, and having Egypt for their chief interest, Assyria lowering in the background.
2. Chapters 14:28-21 and 23, a group of oracles on foreign nations, threatened, like Judah, by Assyria.
3. Chapters 1, 22, and 33, and the historical narrative in 36, and 37., dealing with Sennacheribs invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem in 701; Egypt and every foreign nation now fallen out of sight, and the storm about the Holy City too thick for the prophet to see beyond his immediate neighbourhood.
The first and second of these groups-orations on the intrigues with Egypt and oracles on the foreign nations-delivered while Sennacherib was still far from Syria, form the subject of this Third Book of our exposition.
The prophecies on the siege of Jerusalem are sufficiently numerous and distinctive to be put by themselves, along with their appendix (38, 39), in our Fourth Book.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Ye ransomed sinners, sing.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And that 1cover with a covering, but not of my spirit,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
But a shame, and also a reproach.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary