“So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt?”
Isaiah 30:1-18
Today we are at the fourth “Woe” since we began them in chapter 28. You may remember, Isaiah has been expressing these “woes” to the Israelites because they were choosing not to trust God in their time of need. Instead, they were trusting in their own understanding.
Based on what they could see,
Egypt was their best bet to survive an attack from Assyria.
Today’s Scripture starts out with the Lord’s description of how the Israelites were behaving,
“WOE TO THE obstinate children,” declares the LORD,..”
How many of you have/had an obstinate child? The child who, no matter what you said, or how you said it, continued to ask, “Why?”
The child who wouldn’t settle for your answer, regardless of what it was, and chose to do their own thing anyway?
I am a been blessed mother. Neither of my children have been obstinate. But that’s not to say I haven’t encountered some of them. I have certainly had the opportunity to babysit some, teach some and listen to the laments of friends who have birthed one or two.
So we can relate to what the Lord was describing. God knows Egypt will not be able to offer any real assistance. Due to the fact that the Israelites refuse to listen to reason, and choose to do things their way, Isaiah continues with his reiteration of the themes he has been declaring all along in the first part of his book, and they have been
> The need to trust God
> A promise of judgement for those who stupidly reject God by trusting other nations, instead of Him
> But, also a promise, that after judgement, for those who turn to Him, God will faithfully be their hope
Let’s begin by looking at verses 1-7. They describe the foolishness of looking to Egypt for help. Instead of turning to their heavenly Father for advice, the Israelites were hastily making their own plans. It was like they completely forgot all of the stories they had heard since they were born, of how God had led their forefathers out of Egypt, out of slavery, into the Promised Land. We read last week in the last verse of chapter 29 the reason why, Isaiah described them as having developed a wayward spirit. They had started looking with their eyes instead of with their spirit.
What were they thinking?
Actually, I don’t think they were thinking.
If they had been, they would have remembered what God had explicitly demanded in Deuteronomy 17:16
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”
Actually, it is not too difficult to see things from their human perspective. It seemed like there was no other nation big enough, at the time, to offer hope or protection. Isaiah compares this to being like a large palm tree that would be able to offer shade, in verse 2, from the threat of Assyria breathing down their necks. But God knew that all of what Judah was seeing, was only a facade. There may have been impressive “officials in Zoan” found in verse 4, which, by the way, was actually the town where the Hebrews had been enslaved, and “envoys” in “Hanes” in verse 5, that were persuasive, but God knew that behind all of this splendor and might, there was nothing but disappointment. The only thing Judah would really receive from Egypt would be, “shame and disgrace,” verse 5.
In verses 6-7, Isaiah paints a picture of a caravan of “riches” and “treasures” on the backs of donkeys and camels going down to Egypt to be offered as payment for Egyptian help.
But the reality would be that the Israelites would soon find out that Egypt was nothing more than “Rahab the Do-Nothing.” This Rahab is another name for a chaos monster, or dragon, who makes it a goal to destroy the life of humans. However, this particular Rahab is toothless, old and lazy, hardly terrifying and helpful.
There we have the first of Isaiah’s themes – the demonstration of the need to trust in God.
In the next section of verses, 8-18, Isaiah will proclaim judgement on His children, who again He calls, “rebellious and deceitful.”
First God describes their attitude Second He gives a specific judgment caused by that attitude Third He describes the result of God’s children refusing to accept His invitation and what must be the consequence because of this refusal This section begins with Isaiah stating the reason why he was giving this oracle in the first place. The purpose for his writing all of this down was so when the predictions came true, people would know it. He then goes on in verse 9 to describe the people’s attitude with even more detail. The people were telling their spiritual leaders to stop telling them things that were correct, but instead, tell them things that were nice to hear. They didn’t want to be confronted, they wanted to feel good. Sound familiar? How interesting that the Holy One of Israel had become, not King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but confrontational and unwanted, so the people didn’t want to hear what was coming from God.
Then look at Isaiah’s response, in verse 12. Did he kowtow to their requests. No, he continued to preach it like it was, and responded with: “this is what the Holy One of Israel says:” So much for giving people what they said they wanted and making them feel good. Isaiah hits them right between the eyes.
The facts were this:
because they had rejected the truth that God was the only one who could be trusted and instead, had put their trust in and their money to pay Egypt for worthless help, the result would be destruction, which will “collapse suddenly, in an instant.” I have an analogy that fits in this instance. Last year, my home office was in one of the downstairs room at the parsonage. Every once in a while I would look up to the ceiling and I could see the plaster buckling and cracking. It seemed insignificant for a while, but over time the cracks were getting wider and the longer. I mentioned to Val that it seemed like one day it was going to let go and crumble. His response was like most people, “Sure, someday.” He had a point. The ceiling had been holding up for over a century, why would it just drop? I am sure you can guess where this is going. And if we were to stop and face the truth that it was surely going to collapse, that meant we had to do something about it, and well, it was easier to let it go and ignore it. Until. The fateful day arrived. I came into the room and two thirds of the horsehair plaster was on top of my desk instead of on the ceiling. In an instant, it had collapsed. Now there was even more of a mess to clean up.
So it was for Assyria. Isaiah was warning the Israelites that sure, Assyria had been threatening them for years, but one day, suddenly, Assyria would come and devastate their land. There would be nothing left. Verse 14,
It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
The sad part of this story is that God kept telling them, over and over again, that the solution to their predicament was to turn back to Him, repent and then rest in Him, verse 15
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
Does this sound familiar?
How often do we act just like this?
In more ways than we would care to admit. We remain in situations or relationships or jobs that are not healthy, complaining perpetually of how difficult they are, only to refuse to do what the doctor prescribes.
We read in the next verse, verse 16, how the Israelites responded. Instead of choosing rest and quietness, they do the exact opposite, they decide to flee rapidly. There was one problem with that decision, the pursuers were even faster! The problem always catches up to you.
And for anyone who has kept fleeing and not faced the problem and not turned to God with repentance and for hope, they can relate to the description Isaiah gives of what they will look and feel like, verse 17b
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.
Forlorn, like a tattered flag, whipping in the wind. There are time when many of us have felt like that.
Through all of this rigmarole what does God do?
Now if He were like us, He may would just take one last look and say “Good riddance,” and watch us ride away, to face the consequences of our actions.
But He is not like us.
He is God.
And the next verse is one of the most significant statements that describe the character of God and just how awesome He is, it reads, and Eugene Peterson writes it like this in The Message,
But God’s not finished. He’s waiting around to be gracious to you. He’s gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right—everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones.
Because Israel would not wait for God, God would have to wait for them, to give them grace. Because, God takes the time to do everything right – everything. And like a parent with a stubborn child, the grace and love the parent so wants to give, often takes more time to be received. Not because the parent doesn’t want to share it, but because the child is not ready to receive it.
Isaiah provides us with a glimpse of the grace of God,
the Creator of the universe,
who is able to create,
from nothing,
amazing things by simply saying so,
This God waits for His creation to come to the place
where and when they can receive His grace and compassion.
So what are you tackling on your own, or without God?
Where have you placed your confidence in the wrong thing and so adversity and difficulty seem to be destroying you?
This is where I am going to ask you to
“Let go and Let God.”
God will not fail you.
He may need you to start doing things differently, because God takes the time to do everything right, so this means you may have to change how and why you are doing things.
But isn’t that what you really need?
If you would only admit it?
The best part about getting through difficulties with God, instead of on our own,
is that,
with God we can take what seems to be setbacks or new problems and rest,
and watch,
as we see God use them to accomplish His purpose.
Let’s not be like the Israelites and return to slavery, by going back to Egypt. Let’s turn to God, give Him our struggles and take Him at His promise that for those who wait for Him, they will never be disappointed.
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
Let’s pray.
