Isaiah 30: Woe to Israel for obstinate rejection of God

For Context see chapter 28

• PART ONE: v.1-7: Chiding Relying on Egypt & not God
• PART TWO: v.8-17: Obstinate Refusal will bring destructive judgment
  • v.8-11 Their refusal to listen to God
  • v.12-14 Rejecting God has destructive consequences
  • v.15-17 Refusal to repent means judgment
• PART THREE: v.18-26: Repentance will bring blessing to Israel
  • v.18,19 But God wants to bless them if only they will turn to Him….
  • v.20-22 … so that He may teach them and guide them when they abandon their idols…
  • v.23,24 …. and He will bless their land and their economy…
  • v.25,26 … and utterly transform their lives when the enemy falls
• PART FOUR: v.27-33: Judgments against the world, joy in Israel
  • v.27-29 He will come in power on the nations of the world & Israel will rejoice
  • v.30-32 He will come in power on them and Assyria will fall and Israel rejoice
  • v.33 … and the land will be purged of idolatry and child sacrifice

[Introductory Comment: The chapter is an onward flowing pathway: Israel being chided for relying on Egypt and not the Lord [v.1-7], them being chastised for not listening to God [v.8-11], but then being warned by the Lord of the consequences that will follow [v.12-14], all because they refused to repent [v.15-17]. However, that is not the end for the Lord reaches out to them with an offer of blessing if they will cry to Him for help [v.18,19] when He will teach them and speak so clearly they will throw their idols away [v.20-22]. When that happens, He will pour out His blessings on the land [v.23,24] and bring down their enemies bringing total transformation [v.25,26]. The concluding Part reveals the Lord bringing judgment on the world and joy to Israel [v.25-33] in terms not dissimilar to that found in Ezekiel 38 & 39.]

PART ONE: v.1-7: Chiding Israel for Relying on Egypt & not God

v.1  ‘Woe to the obstinate children,’
    declares the Lord,
‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
    forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
    heaping sin upon sin;

v.2 who go down to Egypt
    without consulting me;
who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,
    to Egypt’s shade for refuge.

v.3  But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,
    Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.

v.4 Though they have officials in Zoan
    and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

v.5 everyone will be put to shame
    because of a people useless to them,
who bring neither help nor advantage,
    but only shame and disgrace.’

v.6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,
    of lions and lionesses,
    of adders and darting snakes,
the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,
    their treasures on the humps of camels,
to that unprofitable nation,

v.7  to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.
Therefore I call her
    Rahab the Do-Nothing.

[Notes: This people act independently of God. They go to and rely on Egypt but it will only bring shame on them. They send envoys to Egypt to the Nile Delta but they won’t help, traveling through the dangerous south to the land the Lord calls i.e. the powerless dragon

PART TWO: v.8-17: Obstinate Refusal will bring destruction

v.8-11 Their refusal to listen to God

v.8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
    inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
    it may be an everlasting witness.

v.9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
    children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.

v.10 They say to the seers,
    ‘See no more visions!’
and to the prophets,
    ‘Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
    prophesy illusions.

v.11 Leave this way,
    get off this path,
and stop confronting us
    with the Holy One of Israel!’

[Notes: The prophet is told to write down God’s warning as a long lasting reminder, for these foolish people don’t listen to God and they refuse God’s messengers.]

v.12-14 Rejecting God has destructive consequences

v.12  Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

‘Because you have rejected this message,
    relied on oppression
    and depended on deceit,

v.13 this sin will become for you
    like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
    that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

v.14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
    shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
    for taking coals from a hearth
    or scooping water out of a cistern.’

[Notes: Refusing to listen has consequences. Their rebellion will come crashing down on them and will break them to pieces.]

v.15-17 Refusal to repent means judgment

v.15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,
    but you would have none of it.

v.16  You said, “No, we will flee on horses.”
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.”
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

v.17 A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.’

[Notes: They rejected their only hope – repentance, they thought they could escape God’s judgment but will be left with only a tiny remnant.]

PART THREE: v.18-26: Repentance will bring blessing to Israel

v.18,19 But God wants to bless them if only they will turn to Him….

v.18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

v.19 (People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

[Notes: But still God wants to be there for you so cry for help & God will be there for you.] 

v.20-22 … so that He may teach them and guide them when they abandon their idols…

v.20  Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.

v.21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’

v.22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, ‘Away with you!’

[Notes: His disciplining also comes with His grace. You will hear His guidance and then you will abandon your idols.]

v.23,24 …. and He will bless their land and their economy…

v.23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows.

v.24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel.

[Notes: Then He will also bless your crops and herds and food for your work beasts will be plentiful.]

v.25,26 … and utterly transform their lives when the enemy falls

v.25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill.

v.26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

[Notes: When God fights your enemies, water will be abundant. When God blesses, His glory will transform everything.]

PART FOUR: v.27-33: Judgments against the world, joy in Israel

v.27-29 He will come in power on the nations of the world & Israel will rejoice

v.27 See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
    with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
    and his tongue is a consuming fire.

v.28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,
    rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
    he places in the jaws of the peoples
    a bit that leads them astray.

v.29 And you will sing
    as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
    as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the Rock of Israel.

[Notes: God’s power and authority is coming to bring destruction on the nations but for Israel it will be a time of rejoicing.]

v.30-32 He will come in power on them and Assyria will fall and Israel rejoice

v.30 The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice
    and will make them see his arm coming down
with raging anger and consuming fire,
    with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

v.31  The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria;
    with his rod he will strike them down.

v.32  Every stroke the Lord lays on them
    with his punishing club
will be to the music of tambourines and harps,
    as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

[Notes: His people will hear and see His coming deliverance. He will just speak and Assyria will be brought down and as they fall, Israel will be rejoicing.]

v.33 …. and the land will be purged of idolatry and child sacrifice

v.33 Topheth has long been prepared;
    it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
    with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the Lord,
    like a stream of burning sulphur,
    sets it ablaze.

[Notes: The place of evil sacrifice [Topheth} – see 2 Kings 23:10 – will be purged clean.]

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