For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 30:1-7

1 ‘Woe to the obstinate children,’
    declares the Lord,
‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
    forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
    heaping sin upon sin;
2 who go down to Egypt
    without consulting me;
who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,
    to Egypt’s shade for refuge.
3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,
    Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.
4 Though they have officials in Zoan
    and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
5 everyone will be put to shame
    because of a people useless to them,
who bring neither help nor advantage,
    but only shame and disgrace.’

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

A. Find Out

1. On whom does the Lord now focus? v.1
2. To whom had they looked for help? v.2,4
3. But what will be the outcome? v.3,5
4. What does the oracle appear to be about? v.6a
5. Yet who does it focus in on? v.6b
6. Why is it pointless? v.6c,7

B. Think:

1. Why is the Lord telling off Israel?
2. What will be the outcome?
3. Why?

C. Comment:

The Lord calls Israel ‘obstinate children’ (v.1a) and they are this because they refuse the Lord’s plans (v.1b) but worse than that they looking to Egypt for help (v.1c,2) and think that Pharaoh will provide protection for them (v.2) but actually, in the end, there will be no help from them and Israel will end up shamed (v.3,5). The fact that Israel’s envoys have arrived in Egypt safely (v.4) means nothing. This will not end well.

Reliance upon others and not the Lord indicates a failure of relationship and, for the people of God, constitutes sin (v.1c).

But then appears to come a strange oracle (an oracle we said was a serious message being sent). It speaks of the animals of the south (the Negev v.6) Why should Isaiah be bringing a message about animals (v.6b). Ah, they act as a backdrop. It’s like a film-maker panning over a large desert wasteland and then beaming down on a lone camel train – it is the envoys going to Egypt (v.6c,7a)

But, says the Lord through Isaiah, it is useless (v.7a). He calls Egypt ‘Rahab’ which means ‘turbulence arrogance, boastfulness’. Egypt, He says is a troublemaker who appear big and strong and even helpful towards a smaller nearby nation, but in event they will ‘do nothing’, they will prove to be a worthless friend. The picture of these envoys struggling through the desert is a picture of futility.

D. Application:

1. All that glitters is not good to rely upon!
2. Be careful who you trust. Check them out.

Passage: Isaiah 30:8-17

8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
    inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
    it may be an everlasting witness.
9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
    children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
10 They say to the seers,
    ‘See no more visions!’
and to the prophets,
    ‘Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
    prophesy illusions.
11 Leave this way,
    get off this path,
and stop confronting us
    with the Holy One of Israel!’

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

‘Because you have rejected this message,
    relied on oppression
    and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
    like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
    that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
    shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
    for taking coals from a hearth
    or scooping water out of a cistern.’

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

‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,
    but you would have none of it.
16 You said, “No, we will flee on horses.”
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.”
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
17 A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.’

A. Find Out

1. What is Isaiah now told to do? v.8
2. How does the Lord describe the people of Israel? v.9
3. What did they say and ask? v.10,11
4. What will now happen and why? v.12-14
5. What had they rejected? v.15
6. What had they wanted but what will happen? v.16,17

B. Think:

1. What had been the sin of the people?
2. What should they have done?
3. What had they done and so what will be the consequence?

C. Comment:

Moving from criticising Israel for relying upon Egypt and not Him, the Lord now requires Isaiah to write down and record Israel’s folly (v.8). He wants history to note Israel’s rebellion, deceit and unwillingness to follow the Lord’s will (v.9). They had rejected the prophetic word (v.10a) and demanded that such prophets only speak good things to them (v.10c). They didn’t like the presence of the prophets that the Lord sent and wanted them to stop upsetting their consciences and wanted them to stop going on about the Lord (v.11).

Because of all this, the Lord stated quite clearly what He was going to do with them and why. There would never be an opportunity for them to ever be able to say, “We didn’t know!” There is a threefold condemnation of them (v.12): first that they have rejected the Lord, second that there is injustice that they tolerate in that they allow the poor and weak to be oppressed (implied) and, third, that they rely on deceit, they live in untruth, denying who they are and what the Lord has said about them in the past (they ignore the Law of curses and blessings, for instance).

This sin is going to end up turning in on them and destroying them (v.13,14). What they should have done was come in repentance and rest in the Lord’s provision for them (v.15) against the enemy, but they said they would flee (v.16) but this means rout and defeat (v.17).

D. Application:

1. The thing about being the Lord’s people means relying on Him.
2. Self determination means defeat and destruction. It is folly.

Passage: Isaiah 30:18-26

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!

19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, ‘Away with you!’

23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.

A. Find Out

1. Yet what does the Lord desire? v.18
2. Of what can they be assured? v.19
3. What will happen? v.20,21
4. What will they then do? v.22
5. How else will He bless them? v.23,24
6. And what will yet happen? v.25,26

B. Think:

1. How is this shown to be a future thing?
2. What is the Lord waiting to hear?
3. What will He do for His people then?

C. Comment:

Verse 18 states the Lord’s desire, to be able to be gracious and compassionate, yet these are not things poured out automatically. He cannot bless rebellion and sinfulness and so He waits for them to cry out to Him (v.19) and the moment they do, He will bless them. Yes, He disciplines them with adversity and affliction (v.20a), yet a time will come when they will receive fresh guidance (v.20b,21) and direction from the Lord. When that time comes as a response to the combination of their repentance and His blessing, they will turn from their idols (v.22) and back to the Lord.

As an expression of His graciousness and compassion, He will send abundant (implied) rain and the ground will produce in abundance for both man and cattle (v.23,24).

The day of great slaughter (v.25) refers to that time that the Lord has spoken of before, when in the end days He will come and destroy His enemies. When that comes and sin is removed, there will be abundant provision of water (v.25b), abundant provision of light (v.26a), and a healing up of His people (v.26b).

Note in these prophecies that although again and again the Lord calls His people to repentance and faces them with their sin, again and again He promises ultimate blessing of His people which is linked to repentance and reconciliation.

D. Application:

1. We can weep for self-concern or in repentance at awareness of self.
2. Catch the picture: the Lord is just waiting to bless His people.

Passage: Isaiah 30:27-33

27 See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
    with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
    and his tongue is a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,
    rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
    he places in the jaws of the peoples
    a bit that leads them astray.
29 And you will sing
    as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
    as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the Rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice
    and will make them see his arm coming down
with raging anger and consuming fire,
    with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.
31 The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria;
    with his rod he will strike them down.
32 Every stroke the Lord lays on them
    with his punishing club
will be to the music of tambourines and harps,
    as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.
33 Topheth has long been prepared;
    it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
    with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the Lord,
    like a stream of burning sulphur,
    sets it ablaze.

A. Find Out

1. How does he see the Lord coming? v.27,28
2. Yet how will they yet feel? v.29
3. How will the Lord come? v.30
4. And what will He do? v.31
5. And by what will this be accompanied? v.32
6. What is prepared for His enemies? v.33

B. Think:

1. What aspect of the Lord’s activity is focused upon here?
2. Why do you think His people will be rejoicing?
3. How does the passage go from the general to the specific?

C. Comment:

Throughout these chapters we keep seeing the same thing except it is expressed in different ways. In these distinct verses the Lord is seen as coming in judgement from afar (v.27). “The Name of the Lord” takes us back to the “I Am” of Ex 3 where His name is of such significance – the Eternal One, the Creator of all things. His coming is put in such personal terms, referring to His lips, His tongue, (v.27b), His breath (v.28) perhaps suggesting that His word will be the means of bringing destruction – He speaks and it is done (as in Gen 1) But there is also His voice, His arm and His anger – His word, His strength expressed and His emotion revealed (v.30) coming to bring this destruction.

And while He does this, His believing people sing for joy (v.29) presumably rejoicing that He is dealing with His and their enemies and bringing justice. It is a good thing to see the Lord acting against evil.

But then it becomes very specific, for His anger and His actions will be turned upon Assyria (v.31). Verse 32 is amazing for it will be millennia before films arrive that portray battles accompanied by great music (v.32) for the music reflects the wonder of what is taking place – the mighty works of God pulling down His enemies, the enemies of good. “Topheth” simply means ‘place of disgraceful burning’ (v.33) and will be place of destruction for Assyria decreed by the Lord.

D. Application:

1. Justice should be heralded and acclaimed as good.
2. The Lord’s acts of judgment are always about justice.