Isaiah 30:1-5 NLT
30 “What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,”
says the Lord.
“You make plans that are contrary to mine.
You make alliances not directed by my Spirit,
thus piling up your sins.
2 For without consulting me,
you have gone down to Egypt for help.
You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection.
You have tried to hide in his shade.
3 But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated,
and by depending on him, you will be disgraced.
4 For though his power extends to Zoan
and his officials have arrived in Hanes,
5 all who trust in him will be ashamed.
He will not help you.
Instead, he will disgrace you.”
We now move on to the next chapter in Isaiah. The heading in my Bible is “Judah’s Worthless Treaty with Egypt”, and that sums up quite precisely the theme in this chapter. As usual for Isaiah, it is rich in descriptive language, and is a joy to read. But the chapter begins with a warning that Judah’s rebellion will lead to their sorrow. The Lord sets out before them the scale of the problem, and He said to them, “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins”. Judah had a strategy. They had identified a powerful ally and acted upon it by requesting a defensive alliance. But God had not been consulted. Was this a unique problem affecting just the Jewish people, or can we find an application elsewhere? There is an important difference between asking God to bless our plans and asking God what His plans are. Straight away, we are back to the same problems experienced by God’s people we have found before in Isaiah, the remedy for which we find in Proverbs 3:5-7,“Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil”. There is another proverb that amplifies their problem, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death” (Proverbs 14:12). I look back over my life, and I’m sure other pilgrims can as well, and review those times when I took a wrong turning. Thankfully, death was never the outcome, but sometimes the way back on to the right path, God’s path that He had set out for me, was painful. There are consequences to making wrong choices, and there have been many times, not for me, I should add, when people have languished in prison cells, or hospital beds, ruing the day when they have made “plans that are contrary to [God’s]”. Thankfully prisons and hospitals haven’t been my lot in life, but I have found myself in the wrong church or the wrong job, albeit briefly, and God in His grace has helped me back to the path I should take.
In our lives, we naturally gravitate towards “Egypts“, places or times of strength where we think we have found, or can find, security. These “Egypts” could be money, possessions, relationships, intelligence, and more, but, in the end, they are all man-made and subject to destruction. Someone can lose their savings through a scam or in some other way. A house can be subject to subsidence and have to be demolished, as some unfortunate home owners have recently found out in a village a few miles away from where I live. Regarding our possessions, Jesus said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). Relationships can founder, shipwrecked on the rocks of unfaithfulness, and quickly dissipate in the unforgiving atmosphere of a divorce court. Regarding intelligence, a neighbour died recently of a dementia-related condition, his mind lost, his intelligence gone without trace (he had been a teacher for all of his working life). And anyway, in all temporally human conditions, everything is without any eternal consequence. Solomon wrote, ““Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? … So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind”(Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, 17). But life doesn’t have to be like that, because, as Jesus said, “Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be”(Matthew 6:20-21). As we seek God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, then our paths won’t lead to Egypt. Instead, as we follow His paths, they will lead to Glory.
Our reading today concludes with Judah discovering that Egypt cannot save them. We read in verse 5, “He will not help you. Instead, he will disgrace you” . This is perhaps the most searching part of the passage. Whatever we place our ultimate trust in eventually proves unable to carry the weight we have placed upon it. God was not condemning Judah merely because they sought help. The problem was that they sought ultimate security somewhere other than Him. Sometimes God allows us to discover the weakness of our substitutes for Him. We may lean on our own wisdom, another person’s strength, financial security or carefully constructed plans. For a while, everything may appear satisfactory. Then circumstances expose the limitations of what we trusted. God does not merely want to be included in our plans; He wants to be trusted with our lives. Psalm 118:8-9, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humans. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes“. Earlier we read the verse, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding”. Are we pilgrims currently at a crossroad in our lives? We pause, wondering which way to go. We may not know the right way, but I know Someone who does. Do you?
Dear Heavenly Father. There are many paths in life which we could take, but only one is Your way, the right way. Please lead and guide us, we pray, this day and every day. Amen.
