Read Isaiah 31
We now leave Isaiah 30 and move on to the next chapter. It again starts with a woe declared against Egypt, as we read in the first verse: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD“. As we discussed in a previous blog, Judah had their “Egypt”, something that represented their dependence on another country for their defence, rather than depending on the Lord for their salvation. But we pilgrims can have our “Egypts” as well, as we rely on our finances, our jobs, and many other things instead of relying on the Lord for our salvation.
But then Isaiah wrote, “This is what the LORD says to me: ‘As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey – and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamour – so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will “pass over” it and will rescue it’” (Isaiah 31:4-5). Isaiah once again used his pictorial language to describe how the Lord will protect Jerusalem, Mount Zion, firstly as a lion, and secondly as a bird. Think of the fearless attitude of the “great lion”, which wasn’t going to be scared by the actions of anyone close by. That was how God would protect Jerusalem. The coming Assyrians could shout and try to scare Him away, but such tactics wouldn’t work with God. He will come down to fight for Mount Zion, and nothing would stop His purpose or push Him away. Verse 5 in another translation reads, “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies will hover over Jerusalem and protect it like a bird protecting its nest. He will defend and save the city; he will pass over it and rescue it””. Imagine a large bird and how protective it can be of its young. In that context, I remember watching a swan, a cob, take on a large aggressive dog that was threatening its young on a river bank. The dog soon retreated. That was how the hovering Lord would protect Jerusalem from the invaders. The reference to the Lord “passing over” to achieve the rescue was reminiscent of the first Passover in Egypt, reminding the Judeans that what God had done for them before He would do again.
This is something for us pilgrims to bear in mind. Are we in trouble, of any form, today? Perhaps a sickness, or a relational problem. Perhaps a financial challenge or something similar. Well, hasn’t God helped us before? Didn’t he “pass over” the previous issue and sort it? What did it take to make this happen? It wasn’t us heading for a loan shark or a relative to borrow money. It wasn’t us heading for a divorce court or a lawyer’s office. It was looking to God for a solution, in faith that our Heavenly Father would help us. Should we be praying, “Do it again, Lord”?
We can hear the loving heart of God in verse 6: “Though you are such wicked rebels, my people, come and return to the LORD“. Look at the emphasis on “My people”. That’s who the Judeans were, and it is also who we are. A people loved by God. His children. And like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, God is looking out for us if we have drifted or travelled away from Him. Perhaps we have stopped going to church or reading our Bible. Perhaps we have filled the times when we usually fellowshipped with God’s people with other activities. Perhaps God has become a distant memory, one that we avoid dwelling on. Well, God is still there looking out for us. In Luke 15:20, and about the prodigal son, we read, “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him”. The next verse reads, “His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’” God will never turn anyone with a repentant heart away from Him.
Isaiah 31 ends with a reference to the slaughter of the Assyrians by the sword of the Angel of the Lord. 185,000 of them, and we can read the account of what happened in 2 Kings 19. But the Lord’s anger blazed out on them from Zion, and He dealt with His and His people’s enemies. We remember that he did this while they were “wicked rebels“, still wedded to “the gold and silver images [their] sinful hands have made”. But that is the heart of God, and He hasn’t changed. Romans 5:8: “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners”. In Jerusalem, two thousand or so years ago, we might have found ourselves in the crowd calling out, “Crucify Him”. In fact, through our sin and rebellion against God, we have done just that. And yet, Jesus looked down through the centuries, saw us in our sins, and died for us anyway. We cannot get our natural minds around what God did for us, and yet, as believers in God, saved by His grace and our acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we have been reborn as spiritual beings. One day, God’s anger will once again blaze out from Zion, and hell will at last be populated by all His enemies.
Dear Father God. You have so richly blessed us, with blessings upon blessings. And yet we still wander away from You sometimes. Please forgive our waywardness and lead us in Your ways, we pray, this day and every daytime. Amen.
