Like a Lion and a Bird: God’s Fierce Protection in Isaiah 31

Posted on by Adrian Clark
Lion on a cliff and eagle flying above a sunlit mountain valley

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.

From Negev to Europe: Isaiah 30 and Our Modern Spiritual Desert

Posted on by Adrian Clark

Isaiah 30:6-7 NLT

6 This message came to me concerning the animals in the Negev:
The caravan moves slowly
    across the terrible desert to Egypt—
donkeys weighed down with riches
    and camels loaded with treasure—
    all to pay for Egypt’s protection.
They travel through the wilderness,
    a place of lionesses and lions,
a place where vipers and poisonous snakes live.
All this, and Egypt will give you nothing in return.
7     Egypt’s promises are worthless!
Therefore, I call her Rahab—
    the Harmless Dragon.

This is a strange couple of verses. As verse 6 commences, it’s all about the animals in the Negev. The Negev is a hot, dry region in southern Israel that receives less than eight inches of rainfall each year. The Negev Desert is mentioned in the events of Abraham’s life and during Israel’s wilderness wanderings. Today, the Negev is the largest region in the modern state of Israel and covers more territory than it did in ancient times. The total area of the Negev Desert is about 4,700 square miles, occupying almost half of Palestine west of the Jordan River. So it is not a place that is ideal for travelling on donkeys or camels. But it had to be crossed to reach Egypt, and, to buy protection from the Egyptians, the Judeans were sending their wealth there in payment for the services they required. It was a dangerous journey, as the territory was occupied by lions, vipers and poisonous spiders. What was the point? When the Assyrian attack came, the Egyptians failed to get involved, sitting on the sidelines just watching what was happening. But instead of turning to God, Judah turned to Egypt for protection.

Fast-forward to 21st-century Europe, and we find a modern equivalent of Assyria rattling sabres on its eastern borders, threatening to attack Western nations. Russia is increasingly engaging in a “hybrid” war, probing defences and responses to gauge how successful a campaign against Western nations would be. Yes, a defensive alliance exists, but its members are woefully unprepared for such a conflict. Government messages instead encourage people to stock up on tinned food, candles and bottled water. But instead of turning to God, nations turn to their “Egypts” for help. They turn to each other for protection but lack the leadership and commitment to be united, politically or defensively. And they place an over-reliance further west on an unpredictable US president. An “Egypt” too far?

But let us now consider any spiritual significance in our reading today. It is true that here in the West, there is a spiritual desert. References to God in society are rare and usually appear as expletives. Instead of turning to God, people look for personal “Egypts” that can provide some assurance in times of trouble. The irony is that Judah was willing to endure considerable danger and expense to obtain Egypt’s help, while neglecting the God who had already promised to protect His people. The people in our land can work extremely hard to obtain security from human sources while neglecting the security God offers. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.” That, dear fellow pilgrims, is a promise of God that we should cherish and treasure, and fully embrace through our faith in the One who made it. But it is no good paying lip service to this promise. We need to believe it. God has clearly said through His Word who He is, but if we don’t believe this, then we are deluded. Paul argued with some who believed there was no resurrection of the dead, and we read in 1 Corinthians 15:14-17, “And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.” Our faith is not useless, and we need to find our refuge in Him in times of trouble, whatever they are. But this faith is an active faith, not one in which we passively hunker down, waiting for help from an “Egypt” somewhere. Help will only come from God, and through our faith in Him we need to tell everyone else about it.

We may despair about the godless society in which we apparently live, but there are encouraging signs that God is on the move, bringing something new. A new report recently published and referenced by the Evangelical Alliance has estimated that around 8% of the population, 5.5 million people, are evangelical Christians who both identify as an evangelical and share evangelical beliefs. In particular, it shows that the evangelical church is far younger and more diverse than people have previously thought. Is revival coming to this land? We must pray, and keep praying, that God will once again bring a spiritual move that will lead to the UK once again becoming a Christian nation. God has done it before, but do we dare to believe that he will do it again? 

In Genesis 18, we find the remarkable passage in which Abraham intercedes for Sodom, arguing directly with God. Abraham asks, “Would God destroy Sodom if there were any righteous people to be found there?” In the subsequent conversation, we read, “Finally, Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?” And the LORD replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten’” (Genesis 18:32). At that time, Sodom was estimated to have up to 3000 inhabitants, so God would not have destroyed it if He had found even a small pocket of righteous people, a small percentage comparable to the 8% of the population who are Christians here in the UK. But that does not mean we must be complacent. Instead, we must pray for God to move in this nation and across the world, that He will bring peace and security where there is nothing but uncertainty and efforts to replace Him with yet another “Egypt”.

Dear Heavenly Father. Bring revival once again to this land, when people will call upon the name of the Lord. If there was ever a time in history when Your protection is required, it is today. Lead us, we pray, in Your ways, this day and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Christian Life

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.”
Psalm 18:30 NLT

At first reading of our verse today, perhaps a new Christian would think that the Christian life before him will be an easy one, without the hassles and struggles the people of the world are facing into. After all, when we read about God’s way being perfect and God providing a shield to protect us, what could go wrong? Add into the mix a Bible full of God’s promises, which will all become true, so David wrote, then becoming a Christian must open a door into a utopian world never before experienced. But after a few weeks into the journey, reality starts to dawn, that being a Christian in the true New Testament sense introduces a way of life that not only includes the difficulties previously encountered, but also includes the discipline of following the Lord. So why do we seasoned pilgrims do it, plodding along the roads, sometimes as though through treacle, that lead to a life beyond the grave?

Well, for a start, we have to consider our future. We responded to the message of forgiveness of sins, to a God who loves us and cares about us, and who wants us to join Him in Heaven where we will live forever. We continue in our journey to try and become more like Jesus, cleaning up our lives, our thoughts, our actions, our relationships, in the process we call sanctification. To be honest, it can be hard work at times. It’s great when all is well, and we experience wonderful times of prayer and worship, our spirits flying high into Heavenly places, seemingly touching the very fringes of Heaven itself. But there are then other times when we find valleys of darkness and turmoil, when the Heavens seem like brass, and we cannot even pray effectively, let alone find the means to worship, times when we even find that opening the pages of our Bibles becomes a chore.

But none of this devalues the words of David, written so long ago. God’s way is indeed perfect. We cannot dispute that, and the wonderful thing is that He helps us understand and follow His way. One of His promises is written there in Deuteronomy 31:8, “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you”. That verse was written to encourage the Israelites, but its timeless message hangs in the air over us even today. What a wonderful thought that our Lord Himself is there just before us, showing us the way, helping us over the obstacles our enemy, the devil, has placed in our paths, and nothing will happen that will cause Him to abandon us, whatever the circumstances. 

And we read that God Himself is our shield, protecting us from the fiery darts of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16, “In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil“. Our faith in God will protect us. It is often good to look back over our lives and see those times when disaster could have struck us down, was it not for God’s shield protecting us. Strange circumstances that inexplicably emerged to keep us safe. I remember times that could have gone horribly wrong was it not for God’s protection, times that even now, many years later, drive me to my knees in deep prayers of gratitude. 

So today, we pilgrims continue our Christian lives, embracing the One who made it all possible. We will not deviate to left or right, but instead will set our faces towards the Light that is before us. Those of us in our twilight years can perhaps see a faint glow on the horizon, likened to the dawn of a new day. That’s where we are heading, folks, and nothing will stop us because “God’s way is perfect”, His “promises prove true”, and “He is a shield for all who look to him for protection”. 

Father God, thank You for all You have done for us. One day we will find out the total story of Your goodness and love, and will fall at Your feet in worship. Amen.

Thank The Lord

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.”
Psalm 7:17 NLT

I can remember as a very young Christian singing one of the songs prevalent in the church at that time, “Praise the Name of Jesus”, and I can remember being puzzled and planned to ask the pastor why we were praising His name and not the Lord Himself directly. Then I found the answer in the Bible, “ I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High”. We know that the Jews revered God so greatly that they even took care in how they referred to God, and using His name was one way they did this. In some ways, it’s a shame that the same reverence and awe of God is so often absent in our services and prayers. But David, at the end of this Psalm, largely written because of his enemies and in particular one Cush the Benjamite, expresses his thanks and praise to God. David focused on one thing to thank God for and that was His justice. God is righteous as well as loving. He is just as well as forgiving. But having considered the activities of evil people, David relaxed into a muse of thanks and praise, happy to leave his problems in the hands of a just God.

We pilgrims have much to thank God for, but there will be many Christians who are being maligned and mistreated by people intent on causing them difficulties. It could be minor things like some form of low level persecution in the workplace, or more serious, as some of our brothers and sisters are facing in hostile regimes in other nations. And in it all, cries and prayers for deliverance are offered up to our God of justice. But to many the Heavens are silent and justice is delayed, apparently. David reached the end of this Psalm, acknowledging the evil present in his society, knowing that “God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11). But he didn’t stop in the negative territories of self-pity or worry. Instead, he thanked God for His justice. He knew that one day he would be vindicated and God would come through for him.

The prayer that Jesus taught to His disciples encourages us to ask God for all we need for life (“give us this day our daily bread”) and for forgiveness for our sins (“forgive us our trespasses”). And at the end of the prayer God is acknowledged for who He is, with His (“power and glory”). In response, we can do nothing else than follow His prayer with a symphony of thanks and praise, relaxing in the knowledge that God will look after us. 

David’s evil persecutors didn’t disappear overnight – they were with him in one form or another for the rest of his life – but he had faith that God would bring justice, and deal with them one day. And so it is with us. Instead of fretting over the attitudes and hostility of those around us, we can bring the issues to God and then relax in the knowledge that he is just and will deal with evil people sooner or later. It might not always be as soon as we would like, but it will happen one day. God is faithful and we can trust Him, thanking Him with faith that He will bring justice. And, again in faith, we can thank and praise Him each and every day for His goodness and mercy.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your care and protection, available to us every day. Amen.

Protect Them

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are. During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.”
John 17:11-12 NLT

Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer with a focus on His disciples. He prayed for their protection by the power of His name. But there were many in the religious society of their day that hated them, and we can see through the early chapters of Acts the abuse they suffered for sharing the Good News about Jesus and His death and resurrection. In Acts 12 we read about how Herod Agrippa had one of the Apostles, James, the brother of John, killed, and he then arrested and imprisoned Peter, presumably with the intention of killing him too. So what was the protection Jesus was referring to, if not the life of His disciples?

Under the Old Covenant, we see how God protected His people from physical harm. There is an amazing story in Daniel 3 about the three Jewish exiles, Shadrach, Meshach, and Adebnego were saved from a very hot furnace. We read in Daniel 3:27, “Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!” In Daniel 6 we read about how God saved Daniel from becoming supper for a pride of lions. He said, “My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty” (Daniel 6:22).

In the New Covenant, God’s protection is for our spirits from any attack of the enemy. Jesus said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 2 Timothy 3:12, “Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution“. Paul wrote about our spiritual resources in Ephesians 6. In this, his last epistle, Paul was facing death, and yet he could write, “Yes, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18).

We pilgrims have no need to be anxious about our future. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29). Jesus prayed for His disciples’ protection and I have no doubts that, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, they are all in His presence today.

Dear Father God. Thank You that once we are in Your hands we are there forever. Please continue to lead and guide us in Your truth. Amen.