Egypt or Eternal Treasure? Finding True Security in God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

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.

God’s Secret Plan (2)

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.”
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 NLT

Yesterday we considered the analogy of a door fronting an absolute priceless treasure trove, the key being the Message of the Cross. Behind the door we find treasure, not gold and diamonds, but spiritual treasure, of much more value, and that treasure is described in the Bible. Every time we open the Book, we find truths about God and His ways, and nuggets of incredible value pass right into our souls, equipping and empowering us for a life to be lived God’s way in His Kingdom. 

So in a sense, to write about “God’s secret plan” is to write about the Bible and all that is contained therein. The spiritual treasure there is tailor made for each one of us and we embark of a journey of salvation day by day as we read all about God. But there are some generalities that apply to each one of us, and Paul helpfully set them out with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in his epistle to the Christians in Ephesus. We start with Ephesians 1:3, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ“. This verse sums up the content of the “secret plan” and it exposes just how generous God is by His providing “every spiritual blessing”. He holds back nothing, and through the Holy Spirit within us we are potentially invincible in all we do. If we can just get our minds around Ephesian 3:20 for a moment. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think“. We hold within us all the spiritual resources we will ever need and we are only limited by our faith and opportunity. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:12-14). What did Jesus mean by that? If we rush out into the street with an expectation that we will suddenly see the new car we have asked for, we will probably be disappointed. Even though God has supplied the power, the secret lies in asking “in [Jesus’] name”. It is only when we know His will that we can apply the power. Also, the key lies in “every spiritual blessing”. Even though God is interested in our natural world – after all He created it – it is in the realm of the spirit that His work will mainly be done, and in the hearts and minds of His followers. 

Of course, Jesus did many miraculous works when He walked the highways and byways of Palestine. What did He do? He raised the dead, healed the sick, casted out demons, fed multitudes, and walked on water. But these were signs of His power granted to Him and used in accordance with His Father’s will. He spent long hours in communion with His Father in prayer and fellowship, and received direction for the day and days ahead. We see the same power at work in the incident when Peter and John healed the crippled man begging at the gate of the Temple. The evidence can be found in Acts 3:6, “But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”” How was this possible? We see another key in Acts 3:13, “For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him“. The very act of healing the crippled man brought glory to Jesus, and everything that we do in His name will do the same. But we stay close to Jesus step by step, and He will lead and guide us to the times when He needs us to apply the power that God has provided for us, the “spiritual blessings” Paul wrote about. A man called Ananias appears in Acts 9, tasked with the laying on of hands so that Saul, soon to be renamed Paul, would have his sight restored. After some dialogue with the Lord, Ananias obediently went to the place where Saul was staying and we read, “So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptised” (Acts 9:17-18). Are we pilgrims in a place like Ananias, ready and equipped to do the Lord’s bidding?

In our own lives we have the resources we need to become more like Jesus. Romans 8:29, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters“. What a privileged and awesome responsibility we have, to be a brother or sister of Jesus. In our own strength we have no chance in achieving the level of perfection God demands. Instead, God has supplied for us the “spiritual blessings” that we need to achieve the holiness we require, and it is through His patience and grace that we have the necessary time. If we ask in Jesus’ name for this to happen, there is no doubt that He will answer our prayer. Peter wrote, quoting Leviticus, “For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy”” (1 Peter 1:16). And as we go about our daily lives, we ask one question – is what I am doing bringing glory to God? 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God“. 

So we have opened the pages of the Book, and have found some treasure, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms”. And we can see how the contents of “God’s secret plan” is unlike the treasure we find on earth, the silver and gold and precious stones. God’s treasure, as he planned right from the beginning, has a transformative effect and impact on the lives of ordinary human beings. When we cross the Great Divide, any earthly goods will be left behind, but God’s treasure will last for all eternity. Jesus gave us a warning in Matthew 6:19-21, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 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”. So the question for us pilgrims is about where we have stored our treasure. God has provided it as part of His secret plan. All we have to do is open our hands and grasp it with all our hearts, and by doing so, step by step, we become more like Jesus, our elder brother.

Dear Heavenly Father. You are the God who gives and gives and keeps on giving. We praise You today with grateful hearts. Amen.