ISAIAH SESSION 29 — ACTIONS OF THE REBELLIOUS

Text: Isaiah 30:1-18

If I were going to give today’s teaching a title, it would be, “Actions of the Rebellious.” When the LORD’s people — then and now — seek alliance with man, trusting in man’s wisdom, man’s ways, and man’s power and protection, they rebel against the LORD. 

The LORD says —

Isaiah 2:22  Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed?

To put your trust in man instead of Him is to rebel against Him. That is sin. But He longs to be gracious to you, if you repent!

Verse 1 —

Woe to the rebellious children, declares the LORD! What do His rebellious children do? They execute a plan, but not His, and make an alliance, but not of His Spirit. Their plan is to flee to Egypt, because 150 years from this prophecy of Isaiah, the Babylonians will overrun Jerusalem. They will put their trust in Egypt, but will not trust the LORD, who is and has always been their Redeemer (29:22).  

I tell you the truth — both then and now, believers and church leaders who are already sinning will not trust the Lord. And if you distrust the Lord, you surely will rebel against Him. Sin is rebellion against the Lord, beloved. Therefore, you add sin to sin —  adding the sin of distrust of the Lord to the sin you are already doing. Woe to you! He has sent me to exhort you to repent, and to warn you of the consequences of trusting in the world system that defies God, instead of trusting in Him.

Many commentators believe this chapter refers to the Ahaz-Assyria alliance, but I can find no scripture to support that view. They base their thinking on Isaiah 30:31-33, a judgment of Assyria by the LORD. Yes, King Ahaz of Judah sent a delegation to Assyria to seek help in defeating Syria and northern Israel (2Kings 16:7-9). But in this later prophecy, the LORD says, “They shall flee,” not “they shall send a delegation.”

Verse 2 —

What do the rebellious children do? They proceed (run) down to Egypt, to rely on them for salvation. They do not consult with the LORD, though they asked Jeremiah to consult Him for them. They reject the words the LORD speaks to them through His prophets —

Jeremiah 43:1-2   But as soon as Jeremiah, whom the LORD their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God — that is, all these words . . .  all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You are not to enter Egypt to reside there.’”

It is the same today. When the truth is spoken by His servants, rebellious believers accuse them of lying. Jesus says they rebel because they are not yet His sheep —

John 10:4, 27 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. ²⁷ “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me . . . “

So, Judah will rebel and flee and will take refuge in Pharaoh, and seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! But the LORD is their true refuge, and He is the One under whose wings they will find shelter. But because they are sinning, they will not seek Him for refuge and shelter, but man.

O church, hear these words! I am a watchman for the LORD (Ezekiel 33:7), and I see you relying on men to save you from being overwhelmed by those who would destroy you. You open your doors and welcome alliances with the world system that defies the Lord, in order to keep your doors open!

Verse 3 —

Because of the actions of His rebellious people, the LORD says that the safety of Pharaoh will be Judah’s shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, their humiliation. Nebuchadnezzar will overrun Egypt, and His people who will flee there will perish.

Verses 4-5 —

The captains of Judah will lead the people to their deaths. Their messengers who will travel ahead of them will arrive at Hanes (another name for Tahpanhes), on the eastern border of Egypt.

But everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them. Judah’s efforts to find shelter in Egypt will not profit them. Instead, Egypt will be for shame and for reproach (rebuke).

Where are you seeking shelter, beloved? Where are you fleeing? Turn back to the Lord, not to man, for man cannot help you, O believer! He sees your rebellious heart, and He will change it when you repent and ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

Verses 6-7—

This is an oracle — both a vision and a word — given to Isaiah by the LORD. The commanders of Judah will send bribes to Egypt, through the messengers that are sent ahead of the remnant.

The Negev is a vast and inhospitable place. Their trip will be full of distress and anguish, full of lionesses and lions, vipers and darting, venomous serpents! Across this dangerous terrain, young donkeys and camels will carry the few treasures of Judah that have been hidden from the Babylonians.

 

But Egypt will not profit them. Her help is vain (emptiness) and empty (emptiness)! Therefore, the LORD calls her Rahab, who will be exterminated (who does nothing). Egypt’s strength will cease, for Babylon will overrun her!

Verse 8 —

The LORD tells Isaiah to write the oracle on a tablet before Judah, and inscribe it on a scroll. Remember that a tablet is a large stone that Isaiah will display in a place where all of Judah will see it. 

What is the purpose of recording the LORD’s words through Isaiah on both a tablet and a scroll? So the tablet and scroll, and the words inscribed on them, will serve as a witness against Judah, that the LORD warned them not to go to Egypt. The LORD already knows they will disobey all the warnings of His prophets, and flee to Egypt and perish. 

Verses 9-11 —

Who are the rebellious, in the LORD’s eyes — then and now? His own people. They are false sons (untrue, deceiving, lying, faithless). What are the actions of the rebellious false sons?

— They refuse to listen to the instruction of the LORD.
— They say to the seers, “You must not see visions,” for they do not like the words that the LORD’s true seers speak.

— They say to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,” because when the LORD’s true prophets speak, they are convicted of their sin. But they want to remain in their sin which they love.

— They say to the prophets, “Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions (deceits).” They want to hear false words that make them feel good. 

— They say, “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us (literally, make Him leave)!”

Verse 12-15 —

Because they reject the LORD and His instruction and His words through His prophets, they sin. Therefore, their sin will be like a breach about to fall, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse comes suddenly, in an instant. 

Their instant collapse will be like the smashing of a potter’s jar, so ruthlessly shattered (so fractured) that the pieces (shards) of pottery will be too small to be useful, even for scooping fire from a hearth, or scooping water from a cistern (shallow well). 

Just as with the church today, Judah does not see that man’s wisdom, ways, and strength will collapse, in the same way a high wall collapses when it is breached. All that Judah trusts in, and all that today’s church trusts in, will collapse. 

For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel! If He says they will suddenly collapse, then they will surely suddenly collapse. He is Lord, He is God, He is the Holy One of Israel, He is the Deliverer whom they reject!

An interesting aside about the bulge in the wall — The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem has developed a bulge. It is a sign to His people the Jews, who continue to reject their Messiah, Jesus Christ. They go to the Wailing Wall to wail for the temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and to cry out for the Lord to restore it. They place all of their trust in the temple, but the temple cannot deliver them! They have rejected their Deliverer, Jesus Christ, who is God the Son. Therefore, I expect to see the wailing wall suddenly collapse.

Verses 15-16 —

What are the actions of the rebellious? In repentance and rest (sticking fast to the LORD, like glue), they will be saved. In quietness (settling down with the LORD, as in a marriage) and trust (in the LORD), they will find strength (exchanging theirs for His, per Isaiah 40:31). But they are not willing, just as the church today and believers today trust in everything but Jesus Christ!

Instead, Judah and all rebellious believers will say, No! We will flee on horses! So the LORD says, you will flee! Judah will say, We will ride on swift horses! Therefore, the LORD says those who pursue you (hunt you down) will be swift. 

I tell you the truth, O church, O believer, if you place your trust in the world system that defies the Lord instead of placing your trust in the Lord, your pursuer, Satan, will catch you. You will not be victorious against him. Your previous victories will be completely reversed because of your rebellion.

Verse 17 —

One thousand will flee at the threat of one pursuer; you will flee at the threat of five pursuers, says the LORD to Judah and to today’s church and today’s believers who trust in man’s ways and wisdom and strength instead of trusting in the Lord!

The remnant who will remain will be like a pole on a mountaintop. They will be a sign to them and their enemies of what He will do when they rebel against the LORD.

Their defeat will be a direct reversal of their victories. No longer would one of Judah’s men put to flight a thousand (Joshua 23:10), but a thousand Judeans would flee at just one pursuer. 

When Joshua was old, he gathered Israel to remind them that the LORD promises deliverance and victory IF they obey Him —

Joshua 23:11   Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God. ¹² Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them (take them into yourselves), and they to you: ¹³ Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you. (KJV)

O church full of sin, O believer who has been taught there is no deliverance from sin, hear the word of the Lord! He will not fight for you, because you stick like glue to man’s ways and wisdom, and not to Him! You have married the world system, instead of Him! Therefore, return to the Lord!

Verse 18 —

I will speak about this verse more fully in the next session of “Return to the LORD.” But know that the LORD longs (waits) to be gracious to you — both the His people the Jews, and His people the church. He waits on high to have compassion on you (be merciful to you)!

Lord Jesus, may today’s believers and today’s church leaders hear and heed these words, and turn back to You, for surely, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are Your ways higher than man’s ways, and Your thoughts higher than man’s thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Amen.