Auto Transcript
Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.
Summary
We are reminded that trusting in substitutes for the Lord leads to humiliation, and we are called to return to Him in repentance, rest, quietness, and faith. Drawing from Isaiah 30:1-18, this passage teaches us that the root of misplaced trust is an unwillingness to hear the full counsel of God’s Word, and that true strength comes only from waiting on the Lord.
Key Lessons:
- Trusting in substitutes for the Lord—whether people, nations, or resources—brings shame and disgrace, just as Egypt proved worthless to Judah.
- The root of misplaced trust is an unwillingness to hear all of God’s Word; we must bow before the whole counsel of Scripture, not just the parts that comfort us.
- True strength is found in returning to God, resting in Him, quieting our souls before Him, and trusting His promises—not in our own power or wisdom.
- Waiting for the Lord is not passive resignation but an active expression of faith, recognizing that He is prepared to be gracious and merciful at the right time.
Application: We are called to humble ourselves before God, feed daily on His Word, and go to Him in prayer—placing our ultimate trust in the Lord alone, not in any substitute, and waiting patiently for His deliverance.
Discussion Questions:
- In what areas of your life are you most tempted to trust in a substitute for the Lord rather than waiting on Him?
- Are there parts of God’s Word you tend to avoid or tune out? What might that reveal about the condition of your heart?
- How does the example of Joni Eareckson Tada challenge or encourage your understanding of trusting God through trials that are not immediately resolved?
Scripture Focus: Isaiah 30:1-18 warns against seeking help from Egypt rather than God, and calls God’s people to return, rest, quietness, and trust. Psalm 131 illustrates a quieted soul before God. Isaiah 40:28-31 promises renewed strength to those who wait on the Lord. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 grounds the call to submit to all of Scripture as God-breathed and transformative.
Outline
- Introduction
- Historical Background: Judah’s Failure to Trust
- The Humiliating Consequences of Trusting in a Substitute
- The Iniquitous Root: Unwillingness to Hear God’s Word
- Demanding Smooth Things: Rejecting the Holy One
- The Vision of the Holy One of Israel
- Our Stance Before the Word of God
- The Breach in the Wall: Consequences of Despising God’s Word
- The Call to Return and Wait for the Lord
- Waiting for the Lord Throughout Isaiah
- Faith as Waiting: Practical Application
- How to Trust the Lord: Three Practical Steps
- The Gospel Call: Be Reconciled to God
Introduction
Good morning.
I bring greetings from Christian Fellowship Church. It is a joy to be with you this morning. I thank the Lord for this church. I thank the Lord for all of Pastor Bobby’s encouragements throughout the years. I praise the Lord for fellowship with Pastor Dave, fellowship with you as a congregation when we do our joint events.
Thankful you let us use your baptistry for baptisms before the Lord provided us with our new building where we can do that in our building and thankful to the Lord that you are proclaiming the word of God. Praise the Lord that you are faithful to Christ. Let us go before the Lord in prayer asking for his help before we look to his word.
Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to you for your grace to us in the Lord Jesus Christ of which we have been singing this morning.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you set your heart on us in eternity past.
We thank you for your redemption.
We thank you, Father, that you sent your son for us while we were yet enemies.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you laid down your life for us, the innocent one for the guilty ones, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to the father.
We thank you, Holy Spirit, for applying to our souls the finished work of Christ.
We thank you, Holy Spirit, for indwelling us.
We thank you that you are a guarantee of the inheritance that is to come.
We thank you, heavenly Father, for giving to the one who is in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
As we come to your word, we ask you, Father, to search our hearts and our lives to show us anything that is displeasing to you.
Show us our sin that we might confess it to you as the sin, the transgression, the iniquity that it is in your sight.
We have sinned against you in our hearts, in our speech, in our conduct.
We take full responsibility for our sin. We cannot blame our circumstances. We cannot blame anyone else. We certainly cannot blame you. Our sin is our own.
We thank you for the shed blood of Jesus. We thank you that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and righteous and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We ask you, heavenly Father, to purify our hearts, Lord, to grow us in hatred of evil, to grow us in love for you and love for your son, love for your word.
We pray, Father, that you would grow us in faith and in hope and in love for our brethren.
Make us more like Jesus in our mindset, in our speech, in our conduct.
We ask you, Father, that you would use your word towards that end, Lord, that with your word, you would equip us for every good work. We look to you asking you to empower the preaching of your word, the listening to your word, and the application to our lives for your glory.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Let me ask you, where do you turn when trouble comes? What is the first thing that you do?
Maybe you receive bad news from your doctor. Maybe you lose your job. Maybe one of your relationships falls apart. Maybe you fail a test in school or your car breaks down or you lose a loved one, etc.
Where do you turn? What is the first thing you do? Where do you put your trust?
As Christians, we would like to be able to say that we turn to the Lord, that we put our trust in him, that we bring our trouble to him in prayer, and that we persevere in such trust.
But often we find that this is not the case. Our genuine heartfelt desire is to trust in the Lord. But at times we do not do so because our flesh does not want to trust in the Lord. Our flesh is too proud.
When we find ourselves not trusting in the Lord, we need a scripture passage like the one that we will look at this morning, Isaiah 30:1-18. If you have not turned there yet, please turn in your Bible to Isaiah 30:1-18.
When we find ourselves not trusting in the Lord, we need a scripture passage like this one to call us back to trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts.
Historical Background: Judah’s Failure to Trust
Before I read the text to us, let me paint for you the historical background of this passage.
When this oracle is given by the Lord through his prophet Isaiah, Hezekiah is the king of Judah whose capital is Jerusalem.
Previously under the reign of Hezekiah’s father, King Ahaz, Judah had been threatened by the northern kingdom of Israel and by Syria.
King Ahaz failed to trust in the Lord. Instead of trusting in the Lord, he looked to Assyria, the most powerful nation in that part of the world at that time, for protection.
You can read about that in chapter 7.
The result was that Judah became a vassal of Assyria, a servant of Assyria, owing them large amounts of tribute each year in turn for Assyria’s promise to protect them. As a nation, Judah became a servant to Assyria.
You see, whatever you put your ultimate trust in, you will end up serving.
“Whatever you put your ultimate trust in, you will end up serving.”
Now, when we come to our text, Hezekiah, Ahaz’s son, is the king of Judah. Hezekiah very strongly dislikes being dominated by Assyria and decides to rebel against Assyria. He’s no longer going to pay tribute to Assyria.
Now, how is he going to manage that? How will he be protected from the inevitable wrath of Assyria when Judah stops giving Assyria tribute?
Well, he fails to learn from his father’s errors and he makes a covenant with Egypt. Probably he does this secretly, paying Egypt to protect Judah and Jerusalem.
Like his father, Hezekiah failed to trust in the Lord. Our text seems to have been written at the time when Hezekiah was looking to make a covenant with Egypt.
It will be soon after this that Assyria, in God’s hands, will invade Judah and threaten Jerusalem.
Let us see in our text what the Lord said to Judah and Jerusalem. Look with me at Isaiah 30:1.
“Stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan but not mine. And who make an alliance but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. Who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
For though his officials are at Zoan, and his envoys reach Hanes, everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.
An oracle on the beasts of the Negev.
Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent. They carry their riches on the backs of donkeys and the treasures on the humps of camels to a people that cannot profit them. Egypt’s help is worthless and empty.
Therefore, I have called her Rahab who sits still. And now go write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord, who say to the seers, ‘Do not see.’ And to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy illusions. Leave the way. Turn aside from the path. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’
Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant, and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the earth or to dip up water out of the cistern.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you were unwilling. And you said, ‘No, we will flee upon horses.’ Therefore you shall flee away. And we will ride upon swift steeds, therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
A thousand shall flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you. And therefore, he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. This is God’s holy word.”
The main idea of our text is the folly of trusting in a substitute for the Lord and the Lord’s call to return to him and trust in him. Hezekiah was looking to Egypt as a substitute for the Lord, just as you and I at times look to something else as a substitute for the Lord.
The Holy Spirit has given us as believers this text in order that we might recognize any ways in which we are trusting in a substitute for the Lord and that we would turn from these substitutes to the Lord and that our trust in him would be strengthened.
The Humiliating Consequences of Trusting in a Substitute
As we go through this text, we’ll first of all see the humiliating consequences of trusting in a substitute for the Lord. Second, we will see the iniquitous root of trusting in a substitute for the Lord. And thirdly, the call to return and wait for the Lord.
First of all, the humiliating consequences of trusting in a substitute for the Lord. Look closely with me at verse one. I’m reading out of the ESV. In the ESV, the first word is the word “awe.” Many translations use the word “woe,” and I think that would be a better translation here.
“Awe or woe, stubborn children,” declares the Lord. That word “awe” or “woe” is an introduction of judgment or punishment. “Stubborn children”—or the New American Standard translates it quite well, “rebellious children.”
This rebellion against the Lord was Judah and Jerusalem’s overarching problem. Back in Isaiah 1:5, the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, “Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?” Their rebellion against the Lord was identified in the very beginning of this book as their problem.
Now, how were Judah and Jerusalem rebelling against the Lord? Look again at verse one.
“All stubborn children, declares the Lord, who carry out a plan but not mine, who make an alliance but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.”
They’re adding sin to sin. Their previous sin was that of trusting in Assyria rather than the Lord for protection. And now they add the sin of trusting in Egypt.
The Lord had said to them all the way back in the days of Moses that they were not to trust in the nations for protection. They were to trust in the Lord. And if they would be faithful to his covenant, he would fight for them. He would protect them. He would deliver them from their enemies.
And yet they have sinned and they’re adding sin to sin and continuing to look to other nations instead of the Lord to protect them.
“The Lord said they were to trust in him—if they were faithful to his covenant, he would fight for them and protect them.”
This plan to seek Egypt’s protection is not of the Lord. The spirit of the Lord directed his people through the prophets, but never to ally with Egypt. Without asking for the Lord’s direction, Judah sends ambassadors to Egypt to seek Pharaoh’s protection.
Now, in one sense, it is astounding that Hezekiah does this, that Jerusalem does this, that they look to Egypt for protection. They seek to make an alliance with Egypt. It’s astounding because of Israel’s past history.
When the Lord redeemed the Israelites out of Egypt in Exodus 13:17, you read, “God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” God anticipated that if they were to face enemies in battle early on after the Lord delivered them, they would just go back to Egypt.
But God told them not to return to Egypt out of fear of other nations. And the Lord made this explicit in a passage that was read at the beginning of our service in Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 17:16, the Lord instructed that only the future king of Israel must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You shall never return that way again.”
This makes it astounding that King Hezekiah sought refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, in the protection of Egypt, where Israel had been slaves and where the Lord told them never to return.
Yet at the same time, it was not astounding that Hezekiah and Jerusalem looked to Egypt here because Israel throughout her history repeatedly fell into the trap of trusting in a substitute for the Lord. Showing a preference to trust in men rather than in God.
You see, if your heart is not changed by the spirit of God, you will keep falling into the same spiritual traps. And there had been no change of heart in Israel.
In our text, the Lord warns of humiliating consequences for trusting in Egypt. Look with me at verse three.
“Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame. And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.”
Judah and Jerusalem will make an alliance with Egypt, putting their trust in Egypt. And then when Assyria attacks Judah, Egypt will do nothing to help them. Israel will be utterly humiliated because the one in whom they trust will leave them high and dry.
This is not merely what the Lord foresees. It’s not that the Lord simply foresees that Egypt, after being brought into this alliance, will not help them. No, this will be the Lord’s judgment that Egypt will not help them in their time of trouble.
“For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes, everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”
Egypt: A Powerful but Worthless Ally
Zan, the city that is mentioned here, was a major town and administrative center in the Egyptian Delta region. It was the closest such town to the land of Judah.
Though officials from Judah and Egypt met in these cities and formed a covenant, the people of Judah and Jerusalem would come to shame and suffer disgrace through Egypt. A nation that under God’s sovereign control would not help or profit God’s people.
Verse six is an oracle on the beasts of the Negev. Why is the Negev mentioned here? The Negev is the southern portion of Israel and it borders Egypt.
The Negev is hot. It’s dry. It’s full of dangers. It’s inhospitable to travelers. The ambassadors of King Hezekiah sent to Egypt traveled through the Negev possibly to be as secretive as possible.
That’s not the normal route you would take to Egypt, but apparently that’s the route that Hezekiah sends these envoys, these ambassadors on to Egypt. They’re taking a secretive route. They don’t want Assyria to see what they’re doing. They go through the Negev with all these treasures to offer to Egypt.
Look at verse six again. An oracle on the beasts of the Negev. Though a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent. They carry their riches on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels to a people that cannot profit them.
The ambassadors carry through the Negev riches and treasures to give Egypt in exchange for a promise of protection. This is why Judah will be humiliated when Egypt does not fulfill their promise. Judah gave so much to Egypt to purchase their protection and it would all go to waste.
Look at verse 7. Egypt’s help is worthless and empty. Therefore, I have called her Rahab, who sits still.
The Bible calls Egypt Rahab several places, including here. Rahab seems to have been a very powerful and dangerous sea creature like Leviathan.
This creature Rahab is referred to in Job 26:12 and in Psalm 89:8-10.
What is being communicated here is that Egypt was like this powerful sea creature Rahab. Yet the Lord says of Egypt in verse 7, Egypt’s help is worthless and empty. Therefore, I have called her Rahab who sits still.
Or the Legacy Standard Bible, Rahab who has ceased, meaning whose power is no more. Or the Christian Standard Bible, Rahab who just sits. Or the NIV, Rahab that do nothing.
Egypt’s help is worthless and empty. Therefore, I have called her Rahab who sits still. They’re powerful. They’re mighty, but they will do nothing for you.
“Egypt’s help is worthless and empty. They’re powerful, they’re mighty, but they will do nothing for you.”
The Object of Your Trust Is the Object of Your Worship
Understand that God’s design is that the substitutes for the Lord in which we trust would be found worthless and empty. His design is that those who trust in substitutes for the Lord would be put to shame.
When God redeems a people for himself, he promises them his steadfast love. He calls upon them to put their trust in him.
That continued trust in the Lord is a matter of faithfulness to the Lord.
If you were married and your spouse began to commit adultery, would you want your spouse to find satisfaction in his or her other lovers? Absolutely not.
You would pray that your spouse finds these other lovers to be completely empty and that your spouse would be brought to shame. You would be rightly jealous of your spouse’s affection.
The Lord is rightly jealous of our trust.
Putting our ultimate trust in something is worship.
Have you thought about that before? We don’t just worship God by singing his praises, by declaring his greatness.
One of the ways that we worship God is by putting our ultimate trust in him.
The object of your ultimate trust is the object of your worship.
“The object of your ultimate trust is the object of your worship.”
If you put your trust in a substitute for the Lord, you can expect the Lord to oppose you.
It is critical where you put your trust.
It is critical how you respond to trouble.
Do not deceive yourself thinking that it can be expedient to put your trust somewhere other than the Lord. In God’s design, there are humiliating consequences for putting our ultimate trust in someone or something else other than the Lord.
“It is critical where you put your trust. Do not deceive yourself thinking it can be expedient to trust somewhere other than the Lord.”
The Iniquitous Root: Unwillingness to Hear God’s Word
Now what is at the root of trusting in a substitute for the Lord? What is at the root? Well, we see the root, the iniquitous root of trusting in a substitute for the Lord in the second section, verses 8-14.
Look with me beginning at verse 8.
And now go, this is the Lord speaking.
And now go write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. Here the Lord instructs the prophet Isaiah to write something on a tablet to inscribe something in a book.
And what is he instructing Isaiah to write down? It’s the message that the Lord gave him to speak to his people.
This message that we are studying right here.
If God’s word is just spoken and not written down, then it vanishes when the listeners no longer remember it. But if God’s word is written down, then God’s word is a witness forever.
It’s an enduring witness.
And that’s what we have right here in the Bible, God’s written word.
When the things the Lord foretold would come to pass, with the Lord’s words written down, then the prophets would be able to remind the people how the Lord had foretold these very things. Now why would this be important for Judah and Jerusalem? Look at verse 9.
For they are a rebellious people, lying children, unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord. The people to whom Isaiah ministered were for the most part a rebellious people who were unwilling to hear the instruction the Lord gave through the prophets.
And such unwillingness to hear the Lord’s instruction is at the root of trusting in a substitute for the Lord. This unwillingness to hear his instruction.
Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
But if you’re unwilling to hear the word of God, how will you ever trust completely in him?
Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Demanding Smooth Things: Rejecting the Holy One
Look again at verse 9. For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord, who say to the seers, “Do not see.” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions.” Seers were prophets.
The term seer refers to how the prophets saw visions from the Lord.
Now, the people did not say these exact words that are given to us here. They didn’t say these exact words to the prophets: “Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy illusions. Leave the way. Turn aside from the path. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
They didn’t say those exact words, but this is in effect what they were saying to the prophets. They were in effect saying, “Do not tell us what is right in God’s eyes. Rather, speak to us things that we find pleasant. Tell us what we want to hear rather than what God has said to us.”
Look at verse 10 again. Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy illusions. Leave the way. Turn aside from the path. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
They were happy to listen to the prophet just as long as the prophet stopped speaking about the Holy One of Israel. That’s Isaiah’s favorite title for the Lord in this book.
You see in Isaiah this title, the Holy One of Israel, all over the book. You don’t see it nearly that much anywhere else.
“They were happy to listen to the prophet, as long as the prophet stopped speaking about the Holy One of Israel.”
The Vision of the Holy One of Israel
Why would Isaiah be speaking of the Holy One of Israel?
Think about how the Lord commissioned him as a prophet. In Isaiah 6, the Lord showed Isaiah a vision in which the Lord was seated high and exalted on a throne. The train of his robe filled the temple.
Isaiah saw and heard Seraphim who were there around the throne of God. They were covering their eyes because they understood they were not worthy to look upon the Lord’s glory. They were covering their feet because they understood they were not worthy to be in the presence of the great king.
They were continually saying to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is filled with his glory.” The Lord gave his prophet Isaiah in his commissioning this vision of the Lord himself in his glory.
The Lord revealed his great holiness. You don’t find any other attribute of God declared three times in a row as you find his attribute of holiness here. You don’t find anywhere in the Bible where it says of God “love, love, love” or “mercy, mercy, mercy.” But here the Lord is praised with the words “holy, holy, holy.”
In Hebrew, if you say it twice, it means very. So “holy, holy” means very holy. To say it three times means supremely so—supremely holy. There is no one holy like our God.
How did Isaiah respond to that vision of the Holy One? He said, “Woe is me. I am lost. I’m a man of unclean lips.” He pronounced judgment upon himself because he who is unclean, who had a filthy mouth, was looking on the one who is supremely holy.
The Holy One sent one of his angels with a coal from the altar—from the place of atonement—to touch Isaiah’s lips with that. The Lord announced through the angel, “Your sin is atoned for. Your sin is removed.” Isaiah never forgot that vision of the Holy One.
Again and again he spoke to Judah and Jerusalem of the Holy One of Israel. Here in effect they are saying, “Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
“There is no one holy like our God. To say it three times means supremely so—supremely holy.”
As the Holy One, the Lord makes demands upon his redeemed people. As the Holy One, he has moral requirements for his redeemed people. He holds his people accountable to live in a holy way.
The people wanted nothing to do with such a God. They wanted their ears tickled rather than their souls warned. They did not want to hear a message of moral correction that disturbed their conscience and that warned of judgment.
Rather, they wanted a message tailored to their desires—a message that affirmed them and allowed them to go on doing what suited them.
Our Stance Before the Word of God
Let me ask you, do these verses describe you in any way?
Are there ever times when you are unwilling to hear parts of the word of God?
Maybe a brother or sister comes to correct you and then they draw your attention to scripture and you tell them you don’t want to hear it.
Maybe there are parts of scripture that you purposefully avoid because of the implications of those passages for your life.
Maybe there are parts of the Sunday sermon that you purposefully tune out.
Maybe rather than reading through whole books of the Bible in your devotions, you prefer to read fluffy devotionals. Devotionals that do not confront sin in your life. Devotionals that do not call for a wholehearted submission to the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of life.
Devotionals that sound more like a cheerleader or a psychologist.
Or maybe rather than reading through whole books of the Bible in your devotions, you just read sections of scripture that currently interest you.
Well, I like the Psalms because I can relate to the Psalmist and so I just read the Psalms. I don’t read the epistles. I don’t read the Gospels.
I don’t read the law. I don’t read the prophets. I just read the Psalms.
Maybe rather than reading through whole books of the Bible, seeking to read the whole council of God, you just read sections of scripture that currently interest you or that you feel comfortable with or that make you feel good.
At the root of trusting in a substitute for the Lord is an unwillingness to hear the word of the Lord. Not an unwillingness to hear any part of the word of the Lord, but an unwillingness to hear all of the word of the Lord.
“At the root of trusting in a substitute for the Lord is an unwillingness to hear all of the word of the Lord.”
The Breach in the Wall: Consequences of Despising God’s Word
Verse 12, look with me at verse 12. It continues, “Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel.” In the previous line, the people say, “Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” But Isaiah will not trim his message to suit their taste. He is not their servant but the Lord’s.
He responds, “Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel.” Look at it in verse 12: “Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them.”
Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
They despised the word of the Lord and they trusted instead in oppression and perverseness, which seems to refer to their trusting in Egypt. Because of this, their iniquity of despising God’s word and trusting in Egypt shall be to them like a breach in a high wall.
What is a breach in a high wall? It is a large crack in that wall. Pay attention to the picture in verses 13 and 14.
Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant, and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth or to dip up water out of the cistern.
The breach in the high wall causes the wall to bulge out and for a time the wall continues to stand but in a precarious, dangerous position.
Now what should be done? The breach must be addressed. But when the breach is not addressed, what happens? There comes a time when suddenly this high wall breaks like a piece of pottery that is smashed.
It is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments you cannot even find one shard large enough for carrying embers from the hearth to start a new fire elsewhere. You cannot even find a shard large enough to dip water out of a cistern. Such will the Lord do to Judah and Jerusalem because they despise his word and trust in Egypt. He will bring great destruction upon them.
Understand it. It is no small thing to despise the word of the Lord. Let me ask you, what is your stance before the word of God?
“It is no small thing to despise the word of the Lord. There is only one right stance before the word of God—to bow before it.”
There’s only one right stance for us before the word of God, and that is to bow before it. Not standing in judgment on the word of God, not ignoring the word of God, but bowing before the word of God.
In the last chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah 66:2, the Lord will say this: “This is the one to whom I will look. He was humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”
Isaiah 66:2: “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”
The Lord says, “This is the one on whom I will look with favor. The one who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word, bows before my word, fears my word.”
Our stance before the word of God should be determined by the purpose of the word of God. Second Timothy 3:16-17 tells us the purpose of the word of God. It says, “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
All scripture is divinely authoritative. All scripture is given by God to teach us what we are to believe and how we are to live. It is given to us to reprove us—to reprove our wrong beliefs and our wrong behavior.
It is given to us to correct us. Not just to reprove us, but then to teach us what we are to believe and what we are to do instead. It is given to us to train us in righteousness that we might be equipped to do every good work for which God has saved us.
Amen. The word of God is meant to change us. It’s meant to transform us. God’s word is meant to be believed and obeyed unto the glory of God.
“The word of God is meant to change us, to transform us. God’s word is meant to be believed and obeyed unto the glory of God.”
Now, if to have a right attitude before the word of God you must physically kneel when you read the Bible at home, kneel before God, then do so. But ultimately, it’s a heart issue—an issue of bowing your heart before the Lord and his word, a bowing of the whole person before the whole counsel of God.
Let me ask you, do you prepare your heart like this for reading God’s word? I trust, I hope that every day you spend time alone with the Lord in his word. Before you start to read, how do you prepare your heart to read the very word of God?
Do you prepare your heart like this? Bowing your heart and your life before God’s word, saying, “Lord, teach me, rebuke me, correct me, train me in righteousness that I might believe all that you have said and I might obey all that you have said unto your glory.”
Do you prepare your heart like this for listening to the preaching of God’s word? We had in the beginning of the service a time for preparing our hearts. Did you utilize that time to consciously bow your heart and life before the word of God that you were about to hear?
Make it a habit, beloved brethren, to prepare your heart for reading God’s word and listening to the proclamation of his word, that we wouldn’t treat the Bible like something less than what it really is, but we would come to it as the authoritative word of God that stands in judgment upon us.
The Call to Return and Wait for the Lord
When we do not listen to the word of the Lord and we trust in a substitute for the Lord, we need to hear the Lord’s call to return to him and to wait for him. As we will see in the last section of our text, verses 15-18, the call to return and wait for the Lord.
Look with me closely at verse 15.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel. Notice said is past tense.
For thus said in the past, the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength, but you were unwilling.
Now, what the Lord had said is what the Lord calls us to.
We see first of all in verse 15 that the Lord calls us to return to the Lord. When we’re trusting in a substitute for the Lord, we are turning away from the Lord and we are to return to the Lord.
This word return is a word for repentance, to turn from the way that we are living and acting to the Lord and his ways. The Lord calls us to return to him.
Second of all, we see here he calls us to rest in him. That is to rest from laboring to deliver oneself and to rest in his provision.
Thirdly, we see here that the Lord calls us to quiet our soul before the Lord.
Quieting the Soul Before God
Can you think of a time when you faced trouble and all your mind could do was race?
You’re facing trouble. There was some danger, some difficulty in your life and your mind kept racing.
Your soul was in upheaval.
When we face trouble, our mind can do that. Our soul can be like that. But we are called here to quiet our soul before the Lord. I want you to turn over to Psalm 131, which paints a beautiful picture of our soul being quiet before the Lord.
Psalm 131 is a song written by David.
And it says, “Oh Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Oh Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.”
Notice that in verse two, the psalmist says he’s done the very thing that the Lord called Israel to in our text: “I have calmed and quieted my soul.”
Like what? Like a weaned child with his or her mother. Before a baby is weaned, if the mother holds that baby at her chest, that baby is not going to be calm and quiet. That baby is going to be rooting for milk. He wants to drink.
But once that baby is weaned, the loving mother can hold that baby close and that baby can be calm and quiet at his mother’s breast.
This is the picture. This weaned child with his mother is the picture of having calmed and quieted our soul. Come back to our text Isaiah 30:15 and look again at what the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, had said.
“Like a weaned child with his mother—this is the picture of having calmed and quieted our soul before the Lord.”
He said, “In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
Strength Through Quietness and Trust
The Lord calls us to return to him, to rest in him, to quiet our soul before him, and fourthly, to trust in him.
Trusting in the Lord is not some vague thing, but trusting in the Lord amounts to trusting his word. Trusting the Lord amounts to trusting his commitment to us as his redeemed people.
Trusting in the Lord includes trusting his wisdom.
Here the Lord promises salvation to the one who truly trusts in the Lord.
Therefore, the strength of God’s people is in quietness and trust. Because when we trust in him, he perfects his power in our weakness.
Just as the Lord Jesus Christ affirmed to the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was going through great tribulation and great difficulty, including that thorn in the flesh, which may have been an opponent who was dogging his every step, trying to make life as difficult for him as possible and trying to get him to stop proclaiming this message of Jesus.
The Lord Jesus Christ said to the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness, or my power is magnified in weakness.” We have the same idea here in verse 15.
In returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and trust shall be your strength.
When you’re not trusting in your own strength or your own wisdom, but you’re trusting in the Lord, then he magnifies his strength in your weakness.
It’s not about your power. It’s not about what you can do. It’s about what the Lord has promised to do and what the Lord will do as you trust in him.
“When you’re not trusting in your own strength but trusting in the Lord, he magnifies his strength in your weakness.”
Isaiah had been calling God’s people to this returning and rest, this quietness, this trust, but they were unwilling. We read here they were unwilling to trust the Lord like this.
You see, pride will make you unwilling every time.
Look at verse 16. It goes on, “And you said, no, we will flee upon horses. Therefore, you shall flee away, and we will ride upon swift steeds. Therefore, your pursuers shall be swift.”
This verse seems to refer to Judah and Jerusalem refusing to trust in the Lord and trusting instead in horses from Egypt. Egypt was known for their war horses.
The Lord says to them, to Judah and Jerusalem, “Therefore, you shall flee away, and your pursuers shall be swift. You will run before your pursuers. You’ll flee before them. You will not stand before them.”
Verse 17 goes on: “A thousand shall flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.”
This is what the curses in the book of Deuteronomy warned of. If Israel would not be faithful to the Lord’s covenant, these curses warned what would happen.
What the prophet says here will happen is exactly what the Lord said all the way back in Deuteronomy would happen under God’s judgment, under his chastening if his people would not be faithful. The Song of Moses says in Deuteronomy 32:30, “How could one have chased a thousand and two have put ten thousand to flight unless their rock had sold them and the Lord had given them up?”
It would never happen unless the Lord sold them, unless the Lord gave them up in his discipline of them.
We read here in verse 17: a thousand shall flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.
That is all that will be left of Judah and Jerusalem’s military.
Verse 18. The word “therefore” at the beginning of verse 18 is indicating that because they were unwilling to return to the Lord and trust in him, which is what we saw in verse 15, therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.
The second line says therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. Literally as rendered in the Legacy Standard Bible, therefore he is on high to have compassion on you. Meaning he is prepared to show mercy to his people.
The first line, “Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you,” along with the second line, “Therefore he exalts himself or is on high to show mercy to you,” together communicate that the Lord waits in a prepared state to be gracious to his people. He waits in a prepared state to show mercy to them.
Why does he wait in a prepared state? Why doesn’t he show them mercy right now? Well, the second half of verse 18 says, “For the Lord is a God of justice.”
His justice was warned of in verses 13-14 and verses 16-17. The idea of verse 18 is the Lord will wait to be gracious and show mercy because he must judge and punish, but he will not forsake his ultimate goal. At the right time he will be gracious and show mercy.
He calls his people to wait for him and he assures them of his blessing if they will wait for him.
The second half of verse 18 says: “For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.”
Waiting for the Lord Throughout Isaiah
This idea of waiting for the Lord is not unique to this passage. Waiting for the Lord is a theme in the book of Isaiah.
I want to take you to some other passages in Isaiah that speak of waiting for the Lord. This is not all of them. That would be a great study for you to do—an exhaustive study of all the places in Isaiah that speak of waiting for the Lord. But let me show you some.
Turn back to Isaiah 8:16. “Bind up the testimony. Seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob and I will hope in him.” That’s the words of Isaiah. I will wait for the Lord.
Turn over to Isaiah 25:8. “And he, the Lord, will swallow up death forever.” This is after Christ returns. He will swallow up death forever.
“And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Turn over to Isaiah 40:28, a well-known passage. I’ll begin at verse 28. Look for what it says about waiting for the Lord.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” What a promise to those who wait for the Lord.
Isaiah 40:31: “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles. Isaiah 40:31”
And then in chapter 49:23—don’t turn there—it says, “Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who wait receive by the ear.” No, I have seen a God besides you who acts for those who wait for him. Our God acts for those who wait for him.
You turn back to our text in Isaiah 30. At the beginning of our text, we saw that Judah and Jerusalem failed to wait for the Lord. Rather than waiting for the Lord, they turned to Egypt.
The Lord Waits to Be Gracious
And what a wonderful assurance the Lord now gives his people in verse 18.
Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you. And therefore, he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.
We are a very impatient people living in a very impatient society.
Do not look at the trial around you in impatience and conclude that the Lord will not be gracious and merciful to you.
Sometimes we have to wait for his grace and mercy.
“Do not look at the trial around you in impatience and conclude that the Lord will not be gracious and merciful to you.”
Actually, usually we have to wait for his grace and mercy.
He must first deal with sin, maybe in our own life, maybe other sin that’s not in our life. That’s the idea here in this text.
But how can we wait for the Lord? It is to be a part of following Jesus, waiting for the Lord. How can we wait for the Lord?
By knowing his word, understanding his word, and believing his word with all our hearts.
Those who trust in him wait for him. If you trust in him with all of your heart, you will wait for him.
Faith as Waiting: Practical Application
Do not approach the Christian life pragmatically. If that did not work for me immediately, then let’s try something else.
Too often that’s the way we approach sanctification. We struggle with a certain sin. We want to put that off. We want to grow in Christlikeness and we try something. We approach it in a certain way with hope that this will be successful in putting off this habit of sin and developing a new habit of obedience to Christ. But we’re very quick to say, “Well, that didn’t work. Let’s try something else.”
But if that’s the way that you approach the Christian life pragmatically, if that did not work for me immediately, then let’s try something else that will bring disaster because the Christian life is a life of faith and faith often takes the form of waiting for the Lord.
How long did Abraham have to wait before God fulfilled that promise? “I will give you a son. I will give you an offspring, a descendant through whom I am going to make you into a great nation.” He had to wait decades for that. Did he always wait patiently for the Lord? No. Think of Operation Hagar. That’s operation impatience.
The Christian life is a life of faith. And faith often takes the form of waiting for the Lord. You cannot live the Christian life in your own strength.
The Lord Jesus said in John 15, “Apart from me, you can do what? Nothing. Nothing apart from him.” But the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:4, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
So you can’t live the Christian life in your own strength. You can’t live the Christian life in your own power. Which means it is a life of faith and it’s a life of waiting on the Lord.
“The Christian life is a life of faith, and faith often takes the form of waiting for the Lord.”
This last section of our text calls upon a people who are trusting in a substitute for the Lord to return to him, to trust in him, to wait for him, and promises salvation, grace, and mercy to those who will do so.
In verses 1-8, we have seen the humiliating consequences of trusting in a substitute for the Lord. We’ve seen the iniquitous root of trusting in the substitute for the Lord: that unwillingness to hear the word of the Lord. And we’ve seen the call to return and wait for the Lord.
Now, this does not mean that the Lord will deliver you in this life from every trial if you just trust entirely in him. Because the Lord has purposed trials for our good. There are some trials that God’s people will not be delivered from until they go home to be with the Lord or he comes for us.
The Lord will certainly deliver his people, but sometimes it’s not until the end of our present life. The well-known classic example of this is Joni Eareckson Tada. You may be familiar with her.
When she was a teenager, she dove into the Chesapeake Bay and she broke her neck. She became paralyzed from the neck down. She had professed faith in Christ, but before breaking her neck and after she was paralyzed, she had great hope that the Lord would heal her.
So there were times where she went to healing services with the hope that the healer up in front would bring about her healing, that the Lord would bring about healing through the healer. Great hope that God would heal her there. And she was gravely disappointed when after going to the healing services, God did not heal her.
She was in a great depression because she thought that if she just had enough faith in the Lord, he would heal her of the paralysis. But the Lord began a deeper healing in her. He used that paralysis greatly in her life.
You have to hear her testimony sometime. She certainly knows the Lord deeper now than if she had never been paralyzed. She certainly has a deeper trust in and deeper hope in the Lord than if he had healed her.
She came to see that God’s purposes were far greater than giving her temporary relief from physical affliction. No, he has eternal purposes that he is accomplishing in her life as a believer and in our lives as believers. And often he uses our trials. He uses our difficulties to bring about his work in us.
The Lord will deliver Joni Eareckson Tada from her paralysis. That will probably be when she goes home to be with the Lord. At the resurrection, she will be given a resurrected body that is raised in power, that is raised in glory, that is incorruptible. That will be the healing of her body.
The Lord will certainly deliver his people, but sometimes it’s not until the end of our present life. We do not trust in the Lord in order to be delivered now. We trust in the Lord because in trusting the Lord, we proclaim that he is worthy of our trust and that his deliverance whenever it comes is worth waiting for. And we trust in the Lord because he calls us to trust in him.
“We trust in the Lord because his deliverance, whenever it comes, is worth waiting for.”
How to Trust the Lord: Three Practical Steps
Practically, how do we go about trusting in the Lord? Let me give you three things.
One, humble yourself before him. You will never trust him if you do not humble yourself before him.
Secondly, feed on his word. You can’t trust him if you don’t know him and you don’t know his will and you don’t know his promises. You don’t know his character.
If you’re going to trust in the Lord, you must feed on his word. And then thirdly, go to him in prayer. God has given us prayer not for the purpose of changing God’s mind or changing God’s plans or changing God’s purposes. God has given prayer to us as a means of placing our trust in him, a means of placing our dependence in him. And what a privilege prayer is.
Those who do not know God are alienated from God by their sin. God’s ear is not open to them.
But as those who are in Christ, who have been reconciled to God, we have a loving heavenly Father whose ear is open to us. He gives us the wonderful privilege of prayer that through prayer we might grow in trust in him and dependence in him.
“God has given prayer to us as a means of placing our trust in him—a means of placing our dependence in him.”
You might know that you are to trust in the Lord, but how can I do it? Everything within me is crying out to look to something other than the Lord.
How can I trust in him? Go to him in prayer, mindful of his word. Go to him in prayer with a Bible open in front of you.
Humble yourself before him. Feed on his word. Go to him in prayer. How are you doing in this?
The Gospel Call: Be Reconciled to God
Well, this morning these words are addressed to God’s people. God had given his promises to his people and he was calling them to trust in him. He had redeemed them out of Egypt. They were redeemed people and now they were to trust in him.
Have you been redeemed?
All the redemption in the Old Testament pointed forward to the true redemption, the ultimate redemption, the work of Jesus Christ at the cross.
If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then there’s no God makes no promises of blessing to you that you can put your trust in.
Because apart from knowing God through Christ, you are separated from God by your sin.
Apart from being in Christ, you are an enemy of God. And Romans 1 says that his wrath is upon you because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
We have transgressed God’s law. God has given us his law. He has revealed to us his righteous requirements for us, his creatures made in his image. And yet we like sheep have gone astray. We have gone our own way instead of walking in his righteous ways.
In Romans 6:23 it says, “The wages of sin is death, ultimately eternal death.”
But God in his great love and grace and mercy sent his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem a people for himself.
God the son had all the glories of heaven. I referred to chapter six of Isaiah where you see the Lord praised by the angels. Holy, holy, holy.
Christ was receiving all that praise from the angels in heaven. But he left heaven as the father sent him and he took on the form of a servant.
He added to himself a human nature and he became like one of us and he obeyed the law of God perfectly on our behalf.
Where we failed, he succeeded.
And then in obedience to the father and for the joy set before him he laid down his life at the cross as a propitiation, as a sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God. He the righteous one, the holy one, the innocent one died for us the guilty, died for us the transgressors.
He died in the place of the one who had placed his faith in Jesus Christ.
And having died upon the cross, having made atonement for sin, Christ’s body was buried. And on the third day, the father raised Christ in glory.
And Christ appeared alive to over 500 witnesses at different points over the 40 days after the resurrection before he ascended to the right hand of the father.
And the ascended risen Christ has sent forth his word proclaiming the good news of his death for sinners and his resurrection for their justification and calling upon all men, women, boys and girls to repent of your sin, to turn from your sin and to trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
And the gospel of Christ promises to the one who trusts in Christ, who submits their life to him in faith, the word of Christ promises forgiveness of sin, the gift of a right standing with God, adoption into God’s family, the gift of eternal life that’s not earned by us. We don’t work for it, but it’s a free gift that was purchased by the shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, I urge you, be reconciled to God. Turn from your sin, let go of that, forsake your sin, and take hold of Christ in faith, trusting in him alone as your Savior from sin.
“Turn from your sin, forsake your sin, and take hold of Christ in faith, trusting in him alone as your Savior from sin.”
And submitting to him as your Lord to follow him the rest of your days and you will be saved and then you’re called by Christ to live a life of trust in him.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture that we have studied this morning.
I pray, oh Father, that you would work by your spirit to use this passage, to use your word that we’ve heard today, in each of our hearts and lives. Lead us in applying it to our lives.
Deepen our trust in you, our hope in you.
May you not just be one of our trusts among many but may you be our ultimate trust for only that will bring you glory.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name.
Amen.