Noon by the Nile: the deep shade of a palm grove on the riverbank, an empty woven reed shelter in the shade, the brown river bright beyond.

Woe and a King

Isaiah 30

When trouble comes, where do you run first?

33 verses≈ 7 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beautyChapter 30
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

The Worthless Treaty with Egypt

God

“Woe to the rebellious children,”

declares the LORD,

“to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine,

who form an alliance, but against My will,

heaping up sin upon sin.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

First light outside a gate of Jerusalem: three envoys in fine traveling cloaks set off down the road south with laden donkeys, one looking back at the gate.

They set out to go down to Egypt

without asking My advice,

to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection

and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.

God

But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,

and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.

For though their princes are at Zoan

and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

everyone will be put to shame

because of a people useless to them.

They bring neither help nor benefit,

but only shame and disgrace.”

God

Hazy afternoon in the bare Negev hills: a caravan of laden donkeys and a few camels on a stony track; in the foreground a lion's tracks in the dust and a viper coiled on a sunbaked rock.

This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev:

Through a land of hardship and distress,

of lioness and lion,

of viper and flying serpent,

they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys

and their treasures on the humps of camels,

to a people of no profit to them.

God

Egypt’s help is futile and empty;

therefore I have called her

Rahab Who Sits Still.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Down to Egypt

Judah’s envoys went down through the Negev to Pharaoh’s cities, over 200 miles from Jerusalem. Zoan lay in the Nile delta; Hanes was probably farther up the Nile.

God

Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence

and inscribe it on a scroll;

it will be for the days to come,

a witness forever and ever.

God

These are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.

God

They say to the seers,

“Stop seeing visions!”

and to the prophets,

“Do not prophesy to us the truth!

Speak to us pleasant words;

prophesy illusions.

Get out of the way; turn off the road.

Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

Question

Quick question

Judah’s people had prophets who told them the truth. Look at what they asked for instead in 30:10–11.

What did the people tell the prophets (30:10)?

God

Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message,

trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,

God

A high fieldstone town wall with a long crack and an outward bulge near the top, small stones and dust trickling down its face, a broken clay jar in pieces at its foot.

this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,

a bulge in a high wall,

whose collapse will come suddenly—

in an instant!

It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar,

shattered so that no fragment can be found.

Not a shard will be found in the dust

large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth

or to skim the water from a cistern.”

God

God

“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”

Therefore you will flee!

“We will ride swift horses,”

but your pursuers will be faster.

A thousand will flee at the threat of one;

at the threat of five you will all flee,

until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,

like a banner on a hill.

God Will Be Gracious

Isaiah

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you;

therefore He rises to show you compassion,

for the LORD is a just God.

Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Isaiah 30:18

Isaiah

O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.

Isaiah

Early morning in terraced hills: a traveler with cloak and staff, seen from behind, where a footpath forks; one way runs on clear and bright toward a far town, the other into scrub.

And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

Isaiah

So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

Isaiah

Isaiah

Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

Isaiah

And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall. The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.

Isaiah

A great thunderstorm breaks over the Judean hills at dusk: forked lightning strikes a far ridge, sheets of rain and hail slant down, and wind bends the oaks on a slope, under one smooth, heavy canopy of dark cloud.

Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,

with burning anger and dense smoke.

His lips are full of fury,

and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

His breath is like a rushing torrent

that rises to the neck.

He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;

He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.

0:21

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Isaiah

Isaiah

You will sing

as on the night of a holy festival,

and your heart will rejoice

like one who walks to the music of a flute,

going up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the Rock of Israel.

Isaiah

And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard

and His mighty arm to be revealed,

striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,

and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.

Isaiah

For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD;

He will strike them with His scepter.

And with every stroke of the rod of punishment

that the LORD brings down on them,

the tambourines and lyres will sound

as He battles with weapons brandished.

Isaiah

Dusk in the empty valley below Jerusalem's wall: among smoke-blackened stones, a great deep pit stacked high with split wood for a pyre, unlit.

For Topheth has long been prepared;

it has been made ready for the king.

Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,

with plenty of fire and wood.

The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur,

sets it ablaze.

Pray

LORD, You long to be gracious to me, and I keep looking for horses. In repentance and rest let me be saved; let my strength be quiet trust in You. When I turn aside, let me hear You say, This is the way. Amen.

Two ways to be saved

Whiteboard

The LORD offered quiet trust. They chose speed, and still He waits to be gracious.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 30

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A verse to carry with you

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Isaiah 30:18

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