Slices
Prepare
What sorts of behaviour do you believe make God most angry? Make a list.
Bible passage
Woe to the obstinate nation
30 ‘Woe to the obstinate children,’
declares the Lord,
‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;
2 who go down to Egypt
without consulting me;
who look for help to Pharaoh’s protection,
to Egypt’s shade for refuge.
3 But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame,
Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace.
4 Though they have officials in Zoan
and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,
5 everyone will be put to shame
because of a people useless to them,
who bring neither help nor advantage,
but only shame and disgrace.’
6 A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev:
Through a land of hardship and distress,
of lions and lionesses,
of adders and darting snakes,
the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs,
their treasures on the humps of camels,
to that unprofitable nation,
7 to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.
Therefore I call her
Rahab the Do-Nothing.
8 Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
it may be an everlasting witness.
9 For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
10 They say to the seers,
‘See no more visions!’
and to the prophets,
‘Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.
11 Leave this way,
get off this path,
and stop confronting us
with the Holy One of Israel!’
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
‘Because you have rejected this message,
relied on oppression
and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
for taking coals from a hearth
or scooping water out of a cistern.’
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.
16 You said, “No, we will flee on horses.”
Therefore you will flee!
You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.”
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
17 A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.’
18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
Explore
We can compile a long list, from today’s passage, of human attitudes and behaviours that make God angry. Obstinacy comes first, followed by those who make their own plans. Wrong relationships and agreements are a bad idea – those not led by the Holy Spirit. Assuming that Egypt, or your insurance company, will keep you safe is another silly notion (v 2). Dealings with dodgy officials (vs 4,5) might suggest that we would be well advised to choose ethical investment banks and advisers. The second section (vs 6–11) is a warning to any age that chooses not to listen to God’s Word and, instead, chooses to heed the voices they want to hear. What might these voices be in our times, I wonder?
And then, central in this reading is the loveliness of verses 15, 18 and 19. This seems to be a motif in Isaiah – even in the Old Testament as a whole: wonderful nuggets of reassuring truth and blessing are inserted between longer sections of desolation and misery. What are we to make of this general pattern? I wonder whether we can understand the majority of the sections as a reasonable, balanced, God’s- eye perspective on the human story. Then perhaps the beautiful, uplifting promises are like those special insights that Christians are given unexpectedly – of the love and goodness of our Lord.
Respond
Read verse 18 again. Meditate on God’s compassion and justice.
Deeper Bible study
‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’1 Do you have a confident faith?
I’m very familiar with verse 15 in the King James Version, ‘… in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength’. That’s because, when I was growing up, we had a small, framed calligraphy of the verse in our home. As a kid, I always thought it meant Christians have inner peace. Ah, what a nice thought! The only problem is, I completely missed the point! That’s because Isaiah 30 is not about sitting peacefully in an easy chair listening to Christian music. The context is danger and pressure: the powerful Assyrian army was threatening to destroy Israel.
The real question that emerges from our reading is: ‘How should God’s people respond to situations where pressure is on and the stakes are high?’ Israel’s answer was an alliance with a stronger neighbour, Egypt, a move which God condemns. Why? Because it revealed that their first instinct under pressure was to turn away from God to their own solution (vs 1–5).
That’s where verse 15 fits. God wants us to have a quiet confidence that trusting him is the best way to face any threat, to handle any pressure, no matter how high the stakes. He wants us to turn to him first when the pressure is on. It’s easy to say, ‘Just let go and let God!’ when commenting on someone else’s problems, but a mature faith involves consulting God in prayer and waiting for the prompting of the Holy Spirit (vs 1,2). Perhaps the most amazing thing is that, like the waiting father,2 the God of the universe is ‘waiting to show how kind he is’ and to bless ‘those who trust him’ (18, CEV). Despite our human tendency to go our own way, God’s intent is always to be gracious and merciful. That’s the storyline of the whole Bible.
Where are you experiencing the greatest pressure with the highest stakes? Meditate on verse 15 and ask God for a quiet confidence to face it.
1 Heb 11:1, TNIV 2 Luke 15:11–32
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Daniel 1–3; Psalms 132–134
Pray for Scripture Union
The Development Hub has been going through changes in recent months. Please pray for team leader Gemma Willis as she seeks to lead and build a healthy and effective team – and for the members of the team as they adjust and establish new, positive working relationships.
