CHAPTER 30

(713 B.C.)

THE FUTILITY OF TRUSTING EGYPT AND THE PHARAOH

¹Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who take counsel, but not of Me; and who cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin (in the preceding Chapter, the design of the Jewish rulers to seek the alliance of Egypt was covertly looked at and condemned; now it is openly declared and rebuked.

Counsel which is not of the Word of God is also not from God.

As well, only the Spirit of God can cover someone, which He does through the Word, which speaks of what Jesus did for us at the Cross. Actually, the covering comes for each Believer through Christ, Who Alone can actually cover. And He does so by the Spirit through the Cross. Christ is the Source, while the Cross is the Means.

Any poor mortal who thinks he can be the covering for another presents spiritual and Scriptural ignorance):

²Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! (Egypt symbolized the world. The words, who walk, insinuate that either the Jewish ambassadors had already started for Egypt or the Prophet sees them as if starting.

The words, have not asked at My mouth, refer to the fact that Hezekiah, or at least the nobles of Judah, had not taken this matter to the Lord as they ought to have done [Num. 27:21].)

³Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. (It is a shame for Gods People to place their trust in man and not in God. The confusion is obvious. Gods People are supposed to only seek the Lord for help and not the ways of the world, which are actually of Satan.)

⁴For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. (Zoan was one of the principal cities of ancient Egypt, and it was probably the same as Tanis. Hanes was probably not very far from Zoan. To this place came Hezekiahs ambassadors. They would seek the help of the Egyptians against Assyria; however, we already know what the Lord has said about this!)

⁵They were all ashamed of a people who could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach. (From this proposed alliance, Judah would be put to shame and become also a reproach, which will always be the case for those who turn to the world instead of to the Lord.)

⁶The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people who shall not profit them.

⁷For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. (The intent of the Holy Spirit is to portray the great efforts being made by Judah to appeal to Egypt, even to going through the howling desert; they would not so much as seek the Lord, even though He was with them in Jerusalem.)

GOD WILL JUDGE ISRAEL FOR REBELLION

⁸Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever (Isaiah was told to write an account of this happening in a Book. It was to be a warning to others, and so it was! As well, it became a part of the Bible):

⁹That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the Law of the LORD (the leaders of Judah were both rebels and liars. Not being a fashionable Preacher like many today, Isaiah did not hesitate to tell them so. How they must have hated him! They were rebels, for they rebelled against the Law, and they were liars, because they claimed to keep it):

¹⁰Which say to the Seers, See not; and to the Prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits (the lips of the false prophets did not use the words of Verses 10 through 11; but their hearts did, and God, Who reads the heart, can expose its hatred and folly.

Now, almost all the modern pulpits speak smooth things and prophesy deceits. They arent hard to find; most any Church on Sunday morning will suffice):

¹¹Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. (The irreligious Jews were weary of this constant iteration and wished to hear no more concerning the Holy One, Whose very Holiness was a reproach to them.)

¹²Wherefore thus sa ys the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this Word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon (this Word was the Word of God given by the Prophet; the people despised it!; He plainly told them that looking to Egypt was in vain; it was a message they did not want to hear):

¹³Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant. (The Holy Spirit told them through Isaiah that they were building a wall [lack of trust in God] which looked strong on the outside, but would suddenly break at an instant.)

¹⁴And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. (The implication is that the destruction would be so complete that there wouldnt be left even a piece large enough to carry water from a pit. The ruin would be total.)

¹⁵For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not. (In returning and rest refers to their turning back from their proposed embassage to Egypt and their resting in the Promises of God. This would result in Deliverance.

However, the admonition, and you would not, not only held true then, but sadly holds true now.)

¹⁶But you said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they who pursue you be swift. (Rather than come to God and allow Him to have His Way in their lives, they would rather allow Jerusalem to be destroyed and themselves rendered homeless. Their flippant answer was, We will flee upon horses.)

¹⁷One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. (A pole upon the top of a mountain and a flagstaff on a hill are duplicated figures expressing loneliness and depopulation.)

SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL BLESSINGS IN THE MILLENNIUM

¹⁸And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of Judgment: blessed are all they who wait for Him. (Verses 18 through 26 portray a renewal of Promise. The denunciations of the preceding Passages had been so terrible that, without some counterpose of Promise, they would have produced a general despair.

This was not the Divine purpose! Judahs probation still continued; therefore, it was not necessary to let it be seen that the Divine longsuffering was not yet exhausted there were still conditions under which God would be gracious to His People. The conditions were crying to the Lord and the entire abolition of idolatry.)

¹⁹For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you shall weep no more: He will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry; when He shall hear it, He will answer you. (This has to do with the Battle of Armageddon, when Israel will cry to the Lord, and also to the Millennium; however, it also applies to any and all, and for all time, who will cry unto Him.)

²⁰And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers (the teachers being removed into a corner referred to the Prophets who were sent by the Lord to Israel, but who were so maltreated that they had to hide in a corner, i.e., flee for their lives. The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, which are chastisements given by the Lord, are always given in love):

²¹And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the Way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. (This pertains to the coming Kingdom Age, when Israel will finally be led by the Lord, and in totality!)

²²You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say unto it, Get you hence. (When the Holy Spirit has His Way, He will cleanse our lives of all graven images of self-will and rebellion. Once He begins to speak to us and deal with us, we will then begin to see sin and rebellion as filthy as they really are a menstruous cloth.)

²³Then shall He give the rain of your seed, that you shall sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the Earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures. (This will take place with Israel in the coming Kingdom Age, but it can take place even now in the heart and life of every Christian who will dare to follow the Lord and do things His Way. Note the contrast of the bread of adversity in Verse 20 to the bread of increase in this Verse.)

²⁴The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. (The Passage speaks of victory!)

²⁵And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. (This exhibition of Amazing Grace will synchronize with an exhibition of appalling judgment. It will be the day of destruction of the Antichrist, symbolized by the slaughter and destruction of mighty men [towers]; in Isaiahs day, this included the annihilation of the Assyrians and their generals [Isa. 37:36].)

²⁶Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the breach of His People, and heals the stroke of their wound. (This will be literal, and will take place in the coming Kingdom Age. The extended light of the moon and of the sun speaks of healing, for light heals. Such will heal not only Israel, but the entirety of the Earth.)

JUDGMENT ON ISRAELS ENEMIES

²⁷Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as a devouring fire (this is a description of the Second Coming, when the Lord will completely destroy the Antichrist and the totality of his army [Ezek., Chpts. 38-39]):

²⁸And His breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. (This statement is a metaphor describing the fierceness of Gods Judgment. It will reach to the midst of the neck, meaning that it will be so deep that men cannot walk against it.

During the Battle of Armageddon, many nations will throw in their lot with the Antichrist, thinking not only to destroy all Jews, but also to take over the entirety of the world. Their vanity will bring on their destruction. The Lord will sift them with the sieve of their own vanity, meaning that the snare they did lay for Israel will catch them instead.)

²⁹You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel. (After the defeat of the Antichrist, Israel will now sing. Their song will be to the Mighty One of Israel. At His First Advent, they crucified Him; at His Second Advent, they will sing to Him.)

³⁰And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. (This was prophesied by Ezekiel, as well [Ezek. 38:17-21]. This Passage refers to the Battle of Armageddon, with the Assyrian [Sennacherib] serving as a symbol.)

³¹For through the Voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod. (The Assyrian refers to Sennacherib, as well as to the coming Antichrist. The glorious voice of the Messiah was not heard when He first came; however, it will very well now be heard.)

³²And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will He fight with it. (As the Lord snatches certain victory out of certain defeat, as the tide instantly turns in favor of His People [the Second Coming], and as the strokes of the Divine Rod smite that wicked king [the Antichrist], Gods People will play upon tabrets and harps.)

³³For Tophet is ordained of old; yes, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it. (This Passage speaks of the instant defeat of the Antichrist, a defeat so total that it will be absolutely complete.)