Isaiah chapter 30

CHAPTER XXX. 

WOE TO REBELS THAT TRUST ON EGYPT. 

WOE to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me ; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. So Isaiah continues the divine denunciation against the disobedient people. From the very beginning mankind have made the mistake of attempting to cover their sins with their own devices. Adam and Eve " sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons," but were not thereby properly covered, as evinced by their shame and fear in hiding themselves from the presence of the Lord God. This covering was not of divine appointment. Later in the chapter (Gen. iii.), we find the Spirit's covering defined : " The Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them." But even this was only a typical covering, for they were exiled from Eden and died. The substance represented by this bloodshed and covering was Christ, thereafter to be revealed in fulfilment of the promise of the Lord God, just made, concerning the Seed of the Woman (v. 15). Afterwards, under the Mosaic ritual, the clothing of the High Priest, and of the priests, and tbe kapporeth, place of covering, or mercy seat, in the ordinances connected with it, were shadows of the same substance. Israel was required to believe God's promises to the fathers, and obey His commandments as expressed in the Law of Moses. To turn aside from this, and seek expiation in some other way, and to rely on Egypt for protection, was to " cover with a covering, but not of the spirit," and to " add sin to sin." It is said of Christ by the Spirit in the prophet: " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation ; he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isa. lxi. 10). This was the scripture from which Jesus quoted at Nazareth (Lu. iv.), and which was then partly " fulfilled in their ears," and shortly afterwards fulfilled in Jesus' own experience, so far as the words here quoted are concerned. For his righteousness' sake the Father clothed him with salvation, according to another prophetic vision (Zech. iii.), in which Joshua, " clothed with filthy garments," is a man of sign representing Jesus taking part of sinful flesh. To him the prophecy says, " Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." In the angelic liberation of Jesus from the tomb, and his " ascent to the Father," we see the full substance of this promised covering or clothing. Thereafter, his name was set forth as the covering divinely appointed, the ordinances of the law being antitypically referred to him in apostolic preaching. He is the High Priest of Israel (as Joshua was) (Heb viii. 1). He is the happoreth, or mercy seat, of one substance with which were the cherubim of glory, of which Paul could not then "speak particularly" (Rom. iii. 25). He is the second Adam, covered by the Lord God, by whose spirit also the second Eve, the Bride, must be also covered. Paul» writing to the Roman believers, and pointing out that Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness while as yet he was " in iincircumcision," refers to the blessedness of those " whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered," quoting from David in Psa. xxxii. The great prerequisites for the participation in this blessedness are the faith of Abraham in the promises of God concerning the Christ, and that Jesus is the Christ, in whom we must believe, and so believing, righteousness shall be imputed to us as it was to Abraham. " The circumcision" of Isaiah's day rebelled against God in many ways, and in the religious observances of their apostacy only "added sin to sin." Afterwards, in Jesus' day, we see it more clearly still—how they boasted in Moses, and rejected and slew Jesus, of whom Moses wrote—and how he denounced them in unmeasured terms (Matt, xxiii.). Afterwards, the uncircumcision took the same way by reason of the Judaising apostacy (Acts xv.); and now all Christendom is in a state of rebellion against God, seeking not counsel in the written word, " covering with a covering, but not of His Spirit," and thus adding sin to sin. The promises to the fathers are unknown, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the things concerning the name of Jesus Christ are unpreached in the churches and chapels; baptism into Christ is considered a non-essential, or explained away altogether. The very name of " Egypt" is apocalyptically applied to the darkness of Christendom (Rev. xi. 8), as also is " Babylon" as the symbol of its mad inebriation. The covered with the covering Name of Christ are exhorted to look to themselves in many places in the Scriptures. The Lord himself has a parable—the marriage of the King's Son— (Matt, xxii.)—which forcibly brings the matter before us. " When the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then saith the King to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called; but few chosen." The chosen, then, must be suitably clothed. The wedding garment is evidently not baptism, for that is the initial clothing of the called, many of whom are not chosen. The wedding garment is denned by the Lord himself in a later vision of the marriage of the King's Son (Rev. xix.)—" the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints." They are invested with an incorruptible nature on account of righteousness, just as the Lord himself was—with this difference, however, that he did no sin, whereas they all have come short, but are forgiven by him in the exercise of his power as the Judge appointed of the Father. Those who do not defile their garments, but walk worthily of His Name, shall walk with him in white (Rev. iii. 4-5). Therefore, " Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and1 they see his shame" (Rev. xvi. 15). These Scriptures, and others in the New Testament, illustrate the bearing of God's expostulation with Israel concerning their vain attempt» to cover their sins in apostacy. The next ground of the denunciation of " Woe to the rebellious children " is that they " walk to go down into Egypt, an d have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt "" (v. 2). Hezekiah was a good King. He purged the land of the imported idolatry of Ahaz, and restored the service of Yahweh. He even broke up the brazen serpent, which had been transformed into an idol, and called it Nehushtan, a piece of brass (2 Kings xviii. 4). "And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered" (2 Chron. xxxi. 21). In this spirit of confident reliance upon God, " he rebelled against the King of Assyria, and served him not." Then, in the fourth year of his reign, Shalmaneser came against Samaria, and took it in the sixth year of Hezekiah, and terminated the existence of the kingdom of Israel. Afterwards, in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, Sennacherib came against Judah, and Hezekiab gave him tribute of the gold and silver of the temple. Then, it appears, the people, if not the King, began to think of an alliance with Egypt; for it was part of Rabshakeh's taunt before the walls of Jerusalem: " Thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reedr even upon Egypt, on which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh King of Egypt to all that trust on him." It was under such circumstances that God denounced the " trust in the shadow of Egypt" in Isa. xxx. 2. Hoshea, King of Israel, had likewise made alliance with So, King of Egypt, against Shalmaneser (2 Kings xvii. 4). Hezekiah, as we learn from the same record, referred Rabshakeh's blasphemies to God, and was comforted with the assurance of the discomfiture of the Assyrian who had held up his smashing reforms as an evidence of his destruction of the national religion ! The chapters of Isaiah in this part of his book deal with " the Assyrian " of Isaiah's day, and of the latter day ; and the events of Hezekiah's reign are to be regarded not merely as history, but also as a type of what is to happen when a greater Hezekiah = (Strength of Yah) works reform in Judah and cuts off the latter-day invader. The history of God's dealings with Egypt in relation to Israel, from the days of Moses and onwards, ought to have been sufficient to preclude the people's seeking alliance in that direction, but, like the generation that thought to disown Moses and turn back to Egypt, they were forgetful of God's deliverance,, and saw no further than flesh and blood as a means of deliverance from the Assyrian, who, on his side, was but " the rod of God's anger" when rightly considered. Sennacherib'» operations against Egypt at this time, of which Josephus tells. in his " Antiquities," quoting Herodotus and Berosus, fulfilled1 the prophecy in rendering helpless the " strength of Pharaoh " in which Israel trusted. " Their strength," said God by the prophet, " is to sit still." " In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." The people had had such an experience in the apparently hopeless crisis in which they were between the Egyptians and the Red Sea in the days of the Exodus (Ex. xiv. 13). "And Moses said, Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord," which they did in the drowning of the Egyptians. But all that was a long time in the past, and in Isaiah's day well nigh forgotten. From this we may gauge the importance of being instructed in the history of God's dealings with Israel, and trusting on Him accordingly. Isaiah was then commanded to write a special charge against the people, that it might be preserved " to the latter day, for ever and ever." We have it with us now, after more than 2,600 years, and the people are here scattered among all nations. What Isaiah was to write was this: " This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord, which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."

We can only account for a nation carefully preserving in its archives such condemnatory writings, on the supposition that it considered them divine. And we can only account for the preservation and truthfulness of tne picture on the supposition that it is divine. It is like the saying of the Lord himself: " My words shall not pass away." We have only to conceive of Shalmaneser or So, Isaiah's contemporaries, risking a similar statement, to feel the difference between the word of man and the word of God. Israel is not alone in the rebellion thus memorialized for ever. Christendom is as apostate. Nothing is more unpopular in its midst than "the law of the Lord." "Smooth things" and " deceits" are as urgently in demand as ever they were in Israel. The truth is an unendurable and outcast thing; and therefore it is not surprising to read, as we do in the New Testament scriptures, that Christendom will reject and make war on Christ, just as Israel did, and will in consequence be broken to pieces as a potter's vessel, just as Israel was (Isa. xxx. 14 ; Rev. xvii. 14; Psa. ii. 9 : ex. 5-6). The only place of safety is on the side of the prophets, in obedience to the Word and hope of the deliverance which it promises. It is revealed that Yahweh is " merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth." And surely there is an exhibition of this in this prophecy, which, having rebuked such utter and determined apostacy, yet goes on to say : " Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may he gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: for Yahweh is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him." We must remember that these things are written " for the elect's sake "—for the sake of such as really "wait for him." Israel is "beloved for the fathers' sakes." We read that God spared Jerusalem much for David's sake; that He would even have spared Sodom for the sake of ten righteous men; that He forgives our sins for Christ's sake. And so through ages and ages of apostacy and heedless iniquity, He has " waited" even to this day, in which the words of the apostle Peter still apply: " The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." But at last the waiting will be over, and, as it goes on to say: " The people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem : thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it he will answer thee. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left." The people who shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem are the " new heavens and new earth" of the " world to come," as it is written : " Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." Christ and the Heads of Israel enthroned in Zion, and the tribes of Israel re-settled in the Land under the new constitution of the Kingdom, is the picture before us. Already there are the signs of its coming in the Zionist Movement, and the softening of the hearts of some of the more devout among the people towards the words of the prophet, which they cannot but see are beginning to be fulfilled in this matter. Israel has long eaten the bread of adversity and drunk the water of affliction. His teachers have been removed into corners from Isaiah's day to this. Where was the prophet in Judah ? A despised outcast. Where was the Lord Jesus ? The same: his teaching was " hid from their eyes." So with the apostles and onwards. And now the Lord is absent, and the voice of inspiration is silent, and the scriptures are a sealed book to the people. The eyes of the leaders of Israel literally rested upon Jesus, but they " saw not." Their ears actually heard his gracious words, but they " heard not." And though it has all been reduced to writing and printing, and is abroad in the world and universally accessible in that form, the truth is unrecognised and unreceived by Israel and the nations to this day. But the end is near. With the return of the Lord from heaven, the silence is broken. With the birth of a nation in a day by the resurrection of the dead, Israel's teachers come forth to place and power, never more to remove or be hidden or unheeded. A glorious recompense is before the prophets and all who fear God's name—small and great. They have taught and endured in shame and contempt in the days of their flesh. They will teach with authority and power divine in the Spirit nature. In proportion as they have been despised, so will they be honoured; and "all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." The sheep and cattle are to "eat clean provender (salted, R.V.), which has been winnowed with the shovel and the fan. . . ." The poor sheep and cattle of Israel and Christendom have long fed on " husks," " chaff," " that which satisfieth not"—the unwinnowed rubbish of Rabbinical and Clerical threshings. The Lord is not their Shepherd, and they want all things, having forsaken His " green pastures" and " still waters" (Psa. xxiii.). Fabulous visions of " immortal souls" in bliss in Elysian fields " beyond the skies" have supplanted the promise of God of immortal angelic bodies in Paradise in the Holy Land—in the Kingdom of God that is coming. There is no%hope till "the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall." Then, says the prophet, there shall be " rivers and streams of water." What a terrible expression and association of ideas. Pasturage and water are in some way withheld, and only " a great slaughter" and falling of strongholds can relieve the situation! What can it mean ? The Gospel of the Kingdom supplies the answer. The truth of God is suppressed by a powerful combination which is to oppose the Lord himself at last and be swept away in judgment. This frees the truth, which, argumentatively, was " mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds," even in the days of the flesh (2 Cor. x. 4). And thenceforward the world is presented with the bread of life and the water of life in truth, and no " chaff" or cheat of any kind will be tolerated at all. The light of that day of healing after smiting is phenomenal (verse 26). As an example of the light of this day, it may be remarked that an American preacher recently arrived at the conclusion from this verse that the temperature of heaven must be something like 840 degrees; for, said he, the sun on a hot day is about 120 degrees, and " sevenfold" of that would be 840 degrees. Absurd enough, but not more so than many less suspected clerical interpretations. " The light of the world" is Christ; " the light of the moon " is the light of the bride (Song vi. 10), the light of the priesthood, then made "like Christ." These are Zion's Sun and Moon, never more to be withdrawn ; Yahweh, her everlasting light, her Elohim, her glory (Tsa. Ix. 19-20). The day of judgment and light and healing is introduced by the advent of " the Name of the Lord," of which the prophet goes on to speak in words of terrible sublimity. Jesus is " the Name of the Lord," and he parabolically speaks of his "coming from far" in the latter day (Luke xix. 12, 27). fie teaches that he will return from heaven to take account of his servants, reward the industrious, punish the unprofitable, slay his enemies who would not that he should reign over them, and establish his Kingdom which he has " received for himself." Popular conceptions of the work of Christ leave no room for the picture of judgment and fiery indignation here drawn by the prophet ; but it is an indispensable part of his work " to sift the nations with the eieve of vanity, a bridle causing to err being upon the jaws of the peoples." The house of Israel is being sifted among all nations, yet not a grain will be lost (Amos ix. 9). The twelve apostles were sifted by Satan, but only Judas, " the son of perdition," passed through the meshes unto death, and ultimate burning up of the chaff with unquenchable fire in the day of judgment. This illustrates the sifting process that is coming. And the condition of the peoples, as a bridled beast ridden in wrong paths, is further illustrated in the terrible figure of the Apocalypse, wherein the European body politic of Christendom is represented by a scarlet-coloured beast in a wilderness, ridden by a woman of evil repute and full of names of blasphemy. How greatly the peoples are caused to evr by this Romish rider is graphically illustrated in this same place (Rev. xvii.), where they are described as actually dragged into war against the Lord of Lords and King of Kings ! What a terrible error! and all due to the neglect of Moses and the prophets, as was the case with those who similarly made war upon the Christ at his first appearing (Acts iv. 2G-27). The divine judgment spoken of by Isaiah in the chapter under consideration is referred to the Assyrian. Proximately a judgment was impending upon the Assyrian in the destruction of Sennacherib's army. But, as we see, the prophecy also refers to "the latter day," as it says (v. 8 margin). The Assyrian of the latter day, as before demonstrated, is the Russian Gog, the great northern enemy of Israel, and occupier at last of the ancient Assyrian territory. His jaws are likewise said to be bridled, causing him to err: " I will turn thee about and put hooks in thy jaws and I will bring thee forth " (Ezek. xxxviii. 4). "Thou shalt not know " (v. 14). " I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel " (xxxix. 11). Tophet is prepared for him, as Isaiah prophesies (xxx. 33). All the prophets tell of this. The hosts of the adversary are gathered against Jerusalem,, and the valleys of Jelioshaphat and of Hinnom become the place of burning and burial as of old. The valleys are full of graves tothis day—literally paved with stones. The history of the past is the type of the future. All. the nations are burdening themselves with Jerusalem at present, forgetful of the past, and " erring"" concerning the future. The truth cannot penetrate beyond affecting the merest remnant ; but it will not fail to reach all who are required, and the sole anxiety of its stewards in their day and generation is that they uphold it faithfully, that they may be accounted worthy of a place with the faithful who have gone before.