God Saves His Stubborn Children from Self-Salvation

Isaiah 30

For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said: “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence. But you are not willing.” (Isa 30:15)

Main Idea: God condemns the stubborn strategies of Israel for self-salvation through Egypt and promises salvation by his grace for believers and fiery wrath for his enemies.

1. Woe to Those Who Make Plans to Save Themselves (30:1-7)
   1. Woe to stubbornly rebellious children
   2. Their sin: making plans that don’t come from God
   3. Envoys to Egypt bring nothing but shame.
2. Woe to Those Who Want God’s Prophets to Speak Pleasant Lies (30:8-17)
   1. The prophetic word is written down.
   2. “Tickle our ears; don’t convict our hearts.”
   3. God’s invitation to security is rejected.
   4. The future for rejecters is dark.
3. Transforming Grace to Those Who Wait for the Lord (30:18-26)
   1. The hinge verse (30:18)
   2. Salvation flowing step by step from grace
   3. A people transformed and a world transformed
4. Terrifying Wrath to the Enemies of God (30:27-33)
   1. A terrifying foretaste of God’s final wrath
   2. God’s wrath upholding God’s name
   3. Topheth: a picture of hell

Woe to Those Who Make Plans to Save Themselves

Isaiah 30:1-7

As we read this chapter, it is easy to struggle with its relevance to us. Ancient Judah was facing the terrifying prospect of an imminent invasion by an overwhelmingly superior foe—Assyria. In this dire situation they had four options: (1) submit to the Assyrians without a fight and suffer the consequences for the rebellion they had already put up against Sennacherib, (2) wage war against the Assyrians (resulting in almost certain death for most of the people), (3) make an alliance with another Gentile nation—probably Egypt—who might be able to save them from the Assyrians, (4) humbly repent of their sins and seek a miraculous deliverance from the Lord. However distant it may seem from us, fundamentally Judah’s choice is much like the one we face every day. Will we try to control our circumstances by making our own plans for self-salvation? Or will we submit to God in repentance and trust in his power to save us from all our foes? God’s counsel has never changed: “You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence” (v. 15). Only by turning to almighty God in repentance and resting in his mercy and power can we be saved from his wrath. But every generation of sinners is tempted to find some other way, a path of self-salvation.

The lesson of Isaiah 30 is to reject all stratagems of self-salvation and to live by repentance and rest, to learn to face all the small and great trials of our lives by faith in God. This lesson is vital because an enemy is coming that is far more powerful than the Assyrian army: death. And no “separate peace” can be made with death, no ally can be hired that will help at all. Now as then, by faith in Christ alone can we survive that invasion.

Judah’s efforts to find a path of self-salvation by forming an alliance with Egypt are utterly repugnant to God. So he speaks a word of “Woe!” to his stubbornly rebellious children. Poignantly, Isaiah’s vision describes the journey of the “animals of the Negev” (the desert between Judah and Egypt), the donkeys or camels who carry gold for the emissaries to buy Pharaoh’s protection. But Egypt can do nothing to save Judah—she will be named “Rahab Who Just Sits.” In the same way, people who trust in good works, religion, or morality for salvation will be utterly disappointed.

Woe to Those Who Want God’s Prophets to Speak Pleasant Lies

Isaiah 30:8-17

At the core of this people’s rebellion is their rejection of the prophetic word of God. God commanded Isaiah to write the words of his prophecy down so that it would testify against them that “They are a rebellious people, deceptive children, children who do not want to listen to the Lord’s instruction” (v. 9; see Acts 7:51). Such people only want to have their ears tickled with “flattering things” and “illusions” (v. 10). They yearn for their prophets to fill their minds with positive messages. The last thing they want is to be confronted by the “Holy One of Israel” (v. 12). Every generation of God’s messengers feels this same pressure: to seek to please the audience with pleasant messages. False prophets say things that everyone likes, so everyone speaks well of them (Luke 6:26). They refuse to confront the people in their sins and call them to repentance.

Isaiah likened their efforts to build their own refuge by sugary prophetic words to hiding behind a high wall poorly constructed, which will crumble in an instant (vv. 13-14). Instead, God offered them refuge in him if they would only repent and rest in him by faith (v. 15). But tragically, they refused. They have their own plans of self-salvation. If the alliance with Egypt fails, the walls of Jerusalem will protect them. If the walls fall down, they plan on fleeing on horseback. But it is impossible to escape God’s judgment by any means other than God’s grace: “You say, ‘No! We will escape on horses’—therefore you will escape!—and, ‘We will ride on fast horses’—but those who pursue you will be faster” (v. 16). God always gets the final word. The end of this stubbornness will be the total desolation of Judah.

Transforming Grace to Those Who Wait for the Lord

Isaiah 30:18-26

Verse 18 is a glorious hinge. Up to this point, we read nothing but God’s disapproval of the attitudes and actions of his people. But God is still yearning to show them mercy, rising to show them compassion. He waits until just the right moment and then takes sovereign initiative to pour out grace on his sinful people: “All who wait patiently for him are happy.”

The first step in the salvation journey is in verse 19, as the Lord works in them to call on him for salvation. God knows exactly what we need for salvation, but he will not act until we call on him to do it. We see this in Jesus’s healing of Bartimaeus. This man was crying aloud, “Have mercy on me!” and everyone in the crowd knew exactly what this blind man wanted. But Jesus stood in front of him and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51). So also in Isaiah 30:19, God waits on the people to cry for help. As soon as he hears, he saves!

The next step is in verses 20-21: God radically transforms the hearts of his people to hear and obey his word. They will hear their Teacher’s voice speaking plainly to them, “This is the way. Walk in it.” This is ultimately fulfilled in the new covenant promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth [who] will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13), who writes God’s laws in the minds and hearts of his people then compels them to walk in that way (Ezek 36:26-27; Rom 8:4; Heb 8:10-11). Their rebelliousness ends when their hearts are so transformed.

The next step occurs when, under the transforming influence of the Spirit of God, the people defile their formerly precious idols, casting them away forever in holy zeal (v. 22). The redeemed people of God then live only for the glory of his name.

The final step of salvation refers to the land, cursed and damaged because of human sin. In the narrow focus, verses 23-26 refer to the restoration of the land of Judah after the Assyrian invasion. The promised land will be healed, the rain will fall, the rivers and streams will flow freely, the harvests will be rich and abundant, the livestock will be richly fed, and even the sunlight and moonlight will be brighter and more beautiful than ever before. But these words must find their ultimate fulfillment in the new heaven and new earth, that perfect world freed forever from the curse of decay and death (Rom 8:21).

Terrifying Wrath to the Enemies of God

Isaiah 30:27-33

The final section of this chapter is one of the most terrifying depictions of the wrath of God in the writings of the Old Testament prophets. Verse 27 says literally, “The name of the Lord comes from afar,” meaning that the wrath of God is poured out for the sake of his name. The approach of the name of the Lord is with fiery emblems of wrath and terror (v. 27). His breath pours out a rising torrent of fire on all nations. He sifts all nations in a sieve of destruction, and all are consumed. Verse 28 specifically teaches God’s power to orchestrate the history of nations to achieve their just destruction. The devastation of Assyria is only one example. The destruction of all wicked, oppressive nations will result in an overflowing celebration by the people of God (v. 29). Verses 30-33 depict in vivid language a fire pit, called Topheth, where the torrent of God’s wrath sets ablaze kings and whole nations that have rebelled against him. It is a clear foretaste of hell, the lake of fire, described so vividly in Revelation 14 and 20.

Perhaps the corpses of the 185,000 Assyrian troops that God slaughtered were collected and burned in the valley of Ben Hinnom, the smoldering garbage pit outside the walls of Jerusalem. Jesus used this as a vivid picture of hell (Matt 10:28; Gk gehenna). This will be the final image of the book of Isaiah: “They will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all mankind” (66:24). Though God works salvation for sinners with amazing grace, he also will pour out a river of fire on all his enemies.

Applications

This chapter has powerful themes pointing to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The ultimate threat we face is not an Assyrian invasion but death and eternal condemnation in hell. Woe to any person who thinks he can escape that judgment by clever means of self-salvation. God wants us to forsake those efforts and flee to Christ. God still makes the same gracious offer as he did to Judah in verse 15: in repentance and quiet faith in Jesus comes our rest and our refuge; there is no other (“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” Matt 11:28; “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:12). God is still longing to be gracious to all sinners who call on his name in faith (Isa 30:18). And God works the same steps of salvation now as then: He moves us to call on his name, he transforms our hearts to obey his Word, he puts the indwelling Spirit in us to guide our steps moment by moment, and he will transform the universe and make it glorious. This is the gospel we must proclaim to all the nations, telling them all there is one way, and only one way, of escape from the coming wrath of God: faith in Christ.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why do you think God was so offended by the efforts of Judah to seek an alliance with Egypt?
2. How do non-Christians seek self-salvation? How do Christians sometimes seek self-salvation from lesser trials other than in God?
3. Read 2 Timothy 4:3-4 and compare it with Isaiah 30:10-11. Why is it vital for pastors to resist the temptation to satisfy people’s itch to hear what they want to hear? Why must they continue confronting people with the Holy One of Israel?
4. How is verse 15 a particular comfort to you? How can we as Christians learn to rest more deeply and trust more fully in Christ?
5. Read verse 18 again. What does it mean that God waits and rises to be gracious to us? How is the fact that God is a God of justice a comfort to us, especially in light of the cross?
6. How does verse 19 urge us to call on the Lord in the midst of our afflictions? Why do we tend to hesitate and to solve the problems ourselves?
7. Read John 16:13. What does that teach you about the ministry of the Spirit? How could the indwelling Spirit’s ministry be like verse 21 of our chapter?
8. How could verse 21 be abused, so that people say, “The Spirit told me to _____,” but they are not living according to the Word?
9. How do verses 27 and 33 give a powerful depiction of the wrath of God in hell? How does this make you feel about the salvation Christ has worked for us?
10. Why do you think some Christians struggle with the idea of a place of eternal torment where sinners are punished by the wrath of God?