The Prodigal Nation - Isaiah 30 and Luke 15

On July 20th, 1969, a man by the name of Neil Armstrong was the first man to step foot on the Moon.  The United States, largely through the encouragement of President Kennedy, ran a race with the Russians to the Moon and won.  In 1962, President Kennedy challenged the American people to put a man on the Moon by the end of that decade and we succeeded, with 5 months to spare.

Ever since then, the fact that we’ve put men on the moon has caused us to have very little patience for failure in all other areas.  Every technological non-accomplishment has been met by someone saying, “We can put a man on the Moon, but we can’t _____!  We can put a man on the Moon, but we can’t make a cheap car that gets 50 miles per gallon!  We can put a man on the Moon, but we can’t stop an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico!  We can put a man on the Moon, but we can’t cure the common cold.  We can put a man on the Moon, but we can’t make toilet paper that tears on the perforation!”

Somehow, because of Neil Armstrong, we’ve come to believe that, given enough time and money, we ought to be able to accomplish anything we put our collective minds to.  Not only that, but individuals are told constantly that they can do anything they choose to do and nothing can stop them.  Which is ridiculous.  Putting a man on the moon is a piece of cake compared to filling out a 1040 long form correctly with all the associated schedules the first time.  It’s incomprehensible.

So here’s little quiz for you that should be a no-brainer.  You don’t have to be a rocket scientist for this.  This will require almost no mental exertion.  Anybody should be able to figure this out.  When God’s people, the people of Judah, are endangered by the life-threatening, war-mongering invaders from Assyria, they should:

A.  Run to Egypt and trust in the horses and chariots of their former enemies?

B.  Sacrifice their children to the gods of the Assyrians, their current enemies?

C.  Call for a necromancer and consult the dead for advice?

D.  Call for Isaiah the prophet and consult God?

How that question is answered depends upon who is asked.  When I ask you that question, your answer is D, which stands for “Duh!”: Call Isaiah and consult God!  But if you asked the people of Judah in the days of Isaiah, they would say “A: Run to Egypt and trust in the horses and chariots of our  former enemies.”  That’s the wrong answer.

Look with me, please, at Isaiah chapter 30, verses 1-17.

1 “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine,

and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; 

2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction,

to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! 

3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,

and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. 

4 For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes, 

5 everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them,

that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.”

6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb.

Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion,

the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys,

and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them. 

7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”

8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever. 

9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children,

children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord; 

10 who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, 

11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” 

12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word

and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them, 

13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant; 

14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly

that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth,

or to dip up water out of the cistern.”

15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved;

in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” 

But you were unwilling, 16 and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. 

17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee,

till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.

In this passage, God refers to the people of Judah three times as “children”.  That would be rather comforting if He did not go on to describe what kind of children they are.  In verse 1, He calls them “stubborn”.  In verse 9, He calls them “lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord.”  He also refers to His people as rebellious and despisers of God’s word in verses 9 and 12 “who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, 11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

Here’s the scenario: Assyria is, as usual, threatening the kingdom of Judah.  So once again the people, because of their faith in themselves and their own judgment to know best how to deal with their own self-defense, decide to go to Egypt and ask them for their help.  But not only do they decide this course of action for themselves, they also explicitly state to their spiritual leaders, “Do not prophesy to us what is right.”  Don’t tell us the right thing to do!  We don’t want to hear any more about the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel.  Stop talking to us about what God says!  We only want to hear smooth, easy things and illusions.

It astounds me how people’s minds and attitudes never really change.  These people in Judah thousands of years ago sound remarkably similar to a certain modern day nation I’m very familiar with.  We teach our children today to think like the people of Judah thought.  We say they should love and believe in themselves.  They should follow their own hearts, and trust their own instincts.  If they put their minds to it, they can accomplish anything, ANYTHING they want to do.  But the last thing we want is those Fundamentalist preachers talking about the Bible as though it were literally true.  The last thing we want is for people to have an unscientific, superstitious trust in a God who isn’t there.  The last thing we want is to hear from God.  We’d rather trust our enemies than trust the Bible.

The Lord’s word to His people way back then is the same word He speaks to us today in regard to a life of faith.  His instructions to His children in verse 15 were, “In returning [to Judah] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”  God is, in essence, saying, “I see the Assyrians.  I understand why you’re afraid of them.  They’re pretty scary.  But I’m telling you to stay put, stop worrying and fretting, quiet your hearts and your mouths.  Trust Me and you will be strong.”

There is a supernatural strength that is granted to us from God when we truly trust Him and turn our backs on worldly, human, conventional wisdom.  Worldly wisdom says, “It’s time to get out of town and throw ourselves upon the mercy the Egyptians to protect us from the Assyrians.  Egypt is our only hope for survival.”  Godly wisdom says, “I wonder what the Bible says about this?”  “Does God speak to this issue anywhere in the Scriptures?”

The people of Judah had access to the word of God.  They had prophets who spoke for God to them.  God invited them, and expected them to consult with Him but they did not ask for direction from the Almighty who was willing to give it.  

The same is true today.  We read in James that if someone lacks wisdom (and of course, it would be foolish to even suggest that we don’t lack wisdom), “ . . . let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5 ESV).  God stands ready to lend us aid if we would just ask.  I hope you make a regular habit of asking for wisdom when you pray.  God hears such prayers, and He provides strength and wisdom when we call upon Him.  Paul taught us to realize that when we understand our own inadequacies and the fact that we are not sufficient in ourselves to live in this world or to live this Christian life, it is in that realization of our own weakness that God makes us strong.  He enables us by His grace to live supernaturally for Him.

The people of Judah could not have made their lack of trust in God more obvious.  While God is saying to them, In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength,” they are saying, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel. No! We will flee upon horses, we will ride upon swift steeds ”  

“Well, OK then.  Go to Egypt.”  God does not always protect His people from their own foolishness.  But that does not mean He forsakes them.  Like a loving parent who allows a stubborn child to continue in his foolishness in order to teach him a lesson he won’t learn any other way, and the child is allowed to actually suffer harm; so God allows His people to suffer the effects of their own rebellions against Him.  Probably the best picture of this is in Luke 15.  Jesus is talking there about repentance and how people are sometimes brought to repentance:

11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

The father in this story represents God, and the son represents a lot of the rest of us.  The wisdom of the father comes out when he grants his young and foolish son what he wants: his inheritance.  The father knows exactly what kind of stuff his son is made of, and the only thing that will cure him of his foolishness is to go and see and experience what the world is like. He needs to spend some time eating with the pigs for the sake of his own soul.  

That is exactly what God is doing with Judah in Isaiah 30.  He is allowing them to follow their hearts, to fulfill their own desires, to trust in their own judgments, to trust in horses and chariots and the Egyptians.  Soon, those who survive will be saying, “Why didn’t we listen to God?  Why did we not inquire of Him?  How could we have been so foolish?”  

Now, look back at Isaiah 30 and verse 18:

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

God allows the rebellion, and waits for them to repent after they learn their lesson the hard way.  Just like the father of the prodigal son, God waits for His children, the people of Judah, to return from the far country so He can meet them and be gracious to them and merciful.  He is gracious, merciful, and just even when we are stubborn and foolish and rebellious.  Wait upon the Lord, trust in Him, and you will be blessed by Him.

We all live in various circumstances which test us regularly.  We are all constantly put to the test by the sovereign hand of God in order to strengthen our faith in Him.  As we trust Him in our difficulties, He proves His trustworthiness to us again and again.  When we are faithful to Him in small things, we’re being taught by a wise Heavenly Father to be faithful to Him in everything.  When we quiet our own minds and hearts with the assurance that our Father is watching over us for our good, it is then that He strengthens us for the trial we’re experiencing.

Had the prodigal son said to himself, “I can trust my father to give me my inheritance whenever he sees fit,” he never would have had to fight the pigs for food.  Had the people of Judah said to Isaiah, “What does the Lord say about Assyria?  What should we do?  Shouldn’t we trust Him to help us?  Isaiah, what does God say?”, many of them would not have died.  

Sometimes, the only thing we know to do in a difficult situation is wait.  We don’t have the luxury of a prophet to speak to us and we don’t always know the best course of action.  We don’t always get a giant infusion of supernatural wisdom so that we see clearly the way in which we should go.  So, we continue to ask for wisdom and we wait upon the Lord to act on our behalf.  The Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.  Look at verse 19.

19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

This is the future which God has laid out for His people in Judah.  But it will only come after they have been purged of their love for the idols of the nations around them.  He will use Babylon to break their love for idols.  But in that day:

23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

God is just.  He does punish the wicked.  But He is also gracious and merciful towards the repentant heart.  And it is by means of the Lord Jesus that He can be both just and merciful.  He both punishes sin, and He has mercy upon the sinner.  God punished the people of Judah for their own rebellion against Him, but He also promised to have mercy upon them by bringing them back to Jerusalem once their exile in Babylon was over.

Again and again, there is one message that repeatedly comes from Isaiah’s pen: Repent, and trust God.  Repent of your sinfulness and trust in God to save you.  “Turn from your own foolishness and run to Me.  I will be just, . . . and gracious, and merciful to you.”

Or, . . . you can go to Egypt.  Go ahead.  You can go to the far country and spend your inheritance and live with the pigs.  If you think you have a better idea about how to run your life than the Omniscient King of the Universe, then go ahead.  If you don’t want to hear what is right, but prefer to listen to everyone who will tell you everything you want to hear, go ahead.  

And when you come to your senses, I’ll be here.  When, . . . IF, you come to your senses, . . . IF you make it back.  After you’ve proven God to be right, and after you’ve proven yourself to be a fool, . . . when you come to your senses, and you repent of your pride, run to ME.  Repent, and run back to Me.

Finally, notice how God deals with His enemies, and how He deals with his children:

27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire; 

28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

God’s people have no friends in this world.  The people of God are constantly attacked and abused and used and maligned and persecuted by their enemies.  But God says more than once n the Scriptures, “Vengeance is mine.  I will repay.”  And when He does, when His justice is brought to bear upon those who hate Him and His people, then there will be a song and music and gladness from those who love God.  (v29) You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.  (v32) And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres.

Oh happy day, when God finally destroys His enemies and saves us from them once and forever!  Oh happy day, when God delivers us finally from ourselves and our own foolish ways and our own faithlessness!  Oh happy day, when sin and sinners are gone; When we are brought into that kingdom where only righteousness dwells.  But in the meantime, whatever you do, don’t run to Egypt.  Stand your ground and trust in God.  Only there do we find rest and quietness and strength and peace.