Isaiah 29:1

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. Add year to year, let them kill sacrifices; yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow. It shall be unto me as Ariel, and I will camp against thee round about. I will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. Thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground. Thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that has a familiar spirit out of the ground. Thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.

Let's pray. Father, as we look into Your Word this evening, we pray that You would guide us by Your Spirit, Lord, that You teach us all things. Give us insight and understanding into these passages, Lord, and also that we would gain application—how these things may apply to our lives living in this day. Even though this was written over 2,800 years ago, Lord, we know that Your Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We pray that You would speak to us by it tonight. For we ask it in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

Last week, as we were going through Isaiah chapter 28, the 28th chapter began with the word, "Woe." Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim. That woe, spoken to the northern ten tribes of Israel, was directed to the children of Judah and the southern tribes of Israel in verse 7, where it says, "But they also have erred through wine." So God was speaking woe ultimately to the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

When we come to Isaiah chapter 29, we read once again the word "Woe" as the opening word of the chapter. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt. In chapter 30, we read, "Woe to the rebellious children," says the Lord, "that take counsel, but not of Me." Then again, in chapter 31, "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many."

These chapters that we're covering here, Isaiah chapter 28 through 31,

God is once again pronouncing woe upon His people in Judah and Jerusalem. At the beginning of Isaiah, in chapter 5, Isaiah also spoke woe to the nation at that time. Now, God is speaking judgment against His own people because of their sin, their wickedness, and their departure from the Lord.

In verse 1 of chapter 29, He says, "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt." What exactly is Ariel? It is a name applied to the city of Jerusalem, as we read that it was the city where King David dwelt. Some may say that David was from Bethlehem, but if we look at the very last words of verse 8 in chapter 29, we see that the direction is spoken against Mount Zion. Therefore, God is addressing Jerusalem and speaking of a judgment and destruction that is going to come upon it.

But why? Why would God judge these people? He says, "Add year to year, let them kill sacrifices, yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be unto me as Ariel." The first reason we find for God's judgment against the people in Jerusalem, whom He calls Ariel, is their piousness, their religiosity. They were very religious people, but it was only in words; it did not reach their hearts. They honored God, as we will see in this very chapter, with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.

This was the same issue God addressed with His people back in chapter 1 of Isaiah, where He says in verse 10, "Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah." He referred to His own people as if they were like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, whom God destroyed in Genesis 19. But why was God calling them Sodom and Gomorrah? Why was He speaking judgment to them in Isaiah chapter 1?

He continues in verse 11, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?" says the Lord. "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and of fat-fed beasts. I delight not in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more your vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies..."

I cannot get away with it. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates them. They are trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

In Isaiah chapter 1, the opening words of this great prophetic work, God tells His people that He no longer wants them to come and tread His courts. He doesn't want them to come to the temple and offer these sacrifices because it is vain. It is empty. It is just an external act. It was no longer affecting their hearts. The people had become so religious, and yet so departed from the Lord.

We find that there are many people in the world today who have a spiritual life, or a religious system, and yet they don't know the Lord. They may even honor the one true God with their lips, but their lives do not in any way mirror what their words are saying. Here, God says He is going to judge the city where David dwelt. Although year after year they kill many sacrifices, there were many things that were offered to the Lord in that city. Every single morning, every single day at midday, and every single evening at sundown, there were offerings given to the Lord on behalf of the nation.

The people themselves would bring their sacrifices to the priests because of their sin. They would offer burnt offerings, sin offerings, and wave offerings. They were doing all the different things that Leviticus told them to do, and they were really encouraged in their piousness. Yet, they were so far from the Lord. After they would offer their sacrifices to the one true God at the Temple Mount, they would go to the Valley of Hinnom, just outside the western part of the city of Jerusalem, and offer their children to Molech. They would go up on top of the high places and offer their sacrifices to Baal, or go out underneath every green tree and offer their sacrifices to Asherah.

The children of Israel were given to idolatry, and yet in the midst of their idolatry, they still sought to worship the one true God. But God says, "This is vanity. This is wickedness." He declares, "I am going to distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow, and it shall be unto me as Ariel."

Now, the name Ariel is interesting because it is attributed to Israel here. Nowhere else in the Bible do we see that name given to the people of Jerusalem. The name can have two different meanings.

Either it means "lion of God," or it means "altar of burning." There is some difference among commentators and Bible scholars as to the exact meaning of this word, Ariel. Most of them lean towards the idea that the name means "lion of God." It seems as though the people of Jerusalem were referring to themselves as Ariel. Here they are in the face of a coming judgment against them. The Assyrians are about to come down into the land of Israel, and the Assyrians were associated with the lion; they were considered to be the lion of that day.

Yet, it was as if the people of Jerusalem were saying, "Well, the Assyrians aren't going to come to us because we're the lion of God." In one sense, it's their arrogant declaration about who they were. They thought, "The Assyrians, that lion, is coming against us, but we're the lion of God. We'll be able to stand." Not only were they going to be judged because of their piousness, but also because of their pride. They felt that they were okay, that everything was just fine.

We saw this last week in Isaiah chapter 28, where they said, "We have a covenant with death, and everything's going to be fine when this enemy comes against us." In verse 15, it states that they have said they have a covenant with death and hell, an agreement with them. But when the overflowing scourge comes, it will pass through and do away with their refuge of lies. The people had constructed this covering of lies over themselves, believing they were okay because of their religiousness, because of who they were and where they dwelt.

But God says, "I am going to distress you, and I will encamp against you." In verse 3, God declares, "I will encamp against thee round about, and will lay a siege against thee with a mount. I will raise forts against thee, and thou shalt be brought down. You shall speak out of the ground; your speech shall be low out of the dust. Thy voice shall be as one that has a familiar spirit out of the ground. Thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." Four times God tells them in verse 4, "I'm going to bring you low."

Because of their pride, and really their religious pride as well, God says, "I'm going to lay you low." Now, how is He going to lay them low? In verse 3, He says, "I'm going to encamp against you round about, I'm going to set siege works against you like a mount, and I'm going to raise a fort against you." This is fulfilled in the coming judgment by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were going to be the ones used by the Lord to judge the people in the city of Jerusalem.

It is interesting to consider that this earthly king...

King Sennacherib and this nation of the world would be the instrument and the tool of God to bring about His judgment upon His people. God clearly declared that back in Isaiah chapter 10. If you want to turn back there, Isaiah chapter 10, God was speaking to the kings of Assyria. He says in verse 5, "O Assyrian, the rod of My anger, and the staff in their hand is My indignation. I will send him," God says, "I will send him against a hypocritical nation, against a people of My wrath, and I will give him charge to take a spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets."

There we see God declaring that they would be the tool in His hand to execute His judgment, speaking to an earthly king and to a nation. Now we're beginning to see the fulfillment of this as we press on through the book of Isaiah. The judgment by the Assyrians, God's judgment at the hand of the Assyrians, would come about during Isaiah's work as a prophet. When we get to Isaiah chapters 36 through 39, we'll see that historic interlude of the book of Isaiah, which clearly shows us this judgment at the hand of the Assyrians.

God prophesied it back in Isaiah chapter 10, and now, once again, He is saying that it is going to come to pass here in Isaiah 29. By the time we get to Isaiah 36 and 37, we will clearly see it fulfilled. God tells these people, "Listen, when the Assyrian army comes against you and they lay siege to the city, you've got to know that this is a judgment at My hand." This is a pretty heavy thing to consider.

Even though God is declaring that He is going to judge His people, in the very same prophecies, we see God declaring that He is going to protect His people. He wouldn't allow them to be completely consumed, but He was going to punish them. As we've talked about many times going through the book of Isaiah, God's punishment is for the purpose of purification. He is coming in there to cleanse them, to wipe away the refuge of lies that they had built for themselves.

In verse 5, Isaiah continues, "Moreover, the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away. Yea, it shall be in an instant, and suddenly thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder and with an earthquake."

With great noise, with a storm and a tempest, and with a flame of devouring fire, God says in verses 3 and 4, "I'm going to judge you. I'm going to bring the Assyrians down to lay siege to your city." However, in verses 5 and 6, God explains that this judgment will be a passing one. It will not completely consume you or totally destroy the city of Jerusalem, but it will come right up to the neck of Judah, right up to the capital city of Jerusalem.

God states that when the multitude of strangers, that is, when these foreign armies come to you, they will be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be like chaff. He says that when this invading army arrives, it will cover the land like dust and like chaff, but He will blow it away. It will pass away in an instant; suddenly, they will be gone. God is prophesying this in Isaiah 29, but we will see the fulfillment of it when we get to Isaiah 37. The Assyrian army will invade the land of Israel, specifically the southern part, into the land of Judah. Led by King Sennacherib, they will destroy over 40 cities in Judah and come right up to the city of Jerusalem. Sennacherib will send a huge contingent of his army, 185,000 strong, to the city.

In that moment, God will send an angel, and in one night, He will kill 185,000 of the Assyrian army. This army will cover the land like dust and chaff, but God will purge them, causing them to pass away suddenly. God says, "You shall be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder, with an earthquake, great noise, a storm and a tempest, and a flame of devouring fire," as stated in verse 6.

There are a couple of different ways to interpret verse 6. Either God is saying to Jerusalem that this judgment will come upon you quickly, but it will be like thunder; it will not destroy you. You will only hear the rumbling of the thunder, or the rumbling of an earthquake, or a great noise. Alternatively, it could refer to the judgment that God will bring upon the Assyrians. He will visit this army that comes against them and will destroy them, as we see at the end of verse 6, with a flame of devouring fire.

Now, why do we think that this possibly refers to Assyria? Well, back in Isaiah chapter 10, at verse 16, God prophesied...

That he would judge the Assyrians with a devouring fire. Look at this, Isaiah 10, verse 16. Therefore, shall the Lord of hosts send among his fat ones, the Assyrian army's fat ones or their strong ones, leanness; and under his glory shall he kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. Just like we read there in chapter 29, this devouring fire will come and burn them up.

So here he says that there is going to be this kindle, a burning like a burning of a fire under them. The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame. It shall burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day. In Isaiah chapter 10, God prophesied that the Assyrians would come down into the land of Judah and surround the city of Jerusalem, but in one day, the Lord would judge and destroy them.

Here again in Isaiah chapter 29, God tells his people that the Assyrians are going to come down into the land, but they will pass away suddenly, and He will destroy them with a burning. Look at verse 7 of chapter 29: "And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, against Jerusalem, even all that fight against her and her munition and distress her shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams and beholds he eats, but when he wakes, his soul is empty. Or when a thirsty man dreams and behold he drinks, but when he awakes, he is faint, and his soul has appetite."

So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. Here once again, God is reiterating that when the Assyrian army comes down into Judah and surrounds Jerusalem, it will be in their minds that they are going to take a spoil. They have this desire to overrun the city, and they know that in the middle of that city, in the city of Jerusalem, was the temple of God. The temple of God was filled with treasures, filled with gold.

The Assyrians gathered around the city of Jerusalem in 701 BC, expecting to take a great spoil. They are like that hungry man who dreams that he is going to have a great feast, but when he wakes up in the morning, he is still empty. The desire, the dream, the vision of the Assyrian army was that they were going to take a great spoil. They thought they would have so much riches and wealth when they destroyed the city of Jerusalem, and yet when they wake up, it is all gone. They are destroyed; they are taken quickly.

How many of you have had that kind of dream before? You go to bed hungry.

You dream you have this most incredible feast, and then you wake up with that pit in your stomach. He said that's what it's going to be like for all the nations that fight against Ariel. Now, we know that this is speaking about the Assyrians, but I think we could say that this is also speaking about anyone who goes to take a spoil of Jerusalem because it is God's city. It is the place where God has set His name. We don't understand entirely why, but God has chosen that place, and any nation or people that set themselves against Jerusalem will find themselves in the same precarious position that we read about the Assyrians here. They won't receive the spoil; instead, they will receive a curse and a judgment.

Even today, we see that there are those desiring and trying to divide Jerusalem. It's a dangerous road to go down. Every time we see that road approached in the Scriptures, it always ends in calamity for the one seeking to divide. Here, once again, this was upon the Assyrians, but anyone— all the nations—twice in those verses, in verses 7 and 8, we read that the multitude of all nations that fight against Ariel will meet this same end.

In verse 9, he says, "Stay yourselves, pardon me, stay yourselves and wonder. Cry ye out and cry. They are drunken but not with wine; they stagger but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and He has closed your eyes, the prophets, and your rulers; the seers He has covered." The vision of all has become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which man delivers to one that is learned, saying, "Read this, I pray thee." And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." The book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, "Read this, I pray thee." And he says, "I am not learned."

What's going on here in verses 9 through 11? We see the unbelief of the people of Jerusalem. Isaiah the prophet is telling them that God is going to judge them, and they constantly say, "No, no, the Lord is not going to judge us." In the midst of this prophetic announcement of God's coming judgment, there were false prophets in the city of Jerusalem. They were saying, "No, everything is going to be just fine." That always seems to be the way it is. Whenever you read through the prophetic works of the Old Testament, you see that there is the true and the false prophet.

And even today, there are true and false teachers of God's Word. There are always those soothsayers who come in when God's Word is being declared and given. Here, at this time, 2,700 years ago, God was speaking to the people of Jerusalem, saying, "I am going to judge you. You need to repent. If you'll repent, I will relent. I will stay my hand of judgment. But you must repent. You must turn back to the Lord."

God was speaking through the prophet Isaiah, calling the people to repentance. However, as we saw in Isaiah chapter 28, verses 8 and 9, they were saying, "Oh, that prophet, he's so repetitive. We should just have him teach the children's ministry. All he ever has to say is line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little." They mocked and belittled the message of the prophet Isaiah.

All the while, there were false prophets in the city saying, "No, no, no, no, no, the Assyrians aren't going to come down here. We're going to be just fine. We have the help of the Egyptians," as we will see when we get into chapters 30 and 31. They claimed, "We have God on our side." Isaiah was saying, "No, you don't have God on your side. He has turned from you because you've turned from Him. He's not going to bless you. He's not going to help you in this."

As a result, the people had been blinded and seduced into a deep sleep. Their eyes were closed. Their prophets, rulers, and seers had covered them with a false sense of security to the point where people would come to them and ask, "What is the word of the Lord? What is God speaking to us?" They would respond, "Well, we just don't know what the Lord is speaking to us. It's like it's a sealed book, or I just don't understand."

But God was speaking very clearly and plainly through the prophet Isaiah, and the people wouldn't heed it. They wouldn't listen. Therefore, the Lord said, "For as much as this people draws near to me with their mouth and with their lips they do honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid."

The people drew near to the Lord with their lips. With their mouths, they honored Him, but their hearts were far from Him.

We are far from Him. Now, sadly, I would say that in much the same way, we have our own nation. Research done not too long ago shows that 80% of Americans believe in God, believe that there is a God, and identify in some way with the Christian faith. Whether they are Protestants or Catholics, they identify with the Christian faith. The overwhelming majority of Americans identify themselves as believers in the God of the Bible.

Yet, if you were to look at their lives, if you were to look just at our nation, you would wonder if that were really the case. They honor the Lord with their mouths, but their hearts are far from the Lord. Therefore, because of this, God says, "I'm going to do a marvelous work among the people." It is the very same work that God described in Isaiah chapter 28, verse 21. Just look one chapter back at verse 21: "For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, and He shall be wroth as in the Valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act."

As we looked at last week in Isaiah chapter 28, that peculiar work that is spoken of is that God, who once fought for His people, will now fight against them. And why would God do that? Because they had become proud. They had become just religious on the outside only. They were so filled with wickedness and sin; everywhere was filth. God says, "I'm going to judge you. I'm going to do what appears to be a strange work."

All the people of Israel, all the people of Jerusalem, as Isaiah was telling them, listened. God is going to bring the Assyrians down here to judge us, as stated in Isaiah chapter 10. They are going to be the rod of His indignation in His hand. The people would say, "That's not possible. This is our God. He fights for us, not against us." It just seems so strange and foreign to them.

Yet Isaiah says, "No, God is going to bring about His peculiar work, His strange work." Although it blows your mind, although it doesn't make much sense to you, He is still going to judge you. Because you honor the Lord with your mouth, but your hearts are far from Him, therefore the Lord is going to do His marvelous work. The wisdom of your wise men is going to perish, and the understanding of your prudent is going to be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in darkness.

And they say, "Who sees us and who knows us?" God says, "Woe, certain destruction to them who think that they can go about their way, execute their plans without seeking the way of the Lord, the mind of the Lord."

We're going to see the very same thing when we get to chapter 30, where He says, "Woe to the rebellious children," saith the Lord, "that take counsel but not of Me, that cover with a covering but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin. They walk to go down into Egypt and they have not asked at My mouth." God says there in chapter 30, "Woe to you because you have this whole plan, you have this whole scheme that you've devised, but you haven't even come to Me to see if this is what I want you to do."

The very same thing is said here in verse 15. You seek deep to hide your plan, your counsel from the Lord. You do your works in darkness and you say, "Who sees us, who knows us?" You think that God is not aware of what you're doing, of what you're planning? God knows; God sees.

This is often the foolishness of man. We are so easily duped into this place of thinking that God doesn't know what we're doing. God doesn't see. That's why, as John chapter 3 recounts, when Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus, He told them that men love darkness because they think that their deeds are hidden by the darkness. Oftentimes, most of the wicked and vile sin of this world is done in darkness behind closed doors because people even have this innate conscience that what they're doing is wrong. They don't want anybody to see them, and they think that by hiding it in darkness or behind closed doors, no one sees, no one knows. But God knows. God sees, and God knows.

So God calls out to His people as His dear children. In verse 16, He says, "Surely your turning things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay." He says, "You really have things flipped around. You have things completely upside down. It's just like the potter's clay."

What do you mean like the potter's clay? "For shall the work say of him that made it, 'He made me not'? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, 'He hath not understanding'?" He says, "It's as foolish what you are doing, thinking that you're hiding your plans and your ways from Me. What you are doing is as foolish as the clay speaking to the potter, saying, 'Why are you making me like this?'"

At the potter, God says, "No, you have no understanding. You don't know what you're doing." Is it not a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? In that day, the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

God tells His people that they have things all turned around. This foolish thinking that He does not see and does not know what is going on is just that: foolishness. But in just a very little while, God is going to bring about a drastic change. The proverb given in verse 17 speaks of this drastic change. It is not yet a little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and a fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest.

There are a few different views on what this means, but the idea is that there will be an unbelievable change that God is going to bring about. Some people believe that what is being spoken of here is that the Gentiles, referred to as Lebanon in this passage, will become a fruitful field, while the fruitful field, Israel, will become an untended forest. It will grow up with weeds and briars. The idea is that God will no longer work with the people of Israel for a period of time and will focus on the Gentiles. We see that in the coming of the gospel; for a time, God has allowed the children of Israel to be blinded and deaf to the work He is doing until the fullness of the Gentiles, as the New Testament says, has come in. At that point in time, God will work once again with His people, and their deaf shall hear the words of the book, and their eyes, the blind, shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

So God says, "For a time, I'm going to set you aside, and you're going to be like an untended garden. You will grow up like a huge forest filled with weeds and briars, but I'm going to focus on what once was a forest filled with weeds and briars—Lebanon, the Gentiles. I'll cut it down, and I'll make it a garden." God says He will redirect His work, for the terrible one is brought to naught, the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off. They make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him.

That reproves in the gate and turns aside justice for a thing of nothing. Therefore, thus saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he sees his children, the work of My hands in the midst of them, they shall sanctify My name and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine. God says to His people here that He is going to really come in and purify His people. This judgment that He will do, as we've often looked at, will be for the purpose of their refining.

In another translation, verses 18 through 21 read: "In that day, deaf people will hear words read from the book, and blind people will see through the gloom and darkness. The humble will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord; those who are poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Those who intimidate and harass will be gone, and all those who plot evil will be killed. Those who make the innocent guilty by their false testimony, God will remove them, and those who use trickery to pervert justice and tell lies to tear down the innocent, they will be no more."

So, you see, God's work that He is going to do will be to remove those who harass, those who make the innocent guilty by false testimonies, and those who use tricks to pervert justice. God says, "I'm going to bring right justice, and I'm going to destroy all this wickedness from the earth." Then His people, the children of Israel, will see, and once again they will come back to the God of Israel. Those that erred in spirit, God is going to bring them back and give them understanding.

But woe to those, as stated in chapter 30, verse 1, to those children that are rebellious, says 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. Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord.

All the way back in Isaiah chapter 1, the very first words of the prophet: "The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord..."

God has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. God says, "My people have rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know; my people do not consider."

Because of your rebellion, God says, "I am going to send a judgment upon you to turn you back to me once again." Now, here we are, thirty chapters later, and several kings have passed. We are during the reign of King Hezekiah. Remember, Isaiah's ministry started under King Uzziah, then he served under King Jotham, and then King Ahaz. Now, he is under the reign of King Hezekiah. Many years have passed, and yet the people have not turned back to the Lord. Instead, they have stiffened their necks against Him and continued in their rebellion.

Yet, God still patiently calls out to them and says, "Would you turn back to me? Woe to you," which could also be translated as "destruction is certain for those who are rebellious." How is their rebellion seen? Their rebellion is evident in that they take counsel, but not of the Lord. They have devised plans and have not sought what the Lord would have to say about those plans.

What was the plan they were setting out to do? At this point in time, they were endeavoring to go down to Egypt to get help when the Assyrian army was coming against them. They were about to be attacked by the Assyrians, and God was saying, "If you will turn to me, I will protect you, just like I protected Jerusalem in the day of Ahaz in Isaiah chapter 7 when the Syrians and the northern ten tribes came against you. I protected you then. If you'll turn to me now, I'll protect you."

But instead, they rebel against His counsel and say, "No, no, no, we need to go down to Egypt and get their help. Surely they'll be able to help us." The cover they sought was not of God's Spirit, as verse 1 of chapter 30 says, "that they may add sin to sin." They were going down to Egypt to cover themselves, trying to protect themselves against the Assyrians.

As we saw in the last chapter, in Isaiah chapter 28, they had a refuge or a covering that was built with lies; it was a false security. There are many people in the world today who have a false sense of security. What has built this false sense of security for them? For a lot of people, the false sense of security comes through their own religious works, and they figure...

Well, I'm a good person. Perhaps you've talked with someone before, and you share with them the gospel. You tell them, "Listen, the soul that sins shall die. The wages of sin is death. If you do not receive the free gift of Jesus Christ, then you will go to hell." They respond, "No, no, no, my God's a loving God, and I've done a lot of good works." That is a refuge of lies; it won't stand up.

God says, "Woe to those rebellious children! They have a covering, but it's not of My Spirit." You see, we need the covering of the Spirit of the one true God. The people, God says, add sin to sin; they just build sin upon sin against the Lord. They walk to go down to Egypt and have not asked of My mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt.

You're going down to Egypt and trusting in the shadow of Egypt. It has no permanence, no steadfastness, and no strength. It's just a shadow; it will not help you. Therefore, the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. You go down and trust in the shadow of Egypt, even though Pharaoh was strong, had many chariots, and a large standing army. Yet God says his strength is going to be your shame.

Why? If you remember several chapters ago, back in Isaiah chapter 19, or I believe it was Isaiah chapter 20, God told Isaiah to do a very strange thing. He said, "I want you to go and loose the sackcloth off of your loins and put off the shoes from your feet." So Isaiah did, walking naked and barefoot. The Lord said, "Like as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years for a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt."

You see, God says if you trust in Egypt, they will be your shame. Why would Egypt be their shame? Because Egypt was going to be devastated by the Assyrians. They were going to be led away as prisoners of war back to the capital of Assyria.

Back to Nineveh, God is seeking to protect His people. He is not merely trying to put down their plans and say, "Come on, this is a stupid plan." He is seeking to protect them.

There are times when people get upset at you or upset at me because we share the gospel with them. We tell them that Jesus is the only way, and they respond, "How dare you belittle my faith? How dare you belittle my religion?" I am not trying to belittle your religion; I am trying to protect you from the fact that your religion is a shadow. It will not stand up; it is insufficient and not enough. I am sorry if that offends you. I am very sorry if that makes you feel bad, but it is just the truth, and you need to know the truth.

God was not just trying to belittle their plans; He was trying to protect them. If you put your trust in Pharaoh, it will be to your own shame. Your trust in the shadow of Egypt will lead to your confusion. The princes were at Zoan, and their ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help, but only a source of shame and reproach. God says that the princes and ambassadors of Egypt, although they are many and gathered together in these key cities of Zoan and Hanes, cannot profit you. They cannot help you.

In verse 6, the prophet says, "The burden of the beasts of the south, into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and the old lion, the viper, and the fiery flying serpent." They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young donkeys and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not profit them. Isaiah laments the burden of the poor camels and donkeys that are carrying the riches of Israel down to Egypt to try and pay off their mercenaries, to pay off their friends in Egypt for help. God says, "What a burden! It is not even going to help them."

What a waste of the energy of these animals! God says that carrying the gold and silver down to Egypt is a waste because it will not be your help. In the same way, all the work that people give towards false religions is vanity; it is worthless. All the hours that an individual may spend...

Knocking on doors for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or for the Jehovah's Witness Church, or engaging in the many practices that people undertake in the name of Buddhism or Hinduism, the offerings they give and the pain they endure—none of it is worthwhile. None of it has an enduring reward; it shall not profit them. It is worthless; it is vanity. For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.

Therefore, I have cried concerning this. Their strength to sit still, or as the King James Version says, "Rahab Hem Shabbat," means strength standing still. It was their proud strength, the proud strength of Egypt, yet it would be to no end, to no help for the children of Israel.

Now go, write it before them in a table; note it in a book or in a scroll, that it may be for a time to come, forever and ever. This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord. They 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 you aside out of the path; cause the Holy One of Israel to cease before us."

God says to Isaiah, "I want you to go and write it down and make it very plain. Write it down on a tablet; write it down on a scroll. Write it down for a time that is yet to come. Make it an enduring inscription that these people, the people of Judah and Jerusalem, are a rebellious people. Not only are they rebellious, but they are lying children, and they will not do the law of the Lord. They have rebelled against the word of God.

Not only do they rebel against the word of God, but they say to the seers or to the prophets in their midst, "Don't prophesy to us right things or speak to us; rather, speak to us smooth things; prophesy deceits; prophesy lies." They weren't going to the prophets in their day and saying, "Would you tell us a lie instead of telling us the truth?" That's not what they were saying, but they were expressing that they did not want to hear the truth.

What you have to say, Isaiah, is important. We would much rather you speak to us about nice things, good things. There is a passage in the books of Kings and Chronicles, specifically in Second Kings and Second Chronicles, I believe, when Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem and Judah at that time, made an alliance with the northern ten tribes and with the king who was married to Jezebel. What was his name? Ahab. My mind went blank there.

So, Jehoshaphat goes up, and he is going to fight against the enemies of Israel with Ahab. Being a godly man, Jehoshaphat says, "Hey, can we call one of the prophets?" They call a big group of prophets that God had given a deceiving spirit to, and they tell him, "Oh yeah, go fight against this army. They are going to fall to you, and everything will be good." Jehoshaphat then says, "You know, maybe we should get another opinion. Isn't there any other prophet around here?" Ahab responds, "Yeah, there’s this Micaiah, but I don’t like him. He always says bad things about me."

If the true prophet of God is saying bad things about you, that’s not a good thing. Maybe you should listen up. Jehoshaphat said, "Yeah, well, maybe we should listen to him." The prophet came in and said, "This is not going to be a good thing for you, Ahab. You are going to die in this battle." You can see why Ahab didn’t like what that prophet had to say. He wanted soothsayers; he wanted prophets who would speak smooth things to him. He didn’t want to hear the truth of God, and nor did the people of Judah and Jerusalem at the time of Isaiah.

Isaiah was the one true prophet standing in their midst, and they said, "We don’t want to listen to him. We’ll listen to these other guys." But these other guys were giving them false words of encouragement. They were literally soothsayers, speaking things that would soothe the people but falsely. This is the very same thing that the Apostle Paul tells us will happen in the last days, and I believe that we are living in the last days.

In Second Timothy, chapter 4, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy in verse 3 that the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Instead, after their own lusts, they shall heap up for themselves teachers having itching ears. They will turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables. But you, therefore, watch in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, and make full proof of your ministry. Notice that Paul...

Paul told Timothy that he needs to endure afflictions. What that means is that the person who is going to speak clearly and boldly the truth of God is not going to be well received. You may have to endure afflictions. Paul would also tell Timothy in that same letter that anyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

When you read about the prophets of old, whether it's Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, you go through all their different books and writings, and you find that they themselves were persecuted for speaking forth the truth of God. This means that you and I, as we speak forth the truth of God from the Word of God, are probably not going to be well received either. If they persecuted our Lord, so shall they persecute us also. However, that should not in any way diminish our boldness in declaring the truth.

The people said, "No, we don't want to listen to the prophets. We want you to prophesy not write things unto us. Speak to us smooth things, speak to us deceits. Get you out of the way." They were speaking to the prophets, saying, "Turn aside from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. We don't want to hear what the Holy One of Israel has to say any longer. We don't want to hear from God. God's message makes us feel bad."

It is a concern to me that there is a growing movement of churches that have diminished the weight of the Word of God to try and get people in the door. Therefore, in verse 12, thus saith the Holy One of Israel: "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon, therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking forth comes suddenly, in an instant. It shall break, and he shall break it as a breaking of a potter's vessel that is broken in pieces, and he shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shred to take fire from the hearth or to take water out of the pit."

God says that because you've turned to oppression and perverseness, because you've departed from the truth of My Word, there is this breach that is going to come. It is going to break forth, it is going to happen suddenly, and it is going to be complete. When we read in verse 14, there shall not be found a shard.

Of this broken vessel, enough to carry coals from the fire or to bring water from the cistern, what it means is that the breaking of them would be total; they'd be smashed into pieces. For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: "In returning and rest you shall be saved, and quietness and confidence shall be your strength." But you would not.

God said, "Here I am, calling out to you, and if you will turn to me, then you'll be saved. If you will return, you'll find rest; you'll find peace and quietness." But you would not listen to the word of the Lord. The prophet Jeremiah, some 150 years later, would say to the people something very similar in Jeremiah chapter 6, verse 16: "Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls."

God is saying to the people in Jeremiah's day, "Listen, if you will come, stand in the right path, you will see the good path that God has set before you, and you'll find rest; you'll find peace." But they said, "We will not walk therein." They didn't want to walk therein. It's not that they didn't know the path; it's that they knew the path and didn't want to take it.

As we saw at the beginning of this chapter, they added sin to sin. In chapter 30, verse 1, the scripture reveals that it is a worse thing to know the truth and reject the truth than to have never received the truth at all. Here, they know the path, but they would not walk in it.

But you said, in verse 16 of Isaiah chapter 30, "No, for we will flee upon horses." Therefore, you shall flee. "We will ride upon the swift." Therefore, your pursuers will be more swift than you. They said, "No, we're not going to listen to the word of the Lord. The Egyptians are going to bring us horses and chariots, and we're going to flee on fast horses." Well, it doesn't matter; your pursuers will be faster than you.

One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one, and at the rebuke of five, you shall flee until you are left as a beacon upon a mountain, as an ensign on a hill. Now, it's interesting that in the book of Leviticus, in Leviticus chapter 26, God spoke to His people about the blessings.

Of obeying His law, He said, "If you will follow My law," then, in Leviticus 26, verse 8, "five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword."

But going on from there, He said, "If you despise My statutes," in verse 14 of Leviticus 26, "but if you will not hearken unto Me and will not do all these commandments, and if you will despise My statutes," then He tells them that they will flee when their enemies come against them. They will run away from their enemies. Here, we are seeing the fulfillment of that blessing and curse that God spoke to His people in Deuteronomy chapter 28. The very same thing is stated: God says, "If you will obey Me, here are the blessings; you'll be victorious in battle. If you will rebel, then here are the curses."

Here we see it all coming to pass. God is saying, "You are going to be put to flight; you will run away." Therefore, in verse 18, "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 that wait for Him."

It is an awesome thing to consider the patience of our God. Even as He watches His own people be judged because of their sin, He patiently waits. He was waiting that He would be gracious unto them; He was waiting for them to turn to Him. If they would turn to Him, they would find His grace. If they would call out to Him, they would find His mercy.

The Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all those that wait for Him, for 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, He will answer." The prophet says, "Listen, God is waiting, and He desires to be gracious to you. He is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish."

But if you refuse to turn to Him, then you are going to be judged. The Assyrians will come down here and judge you, and if you don't receive...

The chastening of the Lord through the Assyrian invasion was a precursor to the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC, when they would completely consume the people and take them away captive. However, God is waiting that He may be gracious to them. Here we are, more than 2,700 years later, and God is still waiting to be gracious to His people, even though they have rejected the Messiah and the Word of the Lord. The Word became flesh, and yet He is still waiting that He might be gracious to them.

He tells them, "If you'll cry out to Me, I will hear you." This echoes what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 33:3, where God says, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will show you great and mighty things that you do not know." God invites them to call to Him. Although the Lord may give them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, their teachers will not be removed into a corner anymore. Their eyes shall see their teachers, and their ears shall hear a word behind them.

They will defile all the covering of their graven images of silver and the ornaments of molten images of gold. They will cast them away as an unclean thing and say to it, "Get thee hence." God desires that they turn to Him. He will be gracious to them if they call out to Him; He will hear and answer them.

At this point, the Lord was going to give them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. He would allow them to go through adversity, affliction, persecution, terror, and trial. Yet, in the midst of all that, He would not leave them. He would still be right there with them as they traveled through these painful judgments from the Lord, desiring all along that they would turn to Him.

Even in the midst of their being led away captive by the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar, God would still be with them, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." If they would just turn to Him, He would direct them when they turned to the right hand or to the left. When they do turn back to Him, they will defile the covering of their graven images and say, "Get away from me."

When they depart from their idolatry, notice the blessings that will come. In verse 23, it says, "Then shall He give rain for thy seed."

Shall sow the ground wherewithal and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day, thy cattle shall be fed in large pastures, the oxen likewise, and the young donkeys that are on the ground. They shall eat cleaven provender or good grain, which has been winnowed with a shovel and with a fan.

Oftentimes, the ox, the donkey, and the livestock were given the leftover, not-so-good grain. You take the grain and winnow it with the fan, and the best is taken; that is to be given to the people. But He says, when you return to Me after you depart from your idolatry, so abundant will be your goods, so fruitful will be your land. You'll have so much grain that you'll be feeding it to your livestock, even the best grain.

There shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall, when your false god worship centers are destroyed and cast down. Then you're going to see joy and rejoicing. Moreover, 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 the breach of His people and heals the stroke of their wound.

We saw just a few minutes ago, if you'll turn to Me, I'll restore. Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy. His lips are full of indignation, His tongue as a devouring fire, and His breath as an overflowing stream shall reach unto the midst of the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity. There shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

You shall have a song as in the night when the holy sonnet 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. God says, I'm going to come and restore you once again, and you'll have joy and rejoicing, gladness of heart as during the feast days. The Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard and shall show the lighting down of His arm and the indignation of His anger with the flames of a devouring fire, with the scattering of the tempest.

Of hailstones, for through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with the rod. God says, "I'm going to come, I'm going to show up, and I'm going to destroy the Assyrian in one day." In every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, the Assyrian shall be as with tablets and harps. In the battles, there will be shaking and flight with it. God says, "When I come and judge, you're going to have joy and rejoicing with cymbals and tambourines."

What does that mean? Well, Tophet was a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem, associated with the Valley of Hinnom. The Valley of Hinnom was where the refuse dump was, outside the refuse gate in the city of Jerusalem. All the trash would be taken into Tophet, or the Valley of Hinnom, and it would be burned there.

In the New Testament, Jesus speaks about hell and uses the word Gehenna, which refers to the Valley of Hinnom and the burning that is continually taking place there. When we read that Tophet was ordained of old, it is a reference to Hinnom or to hell. God, speaking about the Assyrians here, says, "Listen, there is a special place prepared in hell for the Assyrian, the king of Assyria, and I've prepared it for him of old. It's been made deep and large; there's a pile of fire and much wood prepared there, and the breath of the Lord will kindle it like a stream of brimstone when He comes to judge."

Now, that's not a pretty picture if you think about it. God has prepared a place of everlasting burning for those that are His enemies. Thus, it would be good not to be an enemy of God. The Apostle James tells us, "Whosoever makes himself a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God." Therefore, the Apostles will say, "Love not the world," as the Apostle John states, "nor the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." Those things are not of God, and they shall burn; they are all going to burn.

Quickly, there are only a few verses here. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and that trust in horses and chariots because they are many. In Psalm 20, verse 7, God says, "Some trust in horses, some in chariots, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God."

Here, the people of Jerusalem and Judah were being tempted once again to put their trust in horses and chariots because they were many. They figured, "Listen, the Egyptians have lots of horses and chariots; surely they'll be able to protect us because they're very strong." Yet, the Lord is wise and will bring evil; He will not call back His words. He will arise against the house of the evildoers and against those who help them that work iniquity.

Now, the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, both he that helps shall fall and he that is helped shall fall down; they shall fail together. God says, "If you trust in the Egyptians, just know they are going to fall, and if your trust is in them, you will fall also."

We can fast forward and apply this to our own lives today. If you put your trust in anything other than the Lord, it will fall, and you will fall with it. God has an amazing way of shaking the things that we trust in so that we see there is no other place to trust than in Him.

It is a good thing, even though it feels bad. God is more interested in our eternal salvation than in our temporal well-being. Sometimes, He will allow us to be shaken and to fall down when we trust in things that aren't reliable. In the city of Jerusalem, God was allowing the things they trusted in to be shaken so that they would turn to the Lord.

You trust in Egypt; he will fall, and you will fall as well. For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me: like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice nor abase himself for the noise of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof.

As the birds fly, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, also, he will deliver it, and passing over, he will preserve it. He says, "Listen, I will protect Jerusalem. Egypt will not be able to protect you, but I will and can protect you." Therefore, what ought you to do? Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.

All the other religions of this world, all the other false gods, and all the other things that man bows down to, offers sacrifices to, and devotes his life to—none of those things will be a support for you in the day of Christ Jesus. Only the Lord is the one who can protect His people. Therefore, turn ye to the Lord. Even if you have revolted against Him, turn to the Lord and repent.

For in that day, every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. He says, "In that day, when the Lord shows up, your idols are going to do nothing. You're going to get rid of them because you're going to recognize they won't help."

Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword not of a mighty man, and the sword not of a mean man shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. He shall pass over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem.

God says the Assyrian is going to be devastated and decimated, but not with the sword of man. He is going to be devastated by the mighty hand of God. All the princes of Assyria, or the generals and captains of Assyria, are going to flee back to their stronghold. They will run back to Nineveh, fearful of the Lord, fearful of the hand of God, because He will deliver His people. Amen.

Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots. If your trust, your confidence, is in any other thing, God will shake it.

The Lord does, but when your confidence is shaken by other things, may you recognize that He alone is the only one worthy of our devotion, worthy of our trust and our confidence. If we turn to Him, we will find that He is gracious; He is waiting to be gracious to those who will turn to Him.

Let's stand and pray. God, we thank You for Your grace towards us. We are totally undeserving, and yet You have been abundant in grace and mercy. You forgive our iniquity, transgression, and sin. Lord, I pray that as we go about our day and our lives here in this community, You would use us as bright, shining lights—those who have been redeemed, those who have been bought with a price and purchased out of darkness, brought into Your marvelous light.

Lord, we know that there are many in our communities, some even in our own families, who have been shaken by things in this world. Their confidence has been shaken, their trust. But Lord, would You give us the boldness to share with them that You are the only sure foundation? We pray that You continue to shake the things that this world has confidence in until there is only one foundation still standing.

Lord, because You are the only sure foundation, help us to be strong in that day. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.