ISAIAH 30: 18-26
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
(2 Corinthians 5:17-21)
God never forgets His people and longs to bless them. Though the people had turned from the Lord, He longed to be gracious and compassionate to them for they were in a covenant relationship with Him. As a God of justice, He stands ever ready to send blessings to those who depend on Him so that they may walk in His way.
The Lord longs to be faithful to His people. And when they call on Him for help instead of on someone or something else, He will answer. Though His people experience difficulties, eventually God will amazingly bless the repentant. Then His people will readily listen to Him. They will become sensitive to His Word and conscious of His leading as they walk with Him.
Isaiah then describes what times will be like when God’s people live according to God’s Word and are obedient to Him. It will be a time of great victory and blessing both for nature and for His people.
I. REPENTANCE BRINGS ANSWERS, 18-19.
II. ANSWERS ARE IN GOD’S WORD, 20-22.
III. OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSINGS, 23-26.
Verse18 transitions from rebuke to blessing. Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice. How blessed are all those who long for Him.
Judgment is not what God is about. God’s longing is to be gracious to His people (40:2). YAHWEH was waiting hopefully and expectantly for the moment of the change of heart that is called for in verse 15. Read. He longs to bless them but because of their rebelliousness, His justice will not allow Him to demonstrate compassion. When they repent of their way of life and turn to God, He will be there prepared to abundantly bless them.
The message of Isaiah is that those who exalt themselves in an self-effort to live life their way will eventually fail. There is only one God and He alone is exalted and He alone can truly met the needs of His people (40:27-31). The key to life is submitting to Him and in faith becoming completely dependant upon Him. Then you will experience the grace of His covenant blessings. (Isaiah, Oswalt, p 557).
Verse19 provides all the incentive anyone could need for earnest prayer. O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you.
The Lord longs to be gracious to His people. Often it takes tears and crying before we get serious about what God is serious about. A condition for their change of circumstance is that their praying to YAHWEH must become earnest. The humble and contrite heart God will hear. And when they call on Him for help instead of on someone or something else, He will answer. Heart felt repentance opens the door for God to respond as He longs to, in compassion and grace. Then what is empty will become full and what is barren will become fruitful. Oh the fullness God offers to those who reconcile to Him through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17-21; Lk. 23:45; Col. 1:21-22).
Verse 20 depicts what their rebellion had brought them. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher.
The Lord fed His people the bread of [that is] adversity and the water that is affliction, but now He promises to come out into the open where they can find Him and see Him working. They would learn the holy way and come to know the Holy God.
God punished His people to teach them the necessity of following Him. Though His people experienced difficulties, having only bread to eat and water to drink in times of calamity, eventually God will amazingly bless them.
God expects a lot from us and at times following Him can be painful, but He always guides us with a loving hand, even during the hard times and the hard lessons of life. If we look to Him, He promises to be with us, and teach us. Next time you go through a difficult time, pray and try walking in joy with Him (Jas 1:2-8) and grow from it by learning what God wants to teach you. God is longing to show you His maturing love by patiently walking with you through adversity. [Application Bible, p1218]
[Teacher can be pl or sg in Heb. The verb is singular. If plural then indicates that His people will readily listen to their spiritual teacher(s) such as the prophets and priests (in contrast with rejecting them, v. 10); no longer will God’s teachers need to hide for safety.]
Verse 21 is another of those great promises to be claimed in Isaiah. And your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
When they seek God again, He will hear their prayers and they will hear His voice or Word. The people will be sensitive to God’s Word, as if He were saying, This is the way, walk in it. They will be conscious of God’s leading [at all times].
Hear a word behind you conveys both the nearness of the teacher and the sensitivity of the follower. This is what the Spirit-filled life is intended to be like. Where contact between us and Him is so close and intimate that only a still small voice whispering into our spiritual ear is sufficient to move us in His way (Gal. 5:16-25).
This constant redirection is needed for God’s people. Waywardness is ever beckoning and life is constantly moving us to new decisions. To the right or to the left covers all the decision and actions of life. When decision need to be made, He will direct them. When a wrong decision has been made and people have left God’s path, He offers to redirect them. His Word speaks to those who listen, our part is to obey.
If we follow God’s voice, God’s Word, our spiritual eyes will be open and we will cast out the idols of the world from our life. As verse 22 says, And you will defile your graven images, overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing; and say to them, "Be gone!"
There is coming a better day and it will come through the work of YAHWEH. When they heed His instructions they will then cast off their idols (31:7; Hosea 14:3b; Micah 5:13-14), things that are defiled and morally dirty.
Although people no longer have molten idols for the gods of love, security, power, and wealth, we still seek them more than the God of heaven and earth. It is no easier for us to desert our sources of support than it was for the people of Israel.
Isaiah now describes what times will be like when God’s people live according to God’s Word and are obedient to Him. God will supply the things which their idols professed to supply, but could not.
III. OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSINGS, 23-26.
Along with the spiritual blessings there will come material blessings. Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture. (24) Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
After God’s people cease their dependence upon the idols of man-dependence on our devices- trying to supply our own needs without surrendering to God, then we will experience what we tried to get from our idols. God will send . . . rain, and crops will be plentiful (Deut. 28:1-14). Even the animals will have plenty to eat. These returns are part of the covenant blessings promised in Dt. 28:11-12.
There is a material blessing indicated here. God is the source of all real blessing, but the greatest blessings in life are only received after in faith one abandons his own efforts at self-satisfaction and completely commits ones’ life to God. [Isaiah, Oswalt, p. 562]
Verse 25 continues to announce God’s blessings upon the faithful. And on every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
The dramatic and miraculous nature of God’s salvation is depicted by springs and water courses on the very tops of lofty mountains, the places least likely to be well watered. This day of grace and compassion is for God’s people. It will also be a day of great slaughter for God’s enemies. [The day of great slaughter may refer to the Battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:16; 19:17-21). After Israel’s and God’s enemies are defeated, Israel will enjoy great peace and an abundance of water in the land.] When the towers of human pride are smashed, God’s people will experience a new era of unbelievable fruitfulness brought about by the streams running from God’s mountains
The blessings intended in verse 26 are obviously spiritual and supernatural. And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.
Also light will be increased, for the moon will be like the sun and the sun will be seven times brighter than normal. Night will be like day and day will be illuminated with sevenfold light. The figurative language of a week’s worth of light in one day may indicate that there will be enough opportunity and capability each day to accomplish all the wondrous work we are given, but it is difficult to know for sure [D. David Garland, Isaiah, p. 66].
The two themes of light and healing are associated here. Just as man’s darkness brings diseases, so God’s light brings man’s healing. The people of God who were wounded (1:5) because of their disobedience and enemies will find their wounds bounded and healed by the Great Physician.
Isaiah makes it plain that he is proclaiming something more than mere physical blessing. He is speaking of a time when all that is good about human life will be made incredibly better, and that includes love, integrity, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, etc. (60:19-22; 65:17- 66:2).
CONCLUSION
God has a new word, a lasting word for His repentant people. It is a word of grace and deliverance. God is waiting to wipe away tears of repentance. Weeping is not the end for God’s people, but is the necessary cleansing of the soul that opens the heart to seek the Lord. Those who weep and pray will understand what they must do from God’s Word. If they are obedient to His word, His spiritual and material blessings will come.
Isaiah again reveals the connection between faithfulness and circumstances. Faithlessness brings compromise and compromise brings judgment. Faith brings obedience and obedience will bring blessing, both spiritual and material.
Do you want to know what you should do? Pray and listen! God is speaking and stands ready to bless those who trust and obey.
