Churchgoers oftentimes are outraged by everything except the things that outrage God, and may we be on guard against that behavior. If it outrages God, it should outrage us. Just what Isaiah is saying. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.
Specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Isaiah chapter 30 is the text Pastor Rick will be covering today on this edition of Cross Reference Radio. And Hanai is another central city of influence in Egypt at this time. And the Judean princes were going to be made fools by not trusting God and trusting these sources of human power. And short-sighted, spiritually blind, verse 6, the burden against the beast of the south through a land of trouble and anguish, from which came the lioness and lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent. They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels to a people who shall not profit. So Isaiah is saying, I see the caravans going to Egypt.
I see them going through the Negev, through the desert, the land that is fraught with danger. Lions and flying serpents is interesting, right? The fiery flying serpents. I tell you, if there was a flying serpent within a thousand miles of where I live, I'd move another thousand miles away. But, of course, these are more gliders than flyers. The Egyptians had artwork with snakes with wings. And today we have, of course, flying serpents. But these things leap out of a tree and they glide like over 100 meters, I'm told. I would only see it one time. The high-pitched scream that I would let out would kill that thing. It is actually quite, it's magnificent to see one.
They're better fliers or gliders than flying squirrels. Anyhow, yeah, I YouTubed that one. Well, I remember seeing it many years before the internet on a documentary or something. But anyway, that's not, he's not mythological there. Evidently, Egypt must have had him.
I'm not known to have him anymore, as far as I know. And that makes perfect sense because they would have called St. Patrick. You know, he's credited with getting all the snakes out of Ireland. All right, back to this. I don't hate snakes. As long as they're not around me.
Though, I hate ticks more. Through a land of trouble and anguish. Okay, so here's these caravans going through this desert trying to buy the Egyptians. And Isaiah is saying, what a joke. What a waste. You got these convoys going with all of these goods. You're just giving it away.
It's not going to benefit you any. Verse 7, for the Egyptians shall help in veins. And that's the context that lends to what he's talking about. And to no purpose, therefore, I have called her Rahab-Hem-Shebeth. Now, this is a different, it's phonetically the same Rahab as, of course, the harlot in Jericho. But it is spelled differently. It's a different meaning. It's not the same word. It shows up a couple of other times in Scripture. But it's a term for Egypt. And it has to do with their folklore and a mythological dragon that became powerless. Well, Isaiah, he's giving Egypt this nickname, which means Rahab the Do-Nothing. Is Egypt the Do-Nothing?
You're sending money to Egypt the Do-Nothing. And, you know, as we've been going through this, we're talking about not only Isaiah, many of the prophets were notorious for their ridicule and their lampooning and satire against things that were false. And here's one of them. He'll come back to it in verse 8. Now go write it before them on a tablet and note it on a scroll that it may be for time to come forever and ever. So the Lord says, I want this made Scripture. This is the headwater of Scripture. This is one example of how we got Scripture. Of course, Daniel, Habakkuk, Habakkuk writes, Then Yahweh answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain on tablets. I want this documented so other generations can come and learn from what took place here because of my prophets. There's going to be two sides to the story.
I want my side told. And here we have it here. God's warnings against going to unbelievers for help on spiritual issues. I mean, you could go to the unbeliever, of course, for, you know, physical things. But this is spiritual and that's, the line is drawn there. We do not go to them for spiritual advice. Still many churches do.
They want to be accredited. They want, you know. Anyway, he says that it may be for time to come forever and ever and here it is preserved. In verse 9, that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh. And so he says, I want this written down, that they're not obedient, they're disobedient.
And you know he's making enemies. He's talking about the power elite of Judah. Who think they were protecting their interests, their vineyards and their, you know, investments in their land.
And really, they were upside down. Verse 10. Who say to the seers, do not see and to the prophets, do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Now he's mocking them. They would not come out and say, hey, can you just preach lies? Though that's what they wanted. They preferred to them lies were better than the truth. Because the truth meant they had to look at themselves and they didn't want to do that.
I might have to start doing business without ripping people off. I don't want to go to a church like that. So this is divine satire. And it depicts Judah's politicians as those who are asking for wrong things. They're just asking for it.
Asking for help to be further delusional. Oh man, they had to hate him for this? How dare he? How dare he publish this truth about us? That we prefer fake prophets and we tell the true ones, don't preach. They preferred the lying pastors.
So we have them today. Pastors who, they call themselves shepherds, they get into pulpits, but they don't use the Bible. And when they do, it's twisted. And you have the congregations that will lap it up. Just put a seed offering in.
Of a hundred dollars at least. And watch God grow it. And they come back the next week just as broke as they were the other week. And they do it again.
Anyway, I'm going to let you, we've got so much here to go for. You get it. So when you find pastors who are tickling the ears of the congregations, both of them are guilty. It's not just the frauds in the pulpit, it's the frauds in the pews. Then you find a church where you have solid preaching.
It's because you've got solid people in the pews and solid people in the pulpit. You reap what you sow. If you plant, you know, cherries, you're going to get cherries. And if you plant, you know, something else, you get something else.
I don't want to pick on any particular vegetable because we've got food fighters here. Anyway, it's bad enough that Judah rebelled against God and said we don't want to hear the word of God. That's one crime. The second sin was we're going to go to unbelievers that worship things they just make up. And we're going to depend on our money to buy them. But we're not going to go to God. We're still going to have the temple.
The priests can offer their incense. We'll take that as prayers for us. We'll still, you know, celebrate the Passover.
We'll go through those motions. Just let's not make God real. Let's not suffer in life. And when you feel like you're going to suffer, let's not wait on Yahweh.
He takes too long. And so they refused to hear what God had to say. 1 Kings chapter 22, this is Jehoshaphat. As I mentioned earlier, and the king of Israel said to Jehosh, well this is when Jehoshaphat and Ahaz were there, and Ahaz of course was the rotten king, and he did not want to hear what the man of God had to say, Micaiah.
So it's just funny, I read it several times recently, but he said, and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil? This was already in their history books. They knew this verse, and yet they're guilty of it on a larger scale.
They are exporting it. They're going outside of Israel to bring in somebody who will help them. But they have a prophet, Isaiah, they don't want to ask him. They've got Micaiah, they don't want to ask him.
Because they might tell the truth. So the true prophets of Yahweh, as true Christians today, consistently at odds with those who falsify the truth concerning God, claiming to speak on behalf of God, though contrary to the word. And so, yeah, Old Testament is loaded with it. Jesus said this, Jesus answered and said, Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down. They hated him for that.
He's going to destroy the temple. So they thought they were invincible, that God would protect them. And just ignoring their history, when they said, We have no king, you know, but Caesar. No one's ruled over.
I mean, they were just such liars. Churchgoers oftentimes are outraged by everything except the things that outrage God. And may we be on guard against that behavior.
If it outrages God, it should outrage us. That's what Paul said, For the time will come, Timothy, when they will not endure sound teaching. Just what Isaiah is saying. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. Now Paul is saying this as the church is beginning to just grow everywhere. And he can see it. He says, you know, they're listening now, but they're not always going to listen.
And again, all the apostles had to deal with the Gnostics and their junk and they knew people were in the churches that would gravitate to that through those lies because it made them feel superior. This is arcane. This is very deep stuff.
It's not for everybody. I mean, I'll tell you in your ear what it is. I think even today, the Shriners, they will whisper the secret of the universe, God.
Well, thanks. I really need you to point that out to me. So, anyway, coming back to this, verse 11. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Isaiah is calling them out on it.
He's ridiculing their attempts to get rid of preachers who preach the scripture, their own scripture. This might have inspired Jeremiah, and I believe that the prophets read each other, as they, you know, Jeremiah came long after Isaiah. Daniel said, I read Jeremiah and we see evidences in Jeremiah quoting things almost exact from Isaiah, especially when he starts judging the nations. Jeremiah says, thus says Yahweh, stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it.
Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. And there's the prophet Jeremiah calling them out. He's telling them to turn to the word of Moses, our scripture. That when he says, stand in the old ways, look what Samuel did, read what David did. Look at Joshua, all of the prophets and the men of God. And they said, we're not interested in them. And to this day, I saw one notable, I don't want to say his name, I just don't want to get in that habit.
I do, but I don't, I won't. They asked him, they wanted his opinion on the role of women in the church. I wouldn't ask that guy's opinion about the weather because of his track record, his books and just, he's not a man of the word. He's a man that uses the word to sell his books and it's just disappointing that he has such a platform. You see, you know, it's almost overwhelming. You know, there was a time when there were just more voices of truth in our pulpits.
I don't know. I don't want to, I don't want to romanticize the past because the past is full of sin too. But on the other side, evil will escalate. And the only thing that will preserve the church is the Holy Spirit. When God said the church of Philadelphia, because you have kept to my word, I will keep you from the tribulation that's coming upon the whole earth.
Yeah, that's how I want to be that church. Well, verse 12, therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perversity and rely on them. I like that, them. It's like, I'm not going to say who they are again.
I already said it. He will again. They would rather live in the stench and mildew of a closed heart to God than get a breath of fresh air. As Peter said, that time to repent, that times of refreshing may come. 2 Corinthians, Paul said, open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one.
We have cheated no one. Why are you treating us like this? You're a Christian in Corinth.
I started that church. Why are you treating me this way? It's an appeal, and there's a sob in that. I think it hurt a lot of them, and it was effective, or many of them, if not the majority, all. Verse 13, therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. So ignoring God while relying on Egypt is metaphorically here compared to a collapsing wall, a wall that has a big hole in it, a breach. And it once looked strong and inaccessible or unassailable.
The enemy couldn't overcome it, this wall. But now a disaster is about to happen. It's going to collapse, and that's what he's saying Egypt is. Metaphorically, Egypt is this wall. It's got holes in it.
It's about to collapse. The Assyrians will conquer Egypt, too. Egypt's no match for them. Verse 14, and he shall break it like the breaking of the potter's vessel, which is broken in pieces. He shall not spare, so there shall not be found among its fragments a shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water from the cistern. So Egypt's going to be smashed to smithereens. When's the last time you heard the word smithereens?
It's a good word. Anyway, the bits and pieces. You won't even be able to find enough to scoop up water. There's not a spoonful of just, you know, there won't be nothing left. And so you'll have Rahab haM Shebeth. Rahab shall do nothing. Egypt shall do nothing. And that is exactly what happened.
The nickname given by God through the prophet just totally personified Egypt as this powerless entity that the Jews were paying money to because they wouldn't seek the Lord. Verse 15, for thus says the Lord Yahweh, 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. But no. But no. You just couldn't accept that.
Jesus did the same, you know, long to gather your children under her wing as a hen gathers her brood under her wing. But you were not willing. It comes down to the free will. And so God was their only hope and they declined.
It was doable, but it wouldn't get done because they didn't want it that way. But Paul said, I think some people just refuse to give God the satisfaction of being recognized as God. And this is a very serious sin. I saw an advertisement for somebody that had this documentary on all religion is man-made. And I said, well, that documentary is man-made. But this is, you know, it's just like, how do we delete this? Anyway, what does it have to do with what we're talking about? Well, how does somebody get to be so much against God, just refusing to give to acknowledge?
How can a scientist be so otherwise intelligent and still think that we just kind of showed up over a long period of time, as though time is the main ingredient? Anyway, verse 16, and you said no, for we will flee on horses. Therefore, you shall flee and we will ride on swift horses. Therefore, those who pursue you shall be swift.
And so he's again still mocking them. He's saying, let me tell you what you're thinking. You're thinking you're going to get these Egyptian horses and your cavalry is going to be what's going to save you. But the Assyrians cavalry will be stronger and faster and you're not going to get away.
Your plans are fatal. And Rabsheka, the general of the Assyrians, when he comes to the wall of Jerusalem and he begins to go back and forth with them, he's going to refer to this. He says, look, I'll give you horses if you can find men enough to fight to ride them. So he starts getting foul language and everything. Anyway, he's going to hold them in contempt.
We'll get to that in some other session. Verse 17, 1000 shall flee at the threat of one and the threat of five, you shall flee till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain, as a banner on a hill. That pole and banner on a hill is a remnant.
A remnant will survive. But he's quoting the scripture to them. See, I mentioned the prophets read the prophets. Isaiah is quoting Deuteronomy 32 30 where God says, you drift away, you're punished.
One of your punishments will be cowardice on the battlefield. One will chase a thousand. It should have been the other way.
When God blesses, it's the other way around. One of his people will chase a thousand in the end, which happened in the last war in Jerusalem in the 70s when one Jewish tank was just wiping out the Syrian army. And they thought it was a whole brigade of tanks. It's just one guy going up and down the hills and just blasting them away. Incredible story, which was fulfillment of the proper intention of God that one should chase a thousand.
Anyway, and this is 1973, right? War. Verse 18. Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you, and therefore he will be exalted that he may have mercy on you. For Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. So he gives them a beatitude. Blessed are those who wait for him. But you don't want to wait.
You don't want to go to Egypt. He's still trying to reach them. He's got his sarcasm out properly, and now he's trying to say, okay, come to Christ. There is a tension. There's a dynamic. There are pressures and forces pushing on each other between God's justice, God's mercy, and God's grace. All of that encased in time.
Fruit on a vine. It's time. And so he's telling them, you know, later he'll say blessed are those who wait upon the Lord. They wouldn't have it. They're looking around. They're seeing the Assyrians wipe out their villages, and they're factoring out this. It's a judgment. It's a judgment because they turned from God.
And instead of saying, ooh, we better get this fixed, they double down against God. But for the righteous, the angel will wipe out that army. Verse 19, for the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry.
When he hears it, he will answer you. So he's appealing for God, for the people on behalf of God. Zion, it's a name that sets to tune many chords. I mean, you just, Zion, it means a lot of things.
Initially, it meant the desert. In time, it was the first name given to one of the hills in Jerusalem, and it's a natural fortress and became known as a fortress. And of course, the temple is this fortress of truth and eventually became known for Jerusalem and Israel.
And so it's expanded. It's even applied to the church in the Hebrews, our Hebrew letter. The Bible tells us that in Israel, Jerusalem is God's favorite place. Psalm 87 verse 2, Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Now verse 20, and though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, there's a poetic way of expressing affliction.
He says, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Verse 21, your ears shall hear the word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
