Isaiah 30 – Don’t take God or His Word for granted

In the face of Judah’s distrust, despite his spirited call to them to place their complete trust in God, Isaiah then minced no words and implored them strongly on behalf of God. He warned them of the consequence of their stubborn stance. Two negative attitudes were obviously evident among the people of Judah. Firstly, they had stoutly refused to trust and lean on God, and secondly, they insisted on being self-deluded by buying into deception. Hence, the consequence they were about to experience would be inevitable. Isn’t this so evident in our walk with God? When we insist on not trusting God, and prefer living in self-delusion, the consequence would be unavoidable. 

In these verses, Isaiah outlined to Judah the consequence of their actions. He told them that they would experience a collapsed wall. What did Isaiah mean? He was talking about the failure of the alliance to take effect. The pact between Judah and Egypt was like a weak wall that was about to collapse. Their arrangement would disintegrate suddenly, and everything would soon come to naught in an instant.   Isaiah went on further to emphasize the utter ruin of the collapsed wall. It would be like the utter shattering of a clay pot. So thorough would be the smash that not a single piece of fragments would be adequate for any useful purpose. None of the potsherd shattered would be large enough to contain fire from the hearth nor water from the cistern. Isaiah’s point was clear: divine consequence was inevitable and total ruin would be their experience.

Here we are reminded of Psalm 81:11-12. In these two verses, we sense how God felt and catch a glimpse of how God would deal with His rebellious people. Because Israel whom He had rescued from Egypt refused to listen to His voice nor obey Him, so He said, “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices.” The refusal to trust God and a rejection of His words are signs of downright rebellion. These attitudes reflect how one values the great God. These are not small things in God’s estimate. To Him, they are downright sin. God could not overlook nor view such attitudes lightly, neither would He leave them alone without dealing with them. Such wilful defiance always invites a consequence. Whenever we adopt such contemptuous attitudes, we show how little we value our awesome God. As people who love God, we should take this passage as God’s proposition to rightly honor Him and to give Him our complete trust and devotion and obey His Word absolutely. That is how we should always respond to our awesome God!