Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.”
Where is your life going?
It’s a simple question, but one that is often neglected. When we consider the end point of all our striving, we must take into consideration what we are working towards. Is the goal worth the stress, is it worth the sacrifice, have relationships been sacrificed for the goal or have people suffered so that we might succeed?
When I read a passage like Isaiah 30, it’s important for me to understand the context of the message. If I isolate one verse and make it a theme, I run the risk of building doctrine that God didn’t give.
When Isaiah conferred the message of the Lord, it was clear the people for whom the message was given were not in a position to listen. They were determined to go their way, they had devised a plan and had closed their ears to counsel.
Isaiah 30:9 “For they are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear
the instruction of the LORD;”
So Isaiah was encouraged to write the message on a tablet for a later date. Maybe one day, after the plans of the people had failed and their misery amplified from their foolishness, they might read the tablet and remember the Word of the Lord.
The drive to succeed in life can carry anyone into a delusion of false hope. Forsake the leading of the Lord and your left with a plan that is limited in scope and left to chance. The people of Israel responded to wisdom by saying, “Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions, leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.” (vs 10)
Smooth Things
The Hebrew word for “smooth things” is the word chelqah, it denotes flattery or more specifically, ‘flat ground’. In other words, they didn’t want to hear anything rough or difficult, if the advice required any sort of sacrifice, forget it! They didn’t want difficulty, they wanted the way to be easy, or just given to them. Flattery says, “you’re doing great, keep going, you’re amazing.”
The worst kind of advice is the type that reaffirms a bad position. Poor parents will look at a rebellious child and declare, “well, she has a good heart”. A supposed friend will laugh at foolish behavior in another and make a statement like, “they’re just having a good time”. People who claim to love someone and yet won’t give difficult advice only furthers the misery that is to come.
Have you ever found yourself the one rejecting counsel or the one giving poor advice? Both sides are guilty of taking a position that is contrary to the wisdom of God. The illusion of what is good is the position the world takes because it doesn’t want the hard truth.
Listen to God’s response to the foolishness of a people who refuse to hear….
Isaiah 30:12-13 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel,
“Because you despise this word
and trust in oppression and perverseness
and rely on them,
therefore this iniquity shall be to you
like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse,
whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant”
This doesn’t sound like waiting, it sounds like the sins of the people are turning into their ruin. When we read the passage carefully, it doesn’t say God is actively trying to destroy His people, it just says that because they despised His Word, and trusted in oppression and perverseness and relied upon them, their sin placed them into a position of vulnerability.
Essentially, they placed their trust in something that was not reliable. Egypt couldn’t save them, the strength of Pharaoh was not enough to keep them from harm and now it’s placed them into a position weaker than before. They acted foolishly because it was the easy way out, it was the cheapest way for them to try and gain security. They didn’t want to wait for God to act, so they acted on a whim themselves.
We also witness another indictment against them…
Isaiah 30:15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling
The call was to return to the Lord. Not to be anxious or fearful, but to quiet themselves and watch the salvation of their God.
But they were unwilling.
The unwillingness to follow after the Lord is the sin of pride and rebellion. To submit to God is to lower oneself and accept His strength as being sufficient for them. By ignoring God’s call, it’s likened to despising His Word. We must call it for what it is….hatred for God.
Many will interject and say, woe, I don’t hate the Lord, I love the Lord, and yet their actions say otherwise. We can make all kinds of claims about what we believe, but it’s how we act on our belief that determines the position of our hearts.
The progression of sin and rebellion turns into greater fear, and the progression of failure becomes worse than it began.
Isaiah 30:17 “A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.”
God’s Glory Revealed
In the midst of complete chaos, when all of our plans have gone awry, we witness something spectacular.
Isaiah 30:18 “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.”
No matter how big of a failure we are, the goodness of God still waits for us to return.
- The Lord wants to be gracious to you.
- He is glorified to show you mercy.
- He is a God who acts justly
Blessed are those who wait for Him.
We witness the beauty of those who walk with God. God waits for His people to return from the ravages of sin. The path leads to all sorts of trouble and it becomes easy to draw false conclusions about God. We can easily think that God is laying down the hammer, punishing us for failure to comply, and yet we often see the opposite. We hear His call to return, repent of sin, trust in path that He has provided.
We forget that it was our foolishness that lead us into trouble, while the Lord had provided the way of peace all along.
When we wait for God, we demonstrate trust in Him. His timing is perfect. His ways are perfect. His path is perfect. He knows the end from the beginning and has a plan for us, and it is good.
Are you waiting for God now?
Isaiah 40:29-31 “He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
If you’re struggling in the wait, ask others to pray with you, to help you sustain your trust in God and be patient. As you do, you’ll see faith arise, you’ll witness hope restored, and the way became easier than anything you could accomplish through your striving.
Wait on the Lord and you will be blessed…He has promised it.
U.T. 