1. What plans has Judah made apart from God? They "follow their own plans, make their own treaties, and keep on sinning" (CEV 30:1) Judah looks to Egypt for help. The people would rather hear false truths from the prophets instead of real truths from God's prophets. They only want to hear what they like to hear. (v 10)
The holy LORD God of Israel had told all of you, "I will keep you safe if you turn back to me and calm down. I will make you strong if you quietly trust me." Then you stubbornly said, "No! We will safely escape on speedy horses." But those who chase you will be even faster. Isaiah 30:15-162. What plans have you made apart from God? Many I'm sure.
Matthew 26:39, Luke 22:42, -If it's possible, let this cup pass, but YOUR WILL be done, not MINE.
John 4:34--My food is to the work God wants, to finish the task He gave me.
John 17:4--(on the cross) I glorified You by accomplishing the work you gave me to do.
The focus in all cases by Christ is upon His role in obeying and fulfilling the work God gave him to do, not upon his own plans or thoughts.
"In returning and rest you shall be saved." Isaiah 30:15
Note the thought, that we come back to God by simple confidence, not by preparing ourselves, not by our expiation, but only by trusting in Him. -MacLaren
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Lovely excerpt below from Andrew MacLaren on the beauty and benefit of trusting God:
Trust in God brings rest from our own evil consciences.
It brings rest from our own plans and purposes.
Trust gives insight into the meaning of all this else unintelligible world.
It brings the calming and subduing of desires, which in their eagerness torture, in their fruition trouble, and in their disappointment madden.
It brings the gathering in of ourselves from all the disturbing diffusion of ourselves through earthly trifles.
2. Notice what this rest is not.
It does not mean the absence of causes of disturbance.
It does not mean the abnegation of forethought.
It does not mean an indolent passiveness.
3. Notice the duty of being thus quiet and resting.
How much we fail in this respect.
We have faith, but there seems some obstruction which stops it from flowing refreshingly through our lives.
We are bound to seek for its increased continuity and power in our hearts and lives.
III. Confidence and rest in God bring safety and strength.
That is true in the lowest sense of ‘saved,’ and not less true in the highest. The condition of all our salvation from temporal as well as spiritual evils lies thus in the same thing-that we trust God.
No harm comes to us when we trust, because then God is with us, and works for us, and cares for us. So all departments of life are bound together by the one law. Trust is the condition of being ‘saved.’
And not only so, but also trust is strength. God works for us; yes, but better than that, God works in us and fits us to work.
What powers we might be in the world! Trust should make us strong. To have confidence in God should bring us power to which all other power is as nothing. He who can feel that his foot is on the rock, how firm he should stand!
Best gives strength. The rest of faith doubles our forces. To be freed from anxious care makes a man much more likely to act vigorously and to judge wisely.
Stillness of soul, born of communion with God, makes us strong.
Stillness of soul, born of deliverance from our fears, makes us strong.
Here then is a golden chain-or shall we rather say a live wire?- whereof one end is bound to the Throne and the other encircles our poor hearts. Trust, so shall we be at rest and safe. Being at rest and safe, we shall be strong. If we link ourselves with God by faith, God will flash into us His mysterious energy, and His strength will be made perfect in our weakness. -Andrew MacLaren
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Isa 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.
I love the image of the Lord waiting to be gracious.
To such the prophet addressed these words, encouraging them to believe that God was not unmindful of their case, but was waiting that He might act more graciously towards them than He could by answering them at once. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
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In contrast to God waiting on us and our need to wait on God, the Egyptians are portrayed as inactive in a negative way:
Isa 30:7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”
Isa 30:7 For Egypt's help is worthless, pointless; so I call her "Arrogance Doing Nothing." CJB
Isa 30:7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
In contrast to God waiting on us and our need to wait on God, the Egyptians are portrayed as inactive in a negative way:
Isa 30:7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”
Isa 30:7 For Egypt's help is worthless, pointless; so I call her "Arrogance Doing Nothing." CJB
Isa 30:7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
"Idleness is a base condition. Better dig a hole and fall it up again. Better roll a stone up and down a hill, than pass your time in listlessness and languor. There are duties belonging to every state of life. Let them be attended to in promptitude and dispatch."-BI
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