Page 62 - Isaiah Student Worktext

Also over and over again, Israel’s enemies have dreamed of eliminating the Jews. Over and over again,
they have failed, and often have been eliminated themselves.

V. 9-10 God asks the people to pause and reflect. They stumble as if drunk, but they are not drunk with
wine…their staggering comes from their spiritual blindness.

V. 11-14 Just as the words of the prophet should be plain as the words on a page, they say I can’t read it
for it is sealed. Then they say they are illiterate and can’t read it.

Then God issues a condemnation that Jesus repeated in Matthew 15: 7-9. People give lip service to the
Lord, but their hearts are not in it.

Wise counselors at that time were giving the advice that Israel needed to make an alliance with Egypt.
The ‘wisdom’ of those counselors would be shown to be foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1: 20

V. 15-16 God illustrates the foolishness of Israel seeking aid from a foreign power instead of from Him by
comparing it to the clay telling the potter what to do.

V. 17-21 Lebanon, known for mountains and forests, will be leveled and turned into a fruitful field. This
is probably not to be taken literally, but as an example of how things that appear one way to the world
(wisdom, for example) will be shown to be something completely differently. God promises to give
spiritual hearing and sight to those formerly deaf and blind.

V. 22-24 Once again, pointing to the remnant. Although many have ‘erred in spirit’, they will come to
understanding.

Chapter 30 - Main Idea: God condemns the stubborn strategies of
Israel for self-salvation through Egypt and promises salvation by His
grace for believers and fiery wrath for His enemies.

Judah/Israel was preparing to face the invasion of an overwhelmingly superior
enemy, Assyria. They had essentially 4 options: 1) Submit without a fight and
suffer the consequences of their earlier rebellion against them. 2) Fight Assyria, which would result in
almost certain defeat. 3) Make an alliance with another Gentile nation, probably Egypt 4) Repent and
seek deliverance of a miraculous nature from the Lord.

Each of us has probably faced similar choices in our daily lives. Give in, fight with our own strength, seek
help from a secular source or seek help from God. Unfortunately, we all too often turn to God only as a
last resort.

Every generation of sinners must relearn this lesson on their own, it seems, as they try to find their own
way.

V. 1-5 Once again we start with the word ‘woe’. This time, it is to God’s own people who have sought
counsel from everywhere except Him. They go to Egypt, to trust in the Pharaoh. They were humiliated
in their own weakness, and yet didn’t recognize the strength that they had in the Lord.

61