Daily Devotional Tuesday 16th May 2023
by William Moody
Isaiah 31
Woe to Those Who Go Down to Egypt
31:1 Woe1 to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel
or consult the LORD!
2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster;
he does not call back his words,
but will arise against the house of the evildoers
and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
3 The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all perish together.
4 For thus the LORD said to me,
“As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey,
and when a band of shepherds is called out against him
he is not terrified by their shouting
or daunted at their noise,
so the LORD of hosts will come down
to fight2 on Mount Zion and on its hill.
5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts
will protect Jerusalem;
he will protect and deliver it;
he will spare and rescue it.”
6 Turn to him from whom people3 have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. 7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man;
and a sword, not of man, shall devour him;
and he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
9 His rock shall pass away in terror,
and his officers desert the standard in panic,”
declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,
and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.Footnotes
[1] 31:1
Or Ah,
[2] 31:4The Hebrew words for hosts and to fight sound alike
[3] 31:6Hebrew they (ESV)
The prophecy continues about warning the people of Jerusalem not to go to the Egyptians for help to fight the Assyrians. The temptation is to look to the Egyptians because they have many horses and chariots and are strong (v1). Isaiah calls these people to realise how much greater is the Lord who is God and not man, and who brings disaster on His enemies (v2-3).
The Lord is pictured as being like a young lion who is not frightened by the cries of shepherds (v4). The Lord hovers over Jerusalem like a bird, ready to protect and to fight for Jerusalem (v5).
The people are being called to turn to this often-rejected God and to find hope in Him (v6-7). The Lord will bring victory over the Assyrians and the people need to trust Him fully (v8-9).
So often we find it easier to turn for help to those we can see rather than to the unseen God. The answer to this is for us to come to know the true God more and more so that He is more real, His power is more real, His wisdom is more real and His presence is more real than even the closest person around us.
Psalm 27 is a great Psalm of faith expressing David’s faith in the unseen God. His faith comes from His joy and delight in spending time in the presence of God so as to look upon the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27 v4).
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