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.
19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”
23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of fury,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.
29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the Lord will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the Lord lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it. – Isaiah 30:18-33 ESV
In the first half of this chapter, God made it quite clear what the people of Judah needed to do if they wanted to escape the coming judgment.
This is what the Sovereign Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“Only in returning to me
and resting in me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.” – Isaiah 30:15 NLT
But, like rebellious children, they had repeatedly refused to listen to the words of God’s prophets; instead, they had turned to false gods and sought help from foreign powers. They truly believed they could somehow avoid all that God had decreed against them. But God revealed the foolishness behind their arrogant belief in any form of salvation apart from Him. The destruction was going to come, whether they liked it or not. God’s discipline for their sin was going to fall on them no matter what they believed or what they did to escape it.
And yet, in these verses, God lets the people of Judah know that He is patient. In spite of their extreme hubris and blatant disregard for His calls to repent, He would wait.
So the Lord must wait for you to come to him
so he can show you his love and compassion.
For the Lord is a faithful God.
Blessed are those who wait for his help. – Isaiah 30:18 NLT
When reading these Old Testament passages that reveal the stubbornness of the people of God, we can easily overlook God’s incredible patience with them. Time and time again, He sent His prophets to warn the people about His anger with them. He repeatedly called them to repent of their sins and come back to Him. Generation after generation of Israelites heard His heart-felt pleas, but had rejected His generous offer of forgiveness if they would only return to Him.
God desired to show them love and compassion. He wanted to fulfill His covenant promises to them. But, because He is a holy God, He could not ignore their sin. It was impossible for Him to turn a blind eye and act as if nothing had happened.
Which is why Isaiah tried, yet again, to persuade the people of Judah to reject their plans to trust in Egypt and, instead, to call out to God.
He will be gracious if you ask for help.
He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. – Isaiah 30:19 NLT
All they had to do was ask. It was that simple. But perhaps it all sounded too simple the people of Judah. It may have come across as nothing more than wishful thinking. After all, they were facing the threat of invasion by the Assyrians. No one had been able to withstand their army or escape their destruction. Which is what had prompted the people of Judah to cry out to Egypt for help and protection. But what they failed to realize was that their predicament was the direct result of their disobedience to God. He is the one who had sent the Assyrians. And He would be the one to send the Babylonians long after the Assyrians had returned home.
What God’s people failed to understand was that their suffering was His doing. It was He who had given them “the bread of adversity and the water of affliction” (Isaiah 30:20 ESV). But all for good reason. First, it was to punish them for their blatant rejection of Him. But secondly, it was to teach them to trust Him and Him alone. While they were going to suffer greatly because of their sin, He was not going to abandon them. In fact, Isaiah promises them, “your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher” (Isaiah 30:20 ESV). There would be a period of divine punishment, marked by adversity and affliction, but followed by restoration.
This promise was partially fulfilled when God arranged for the people of Judah to return to the land after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Because the nation of Judah would remain stubborn and refuse to call out to God for help, He would allow them to be defeated by the Babylonians in 587 BC. The city of Jerusalem was be ransacked and plundered, the temple would be destroyed, and many of the people would be taken back to Babylon as prisoners. But after 70 years, in keeping with God’s promise, He would allow a remnant to return to the land, in order to rebuild the city, its walls and gates, and reconstruct the temple. And, once the temple was completed, they could institute the sacrificial system after seven decades marked by no atonement for sin.
And yet, there are aspects of this divine promise that have yet to be fulfilled. Isaiah goes on to tell them, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21 ESV). This seems to paint an image of a restored relationship with God that features obedience on the part of the people, because Isaiah goes on to describe them destroying all their idols and icons to false gods. It is a picture of national renewal and revival like nothing ever seen in Judah before or to this very day.
In verses 23-24, Isaiah describes what must be a future day, when God will bless them not only spiritually, but physically.
And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.
This is a description of God’s gracious provision for all their needs, from consistent rain and abundant produce to rich pasturelands where their flocks would grow fat on green grass. But notice the seemingly out-of-place reference to “the day of the great slaughter” found in the very next verse. This statement provides us with insight into the fact that all of these images are linked to a future day in time and history that has yet to have happened. Isaiah is referencing the end times, when Jesus Christ will return a second time and set up His millennial kingdom on earth.
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John was given a vision of this yet-future day.
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the world and their armies gathered together to fight against the one sitting on the horse and his army. And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast—miracles that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. Their entire army was killed by the sharp sword that came from the mouth of the one riding the white horse. And the vultures all gorged themselves on the dead bodies. – Revelation 19:19-21 NLT
John is describing the great battle of Armageddon. And after that event takes place, Jesus will set up His earthly kingdom in Jerusalem from which He will reign for 1,000 years. It will be during that time that a remnant of Jews who will be redeemed during the seven years of the Tribulation, will enjoy the benefits of Christ’s righteous reign on earth. It will be a time of great abundance. It will be marked by peace and joy, and a complete lack of sorrow or tears. Even the light of the moon and sun will be enhanced. There will be abundant water in a land where water was often scarce and drought a constant reality.
But in the closing verses of this chapter, Isaiah shifts the focus from the distant future to the more immediate concerns of the people of Judah. He describes what God is going to do for them regarding the threat of Assyria. The people of Judah have no reason to fear, because God was going to take care of their enemies.
The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the Lord, when he strikes with his rod. – Isaiah 30:31 ESV
Whether we focus on the more immediate context or the distant future, we can see the hand of God at work. He is in control of anything and everything. He is sovereign and He has a plan in store for the world, His people Israel, and the church. We have nothing to fear and every reason to rest in His promise to bind up the brokenness of his people.
English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
