Thoughts on Isaiah 30

Today’s reading: Isaiah 30; 2 John

The more we practice trusting God with the little things, the easier it will be to trust Him with the big, and even seemingly insurmountable, things.

As Judah is terrified and fleeing from the Assyrian invasion, Isaiah writes:

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, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. 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.

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.

The fact of the matter is that, objectively, there is no enemy or situation from which the Lord is unable to rescue His people. No matter how dire or seemingly impossible something is, we are talking about the infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful God who spoke the Universe into existence. We are talking about the God who rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt by great signs and wonders, bringing maybe the most powerful nation in the world at the time to their knees without Israel having to lift a finger. What army is stronger than Yahweh? What general can outsmart or outmaneuver Him? What king can bring more resources to bear than Him? Who could possibly be more capable of rescuing Judah from Assyria than God Himself?

So God tells Judah in returning and trusting in Him they will be saved, but they could not bring themselves to trust in God to rescue them and sought, instead, to rescue themselves.

As much as I can say objectively that trusting Yahweh is always the best option, I also have to admit that I get it… Sure, I know God can do anything, but what if He doesn’t do it? What if I trust God to rescue me and the Assyrians show up, overthrow the city, and kill me in the process? Wouldn’t it be better to do what I can on my own? At least then I’m assured that I’m trying something, whereas if I trust God to do something, maybe nothing happens at all.

While I’ve never been under threat of Assyrian invasion, I have had times in my life where I was faced with the choice of trusting God to keep His promises or trying to make things work on my own. The bigger the issue, and the higher the stakes, the harder it is to leave it to the Lord. This is one of the reasons it is so important to trust God when He gives us the smaller/lower-stakes opportunities to exercise our faith. The more we trust Him and see Him come through faithfully, time and time again, the easier it will be to have assurance, in the midst of larger trials, that He will continue to be faithful. If the first time you ever have to really rely on the Lord is for a serious or high-stakes issue, it will be much harder to trust in Him.

The more of a backlog we can build up with the Lord, the more times we can see Him exercise His goodness and faithfulness, the easier it will be to rest in the assurance of His goodness when it counts the most.