Woe to the stubborn nation of Israel
30
📚“Woe to the rebellious children 📖”,says the LORD.
“They take counsel 📖,
but not from me;
and they carry out plans,
but not by my Spirit,
so that they may add sin to sin.
2 📚They travel down to Egypt,
and have not asked my advice;
they strengthen themselves
in the strength of Pharaoh,
and trust in the shadow
of Egypt.
3 📚Therefore the strength
of Pharaoh will be to
your shame,
and trust in the shadow
of Egypt your humiliation.
4 📚For his princes are
at Zoan,
and his ambassadors come
to Hanes.
5 📚They will all be ashamed
of a people who cannot
benefit them,
or be a help or profit,
but only a shame
and disgrace”.
6 📚The burden concerning
the beasts of the south 📖:
“They will carry their wealth
on the shoulders
of young donkeys,
and their treasures on the humps
of camels into the land of
trouble and anguish,
from which come
the young and
old lion,
the viper and fiery
flying serpent,
to a people who will not
benefit them.
7 📚For the Egyptians will help
in vain,
and to no purpose.
Therefore I have said
about her,
Rahab 📖 sits still.
30:3-7 Judah’s alliance with Egypt would prove to be disastrous. Egypt would be totally incapable of giving help.⚜
8 📚Now go,
write this on a tablet
in their presence,
and inscribe it on a scroll,
that it may be for the time
to come,
forever and ever:
9 📚This is a rebellious
people,
lying children,
children who will not listen 📖
to the law of the LORD;
10 📚Who say to the seers,
‘Do not see’, and
to the prophets,
‘Do not prophesy
to us right things.
Speak to us smooth things,
prophesy deceitful visions.
11 📚Get out of the way.
Turn aside from the path.
Cause the Holy One of Israel
no longer to be in our
presence.’ ”
30:8-11 Here we see the condition of Judah’s people that caused them to go to Egypt for help without consulting the Lord.⚜
30:10-11 As men in general, they did not want to hear the plain truth. It upset them. Preaching the holy way and the Holy One made them unhappy. They wanted to continue in their own sinful ways. They preferred pleasant lies to unpleasant truth (compare 1 Kings 22:8; Jer 5:30-31; 2 Thess 2:10-11).⚜
12 📚Therefore 📖 thus says
the Holy One 📖 of Israel:
“Because you despise
this word,
and trust in oppression
and perversity,
and rely on them,
13 📚Therefore this evil 📖 will be
to you like a breach ready
to collapse,
bulging out in a high wall 📖,
which will break suddenly,
in an instant.
14 📚And he will break it like breaking
a potter’s jar that is
broken in pieces.
He will not spare,
and so among its pieces
there will not be found
a fragment to take fire
from the hearth,
or to take water from
the cistern”.
15 📚For thus says the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
“In returning and rest
you will be saved.
In quietness and in confidence
you will have strength;
and you were not willing.
30:15 A principle good for all situations, all times. Turning to God and resting, trusting in Him is the way to salvation, strength and security. Observe that repentance comes first and then rest and trust (examples: 2 Chron 13:18; 2 Chron 14:11-12; 2 Chron 20:12, 15-17, 20). If people refuse the way of faith, as the people of Judah did, they will experience defeat and disaster, as Judah did.⚜
16 📚But you said,
‘No, for we will flee
on horses.
‘Therefore you will flee.
And you said,
‘We will ride on swift
animals.’ Therefore those
who pursue you will be swift.
17 📚One thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will flee until you are
left like a flagstaff on the
top of a mountain,
30:17 The opposite of Lev 26:7-8. This would show that God had given them up to their enemies (Deut 32:30).⚜
and like a banner on a hill”.
More promises of blessing
18 📚And therefore
the LORD will wait,
that he may be gracious
to you,
and therefore he will be
exalted,
that he may have mercy
on you.
For the LORD is a God of
justice.
Blessed 📖 are all those
who wait for him 📖.
30:18 God punishes when justice demands it. But punishing is grievous to Him (Jer 48:31-39). He loves to show mercy whenever possible (Ex 34:6-7; Ps 33:5; 145:8). But if He shows compassion, that, too, must not violate justice (Isa 5:16).⚜
19 📚For the people will
dwell in Zion at Jerusalem.
You will weep no more 📖.
He will be very gracious to you
at the sound of your cry.
When he hears it,
he will answer 📖 you.
20 📚And though the Lord
gives you the bread
of adversity,
and the water of affliction,
yet your teachers will not be
moved into a corner
any more,
but your eyes will see
your teachers,
21 📚and your ears will hear
a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way;
walk in it”, whenever
you turn to the right
or whenever you turn
to the left.
22 📚You will also defile
your silver plated
carved images,
and your moulded
gold plated idols.
You will throw them away
like a menstrual cloth.
You will say to them,
“Away with you!”
30:20-22 God would bring trouble on them outwardly, but do an inner work in them that would cause them to listen to the teachers He would send, and to obey His voice telling them the way. They will show obedience by casting away all their idols, whether physical or mental ones.⚜
23 📚Then he will give rain for your seed, so that you can sow in the ground, and the food, the produce of the land, will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in large pastures. 24 📚Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground will eat clean fodder, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 📚And on the day of the great slaughter 📖, when the towers 📖 fall, on every high mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams 📖 of waters. 26 📚Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun 📖, and the light of the sun will be seven times its usual brightness, like the light of seven days, on the day that the LORD binds up the fracture of his people and heals 📖 the wound from the blow.
30:19-26 A description of some of the ways God will show compassion on, and be gracious to, the people of Judah.⚜
God will come in anger
27 📚See, the name of the LORD
comes 📖 from afar,
burning with his anger,
and its burden is heavy.
His lips are full of
indignation,
and his tongue is like a
devouring fire,
28 📚And his breath 📖 is like
an overflowing stream
reaching up to the neck.
He comes to sift the nations
with the sieve
of destruction 📖.
And there shall be a bridle
in the jaws of the people,
causing them to go astray.
29 📚You 📖 will have a song 📖,
as in the night when
a holy festival is kept,
and gladness of heart,
as when one walks
with a flute to go to
the mountain of the LORD,
to the Mighty One of Israel.
30 📚And the LORD will cause
his glorious voice 📖
to be heard,
and make them see his arm
descending,
with raging anger and with
the flame of a devouring fire 📖,
with cloudburst,
and storm, and hailstones 📖.
31 📚For through the voice
of the LORD the Assyrian,
who struck with a rod,
will be beaten down.
32 📚And each place where the rod
of punishment passes,
which the LORD lays on him,
will resound with
tambourines and harps 📖;
and in battles, brandishing
his weapons,
he will fight against it.
30:32 Verse 29.⚜
33 📚For Tophet 📖 has
long been ready;
yes, it is prepared
for the king 📖.
He has made it deep
and large,
a pyre of fire and much wood.
The breath of the LORD 📖,
like a stream of sulfur,
causes it to burn.
30:27-33 Description of a terrible time for “all nations” (v 28), a time when God’s wrath will be poured out in a very striking manner. The words “fire” and “anger” appear several times.⚜